Sponge like City: An Urban Growth Absorption Model

By - Anoop Jha

Growth and density saturation due to city built mass limitation

Considering city as a sponge with its intricate complexity of mass and void representing interplay of built mass and open spaces of city, both of these masterpieces of structure and space share a very important and similar trait i.e. absorption capacity. One can absorb and hold liquid in its recesses and voids while other can absorb population in its built mass, a slight external pressure on a sponge can cause absorbed liquid to move to and fro within the cavities of sponge and a little higher pressure can cause liquid to be discarded from the sponge. Similarly if we compare city population with that liquid in sponge it is also dynamic in nature and moves to and fro within and outside the city limit, but one crucial thing to be notice here is that both the systems have a limit to absorb in other words they reach a saturation point after some point, after which liquid as well as population is forced to make its way outward towards and beyond the edge of sponge and city respectively. This phenomenon of absorption is related to physical properties of sponge and city.

When it comes to planning or redevelopment of a city, the question here is that who is to decide the critical saturation point of an existing or new city and What should be the absorption limit of a city or urban settlement after which it would be a compromise with the quality of life of inhabitants considering there is no change in built mass of city?  What should be the ideal density of a city considering the emerging new technological possibilities to create large sustainable building complexes, faster horizontal and vertical transport technology? Have we already reached the critical point in most of the cities throughout the world or there is enough scope for population absorption by restructuring, redeveloping any city. Are we able to somewhat predict the sustainable density for a city based on some magical formula?

The challenge here is for the urban planners is to draft a strategic blueprint to create a city flexible and scalable enough to renews itself from time to time adopting latest technological, architectural and planning interventions to absorb the varying growth in course of time for a sustainable future,  considering the scarce land and other urban resources.    

Unexplored role of Education System in Urban Disaster Preparedness

They could have taught survival tricks in school!

How prepared an average person in a city is, to face disaster situations of varying type, degree and scale, whether being trapped inside a distressed car, a minor road accident or fire situation in a multistory building or urban flood or earthquake. Even if there are required lifesaving physical infrastructure in place, how many of them know how to operate them, how to use them for their own and others safety, whom to contact in emergency situation, where to look for help, where to report immediately, what immediate measures to take, how to use first aid gadgets and CPR, which are the life saving drugs, where to buy first aid kit, personal safety and rescue tools, what important things to keep ready at hand in emergency situation. These are the simple facts and techniques which could have been taught in the school which would prove vital for survival of individual and society in general.

In a developing country like India majority of population in any city, in terms of disaster preparedness is illiterate. It is an acute need of time due to ever growing urban complexity and has been ignored since time immemorial in the education system. Parents cannot teach these life saving tricks to their children because neither their own parents taught them the same nor the school. Media also fails to spread the information on disaster preparedness because either they simply show the fact that disaster happened or they keep on harping the same old string of political blame game and debate. Neither media nor the politicians know how to tackle those urban disaster situations apart from allocating money for the required support infrastructure and strict and vigilant governance. Surely they are important but the vital missing part is the disaster management education curriculum in the hierarchy of educational system.

There are just a handful of experts on the subject of disaster preparedness. Point is, when it comes to survival education, each and every citizen, not only have to be aware of the ways to tackle basic disaster situations but they have to be expert on that subject. Our current education system is focused on personality building and mass producing technical hands for the growth of country which is of course a great idea but they should equally focus on teaching of survival methods throughout education system and should be made compulsory for the well being of individual and masses.

By- Anoop Jha  

Environment centric view of Planning and architecture

By - Anoop Jha

Creating  green value chain for projects

If we observe closely, apart from the obvious socio economic benefits and unavoidable demand needs of the development projects they have some questionable effects on our environment. Any development project affects the the ecological balance of nature through its resource exploitation and project externalities, which in most of the cases seems inevitable to prevent, but its effects can be mellowed down and an attempt can be made to neutralize the negative impacts of development on the environment.

Environment centric approach is the process of planning which revolves around the aim to conserve and minimise the effect of development project. It is applicable to any scale and nature of project whether architectural or planning.  Its a process of integrating green design and planning principals as well as adopting green strategies across the different segments of, project lifespan, implementation and operational value chain of any planning or architectural project.

There are ways and means to formulize greener value chain for new planning projects like new township or business district, introducing and reinforcing green retrofit for the existing functional value chain like any random city, there are also principals to plug in green principals into the value chains into the dilapidated value chain like old cities or uncontrolled megapolis. Planner’s role is to analyse the situation and propose green and sustainable environmental friendly strategies for the city.

Role of Managers as Decision Maker

Planning and Architectural decisions which can save valuable time and resources

The future course of any planning or architectural project is shaped by decisions made at different stages of project by able managers. A manager should have strong organizational capabilities to manage the limited resources in most effective ways, excellent interpersonal skill sets like oratory command, active listening, backed by groomed personality, delegational capabilities, strong sense of intuition, superb management and leadership capacity which reflects in swiftness, smartness and precision of decisions made in the crucial moments. Managers should be capable of perceiving macro level issues which might emerge in course of project as well as should be capable of understanding and analysing minute details of project and process if required.

In planning and architecture every now and then macro level issues demands attention as well as swift and smart decision from managers. A wrong decision can be a toll on already limited and pressing time and resources while a sensible decision which emerges from the wisdom and experience of managers can save a lot of time and hassle.

Now, what is sensible decision and how can one arrive at a sensible strategic decision?  A team leader or manager is like a captain of any dynamic sport, who has to constantly change, modify and revive his or her strategy, negotiating twists and turns of this dynamics and unpredictability of the game, accommodating and absorbing changing situations, while keeping his or her focus on the end result i.e. winning the game.  In the similar way a manager or team leader has to constantly reinvent its strategies meeting the project needs, accommodating dynamism of project with the focus on timely completion of projects with effective utilisation of resources at hand.

By - Anoop Jha

Emerging Strategic Trends in Urban and Regional Planning

By - Anoop Jha

Proposed strategic planning interventions

Strategic research in the field of urban and regional planning is an interesting area of study. Formulising sound and sustainable strategies require thorough brainstorming by the planners, scholars, experts, academicians, business representatives, people’s representatives, Welfare organizations, focused professional groups and individuals. It’s high time that a fresh set of strategies should be prepared to tackle the exponentially growing urban and regional problems, like population bubble, shrinking resources, growing confusion chaos in cities etc. Let’s take a look at strategies which has emerging in recent part or can be the possible fresh approach towards better planning.

PROPOSED STRATEGIC PLANS

Cross sectoral learning to increase industry knowledge base,

Multidisciplinary approach for innovative approach, cost effective solutions and swift process,

Decentralization of activities for localised autonomy and efficiency,

Single point contact from public agency for hassle free and faster processing,

Bilateral and Multilateral ties for regional consensus and holistic development,

Environmentally sustainable efforts to curtail the negative externalities of project and boost the downstream benefits

Active Resource mobilization to unlock the untapped potential of the region, population and resources