CITY STORM WATER DRAINAGE SYSTEM -Revisiting fundamentals

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SITUATION

No matter how well you plan Storm Water Drainage System, it often fails as it has so many missed variables, scores of design and operational dependencies, aging infrastructure and multitude of agencies to put blame on, later on.

TREND

Storm water and Urban Flood used to be two different things, but their boundaries have started to get blurred, as rainfall events are getting more unpredictable and severe due to climate change and as normal rainfall events have frequently started causing sticky urban floods that is not easily dissipated.

POSSIBLE MEANS TO DEAL WITH SITUATION

There are only couple of ways you can deal with storm water inundation and urban flood events, i.e. either move the city elsewhere OR tame the nature through uphill dams and artificial mega wetlands at outskirts OR brace the city with flood barriers OR capture and store part of runoff water allowing as much water to percolate if water table permits OR make way for water and allow storm water and floods to pass through city while assuring minimum impact and damage.

CHALLENGES

Temporal rainfall data of whatever time period used in modeling is primarily historic data, there is no consideration for future rainfall event modeling considering climate change, increasingly aggressive weather events being witnessed every passing year.

Historic Flood data doesn't consider cause and effect of flood due to slow or sometimes radical temporal change in built form and landscape of city.

Expanding cities, increasing paved areas, shrinking greens and disappearing urban waterbodies are changing the overall runoff coefficient of city converting normal rainfall event into disastrous situations and unmanaged events.

OPTIMAL SOLUTION

Instead or in addition to regular storm water network if you plan or redevelop your city as well as design buildings to allow periodic Inundation and water retention and absorption, that will be less destructive and less overwhelming then flash floods due to heavy downpour and in case of actual flood events.

It's important to keep reiterating that Multicriteria based assessment, design and scenario modeling is of utmost importance for planning any urban core infrastructure, be it SWD, SWM, Water Supply or Power Distribution.

#urbanplanning #smartcity #stormwatermanagement #sustainability #future #water #flood #swale #LID #zerowaste #urban #cityplanning #townplnaning #municipality #municipalcorporation

Possibly solution to city's space and resource scarcity is within city limits itself!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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POPULATION AND DENSITY

How many people can peacefully and respectfully coexist within one Square Kilometer of a city without compromising on functionality and respectable individual social space. You have empirical examples and you can also make a simulation model of maximum density case scenario including residential, working and transitory population. Acknowledging that population density is never a correct indicator of quality of life. Acknowledging that 2 dimensional approach of population density should be revisited to include 3rd dimension as more and more people are being accommodated vertically, and as more and more utilities, mobility, asset, cargo can be accommodated underground in coming times.

CONSTRUCTION

How much Built Up Area (BUA) a City can technically hold within one Sqkm, given the limitation of existing construction technology, available sustainable material of choice and considering requirements of structural stability. You can build and test scenarios and models based on type of landuse including mixeduse case and you can also make digital twin/ BIM/vGIS model to check if model is workable as habitable. Acknowledging that Hong kong style housing was never an ideal architectural concept of creating more built-up area in a city and it was only a technological and financial constraint. Rather imagine constructing a Cubic Km of monolith Real Estate including private and public space like a perforated Swiss Cheese in form of space frame as a maximum BUA case scenarios.

BIODIVERSITY

How much Biotic Diversity in terms of native regional flora, fauna and wild meadows can be accommodated in a Cubic km of City along with humans without overwhelming, compromising or competing for space and other resources considering their growh rate. Acknowledging that way too much of biodiversity in a city was never a good idea, like some exotic species leading to biodiversity nuisance and like beehive on every corporate office and public buildings leading to severe pollination issues.

SUSTAINABILITY AND SELF-RELIANCE

How much self sustainability a Cubic km of city can achieve in terms of it's own

1) Food security,

2) Energy needs

3) Waste load management and

4) Water security, through range of means-

1.a) Urban agricultural, edible landscape, Food forest, community seed bank, school seed bank, vertical farm, rooftop greenhouse, bush food experience, kitchen garden, aquaponic, hydroponics, aeroponic, doomsday vault, extended shelf life solutions-

2.b) Energy education, energy aware lifestyle, energy conservation by design, interventions and appliances, energy load management, IoT and edge devices, building energy load management through solar passive architecture, building insulation/ ventilation, harvesting and storing energy from sun, wind, algae, river, stream, canal, organic waste; biofuels, heat recovery from process and thermal storage, Air Source Heat Pump/ ASHP, open window detection, micro turbine-

3.c) Waste reduction, circular waste economy, recycling, reuse, upcycle, repurpose, near zero construction waste,

4.d) Water conservation, treated sewage effluent, waste water treatment, IOT Sensors, water saving appliances, precision agriculture, mist irrigation, water from air condensation, extracting drinking water from air and others, flood water harvesting, storm water retention basin, cloud seeding,.

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanplanning #cityplanning #townplanning #sustainability 

Burden and footprint of Packaging; a fair share of it can be avoided!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Ready to consume edible products packed and collected or delivered to doorstep (burger for instance) still leaving substantial and growing inorganic packaging residual for good, as more and more people placing order online.

Edible products with little shelf life (Juice for instance) consumed or expired soon leaving it's packaging footprint mostly local but forever or for too long. Consumers must be informed that such products don't suddenly gets expired one fine day, give them the range and chart stating how consistency and taste may get compromised over time still in consumable range, also tell them how to increase shelf life.

Non-edible products coming with shelf life and consumed in numbers ( Shampoo for instance), have regional, sometimes national packaging waste footprint. Mostly delivered across regions by e-commerce websites.

Non perishable products having only expiry date wrt trend (shoes for instance) and consumed in bulk witnesses global packaging waste footprint.

Then there are another kind of packaging waste burden i. e. where individual or collective packaging weight and/or volume is rather more or many fold of product/s inside, and having huge market. (Gift hampers, festive gifts etc. for instance). In this category higher you go up towards luxury segment more wastage is witnessed.

Bulk packaging is being excluded from the discussion as they have relatively organised supply-collection chain and higher recycling percentage.

Author:Anoop Jha

#waste #urbanplanning #packagingwaste #landfill #recycling #swm #municipal #msw

Cities within city!

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These metropolitan cities are so big that many inhabitants spend their entire life without the need of visiting few other parts of city for any purpose be it business, socialising or recreation, and when they do visit that other part of same city for the first time, it's sometimes not less than a shocking experience, pleasant or otherwise - experiencing drastic change in built-up scale, a very distinct manifestation of architectural style, a juxtapose density, visible economic stratification, attitudinal and behavioural changes are observed, obvious difference in level of upkeep, city beautification and public services, varying degree of management witnessed, sometimes changes witnesses in regulatory enforcement, citizen compliance and level of citizen engagement; difference in lifestyle, life choices and opportunity landscape is worth noticing as well.

Several forces are at play here making different part of city very different in appeal and experience, like - chronology of development, different developmental vision for different city zones in an effort to create specialised nodes, different economic activity and status.

Silver-lining; Heterogeneity and diversity in a large metropolitan city was never an outdated idea, additionally possibility of intracity excursion and tourism is there. Learning opportunity from each other is also there. A city with multitude of experience is always welcoming anyways.

In all likelihood it can be safely assumed that there is critical mass in terms of a chunk of city with a cluster of habitation and segment of economy which makes it autonomous in many senses, making it a small city within a larger metropolitan, and metropolitan city can be perceived as agglomeration of several such smaller cities, of course huddled together with a symbiotic relationship.

Author:Anoop Jha

#urbanplanning #cityplanning #townplanning #habitat #urban #smartcity #cluster #neighborhood

Notion of good and bad Urban Streets -

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Notion of good and bad Urban Streets -sometimes it's mote than skill or fault of urban planners, urban designers, transport planners, road engineers and landscape architects! 

Broadly, there are only limited known ways a street can be designed from junction to junction, there are only finite ways street facade can be articulated and modelled. (Possibly 80% of street design work machine can do on its own, by running algorithm in near future) 

Then, what is the differentiator between a good and a bad urban Street design and quality of street experience? 

Some variables-

Outcome of Transport modelling

Quality of Development Control Regulations 

Compactness of neighborhood

Permissible adjacent Landuse 

Permissible Floor Area Ratio (FAR) 

Economic status of Neighborhood

Generosity of Landscape elements

Quality and thoughtfulness of Street furniture

Age of city neighborhood

Attractiveness of neighborhood

Locational context of street

Image and significance of city

You can see there more than 50% of variables from above list which are not in control of planners and designers; variables that influences and sometimes decides the ultimate outcome of urban street design exercise, and shapes the notion of street quality and experience. 

Author: Anoop Jha

 #transportplanning #urbanplanning #landscapearchitect #urbandesigner #urbandesign

 #design #transport #smartcity #municipality #municipalcorporation

Revisit existing scale and base assumptions to fix your city!

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WHAT ARE SOME KEY BASE STATISTICAL ASSUMPTIONS TAKEN TILL NOW FOR CITY PLANNING

City commuters:-

A number for algorithm and modelling

Walkability:-

A distance travelled by a healthy individual

Household:-

A demographic number as per census

WHAT IS TO BE CONSIDERED AS BASE ASSUMPTIONS FOR BETTER CITY PLANNING

Typical city commuter profile: -

A mix of individuals with different abilities, different travel needs, different travel purposes, different expectations

Typical walkable distance:-

A comfortable distance to be covered by individuals without the need of vehicle, by individuals with different abilities, at different pace with different ease or difficulty.

Typical household:- 

A family of varying size, with varying needs, varying abilities and health conditions, various liabilities, various expectations

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE ONGOING APPROACH? 

City commuters, households, walkable distance all are reduced to mere numbers for the purpose of planning and projections, while they are dynamic or complex entities. Hence, development plans with conventional numeric approach are easily solved on paper and looks promising in its proposal, but many a times cities in reality are found in mess.

WHY SHIFT IN APPROACH IS REQUIRED?

Few examples-

Recognition of many missed public transport trips by old age people, children, pregnent women who are there in footfall projection sheet but many actually either avoid public transport or postpone trips, given a choice.

500 odd meters of walkable distance that planners often mark on master plan to show how much pedestrian friendly city is or will be, they fail to consider that this 500meter distance is while an easy target for a healthy adult individual but this same distance means different things to children, senior citizens, people with different abilities and special needs, pregnant women, blind, wheelchair bound individual.

In many cases actual household status is very different than abstract idea of household considered in city planning, actual households come with unimaginable complexity and diversity in terms of basic needs, financial and debt status, resource consumption footprint, societal and economic impact. Imagine the complexity of needs and aspirations in terms of complete city population. 

TAKEAWAY

Diversity of citizen needs is no more an exception or luxury, it's prolific, and must be considered this way only in terms of planning.

There is no singular spatial definition in terms of city planning, distance means different things to different people.

Individual and Household is embodiment of exceptions, they are not just numbers.

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbnaplanning #census #transportplanning #urbandesign, 

Legibility of City by design not by labels!

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A case of many cities in developing countries and beyond.

Sense of getting lost and directionless in your own city can be a scary experience! More frequent is the phenomenon associated with planned cities compared to those towns and settlements which have evolved organically. Reason being several planned cities tend to get overwhelmingly repetitive in its modular spatial forms, sometimes making it unnerving during commute, while organically evolved cities usually boast multitude of visual cues and anchors to build a memorable streetscape.

Feeling disoriented or experiencing a sense of Déjà vu in a city is so common that people may repeatedly be unsure about correctness of path taken or exit chosen or flyover crossed on a daily basis on a routine path, as familiar as home-work-home.

Feeling of trapped in a maze is quite obvious and frequent a phenomenon in large residential neighbourhoods when it's sometimes difficult to orient yourself and finding an exit route seems a Herculean task, compounded by encountering random access gate closure.

It may take weeks or even months to actually being able to memorise or to get familiar with even frequented route, and then it's easy to forget again. It is clear that Legibility by labels or signage on its own and in all of it's collective forms, types and glory is certainly not being able to make a city legible in one go even for its regular citizens not to speak of visitors of city.

You cannot entirely rely on signage for navigation in a city, signage which are sometimes broken, sometimes vandalised, sometimes wrongly placed, sometimes unreadable by design, sometimes hidden from sight due to tree and plant foliage, sometimes owing to bad or no illumination. There are still only limited segment of citizens who actually or frequently are comfortable with or using or relying on GPS navigation maps and apps, and they who use such tools also encounter challenges like network connectivity, distracted driving.

Also acknowledging that a commuter driving a vehicle and continuously looking for signage and clues for direction is a potential threat on road due to lack of focus.

A careful attention and planning in terms of landscape variation and vegetation arrangement, landscape and urban design elements, lighting arrangements, architectural theme and design, facade articulation and zoning regulations, structural innovation etc. in combination with time tested and some better signage may possibly be the solution and attempt towards better legibility of a city!

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanplanning #urbandesign #smartcity #landscape #municipality #municipalcorporation #neighbourhood #transportplanning

Solution of urban space constraints may possibly lie within existing spaces itself.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Part of the solution of urban space constraint lies in the shared use of space, infrastructure, amenities and real estate inventory. Problem that is apparently caused by selective temporal and diurnal use of indoor and outdoor spaces and associated opportunity cost of space, and solution that possibly lies in multifunctional use of space.

Decades of inertia in terms of concept of space based on segregation of function, activities and power hierarchy, makes it rather challenging to have a broader discussion on such subject. Only some emerging shared real estate space concepts are being realised here and there.

Starting with space module of residential unit, where there is no universally agreeable standard floor space threshold between the wide range of low income housing to multimillionaire mansions, and if we focus primarily on quality of residential experience instead of floor space area, it is evident that living experience of a compact star category hotel room, possibly having one fourth or one third of typical residential unit floor space area, might be considered far better than average residential unit. (To calibrate, you may think of last time you went on vacation and booked hotel). Which theoretically implies two things, one, that if hotel chains for instance could design and manage residential housing across city, they may offer better living experience in less floor space of residential unit and saved real estate space means better quality of living experience in same or less price; second that they can come up with interoperable residential arrangement and contract, that means while you are away working, travelling or on vacation, someone else can use that space, something in line of timeshare and shared living, but at mass scale, by creating and repurposing residential inventory.

Similarly interoperability of other land use functions can be devised like offices, malls and retail spaces which remains unused for two third to one third of the day. Something like creating or repurposing land use and built-up area for shared working and shared commercial purpose.

Likewise there is immense possibility of multi-functionality in city in terms of shared infrastructure, shared amenities and facilities, which can still also make social, environmental and commercial sense.

We need to slowly move towards thinking of 24x7x365 usage of entire land use categories, making most of every square feet of precious real estate and outdoor spaces in city. This may mean regulatory changes, a new architectural and urban planning approach, real estate business model innovation, lifestyle and societal changes.

Author: Anoop Jha

#realestate #architecture #hotel #circulareconomy #timeshare #coliving #coworking #architecture #smartcity #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #Delft #Denbosch #Alkmaar #Noordholland #Northholland #Tilburg #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands

Why to make smart cities?

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Thinking other way round, do we have choice not to make smart cities?

Thinking of all the inexhaustible technological breakthrough that is happening, the unimaginable pace of it and the ever-disruptive potential of technology; do we have purpose, choice or even capabilities to stop that?

Thinking of intellectual quest of minds, uncompromising force of commerce and vested business interests, that drives and support technological innovations, do we have intention, choice or even capacity to stop that?

Are there prolific examples in history, where forces of technological progress and commerce were challenged, disrupted or tamed, or weren’t they possibly the very latent or obvious force which throughout shaped the world in general and cities in specific?

So, as, innovations, backed by powerful businesses and capable investors are anyway going to exponentially continue, irrespective; then the question remains is that, where will they apply such novel concepts and emerging technology; the obvious prime choice in this case remains “cities”; cities of specific minimum threshold size, with optimum density and known economic stability, cities that provide ultimate testing ground for smart technology, a vast “living laboratory”!

Acknowledging the inevitability of proliferation of smart interventions in cities, even if in bits and pieces, even if in uncoordinated and scattered manners, that too without choice; it is apt and thoughtful to increasingly align our aptitude, our values and institutions to embrace such unstoppable changes, so that at least those technological efforts could be coordinated and channelised in a desired direction in any given urban environment, may be collectively labelling it "smart city".

If we already labelled them as smart city, that only shows awareness, proactiveness and receptiveness to this idea that smart city may not be a mere choice! 

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartcities #smartcity #future #startup #university #sustainability #business #commerce #history #amsterdam #rotterdam #delhi #india #netherlands #urbanplanning #urbandevelopment #urbanmanagement

What it would mean to live in a Smart City 2035, for instance?

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Thinking of a future time when basic efficiency has already been achieved through several rounds of smart interventions.   

So, what comes to mind, when one thinks of living in a true smart city on a future time, is possibly the ease, efficiency, on-demand, quality life, that is there for inhabitants; while for institutions of all kinds, both public and private, it may mean better information, management and rate of return. 

Will it be more flat or more hierarchical? Top down or bottom-up? Uniform or asymmetric? Need to deliberate more on “what would be?” Vs “what should be?”

Are there any trade-offs? Possibly yes, as it may have to do with “choices” Vs “(new) obligations”, “ease” Vs “dependency”, “security” Vs “infringement”, “carefree” Vs “competency”, “fragile” vs “fittest”; where each trade-off requires deep inspection, logical adjustment and subtle handling.   

Thinking of belongingness; does that mean “those inside the smart city” Vs “those outside”, “those deserving to be inside” Vs “those better left outside”? Further to brainstorm, how do we assure its equitable and widely acceptable. 

Will it reinstate the concept and need of city boundary, may be virtual geofencing, like a regression in time; boundary which took past several decades to get blurred on the contrary. 

Subject like this which touches so many lives including several facets of life, requires a visionary introspection, lengthy collaborative thinking and sympathetic approach; a true smart city cannot simply be achieved through big data, disruptive technology and linear institutional thinking. 

There seems to be a lot of room for debate, before we conclude on idea of smart city.  

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartcity  #urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #systemthinking #institution #smartsolutions #futuretech #design #future #technology #equility #sustainability #resilience #Rotterdam #bigdata #community #Netherlands #India #Delhi #iot #AI #5G #sensorfusion #connectedinfrastructure #autonomus #machinelearning

Cities as overlapping layers of supply chain networks.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Cities can be looked at as an overlapping layers of supply chain networks where city function is characterised by transfer and exchange of resources and commodities sometimes physical and sometimes virtual. Where physical supply chain network comprises of resource and commodity distribution namely supply of distributed labour to centres of production (work place) as well as from food supply chain to e-commerce delivery network, to retail supply chain to hierarchy of logistics distribution. Virtual supply chain network may be understood as communication supply chain where information is being transferred and exchanged as knowledge commodity through a complex network of embedded channels like social, professional and educational media. Hybrid nature of network is also witnessed like in form of print media, which still essentially deals with transfer and communication of knowledge, again a commodity.

 

That being said, there is immense untapped potential of these network of supply chain which can be harnessed in a city or region, in a business as usual scenario (though some innovative use of such network is witnessed in times of crisis). Two clear advantages are there, first if each of these network could do some improvement in its existing network configuration, making network suitable for repurpose to serve additional objectives without much expenditure. Second, if these networks (like a conduit) could leverage each others network strength in some part of its supply chain, it may immediately yield in optimisation, and better rate of return for businesses.

To leave with some thoughts, in a hypothetical scenario, WHETHER, businesses of similar nature and trade, widely distributed in a metropolis (with their individual labour supply network) will collaborate, brainstorm and swap/ exchange with each other, some of their employees who commute from a very long distance every work day, with those employees (with comparable qualification) who live in neighbourhood of these businesses; in a way that both set of employees swapped get to live and work in its original neighbourhood. It may be a win-win situation for both businesses and individuals.

Likewise for instance global aid networks (like those dealing in emergency food and nutrition), who have reach to remotest parts of world, can use their existing distribution network to support and exchange other noble global causes by joining hands - like supply of frugal innovation test kits, knowledge and awareness OR documentation of native cultural traditions and craft OR linking native art and craft to global market using its existing food supply network for instance.

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #supplychain #network #smartcity #sustainability #resilience #future #innovation

What with (typical) agenda of bicycle, why it captures popular imagination and what is the missing piece of puzzle!

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Why people support and promote bicycle agenda? Some support considering it is environmentally sustainable, promotes healthy life and community; some, reconsidering their values, choices and transportation means due to new enlightenment on subject, emerging from social, professional and commercial media. Social media in a sense that captures bicycle in all its action and glory all the time; professional media in a sense every alternate post talking about subject of new mobility beyond fossil fuel; and commercial media in a sense those promoted by scores of new businesses emerging almost everyday around idea of bicycle, bicycle infrastructure, MaaS etc. 

A lot is happening in this space of bicycle, micromobility and at its periphery, as its still easier for an individual or a group of people to think of building a business around the subject of bicycle,  e-bicycle, e-scooters etc. So we see lot of buzz and momentum around the bicycle agenda.

Why even some of those people support bicycle agenda even if they don’t own a bicycle. Possibly they relate more bicycles with safer streets, so good for them irrespective.

There are those who own car but still support bicycle agenda, either they use less car and more bicycle and public transport OR simply to go with the popular opinion OR to distinguish themselves from other (bad?) car owners, considering themselves good car owners. This including cars of all shape, size and fuel types.

Then from a panoramic world view-

There are those who support and want to use bicycle but they don’t have access to bicycle tracks and bicycle infrastructure in their city. (They are many)

There are those individuals and dual income household who / at least one of them cannot bicycle to work due to long distance of work place. (They are many too)

Lets just not talk about role of weather here, as there are always both examples to quote.

There are those individuals and those households who can't even afford  the bicycle, whether for individual or for whole family. (There are way to many)

Lets also not forget those, who cannot manage without car, or cannot manage only with bicycle, considering the kind of personal, household or professional situation they are in. (Health, ability, old dependent members, household members with special needs etc.) (There are still many)

So, contrary to the popular notion, bicycle agenda is a complex subject, its not always about either “for” or “against” if you assess subject at global level, going beyond city and neighbourhood. Typical bicycle agenda has certainly lot to do with reducing dependency on fossil fuel, health and safer streets, but researchers, planners and policy makers must consider that individual, household and community choices are not always obvious or easy.

#bicycle #bike
[Views and observations are personal]

Author: Anoop Jha

How to inculcate transparent practices in planning and product development.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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We see packaged food products with a label on the back displaying what constituents, what proportions, of how much calories, what all vitamins and minerals, also sometimes seen, how ethically raw materials were sourced and from which regions, how sustainably product was made; and we start to see consumers making and mending their choices accordingly, and in turn businesses starting to revisit and reinvent their product line to match up with the emerging expectations of new age customers, those who are increasingly aware of the impact that their purchase choices are going to make on world, on environment and on generations to come. 

May be, its time that “buildings”, (may be by choice of developers and with help of architects or by statutory provision), start displaying their constituents, rationale of material choices, ethical sourcing of material, direct and indirect jobs created during construction and afterwards, mechanism planned and adopted to assure fair treatment and due payments to labour involved, building’s embodied energy in total and per household or per occupant, projected operational energy usage per household, building's carbon offsetting programme and period (if at all); in turn allowing investors and buyers to make reasonable and responsible real estate decisions; that may also prompt occupants to make further responsible operational choices and adjustments in their lifestyle, on realising their material footprints, on visualising their energy consumption and more. 

Its not about putting someone in difficult spot but about keeping pace with time, being more and more aware and responsible, possibly to drive change away from decades of inertia. 

Author: Anoop Jha

Knowing what you are dealing with is the first step of planning –A typical case of island research and development

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A typical island, having a strong contained geographic and resource connotation, with a peculiarity of inside-outside, what is there and what in not, been there or not, whether to be disturbed or not

Close-knit native, historical and vernacular communities, having a symbiotic relationship with outside world

Embedded vulnerability due to delicate equilibrium of ecology, microclimate, demography and economy

Higher susceptibility to climate change effects, hazards, communication and supply chain blockage, energy shortage

Embodiment of contradictions – island’s opportunity is its threat, its remoteness is its attractiveness, its abundance is cause of its exhaustion, its beauty and tranquility are its curse, though a place of rejuvenation it also needs a period of uninterrupted rejuvenation

Our time-tested universal success models from planning to business to governance may still fall short of meeting the distinct needs, context and expectations of island geography, community and its biosphere 

Changes we intend to do there and in surroundings might have a nonlinear impact and may me irreversible

Success here may mean different things to different stakeholders. 

Author: Anoop Jha

#island #islandplanning #communityplanning #urbanplanning #islandmanagement #biodiversity #climatechange #travel #tourism #destination #Rotterdam #Netherlands #oceancommunities

Not anytime sooner AI or ChatGPT will surpass human intelligence or completely fulfil human desire for excellence.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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As the saying goes - there are finer fishes in the ocean then ever been caught. Likewise, there is way too much human experiences than ever been documented, way too much knowledge then ever been published, countless layers of emotions then ever been fathomed. Worth mentioning, as above knowledge and experiences never made their way to big data with which machines are being trained in principle.

Machine intelligence may amuse one, may even trick one, for a moment or two for sure, may serve the worldly purpose to much extent as well, but not going to surpass human intelligence (not in terms of weather prediction) and instinct any time sooner, neither fulfil their quest and expectations. Needs of human intellect is more than ever possibly to be fulfilled by machine or AI, at least not in near term.

History is dotted with precedents. Take a look at art for instance, photography and digital media were perceived to have immense disruptive potential, and they actually disrupted creativity and aesthetics, but never could kill art, rather made art more stronger. Take example of internet, it had potential to disrupt knowledge and it did, but could never uproot academia, rather it strengthened it. Take for instance cars, there was technically no going back to non-motorised vehicle, but bicycle prevailed and rather going stronger. When there came polyester, there was no going back to handloom, but it left people longing even more for cotton. Likewise the advent of genetically modified food and reactionary human quest for organic produce. And robots that could never render manpower obsolete.

As human needs and reactions to external events are way complex, hence their self organising tendency around any new disruption is also evident. Human being prefer to dwell at the borderline of existence, to have a chance to immerse oneself in experience in one instance (sometimes driven by technology) and withdraw in private seclusion in next moment. Essentially delocalised and never to be confined in one orbit.

Human quest remains unchallenged, as there is no technology which can quench their thirst, their quest for excellence, and search for newness. The best thing one can do in such times of technological flux is to embrace the change and keep calm!

Author: Anoop Jha

#technology #ChatGPT #AI #ML #bigdata #machinelearning #futuretech #disruption #smartcity #urbanplanner #architect #Rotterdam #Hague #Eindhoven #Utrecht #Amsterdam #Netherlands

Image:Pixabay 

Rotterdam #Art day out!

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Its always refreshing to find some time to catch up with ones hobby. Visited few art galleries in Rotterdam last week. Mesmerized to see impressive works of many international artists on display, mostly dominated by contemporary, abstract and surreal fine art style. Coincidently it was amidst ongoing #RotterdamArtweek.

One of the #artgallery owner was kind enough to spend some time to discuss about some of the paintings including one of his favorite one on display. I also took opportunity to show him pictures of my past hobby art works (sketches/ paintings) and get some quick feedback, validation and handy tips to improvise on hobby craft sometime in future. Sharing snippets of my old artwork, which the gentleman found interesting enough in terms of contemporary art scene.

Gallery owner was very generous to give some handy tips and food for thought to ponder, he being in creative business for quite some time; saying these days its fine to blend different art styles, also may be good idea to have a contemporary and international take on history, culture and roots, from the place of origin of artist, also explaining why it may be important to pay equal attention to all parts of painting including foreground and background, he took time to show and explain finer details of some of the works on display.

We talked about how #arthelps transcend time, possibly also helping new generation to connect with past and how art may help foster dialogue.

Having interest in art has certainly helped me during #architecture study, but also as an urban planner and on path of being an urban management professionals it has often helped me find order, pattern, as well as finding innovative, creative and humane solutions to challen
ges of modern city life, #urbanplanning and #urbanmanagement.

Author: Anoop Jha

Image/Work: Author

#Rotterdam #artgallery #urbanplanning #Architecture #netherlands #art 

Week of Circular Economy 2023 (Week van de Circulaire Economie)

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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As the Week of Circular Economy 2023 (Week van de Circulaire Economie) ended; thought of looking back at own previous attempts to instill circular practices in DIY projects and found a quick experimental interior design installation from archive, that one made way back using bunch of wasted (printed/ unusable) A4 papers. With little creativity
, honeycomb arrangement and some back light it seem to worked well.

Thinking about concept of circular economy in a generic way and looking at cities as being an organic whole, also looking from cultural and economic perspective; with little observation and recollection we realize that circular practices have been part and parcel to many nations, cultures and communities across the world and throughout the history. Sometimes due to cultural influences or sometimes due to economic necessity they seem to apply circular practices by instinct, like being resource efficient, sharing resources and products within large joint families and close-knit community, using products overs generations, innovative use of material, keeping the material and products in loop by changing hands, repurposing etc.

Also, as resources are being increasingly scarce, one of the best things we can do to increase awareness about circular transition in modern city context, practices and products, is to introduce the concept of circular economy in educational curriculum from the very early stage and onwards.

#circulareconomy #architecture #interiordesign #circulartransition #Netherlands #WeekofCircularEconomy #weekvandecirculaireeconomie 

Digitalisation - possibly the only way forward!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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We, take action (going from point A to B in a city) to accomplish day to day task and take smaller steps (changing transport modes, crossing road) to eventually complete the task (reaching destination in this case). Now lets take "digital" out of the equation to understand the role of digitalisation in this process. Which means it will be difficult to know the exact status of next bus, local train until reaching bus stop or station; add time spent in buying ticket possibly, and if running out of cash then may pay visit to bank first (as even ATMs won't be around), also traffic signals won't be syncronised, so it will be difficult even to cross the road quickly and safely; also after reaching a new destination spend additional time searching for exact address in absence of digital map, while it will also be difficult to get task completed remotely in absence of digitalisation.

This basically means we may have to add more minutes and hours in our planned action as cushion to offset uncertainty, and to overcome anxiety. Different versions of above case anyways used to be reality a decade or two ago.

If digital interventions in people's life equates to saved time per day, per action that means better planning, more freedom of choice, less efforts, relaxation, sanity, better health, better control of action (life) and also as a perk ever connectedness, omnipresent assistance and being more resourceful. The way digital services are embedded in todays day to day life, it may be difficult to chose alternative disconnected life, unless someone is on vacation in a remote eco-resort or beach retreat.

Even when people complain about constant surveillance in public space, the first thing they will possibly wish for will be CCTV coverage, in case they happen to be in a situation of threat or facing petty or serious crime.

There are some good examples of how digitalisation can work very well without much compromise, for instance in one of the South Rotterdam Neighborhood to counter the burglary etc. the pilot smart street lights uses audio visual clues to detect unusual situations, suspicious behaviors like burglary and theft, fight etc., and then intensifies light, raises alarm, record events only in such situations and alert law enforcement. Details of pilot here (https://lnkd.in/eHP7MNPh).

Digitalisation is sometimes synonyms with smart cities. While its a constant debate that what kind of and how much digitalisation is needed in a (smart) city; acknowledging the role and embeddedness of digital interventions in day to day life, the possible best way forward would be to embrace the digitalisation, and attempt to keep improvising same.

Author: Anoop Jha

#Digitalisation #urbanplanning #urbanmanagement #architecture #smartcity #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #Delft #Denbosch  #Alkmaar #Noordholland #Northholland #Tilburg  #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands

Decoding architectural and urban planning profession, mannerism and dimensions!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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How architects and urban planners possibly think, what all they encounter? What are the key challenges of profession?

Architects and urban planners are usually creative, imaginative, and practical enough to almost dwell at the border of science and philosophy. They often like to draw analogy, parallel and similarity, find harmony and juxtaposition, search for patterns, logic and inspiration, build complex compositions while capable of offering even more complex explanation of same, articulate subtle thoughts, envision rare possibilities and more; meanwhile juggling between, functionality, aesthetics and feasibility; which most of the time remains a trade-off. Their works also have to qualify on aspirations of range of stakeholder and users, today and in centuries to come; work that should also withstand test of time, finding continued relevance, facing weather, disaster, praise and criticism alike.

Sometimes, rather many a times architects and urban planners operate on different scales, but their quest and creative search remains similar, i.e., creating something for people, community; something that is functional, aesthetic, comforting and nostalgic; but also within reach and viable; may be complex but also abstract enough to be explained to and understood by all.

Architects and urban planners sometimes draw similarity between human and architecture, and between human and city, as possibly human, being the most complex functional entity. A vast and complex subject as it is, has equally vast challenging regime, where half of world may not be having proper access to architectural services, neither having means, representation or entitlement, searching from the pool of architects who don’t even exist today; Similarly scores of unauthorised settlements, suburban villages and small towns in different parts of world, big or complex enough to qualify for a city title, having little awareness, resources and empowerment, to have timely access to urban planning services.

Architectural and urban planning profession has been that way since quite few decades, that is asymmetric in its services and reach, no less than economic or digital divide; also characteristic of juxtaposition, from the epitome of expression and demonstration at one end to the absolute absence of same on other end.

What’s going on now and what’s the way forward? Increasingly resource gap is being filled, awareness within, and about architecture and urban planning is growing, architectural and planning services are increasingly reaching to areas of cities and areas beyond cities which remained unattended in past, and increasingly serving the remote parts of world.

Author: Anoop Jha

Architect Planner

#urbanplanning #architecture #smartcity #Delhi #Mumbai #India #Africa #Europe #EU #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #alkmaar #noordholland #northholland #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands

From hunger and uncertainty to abundance - An experimental approach of urban food security.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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We have heard that, teach them how to fish instead of giving them fish to eat; further instead lets say teach them aquaculture and may be also teach them low cost aquaponic technique of breeding fish and vegetables together. Help them also build and manage a community heirloom seed bank. And organic farming. May be, also teach them household or community scale food processing. This is one way of looking at community or urban food security; i.e. by imparting skills to help community become gradually self reliant in terms of food. This is not for the purpose of business, but for the purpose of survival, at least as may be the case for many communities.

Also thinking of those better off cities and communities still constantly battling with inflation and fluctuating food prices and uncertain supply of fresh produce, possibly sometimes relying too much on import of fresh vegetables and fruits, from other countries or region or distant farmlands. It may sometimes be a self imposed limitation. Now imagine a new greenfield city being planned, that by development control regulation, i.e. by law, mandates to have landscape plant, shrub, creeper and tree in this new city or community, belonging to only native edible type (and of course wild meadows and bees etc for pollination) i.e. only to have edible landscape (fruit, vegetable, nuts, orchard, herbs, and even many a times stems, leaves, roots, flowers of edible kind); also true for brownfield cities that as an experiments, may permits only planting edible landscape, past a cut off date, for next few years. Will this move make these new or old cities or districts self reliant in terms of food or resilient to some extent; will this be a replicable/ scalable food security measure; possibly yes. After all, having
only decorative, aesthetic trees, plants and shrubs in city was self imposed constraint only, while many such cities still continue to battle with either food scarcity or food unaffordability. After all keeping traditional custodians of agricultural fields away and outside of city boundaries must also be a self imposed constraint; instead can some or many of them be invited to help manage this very proposed citywide (only permissible) edible landscape within urban green and unused open spaces. This is one more way of looking at urban food security.

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanplanning #urbanfarming #urbanmanagement #urbanagriculture #terracegarden #greenroof #ediblelamdscape #smartcity #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #alkmaar #noordholland #agriculture #northholland #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands #foodsecurity

As unsustainable as Print Command (Ctrl+P)!Universal blanket standardization of best practices to save our planet.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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(Reshared; original post 2012)

Oh, another bunch of refined paper goes to waste-bin thanks to extremely complex and varied document printing processes across the varied software environment, across the government, corporate and educational institutions, across the world. Taking heavier and heavier toll on environment with every “Ctrl+P+Enter”, possibly every second rather micro-second in some corner of world.

It’s fairly easy for a planner specially an architect planner to acknowledge this fact of unsustainable printing practice and track down the reasons behind that due to their diversified nature of work, active participation in software environment and multiplicity of technological affinity. An average planner with architectural background is usually familiar with at least 10 to 15 software even excluding downstream subsidiaries of parent software programs, comfortable working with 7 to 10 software and currently must be using 3 to 7 software applications spread across desktop to online to cloud based environment; Some frequently used software tools ranging from drafting to data gathering and aggregation, to data analysis and interpretation, to collaboration, to mapping and image interpretation to presentation and simulation and so on, printing system ranging from tiniest of printers to the largest of plotters available. And he or she can easily recognize that one thing common in all these tools, systems and activities, is that nothing is common when it comes to Ctrl+P, i.e. print command i.e. printing process. Hence the huge environmental losses!

It’s not that you must have a global authority to control printing behavior across this technological landscape, its more about morality of tech-producers, corporate management as well responsibility and choices at user’s end. Still, it won’t be a bad idea to have some form of global printing governance and management through a nodal or distributed agencies across the globe just to identify, evolve and clinically establish the best probable practices in printing, standardizing and implementing the best printing practices and related programming practices through integration at software programming stage itself or to introduce plugins at regular intervals as tech-retrofit or to printducate (education of best practices about printing) while kids are still getting educated or even through organizational incentives if needed. Some examples of technological intervention even if you consider these at lighter note can be like default “Always draft mode otherwise specified” setting across the printer and plotter community and product lines across the world no matter small or large, something like having two big display/ push buttons one green and one stark red which will appear the moment you press the Ctrl+P (print command), green bottom (default draft mode) saying something like- “Thanks for choosing me because you are helping mother nature to thrive, btw do you really need to do even this?” and the red button (customizable for higher resolutions) saying “think twice before going ahead with higher-resolution, with this single click you might add little more burden to our mother nature, can’t you think of some other way to communicate to help save little more of ink cartridge and little more of paper?”

One interesting and probably right observation and recommendation is that we might need to revise the definition and perception of Draft Print Resolution. At present drat image or text resolution is kind of too much pixelated draft, and creates vast disparity in the outcome of high-resolution (even normal-resolution) and draft-resolution print, hence more and more people are opting for either high or normal resolution across the organizations, leaving draft unattended. We need to raise the print resolution of default draft resolution little higher than the present configuration so that people do not immediately make higher resolution print choices discarding the draft.  There is one dilemma here as well, a common educated person, environmentally conscious as he or she thinks of himself or herself, making more damage to environment than the average person with stubborn but consistent printing behavior.  Most of the environmentally conscious persons take draft mode printouts as a natural choice to protect the environment only to realize that printouts are too hazy, unclear, un-presentable to the client or audience and they end up taking same print again in normal or higher resolution format (shear wastage point No. 1, in the name of being environmentalist), they also tend to take higher size/ A3 content on an lower size/A4 paper in their deliberate (sometimes showing-off) effort to save paper/ environment, only to realize that the texts printed are almost unreadable or at least not presentable and hence they end up taking printouts again on larger size paper (shear wastage point No. 2, in the name of being pro-green or something), same story in case of slide Vs handouts as well. All of this wastage can be avoided just by keeping print command in universally default draft mode while making draft mode with little better resolution format so that people don’t always have to make choices between mostly discarded draft mode and frequently chosen normal or high resolution mode for print.

A random thought which also comes to mind is that may be the life cycle cost of providing every student and employee an upgradable device like ipad or tab or something for the regularized communication, discussion and presentation purpose within the premises or on the go might be much less than lifecycle cost of all the printing gimmicks that goes across the educational and organizational landscape (someone need to do the math), annual, monthly, quarterly, weekly and daily reports sometimes in hard copies, documentation and stacks of documents in so called database or reference library, presentation pamphlets, organizational profile handouts, educational assignments, submissions and so on and on; you know it better or better know it early! Similarly the lifecycle cost of buying and operating ipad or tab or something for reading news (which also has added customization advantage) might be much-much less than the lifecycle cost of buying newspaper for rest of your life. Just a thought though!!       

Need for printed information is not going to go anywhere anytime soon but we can always find out better ways to communicate and better print management at product design end as well as programming and user end, to save the paper and ink cartridge, just to contribute a bit for making this planet a better place!! 

Subtle power dynamics within urban development projects and role of urban management professionals.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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What may happen if urban planners and urban management professionals take a step back, stay in steering role and allow subject matter experts to lead a particular planning and development conversation and how sectoral knowledge will shape the conversation? 

If storm water is given focus then urban blue and green infrastructure may dominate the discussion.

When waste is a considered an urgent issue then circular economy will possibly shape the conversation.

When landscape is dominant matter then urban heat island and urban equity may become dominant conversation theme. 

If energy is considered burning issue then energy security and energy transition pathways may shape the outcome. 

And so on, none of the above areas are less import then other. 

Now, even if above scenario may not be possible all the time due to time and other constraints, it only emphasises that urban planners and urban management professionals when leading the projects are supposed to wear multiple hats and to look at urban management and development projects from all of the above perspectives and many more, especially at the inception stage for holistic development. 

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbandevelopment #urbanmanagement #urbanplanning

The success of new concepts of city development usually either depends on wider demographic coverage or awaits a technological renaissance!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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“Walk to work” has been a bit of an old concept, made popular by real estate advertisements while selling housing inventory way back. “15-minute city” comes to the rescue, but should possibly come with a disclaimer that it may have certain demographic and geographical relevance. That is because, a large part of the world and scores of cities may still not be prepared to immediately embrace the poised city planning concepts like above due to multiple structural challenges including real estate unaffordability, the uncertainty of job location over the years, dual and multi-income households, budget deficit etc. Thinking of a dual-income nuclear family and multi-income joint family for instance, at least one or several of such family members might still have to travel long distances to places of work, 5 to 6 days a week, these families may also not be getting time or have the motivation to visit recreational places, parks, sports centres etc., even in walking distances, due to work-life imbalance.

Thinking of millions of those who will still willingly prefer to use e-commerce sites for shopping or use food delivery apps instead of going out. Thinking of all those paying all the bills from home and those who never really required to visit utility kiosks, banks, post office, ATMs or municipal offices, for many of them the distance of neighbourhood facilities may not be of much importance.

It is noteworthy that while there are forces on one side trying to make cities accessible, meaningful and vibrant for wider demography, at the same time there are reverse combined forces of commerce, industry, real estate, and employment market instilling juxtaposing demographic changes, i.e., either forcing people to commute long distances causing exhaustion or making them habitual of a sedentary lifestyle.

The last real changes in city planning concepts that actually altered the urban morphology altogether across the world were driven by technology like high-speed transit and mass transit options. We are fortunately standing at a crossroads when real changes in urban morphology and urban management will possibly again be visible and will be driven by the force of technology only. Many such concepts being already tested in smart city pilots (#autonomous ground and #airmobility etc.) as well as city-scale projects, (#micro-mobility, #MaaS, etc.) as well as some new social change concepts seem to be finding ground (remote working, hybrid working, remote learning, etc). This new technological renaissance to be witnessed through aid of #startupecosystem #ML #AI #IoT ect.

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #urbandevelopment #walktowork #15minutecity #smartcity #livinglab #infrastructure #UMD #WFH #micromobility #publictransport #MRTS #Rotterdam #France #Paris #Hague, #Eindhoven #Amsterdam #Netherlands

What with data protection and privacy in smart city debate?

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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DataProtection and Privacy must be assessed without fixating on SmartCity.

Data vulnerability and privacy is a subject that goes beyond surveillance and facialrecognition and many a times has nothing to do with smart city, as people are usually no less vulnerable even outside smart city jurisdictions.

To give this a perspective, from the moment a child is born they tend to become a data point for someone or other, sometimes with or without parental consent depending on which part of world they are in. From their medical test report, to vaccination record, to genetic database, to TV shows they watch, to all the schools they go to or not, even those drop out from school become data points for some research or statistics. Strange enough this is achieved without children necessarily requiring to own a phone.

Collecting data from adults is far easier. Child again become a goldmine of data as they become adult, the moment they are obliged to own a phone without which it may be impossible to access even many day to day or other services in almost every part of world, or whether they own phone by choice. Interestingly our interaction, inaction and rejection (e.g. with website) all becomes equally valid data element for someone out there. 

Hundreds of access and tracking permissions that we give to random sites and apps including saving passwords and what not, all the cookies sitting in our phones and laptops, altogether with our linked identity, possibly makes us more vulnerable sitting at home compared to being out there in street facing surveillance cameras and street sensors.

We entrust and never usually question scores of institutions who take our important data and identity information, including banks, e-commerce, phone manufacturers, assuming they will protect it, but use of data by #governments and entities for smart city purpose remains a much debatable subject. Fear surrounding data and privacy is real and natural, as threats are also real and stakes are high. It is seen that governments and knowledge institutions across the world are increasingly getting aware of this fact and are relentlessly working on safeguarding data of their citizens in smart cities, forming policies, laws and contracts. They are also seen transferring knowledge to other municipalities equipping them for future smart cities. What is also required is national, regional and global cooperation and common framework of data privacy and ethics. Bringing all possible stakeholders of smart cities in the common wider net of law is also important as you never know who is teaching their machines what bias language.

The focus has to be on how to #anonymize and #safeguard data within the network and hierarchy of stakeholders.

Author: Anoop Jha

#data #egovernance #governance #policy #machinelearning #ml #iot #mobility #AR #VR #urbanmanagement #Rotterdam #Delft #Eindoven #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #Netherlands