Typical contemporary city planning evolution, transition and future trajectory in short.

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

************************************************

INFRASTRUCTURE: Public obligation for basic provisions, to private participation for sustenance and risk distribution (commercial and political), to eventually being seen by private entities as investment opportunity, to cities that increasingly being seen as test ground for different infrastructure technology products (mobility, energy etc.), to circular infrastructure asset and services (optimisation, end of life-cycle usage, heat recovery etc.), to captive (solar) to off-shore (wind) to off-grid (P2P), to connected infrastructure/ home/ everything, to “all sorts of” infrastructure-as-a-service (mobility, hardware, software etc.), to customised infrastructure service/ experience (through blockchain)

ECOLOGY: Taming and reclaiming wilderness, to green as buffer, control and protection, to green as leisure, to green and open as statement of equality and inclusiveness, to green and open as barometer of liveability, to green, blue and open as resilient system (e.g., allow to flood), to autonomy (e.g., urban farming, urban food islands, seed bank) to rewilding (e.g., wild meadows, bee-hives and pollination)

HOUSING [& COMMERCIAL]: Community efforts, to class divide, to institutions getting overwhelmed accommodating workforce and matching infrastructure and amenities, to reliance on private actors filling gap, to private actors seeing opportunity for investment (real estate), to specialised actors and instruments (financial, mortgage, brokerage), to socio-economic stratification, to suburbanisation, to architectural innovation and experimentation (going high, prefab, modular, parametric), to entity level sustainability promotion (e.g., green rating, subsidies), to individual environmental awareness (carbon footprint, energy visualisation), to co-working to co-living spaces

PUBLIC FACILITIES AND SERVICES: From community interaction (town hall), to law and order (court of justice, prison), to maintaining peace (law enforcement) to administer (e.g., taxation) to managing day-to-day operation (e.g., modes of transportation) to meeting community needs (public parks, market places), to focus on inclusivity and equity, to involving private actors to fill gaps and increase quality of services, to private actors offering services beyond basic requirements, to private actors offering niche premium/ paid services to privileged, to emergence of service integrators, to services on demand, to virtualisation of services, to services in a parallel universe (metaverse)

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #urbandevelopment #smartcity #smartcities #livinglab #infrastructure #PSP #communityplanning #Ecology #micromobility #publictransport #Rotterdam #Hague #Delft #Denhaag #Alkmaar #Utrecht #Eindhoven #Amsterdam #Netherlands

What is to be considered basic essential scope for an urban development projects?

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

************************************************

In a typical city wide urban planning proposal, greenfield city development plan and brownfield redevelopment scheme, one or several of following important elements/ steps still tend to get missed, overlooked or ignored. Missing some of these planning elements/ tools may come at a huge latent price which cities and communities might have to pay later on. These elements include but not limited to consideration for circular (economy) practices, pedestrian flow modelling, microclimate simulations [like heat island effect analysis, shadow analysis, flood modelling and flood management, wind flow analysis (computer based) or wind tunnel test (using scale model of build environment)], GIS based site suitability, underground utility survey (GPR), structural safety profile analysis of built structure/ assets in old and vulnerable (unorganised/ unplanned) neighbourhoods, disaster management plan (new CBDs, vulnerable pockets), fire risk profile analysis and evacuation plan (old CBDs/ congested neighbourhoods/ squatter settlements), blue green infrastructure plan, urban agriculture and so on.

For example, when we see cities increasingly getting flooded due to aggravated climatic conditions, without discrimination, affecting poor and rich countries/ cities alike; in this context we see cities in global north increasingly working towards watershed assessment, flood management and harnessing strategies, conducting urban flood simulation, taking a watershed approach in urban built environment; but many countries in global south are still lacking awareness on this front, in spite of facing such periodic flooding challenges. In this example whether urban flood is caused by climate change or encroachment of flood plain upstream or due to poor storm water management, urban flood modelling for instance must be integral part of any urban planning and development project scope; but flood modelling still seem to be missing from the consultant's scope/ project scope in many large urban development project RFPs. Likewise missing wind and shadow analysis, disaster management, pedestrian flow modelling and so on.

May be its time that apex planning authorities and academic institutions work together to formulate binding policy, defining essential elements of urban development projects. May be its time when we realise that things which were considered luxury or USP earlier, has now become essential for resilient urban planning, management and development. Like sustainability was once used to be project USP, but now we realise that being sustainable in urban environment is inescapable agent of planning and development, and has not remained just an USP, choice or luxury.

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartcity #climatechange #rfp #scope #policy #urbanplanning #urbanmanagement #alkmaar #sustainability #resilience #Rotterdam #Amsterdam #Utrecht #Hauge #Delft #Eindoven #Netherlands

How to measure dynamic social phenomenon, in what measurement unit and what is the way forward?

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

************************************************

When it comes to people, household and community; a varying level of granularity, and a range and gradation can be witnessed from micro, to macro, to global scale.

Looking at smallest groups to global community scale - for instance there are special family traditions, unique folklore of natives, healing traditions of remote communities, unique festivities of distant settlements, peculiar rituals within ethnic subgroups; unique cultural expression, attire and language within different ethnicity; peculiar climatic affiliation, characteristic cultural tradition and signature culinary flavour of region; unique habits, preferences and identity of nations; shared transnational image and layers of collective subconsciousness of world.

Above is a glimpse of spectrum of diverse socio-spatial phenomenon that exists at different scales, sometimes characterised by subtle non tangible traits, mutually exclusive elements, binding ethos, spatio-temporal mutation and often are amorphous and shapeshifting; hence many a times difficult to capture, classify and analyse, at city, regional, national and sub-regional scale.

How profound is this social dynamics, and how difficult it is to capture the essence, still essentially a measure of individual, household and community. Possibly the vastness and complexity of social dynamics is the reason that different specialisation and segmented approach emerged over time for measuring social phenomenon across scale from ethnographic to anthropological to scientific to political.

Also how limited and fragmented are the tools and measurement units available today to capture the dynamic social phenomenon in its completeness, as obvious from the fact that even after centuries there has been lack of comprehensive composite indices which measure, reflect and encapsulate the above social dynamics manifested at different scale, yet made up of same elements people, household and community.

While census, unique statistical identity of individuals and households, and socio-economic research in this area serves their own niche purpose, there is also a need for multidisciplinary empirical approach to come up with composite indices for measurement of social dynamics as a whole, within inescapable diversity of society, for better understanding of social phenomenon, sympathetic acknowledgement of community needs in its interaction and interconnectedness; which may in turn help urban, rural and community planners, as well as administrators to plan, prepare and deliver solutions in a better way.

Author: Anoop Jha

#Urbanplanning #communityplanning #ruralplanning #smartcit #urbanplanning #regionalplanning #urbanmanagement #urbandevelopement #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #Alkmaar #noordholland #northholland #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands #resilience

Analysing regional spatial dynamics of metropolis - Smart Region approach

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

************************************************

Why we end up having one thriving satellite town and another ghost town next to same metropolis? Whether interrelationship of two adjoining cities can be redefined?

We have seen some greenfield satellite towns/ large residential townships around a metropolitan city thriving and some not doing so well and one or two of them may just qualify for a ghost town. The ghost town that initially came up with promising development vision bullish on being in vicinity of metropolis. Though these new towns saw a sudden growth in real estate activities but plummet soon as they eventually had no takers of property. Whether few kms away or close, we realise that success of a satellite town/ large development is not simply a function of distance from metropolis.

We see in this case that proximity in a metropolitan or city region may not just be a function of measure of distance unit (km/ mile). For instance in case of connectivity between two cities, lets think of "20km of 2 lane road with no public transport" vs "20km of 6 lane expressway" vs "20km of metro/ rail/ bus connectivity" vs "20km of electric bike infrastructure" vs "20km of smart corridor with connected infrastructure conducive for autonomous vehicles". Distance of 20 to 30km treated differently, may mean different things in a different conditions and prove to be a deciding criteria for success/survival of greenfield project outside metropolis.

 

It also implies that the success of any new development especially away from metropolis, (new township or satellite town) highly depends on external factors like good connectivity, but these external factors like connectivity often remains outside of means/budget, purview and scope of consortia of real estate agencies or local public administration; reinforcing the fact that a new satellite town or large development away from metropolitan city can only succeed -

1) if they have high speed multi-modal connectivity, range of mobility options, supportive corridor landuse, or

2) if it has either critical mass of mixed complimentary land usage within itself (work-home-commerce) for autonomy, or

3) if it is specialised enough to sustain on its own (university, science park, R&D ecosystem etc).

Silver lining? Yes, distance can always be manipulated with right interventions to make distances feel like within reach by making journey easy/ engaging/ meaningful. Which means that relationship and transactions (labour-housing-entertainment) of two settlements/ town/ cities (both existing and greenfield) in proximity can always be improved based on restructuring/ reconceptualising its transport linkages and restructuring landuse around transit backbone. This may be one of the key aspects of smart region.

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanplanning #smartregion #smartcity #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #alkmaar #noordholland #northholland #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands #mobility

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

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.

[Views and observations are personal] 

The problem of picturesque cities and towns!

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

************************************************

The beautiful and picturesque cities and towns, which are many here in Netherlands for instance; the problem with them is that every time you step out on to the street or from the moment you arrive in these scenic cities and towns, you run the risk of unintentionally getting captured in someone or other’s camera, unexpectedly and at an unimaginable frequency; either getting immortalised in someone’s digital archive or soon to be published on all sorts of social or professional media. You will find yourself surrounded by amature and professional photographers alike, who just can’t help capturing the beautiful surroundings and in the process capturing you, while you may find yourself doing the same. Come to think of it; not to speak of locals and camera-shy, though it may sometimes be amusing but many a times rather uncomfortable and scary experience, even for tourists. It somehow feels very awkward at times and sometimes a nuisance, it also feels very different than the passive city surveillance, which are increasingly being boasted as essential application for smart cities, while later can still be controlled and be anonymised.

Getting unintentionally or intentionally captured in someone’s (eg. phone) camera is a social problem for sure, rather it’s not just a problem of a picturesque city, it’s a problem of any city, any tourist attraction, any commercial district, any event, any workshop etc.

Thinking of solutions, it’s not that nothing can be done; but certainly, choice cannot be left at the user end.

So, on part of all phone manufactures, they may play their role by allowing automatic and default feature something like face blur for unintended persons in crowed situations or otherwise (without compromising on the subject of interest or overall aesthetics of composition), may be based on geolocation or some algorithm; possibly on their next launch.

Social and professional media platforms may play their responsible role again by automatically blurring the faces of people in background or adding Bokeh blur or some other effects during the process of picture upload to public posts and during sharing/ forwarding of photographs, possibly on their next upgrade.  

#city #touristcity #touristtowns #smartcity #urbanplanning #urbanmanagement #architecture #Netherlands #Amsterdam #photography #rotterdam #Denhaag #Hauge #Utrecht #Eindhoven #Delft #socialmedia #futurecities #facebook #linkedin #instagram #twitter #iphone #samsung

How autonomous our public spaces are, and why its worth consideration to think beyond contextual planning.

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

************************************************

Whether our public spaces are autonomous or do they only have identity and utility as a function of something else. Public spaces for instance, not being autonomous has an embedded problem, that is, if something else on which it depends, if that something else - the context - changes then public space may become defunct or underutilized.

The traditional urban planning and urban design values of context and surroundings are important but over-emphasis on context may be a compromise and sometimes inefficient way to deal with scarce resource.

Context in a built environment may change anytime or over a period of time due to forces of commerce, real estate, demographic changes, technological shifts, aggravated climate change impacts, and this context anchorage may hence be counterintuitive, a severe compromise on the quality of public realm for instance and even question mark on its existence.

Land is scarce and precious in a city and lifestyle dynamics is changing, so public spaces are expected to serve a purpose larger than its traditional perceptual value, they are expected to have a functionality beyond its established notion and planning and design which should look for its own identity and autonomy.

Hence the need of context independence (doesn’t mean anti-context) and autonomy of spaces (doesn’t mean incompatibility to surrounding) may be worth consideration.

Today, take water out of equation (for instance due to dry riverbed, polluted water) and our waterfronts may not function as envisaged; take buzz out of market place (unaffordable commercial real estate, vacant array of shops, emergence of new attractions elsewhere) and market squares may not perform as expected. If the context is gone, then once thriving public space may become deserted just like that, hence the need of autonomous public spaces.

So, the question to deliberate is, how do we plan and design our public spaces, rich and engaging enough, safe enough and attractive enough on its own, so that they function at its peak autonomously, irrespective of context, while having a context can always be an additional advantage.

#Urbanplanning #urbanmanagement #urbandesign #smartcity #publicspaces