Sustainable Urban Development in India

SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA: SOME ISSUES by Basudha Chattopadhyay INTRODUCTION

Sustainable development means attaining a balance between environmental protection and human economic development and between the present and future needs. It means equity in development and sectoral actions across space and time. 1 It requires an integration of

economic, social and environmental approaches towards development. Sustainable urban development refers to attaining social equity and environmental protection in urbanization while minimizing the costs of urbanization. This paper aims at discussing some of the important issues relating to sustainable urban form that would lead to sustainable urban development with possible references to India. The paper is based on available literature and secondary data. The paper is divided in two parts. The first part deals with the concept of sustainable development and its implications for urban areas. First section of this part of the paper explains the concept of sustainable development with special mention of sustainable urban development. This is followed by the second section of this part with a discussion of the role of environment and climate change in sustainable urban development. The second part of the paper discusses sustainable urban development with special reference to India. This part is divided in four sections. The first section deals with urban basic services and sustainable urban development in India. The second section notes the inefficiencies in the land policy of India and its implications for sustainable urban development in India. The third section leads to possible options of sustainable city form, which may be relevant for India. Here first the study discusses the compact city debate and next it explains the concept and possibilities of multi-modal urban region as a city form. The last and fourth section summarises the discussion and ends with way forward.

1

See Cruz et al (2007).

1

PART A

References: Bertolini, L. (2005). The multi-modal urban region: A concept to combine environmental and economic goals. In Future Forms and Design for Sustainable Development, M. Jenks And N. Dempsey eds. Oxford, U.K. Breheney, M. J. (Ed.) (1992). Sustainable Development and Urban Form, Pion, London. Census of India (2001). Analytical Report on Housing Amenities, Series 1, India. Centre for Science and Environment. http://www.cseindia.org/html/lab_air_pollution.htm last accessed on 6.08.2008. Chen H., B. Jia , S.S.Y.Lau (2008). Sustainable urban form for Chinese compact cities: Challenges of a rapidly urbanized economy. Habitat International Vol.32, Issue 1, March 2008, pp.28-40. Cruz, R.V., H. Harasawa, M. Lal, S. Wu, Y.Anokhin, B. Punsalmaa, Y. Honda, M. Jafari, C. Li and N. Hu Ninh (2007): Asia. Climate Change, 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to The Fourth Assessment Report the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, M.L.Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson Eds, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. 469506. Dempsey, N. and M. Jenks (2005). Future forms for city living? In Future Forms and Design for Sustainable Cities, M. Jenks And N. Dempsey eds. Elsevier, Oxford, U.K. Govt. of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests, White Paper on Pollution in Delhi with an Action Plan. http://envfor.nic.in/ Govt. of India, Planning Commission (2008). Eleventh Five Year Plan, 2007-2012 vol. III. Oxford, India. Hindustan Times, (2008). Death of the lakes. In Hindustan Times, August 5, New Delhi, Metro Edition. Jenks, M. & N. Dempsey, (2005). The language and meaning of density In Future Forms and Design for Sustainable Cities, M. Jenks And N. Dempsey eds. Elsevier, Oxford, U.K. Kenworthy J.and F.B. Laube (1999). An International Sourcebook of Automobile Dependence in Cities 1960-1990, University Press of Colorado, Boulder. Kundu A. and S. Thakur (2006). Access to drinking water in urban India: An Analysis of emerging spatial pattern in the context of new system of governance In Managing Water Resources: Policies, Institutions and Technologies, V. Ratna Reddy and S. Mahendra Dev eds. Oxford, New Delhi. National Commission on Urbanisation, (1988). Urbanisation , Vol. II. Report of the National Commission on Opp. Susan M. (2008). Roles and realities. In Local Sustainable Urban Development in a Globalised World, Lauren C. Heberle and Susan M. Opp eds. Hampshire, Ashgate Publishing Limited, England. Pinderhughes, R. (2008). Alternative urban futures: Designing urban infrastructures that prioritize human needs, are less damaging to the natural resource base and produce less waste In Local Sustainable Urban Development in a Globalized World, Lauren C. Heberle and Susan M. Opp eds. Hampshire, Ashgate Publishing Limited, England. 17 Prud’homme R. and Lee, C. (1999). Size, Sprawl and the Efficiency of Cities. Urban Studies, 36 (11). 1849-1858. Pucher, J., N. Korattyswaropam, N. Mittal, N. Ittyeraah (2005). Urban transport crisis in India. www.elsevier.com/locate/tranpol 18