URBANIZATION Potential Unleashed

Team : Aboriginal

URBANIZATION - CONTEXT

Compactness

High Population Density

High Scale

of

Economy

Better Healthcare

Better Education

Better Connectivity

Attractive Market Place

Better Standard of

Living Employability

Cultural & Recreational

Avenues

More Opportunities

Better Services

Wh

at

Cit

ies

Pro

vid

e

Wh

at

Cit

ies

Are

Fulcrum of Economic Growth

Better Employment Opportunities Defined by:

Cities will eventually compete with each other to attract talent and investments

According to a report by Mckinsey, by 2030, 70% of Indian GDP will come from cities

CHALLENGES

Most urban centers in India are Unplanned

• Lack of a coherent plan to Monitor and Implement Growth

• ‘Concretification’ of the Landscape

• Unhygienic Living Condition

Cities fail to provide even basic amenities like water and sanitation

Law and Order Challenges

Dismal Infrastructure

Urban Poverty is on rise – More Slums

Inadequate Resources – Not enough Financial Strength

Understaffed and Unprofessional Urban Administration

Rapid Urbanization is a global phenomenon – This transition, if not handled properly, may spell troubles

in countries like India. Already Indian cities are facing challenges – some of which are listed below:

Majority of Urban Migration in future will likely be to smaller cities and towns which are even more

handicapped in handling the situation

IDEAL OFFERINGS BY ANY CITY

Governance

Timely service delivery

Creation and Maintenance of public Infrastructure

Ensuring Financial Viability

Growth Planning & Monitoring

Facilitating Law & Order and Social

Harmony

Engagement

Recreational and Cultural Hot Spots

Public Parks and Lakes (Water Bodies)

Sport Stadium(s) & Auditoriums

Exhibition and Convention Centers

Events

Enablers

Good Education Good Healthcare Robust Public Transport

System Employment Opportunities

Vibrant Market Place

Basic Amenities

Sanitation Safety Shelter Connectivity Electricity

BASIC AMENITIES

Basic Amenities refers to a set of facilities which should be offered by any urban settlement, irrespective of its

size, to its citizens

Sanitation Clean Roads

100% Drainage and Solid Waste Management Ensures Health and Hygiene of residents

Safety Proper Law & Order

Functional Streetlights and Street Vigil at Night

Enthuse confidence to carry out one’s

activities without fear

Shelter Low Cost Housing for Poor

Affordable Housing for Other classes

Availability of adequate lodging facilities for visitors

Ensures that the opportunities exist for all

class of people

Connectivity A wide network of all weather, motorable road ensuring

minimum travel time both intra city and inter city

Facilitates movement and economic

activities

Electricity Availability of round the clock power supply to citizens

Promotion of use of alternative source of energy

Triggers economic activities and other

enablers

The approach to provide these facilities may differ from settlement to settlement depending upon the

availability of resources and funds – only those cities would have a potential to grow and sustain who

provides this first layer of facilities to its citizens

ENABLERS

Enablers are those criteria which equip the residents to reap the benefits of Urbanization and aids in the

attempt to have a better standard of living

Good Education Availability of Good Educational Institutions – both

public and private in adequate numbers

Enhances Employability & aids in Skill

Development

Good Healthcare Access to better medical care units equipped to deal with

all major illness

Ensures access to premium healthcare in

the vicinity invoking confidence

Robust Public

Transport

Rapid Mass Transport System crisscrossing the entire city

and neighborhood ensuring minimum possible time in

transit

Enhances productivity and leads to

better work life balance

Employment

Opportunities

Aggressive Employment creation policies by:

Focusing on comparative advantage & traditional strength

Attracting investments through policy initiatives

Skill Development & Infrastructure Creation

Job Creation and movement up the

economic ladder & even social mobility

Vibrant Market Place Providing a market place to not only the residents (acting

both as a customer and producer) but also to the residents

of nearby places creating a regional economy

Creates regional economy – pass on the

benefits of market not only to residents

but also to those of neighbouring areas

Obviously Enablers would differ by the class of cities – generally bigger cities will have better enablers

However, by focusing on Enablers, an urban settlement can move up the preference ladder

ENGAGEMENTS

Engagements are the prime factors which attracts the talents to choose an urban settlement as the place of

work and possibly a choice for settlement

Recreational and

Cultural Hot Spots

Availability of adequate recreational places which would

allow the residents to relax and unwind

Culture would play a wider role in attracting and retaining

high end resources and talents

Place to unwind after a long week of

work with family/ friends

Public Parks and

Lakes (Water Bodies)

Well maintained public parks and water bodies at regular

interval (ideally not more than 15 minutes of walking

time)

Connect with nature

Engages health conscious

Sport Stadium(s) &

Auditoriums

A well equipped sports facility which guarantees coaching/

mentoring and membership

State of the art Auditoriums to host cultural events

Engages Sports and Arts enthusiasts

Exhibition and

Convention Centers To hold exhibitions, seminars, fairs and talks Intellectual stimulation

Events Yearly calendar splashed with periodic high profile events

in the urban settlement

Regular opportunities to move out of

the routine life

Cities would become economic hot spot on the basis of the quality of human capital they retain. Human

talents would need more than Enablers to prefer a city/ town for settling – they would need intellectual

and cultural stimulations. Thus, Engagement would be the key to the economic prosperity and sustenance

GOVERNANCE

Governance or Administration is probably the most important factor for a city for it would decide the course a

city would take in the near future

Timely service

delivery

City Administration to provide a plethora of easily

accessible services for the welfare and benefit of the

residents

As the population and expectation

would grow, wider range of services and

their timely delivery would be sought

Creation and

Maintenance of

public Infrastructure

Creating Public Infrastructure like Roads, Parks, street

lights, Recreation centers, parking lots etc. and ensuring

proper functioning of the same

Public Infrastructure is the asset of a

city and should not be ignored or the

city would start falling behind

Ensuring Financial

Viability

As stated earlier, fund would be very crucial for the

functioning of the city and implementation of various

projects

Funding and ensuring financial

feasibility of a project

Growth Planning &

Monitoring

To ensure that the expansion of the city is being done as

per the blueprint To ensure proper growth

Facilitating Law &

Order and Social

Harmony

Provide an environment free of fear and social discord To ensure that city retains its economic

clout

Governance can directly be equated with the ‘Vision’ for the city – Administration can ‘turnaround a city’

or ‘turn a city around’ in the matter of few years. It should be handled by well qualified and professional

people

FUNDING

Almost all the cities of the country are not economically self dependent. In order to scale up the cities to meet

the challenges of higher urbanization, funds would play a crucial role. Let us look at a few model of funding

city projects

Local Admin

(Internal Revenue)

Land & Asset Monetization

Property Taxes

User Charges

In most of the cases, as of now, would

be able to cover day to day activities and

small projects

Local Admin - State

(with State Assistance)

A part is contributed by the Local Admin Resources

while the rest is tapped from the State resources Most important for smaller towns

Public Private Partnership Can be of any form involving Private parties, Local

Admin, State Govt. & Central Govt.

Again Private investment is generally

restricted to larger towns & Cities

Public People Partnership Local Admin, Govt. can create infrastructure while

the same can be maintained directly by the people or

bodies like Residents Welfare Association

Viable across all categories of cities and

can be very effective

Public People Private

Partnership

Local Admin, Govt. in partnership with Private

partners can create infrastructure while the same can

be maintained/ administered directly by the people

or bodies like Residents Welfare Association

Can be very potent where private

parties show interest and especially in

Engagement factors

Funding is critical to the development of any city. In India, the urban bodies have failed to tap on internal

resources. While state assistance is necessary for growth, systematic interventions should be made to

make urban bodies relatively more self reliant

WAY FORWARD: RISE OF NEW CITIES Major Indian cities are bursting at seams unable to cope pressure of rapid urbanization as they fail

to upgrade infrastructure accordingly

1 Upgrade Infrastructure of all these cities

2 Develop second rung cities as attractive investment

destination and Employment center

3 Simultaneously develop satellite towns to relieve pressure

from existing towns

4 Create multiple Regional Economic Zones (Clusters) with an

Urban center catering the needs of areas in vicinity

This would entail huge and consistent investment from the government

Development of better and rapid transport system would reduce stress as the floating population

would increase multiple times thereby reducing the growth of residents

Would ensure wider urbanization and inclusive growth

WAY FORWARD: FUNDAMENTALS

1 Water Conservation: Compulsory use of water conservation methods in all buildings to provide for non drinking supplies

2 Alternative Energy: Use of alternative energy sources like Solar etc. especially in street lights

3 Clustering: Clustering of residential, commercial and recreational areas to increase vibrancy

4 Transport: Linking higher density mixed use centers to public transport hubs & networks to reduce travel time

5 Eco Friendly: Approach growth in environmentally sustainable way giving enough consideration to the impact on

land use, green cover and water sources

City as an Interconnected

System

Housing

Market Areas

Work Areas

Labor Markets

Business Supplier & Consumers

Utility Systems

Water Catchment

Areas

Green Networks

Ecological Networks

Stock

• Intellectual Capacity

• Social Capital

• Biodiversity

• Nutrients

Outputs

• Commodities

• Wastes

Inputs • Raw Materials

• Energy

WAY FORWARD: INTERCONNECTED SYSTEM

Inte

rco

nn

ecte

d S

yst

em

Source : http://www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/urban/sustainable-development/characteristics-areas.html