Cities becoming islands in the rain: climate change and urban planning increasing crisis due to neglect

Wouldn’t a 10-minute walk to work be better than a 10-minute delivery for a meal?

Every Indian city should ideally have a master plan—a strategic urban planning document that should be updated (up-to-date) regularly at an interval of a decade or two.

It took just a day of heavy rain for the Delhi-National Capital Region to return to familiar scenes like waterlogged roads, crawling vehicles, broken vehicles and citizens driving with their two-wheelers in knee-deep water.

People also died due to power cuts, collapsing walls and electric shocks. Such scenes are not new in Delhi and the National Capital Region.

Such scenes are seen every time during the rain. Since the nature of monsoon has also changed due to climate change and the rains are sometimes long and very heavy, in such a situation, people have to face more problems.

The scenes of trouble caused by monsoons are visible across the country. For example, two weeks ago, 126 lakes in Bangalore were in spate.

Due to this, there was a situation of water logging in areas like Mahadevapura, Bellandur, Bommanahalli, Munnekollu etc. The situation was that more than 2,000 houses were flooded and about 10,000 houses were left in isolation.

In many places, including the posh areas, people faced the problem of drinking water and electricity. Everywhere there was a scene as if the private property had been written off.

Such a sad situation points toward the shortcomings of urban planning.

In general, our cities routinely neglect key elements of urban planning. With the lack of better drainage capacity of drains and lack of focus on lakes and rivers, the emphasis on converting urban spaces to concrete is visible everywhere. Overall, Indian cities suffer from the crisis of limited implementation of urban planning.

According to the Center for Science and Environment, a city like Bangalore scored 55.67 out of a hundred under the Quality of Life metric in the Ease of Living Index, 2020.

A metropolis like Delhi, despite being the capital, reached 57.56 in the index, while a city like Bhubaneswar had a score of just 11.57. This kind of situation is unacceptable in an ideal world.

Significantly, in the West, the Garden City movement, started by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the year 1898, sought to decentralize the work environment in the centre of cities.

That movement had put a logical emphasis on providing healthy living spaces for factory workers. As a result, cities were schematically designed, with self-sustaining communities consisting of parks and separate areas for residence, industrial work, and agriculture.

Such movements were influenced by the idea that factory workers should have a better standard of living. The Ideal Garden City was specifically planned with open spaces, public parks and boulevards.

Garden City in the US evolved with the concept of neighbourhoods, where residential homes and streets were organized around a local school or community centre, with an emphasis on reducing traffic pressure and providing safe streets.

London has a metropolitan green belt surrounding the city, covering an area of 5,13,860 hectares, to control pollution and congestion as well as maintain biodiversity.

The question is, why can’t something like this happen in Indian cities beyond the ring road and urban sprawl? Meanwhile, Paris has taken its initiative in this direction as ’15 Minute City’. This idea is quite simple.

Under this, every Parisian should be able to meet their shopping, work, recreational activities and cultural needs within a 15-minute walk or bike ride.

This capability would mean that the number of vehicular movements would be significantly reduced.

The next step in this direction would be to create a city plan for pedestrians instead of cars and other vehicles.

This requires investments in pedestrian infrastructure, non-motorized transport sectors, etc., as well as a broader move towards mixed-use development.

This approach would lead to the widening of pedestrian walkways instead of widening highways.

The question is, why can’t Bangalore be redesigned as a city where there is no traffic congestion and every resident can have easy access to jobs, public services, groceries, etc.?

Wouldn’t a 10-minute walk to work be better than a 10-minute delivery for a meal?

Every Indian city should ideally have a master plan—a strategic urban planning document that should be updated (up-to-date) regularly at an interval of a decade or two. In such schemes, it is necessary to focus on affordable housing along with focusing on displacement due to poverty.

Cities becoming islands in the rain: climate change and urban planning increasing crisis due to neglect

Wouldn’t a 10-minute walk to work be better than a 10-minute delivery for a meal? Every Indian city should ideally have a master plan—a strategic urban planning document that should be updated (up-to-date) regularly at an interval of a decade or two.

People also died due to power cuts, collapsing walls and electric shocks. Such scenes are not new in Delhi and the National Capital Region.

The scenes of trouble caused by monsoons are visible across the country. For example, two weeks ago, 126 lakes in Bangalore were in the spat.

Due to this, there was a situation of water logging in areas like Mahadevapura, Bellandur, Bommanahalli, Munnekollu etc.

The situation was that more than 2,000 houses were flooded and about 10,000 houses were left in isolation. In many places, including the posh areas, people faced the problem of drinking water and electricity. Everywhere there was a scene as if the private property had been written off.

Such a sad situation points toward the shortcomings of urban planning. In general, our cities routinely neglect key elements of urban planning.

With the lack of better drainage capacity of drains and lack of focus on lakes and rivers, the emphasis on converting urban spaces to concrete is visible everywhere. Overall, Indian cities suffer from the crisis of limited implementation of urban planning.

According to the Center for Science and Environment, a city like Bangalore scored 55.67 out of a hundred under the Quality of Life metric in the Ease of Living Index, 2020.

A metropolis like Delhi, despite being the capital, reached 57.56 in the index, while a city like Bhubaneswar had a score of just 11.57. This kind of situation is unacceptable in an ideal world.

Significantly, in the West, the Garden City movement, started by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the year 1898, sought to decentralize the work environment in the centre of cities. That movement had put a logical emphasis on providing healthy living spaces for factory workers.

As a result, cities were schematically designed, with self-sustaining communities consisting of parks and separate areas for residence, industrial work, and agriculture.

Such movements were influenced by the idea that factory workers should have a better standard of living.

The Ideal Garden City was specifically planned with open spaces, public parks and boulevards.

London has a metropolitan green belt surrounding the city, covering an area of 5,13,860 hectares, to control pollution and congestion as well as maintain biodiversity.

Under this, every Parisian should be able to meet their shopping, work, recreational activities and cultural needs within a 15-minute walk or bike ride.

This capability would mean that the number of vehicular movements would be significantly reduced. The next step in this direction would be to create a city plan for pedestrians instead of cars and other vehicles.

This requires investments in pedestrian infrastructure, non-motorized transport sectors, etc., as well as a broader move towards mixed-use development.

This approach would lead to the widening of pedestrian walkways instead of widening highways. The question is, why can’t Bangalore be redesigned as a city where there is no traffic congestion and every resident can have easy access to jobs, public services, groceries, etc.?

Wouldn’t a 10-minute walk to work be better than a 10-minute delivery for a meal?

https://www.chandravanshi.org/if-the-government-accepts-aiims-chief-people-will-not-die-due-to-lack-of-oxygen/

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