Sustainable Cities: Contributing to an Equitable Ecosystem 

Sustainable City’ is a goal we strive to achieve continuously, but its direction and the extent to which many factors contribute to it remain unknown since there are still gaps to fill. Smart and sustainable cities are often described as being intelligent, dynamic, enjoyable, open to the arts, friendly, and sustainable. A concise way to put this is that a smart and sustainable city is a city that is open to the arts, user-friendly and culturally open.

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Sustainable Living

Urban, environmental, social, economic, contextual, and cultural sustainability are all forms of sustainability that a city can achieve. A healthy interactive environment is achieved when all dimensions, shapes, and configurations of open spaces are in perfect balance, resulting in happiness. Despite a variety of options and methods available for achieving them, relatively little work has been done.

Transportation and Logistics

An urban form consists of a series of elements such as streets, blocks, buildings, which are connected by bridges and pathways. The transportation system is a key component of city planning and plays a significant role in determining the amount of energy consumed. Based on many criteria, it is evident that our current car-based travel patterns are unsustainable in terms of the present and future generations. Sustainable transport is defined as transport that meets the needs of the present by also keeping future generations in mind.

With more emphasis on the importance of pedestrian precincts in adapting city centers to new lifestyles, not just as a technical measure, but as a way to emphasize the identity and uniqueness of the city centre as a center for leisure, tourism, and culture that further leads to sustainable tourism.

Social Sustainability

While planning a city, social acceptance and the way residents and users adjust to the city have been crucial factors to consider. Ultimately, a city must be able to provide for its citizens and ensure that their day-to-day lives are seamless and fulfilling. An urban form of a city directly affects a city’s social sustainability, resulting in more social interactions and, at the same time, greater happiness.

Economic Viability

Sustainability is closely related to the economics of cities, as a sustainable economy facilitates cities’ ability to build and maintain adequate infrastructure and provide effective services, which promotes health and well-being. It is now up to us to figure out how to make our cities economically viable.

Globally, 70 percent of waste is generated by cities and 80 percent of energy is consumed by them. The rapid urbanisation of the world has inspired innovative solutions in many areas, including housing, transportation, and infrastructure, but one key factor is often overlooked: food security and nutrition.

Environmental Sustainability

For future cities to achieve environmental sustainability, they need to use renewable energy at a large scale, manage waste/minimize it, harvest water and recycle it, enhance the natural environment through landscapes and biodiversity, use green transport systems, use innovative materials and construction methods (low/zero carbon buildings), and produce local food.

Cultural Inheritance

It is crucial to consider the context of the city. Cultural inheritance is a result of values, traditions and beliefs affecting relationships between individuals and others in a city or across the globe. City’s identity also reflects people’s perception of nature and environment, which makes cities different.  

It is often the case that in the process of urbanising, we forget to take care of this important aspect. We need to take care that the urban cultural heritage and places are specifically conserved and restored.

 Shanghai Model for Smart Eco-Living

As the world’s first eco-friendly city, Shanghai outlines the principles to balance three aspects of sustainability: the environment, economy, and society. The idea is to harmonise nature, society, and community, providing active public spaces, and mixed-use buildings, hence ensuring reduced traffic. Shanghai has placed

Masterplan of Shanghai(Source:-Hao Jiang)

a great deal of emphasis on providing public spaces for community interaction, and has placed a great deal of emphasis on cultural inheritance and social development.

Rapidly rising house prices have led cities’ finances to be based on expanding urban land, resulting in the development of multi-story mixed-use buildings.

Scope of Improvisation in India

Almost every growing city experiences urban transformations and changes. Urban decline occurs in response to undesirable changes in the urban context. As an old development containing narrow roads, old buildings and unplanned layouts begins to attract massive populations and traffic, the place becomes crowded and urban decline occurs. Urban renewal aims to address urban decay and transformation through local policies and strategies. In one such meeting as an example 

Member of Parliament Mr. Sukhbir Singh Jaunpuria in Haryana Real Estate Summit 2022 pointed out “There have been significant improvements in Haryana’s urban infrastructure, but some weaknesses still persist in the power sector and other sectors which must be addressed immediately by policy makers so that Haryana in general and Gurgaon in particular can continue to lead the state’s industrial development.”

A further point that Mr. Niranjan Hiranandani, Vice Chairman, NAREDCO, stressed was that if the real estate sector were to contribute 15% to the national GDP by 2030, it would need to grow at a rate of 25% each year in order to create a five trillion dollar economy by then.

Delhi for instance being the most populous city of India has a lot to do with improvisation of urban planning. Along with focusing on improving the quality of life facilitation of sustainable buildings is of utmost importance. The major challenge is the existing built fabric with which intact we need to propose new strategies. The dramatic increase in personal motor vehicle usage has left the city congested and choking in a thick cloud of smog. Furthermore, the increased road usage has reduced the effectiveness of the bus network, driving a negative feedback loop where people search for private mobility solutions, which further worsens the effectiveness of on-street public transportation.

With emphasis on transit developments, multi-level parking, low cost housing, night shelters for poor, Peripheral Expressways, Infrastructure, Sewerage and Telecommunication, the latest regional plan has been prepared by NCR planning board.