Smart Master Planning for Cities

This book explores the capabilities of Smart Master Planning as against legacy Master Planning of cities practised. Master Planning of cities exists because cities under change need uninterrupted integrated area development and urban regulation that benefits and protects the rights of all citizens under the constitution. Despite many shortcomings of Master Planning as discussed in this chapter, and which made some big-ticket national urban development projects replacing it with other short-lived plans with different names by the Union Government, it still exists in India and all countries being revised once every 20 years as per the constitution since no alternative has emerged to replace it. The 100 Smart City Programme and Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) of India were two big-ticket National projects involving a larger amount of public investment ever received by Indian cities so far, were not using Master Plan and detailed town planning schemes for its implementation for integrated area development but is based on some other non-statutory limited time and limited scope plans which by design is short-lived and intend to die soon after the project is over with no continuity for integrated development of cities. The 100 Smart city project is strictly not even using local self-government institutional mechanism under the constitution but a special purpose vehicle to implement, unlike JNNURM. Despite all these circumstances, local self-governments continues to prepare and execute Master Plans as their constitutional responsibility despite some plan holidays years. One intend of this book is to evolve and not replace Master Planning of cities with Smart Master Planning which can broadly be classified as digital master Planning or based on innovations in some domains of Master Planning practices as alternatives keeping the intent of intention of Constitution of India respected and implemented. This book searches for an effective strengthening of Master Planning mentioned in the 74th constitutional amendment of India which we call Smart Master Planning. This can be digital or with domain-specific changes in master planning. This chapter assesses quantitatively the candidate cities for Master Planning in India based on the census 2011 and compares them with registered professional urban planners to plan it. Then discuss how the supply of candidates master Planning cities and demand of Planners can be balanced in India. This chapter explores the first scope and approach of past colonial legacy in Master Planning followed by a critique by many scholars and practising planners. This will be the basis of domain-specific master planning innovations. The Digital Master Plan which is emerging in a limited manner is then studied from practices of certain countries as an alternative for legacy master planning first with its architecture, followed by three international case studies Barcelona in Spain, Greater Spring fields in Brisbane Australia and Dublin in Ireland. Finally, it is followed by an introduction to the case study chapter by the author and his study team in one of two volumes entitled Smart Master Planning: domain innovation and digital innovation.

Land pooling for a state’s development is considered a feasible option where land is exchanged instead of money because this reduces the pressure on the state’s finances. Division of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana brought in an urgency for the government in planning and developing a capital city from the kickoff in a brief time. In order to enable the smooth exchange of land for the development of the capital, the participation of the land donor and other stakeholders is extremely important. This chapter studies the innovative approach to preparing a blueprint of the chief city of Amaravati through a novel approach to land procurement. Land pooling is used as a tool to acquire land for the design of the new capital city while involving the land owners and agrarian laborers in the entire process of inclusive planning. Having donated their land, we must also look at the feedback of the stakeholders. Therefore, this chapter also looks at the satisfaction and participation of landowners and stakeholders of the villages. Out of 24 villages involved in the planning process, this study takes two representative villages, namely Venkatapalem and Nelapadu to assess the satisfactory levels of all the stakeholders. Field studies and a structured questionnaire survey were conducted with the heterogeneous composition of farmers from the various extent of landholding. Other stakeholders such as unemployed youth, agricultural laborers, and Panchayat members were also interviewed. Social sustainability, physical sustainability, and economic sustainability analysis was carried out using the composite indices method. The findings reveal that the satisfactory level of landholders is directly proportional to the extent of land donated. Unemployed youth were more dissatisfied as the process failed to meet their aspirations of employment opportunities. Surprising back up from 24,000 farmers for India’s biggest-ever consensus-based land pooling of 35,000 acres was the reason behind the Amravati’s creation. This study becomes significant in understanding the participatory strategy and will aid in developing a framework for success in new development areas, redevelopment areas, and renewable areas in metropolitan cities and new towns.

Indian cities are expected to grow exponentially, with the urban population increasing from 377 million in 2011 to 760 million in 2050. Consequently, cities are likely to face severe water risks as many are already highly water-stressed. An integrated approach for addressing the issues of urban water systems is inevitable for sustainable development. Several urban water management approaches have been devised to mitigate the water challenges, the most recent being water-sensitive and water-smart cities. This chapter explores the different urban water management paradigms and emphasises the need to adapt and adopt the concept of water-smart cities for the Indian context. The components of water-smartness have been formulated based on a literature review. This discussion is followed by an assessment of the water-smartness of Bhuj, a pioneer city for water management practices, located in an arid region of India. The chapter examines that the city fulfilled most criteria of water-smartness but lacked in digital innovations. Several other Indian cities face similar issues in the present times. The chapter concludes with suggestions to improve the water-smartness of Bhuj and highlights key takeaways from Bhuj’s experiences for other Indian cities.

This chapter discusses the comprehensive planning process in the city of Cincinnati in Ohio, United States. Master planning and comprehensive planning activities have a century old legacy in Cincinnati, and the most recent Comprehensive Plan of Cincinnati—“2012 Plan Cincinnati” received wide acclaim as well as criticism in the academic and policy arena. There are several success measures of the comprehensive planning process, which are visible in terms of citizen engagement in formulating its vision statement and plan making, its success in instigating redevelopment projects to revitalize its dilapidated inner-city neighborhoods, and adoption of Form-Based Codes to encourage place-making ideas and strengthen traditional neighborhoods. However, there are several drawbacks of this planning process that failed to implement the updated land development codes in accordance with the plan, recognize the needs of its African American population, address the issues of socio-economic and racial segregation over space, manage gentrification in redeveloped neighborhoods, and check large-scale displacement of poor African American population from revitalized neighborhoods that are now becoming home to young, skilled, and affluent population. In this chapter, we explain the comprehensive planning process in Cincinnati and apply Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation to assess the success of citizen participation in the 2012 Plan Cincinnati.

The ‘smartness’ as perceived by the authors about ‘going back to basics’ is based on the ideology of Patrick Geddes. Through the study of one of the most dynamic cities of India, Gurugram, an attempt has been made to bring to light the essence of the master plan in India in this age of Smart Cities. Gurugram is on the trajectory to make itself a super smart city using the new-age automation technology. The authors have questioned the need for the data generated and its granularity by the city automation systems for the purpose of master plan preparation and tried to emphasize the need of the planners to root themselves in the fundamentals of planning to build smart master plans for truly futuristic and smart cities.

Kochi, the commercial capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala, though a city largely interwoven with water bodies, the urbanism did not grow with the water but rather was side-lined and largely unutilized. Though the city grew beyond its boundaries in terms of physical development, there had been little active efforts or move toward administrative level merging of the city region bringing together the numerous towns around it to form an efficiently working larger city. Conventional master planning mechanisms and processes, which were prevalent in the city to a large extent often perceived this phenomenon through a blurred lens and failed to generate an output which tackled these regional dynamics. In this context, this chapter attempted to evaluate and analyze the approach of town planning process and mechanisms which lead to the development of the city’s master plan document through an extensive literature based as well as consultative study. It further investigated the extent of existing collaborations between the urban local bodies (ULB) and other institutions within the metropolitan area and their role in decision making during master planning. Further, it analyzed the factors of success/failures of Kochi Master plans in achieving the goals of regulatory and area development capability. Subsequently, it suggested innovative solutions and strategies to increase the efficiency of the Master plans to develop a Smart Master planning approach for the city of Kochi. The study indicated that the inactivity or low level of city’s planned interventions after the series of urban planning and design projects spearheaded by various agencies during the 1980s, left the city’s growth for organic haphazard development leading to a weak urban structure with a few centers of activity across its geography. Though the Kochi Municipal Corporation had the power to prepare and execute the master plan for the city, it had to continue to rely on the state departments due to the institutional capacity gap. Similarly, though several smart city schemes and programs in the city dealt with various development projects within the city, it lacked focus on bringing a holistic regional development. As a result, the master planning process in the city region happened as isolated efforts to form individual local level master plans for the city as well as for the other municipalities around it. The weak collaboration between the ULBs which constituted the metropolitan area contributed largely to the scenarios in the city region. Further to this, the drastic changes brought in largely by revolutionary or disruptive global trends/innovations as well as quicker shifts in activity distribution patterns within the city’s geography has turned master planning processes done through conventional methods to be too myopic or ineffective soon after they are prepared. Therefore, current study put forth smart master planning strategies that would address the regional challenges faced by the city and at the same time speed up the master planning process and thereby improve the efficiency of the Master plans in the city.

The Smart City Mission (SCM) was launched on 25 June 2015 by the Government of India to develop 100 smart cities across the country. The objective was to develop methods for making the cities ‘smart’, replicable both within and outside the Smart City. The SCM aimed to promote inclusive and sustainable cities while ensuring infrastructural development and improving quality of life. Keeping the current rate of urbanisation and technological boom into consideration, this was an appreciable step taken by the government of India. Along with the SCM, several other schemes like the Swachha Bharat Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY), etc., were also launched, and these schemes are supposed to work in a coordinated and integrated manner. However, at the same time, it must be understood that the integration of the SCM with the master of the concerned city will also play a vital role in ensuring efficiency and avoiding roadblocks in the completion of projects. If this integration is lacking, then issues are going to arise. The case study of New Town (Rajarhat), Kolkata, was selected to study this phenomenon. New Town was selected in the second phase of the SCM, and it is the only city in West Bengal that is selected under the mission. New Town is a rapidly developing satellite city of Kolkata. It is situated in the North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. New Town is managed by the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA), and HIDCO aims to develop infrastructure in the city. New Town is being developed as an IT and residential hub in Kolkata. If we compare the vision and objectives of the master plan (VISION 2025) and the SCM (New Town) of Kolkata, we can easily observe several overlaps and conflicts. The master plans look at a much broader domain than the SCM, which is obvious. However, at the same time, the definition of the common objectives such as quality of life, Mobility and Connectivity, and Inclusivity may differ based on the scale of development. This chapter will give an insight into the conflicts between the Smart City Mission and the Master Plan in Kolkata and will conclude by suggesting integrating the SCM with the master plans of cities.

San Diego is the second-largest in California State and the eighth-largest city in the United States. From a small border town, San Diego has grown to a thriving metropolis of nearly 1.4 million people (2019). San Diego smart city planning began with its first Comprehensive Plan as early as 1908 by John Nolen. The city has a unique history of well-planned development with active citizen participation. Over the years, the city’s economic base has expanded from tourism and defense to include high technology research, manufacturing, and international trade. This chapter looks at the journey undertaken by the city with strategies, goals, and developments in transforming the city of San Diego into a world-class Smart City. Many innovative concepts and technologies are adopted and deployed for improving the resident’s quality of life. Smart projects are undertaken in the city to improve public mobility and provide real-time data to help in better decision-making are discussed.

This chapter has two parts. In the first part, objectives, and the organisational details of the international collaborative research project “Smart Master Planning” is discussed. The second part is presented in consultation with the team leaders of the city study, their general conclusions of the study Smart Master Planning.