Urban planning, also referred to as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that focuses on the design and development of land use and the built environment, including air, water, and infrastructure that enters and exits urban areas, such as transportation, communications, and distribution networks, as well as the accessibility of these networks. Traditionally, urban planning followed a top-down approach in planning human settlements. The public's welfare was the main priority, and this included taking into account issues like effectiveness, hygienic conditions, environmental preservation and utilisation, as well as how the master plans would affect social and commercial endeavours.
Urban planning now prioritizes the social and environmental bottom lines, emphasizing the use of planning as a tool to enhance people's health and well-being while upholding sustainability norms.
Why India Needs Urban Planning:
* In India, the rate of urbanisation is quickly rising. The urban population was over 30% in 2011 and is projected to increase to 41% by 2030.
* Urbanization has aided in social, political, and economic advancement, but it has also brought up significant socioeconomic issues. The main causes of this situation are the huge expansion of the metropolitan population, the unplanned and uncontrolled growth of urban areas, and a severe shortage of infrastructure.
* Public services like housing, sanitation, transportation, water, energy, health, and education have been under a lot of pressure as a result of the rapid growth of the urban population, both naturally and through migration. Beggary, thievery, dacoities, burglaries, underemployment, poverty, and other social ills are common among rural immigrants. Metropolises have shown signs of bad planning, as evidenced by the severe pollution issue in Delhi, the Mumbai and Chennai floods, and so on.
Challenges with urban planning :
* Our urban planning machinery has not grown at the pace of the demands posed by urbanization and global technological advancements.
* Urban local bodies face a massive shortage of skilled and trained human resources as well as financial challenges.
* Furthermore, poor quality of planning is a huge limiting factor to realising the true economic potential of urbanization.
* Urban planning, which is the foundation for the integrated development of cities, citizens, and the environment, has not received adequate attention.
* 65% of the 7933 urban settlements do not have any master plan. This leads to piecemeal interventions, haphazard constructions, urban sprawl, and environmental pollution, which can further aggravate issues such as traffic congestion, flooding, etc.
* In many cities, development control regulations were formulated several decades ago and have been updated arbitrarily without sufficient empirical evidence of their impacts.
* An inadequate number of urban planners in the State planning machinery and a lack of multi-disciplinary teams are serious issues.