Urban Flooding

Recently, many parts of Chennai have been flooded by heavy rainfall and faced a wide range of urban flood related issues repeatedly over last few years.

✓ Urban flooding is the inundation of property in a built environment, particularly in densely populated urban areas, caused by intense rainfall (on impermeable surfaces) which overwhelms the capacity of drainage systems.

✓ Urban flooding is significantly different from rural flooding as urbanization leads to developed catchments, which increases the flood peaks from 1.8 to 8 times and flood volumes by up to 6 times. Consequently, flooding occurs very quickly due to faster flow times (in a matter of minutes).

Why in spite of Chennai being a well-developed city faces issue of Urban Flooding:

✓Geographical reasons: low-lying topography, relatively flat terrain and close to sea-level.

✓Man-made reasons: Encroachment of wetlands for settlement and agriculture; Concretization leading to reduced percolation of rainwater; Wetlands clogged with sewage impacting their buffer role.

✓Politico-Administrative reasons: Lack of funding and functions with urban local bodies; Poor design and construction and inadequate carrying capacity of the city’s streets and storm-water drains; Lack of scientific Disaster management plans and roadmaps etc.

Impacts of urban flooding:

Socio- Economic impact:

✓ Damage to urban infrastructure and temporary disruption of utility services;

✓ Economic losses due to disruption in industrial activity and supply chains;

✓ Risk of epidemics due to spread of waterborne diseases;

✓ Can trigger mass migration or population displacement, especially of people in low lying areas etc.

Environmental: 

✓Destruction of biodiversity and wildlife habitats by floodwater and contamination of rivers and habitats.

Measures required to control urban flooding:

✓ Water-Sensitive Urban Design and Planning and a green infrastructure approach for stormwater management.

✓ Prepare drainage master plans for cities to augment stormwater infrastructure in cities.

✓ Integrating Flood mitigation plans (floodplain, river basin, surface water, etc.) within the overall land use policy and master planning of a city.

✓Participatory approach for a risk-based early action coordination among stakeholders to mitigate flood risks.

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) guidelines on urban flood management:

✓ CWC (Central Water Commission) should maximize the real-time hydrometeorological network to cover all the urban centers in support of the emerging priorities in dealing with urban flooding.

✓ Doppler Weather Radars to be expanded to cover all urban areas in the country.

✓In situ flood management approaches should ensure community preparedness. This includes participatory urban flood planning and management involving both local government and the community.

✓ Stormwater drainage concerns will be made a part of all Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) norms.

✓National Urban Information System (NUIS) to cover infrastructure facilities at community level integrated with socioeconomic data.

Related concept: 

Flood plain zoning (FPZ):

✓FPZ is aimed at demarcating zones or areas likely to be affected by floods, and specify types of permissible developments in these zones, to minimize damage caused by floods.

> Floodplains are crucial for regulating flow of water in a river.

✓However, in recent years, floodplains have become sites for urban development resulting in alterations like increase in impervious surfaces, development in-filling on and near floodplain, construction of embankments etc.

FPZ policies in India:

✓ FPZ is within state government’s ambit as it is deals with land along the riverbanks and land is a state subject.

✓ Union Government circulated a Model Bill for Flood Plain Zoning (MBFPZ) which provides for surveys of floodplain area, notification of limits of floodplains, prohibition or restriction of the use of the floodplains etc

✓ National Disaster Management Guidelines for floods includes regulation of floodplains and enforcement of FPZ.

Government initiatives to tackle urban flooding:

✓Sponge Cities mission: It aims to promote positive interactions between socio-economic systems within the cityscape and with the urban water cycle to enhance local urban resilience, particularly in the face of increasingly volatile water-related disasters.

✓Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT)

✓Flood management programme: It provides financial assistance to the state governments for undertaking flood management works in critical areas.

✓ Integrated Flood Warning system like IFLOWS-Mumbai: It is a state of art Integrated Flood Warning system for Mumbai which makes it possible to have an estimate of the flood inundation three days in advance, along with immediate weather updates.

Detailed Development Plan

Detailed Development Plans are the micro level action plans that are in conformity with the master plans (macro level) prepared for areas vulnerable for rapid development. The plan contains zoning of land in detail for specific land use, infrastructural facilities like park and play fields, small link roads, roads for proper traffic circulation, public purposes, commercial and industrial areas etc., to facilitate a balanced development within the ambit of the Master Plan.

Green Field Development V/S Brown Field Development

Greenfield Development :

Greenfield sites are often on the fringes & may have better access, with less traffic congestion, with a pleasant environment and extra space to sprawl. Large family houses with gardens are more likely to be able to be built on Greenfield sites. New sites are easier to construct on and is more attractive to retail parks, housing developers, etc. On the other side of the coin, using Greenfield sites is often not sustainable, as these sites take the core from towns and locate them on the fringes. In such sites new infrastructure has to be provided. Wildlife may suffer as many lose habitats, trees may have to be cut down, and history speaks that environmentalist protest to Greenfield developments.

Brownfield Redevelopment:

Brownfield redevelopment eases pressure on Greenfield sites and is more sustainable – it’s good to reuse land. House prices would increase in core city areas as people are encouraged back into the area. Infrastructure already exists in urban areas. New employment opportunities come up. New housing can lead to redevelopment (old housing – area becomes trendier & more affluent) so the neighbourhood will improve. Providing public transport networks is easier in central areas where the population densities are high – investment is focused in central areas. Towns & cities do not want their areas to decay – redevelopment results in more people coming to the area, which helps local businesses. Redeveloping Brownfield sites can bring a ‘dead’ area back to life. On the other side of the coin, increased house prices due to core city redevelopment might mean that local people cannot afford the houses, & the authority will have the problem of providing for them. Clearing rubbish from Brownfield areas is expensive. There may be an issue of contamination & making sites safe for development, given what the land may have been used for before. In cases of “Hyperlocal” neighbourhoods – all brownfield sites can have a usage in each locality for one or the other usage.

Role of E-Governance in Citizen Centric Services

Urban Local Bodies like Municipal Corporations, Municipalities or the Town Improvement Boards etc. are mandated to provide primary /basic services a city needs. Such bodies deliver services based on the needs of the people they serve. Urban Local Bodies  can increase public satisfaction and reduce costs in delivering the services. Tasks like Water Supply, Sanitation, Roads, Electricity, Parks and playgrounds, paying taxes and applying for benefits are the most tangible interactions citizens have with their government. Services are therefore critical in shaping trust in and perceptions of the public. Citizens today expect more transparent, accessible, and responsive services from the Govt. and the expectations are rising. 

Many ULBs have made efforts to improve service delivery through online portals like centralized call centers, but find they are still unable to meet the public’s expectations. Citizens complain and convey through several means including social media that they feel frustrated by cumber some procedures as well as confusing websites. They also resort to speak with multiple parties before their questions are answered or request is completed. As a result, governments/ ULBs face declining citizen satisfaction and lose the public trust. Conversely, the Government despite bearing increased costs fail to meet the public expectations. It is also a part of the problem is that despite their best intentions, many ULBs continue to design and deliver services based on their own requirements and conventional patterns instead of the needs of the people. Some local bodies have success fully implemented a customer-centric approach to service design and delivery.

Change does not happen over night. Identifying which services citizens find most problematic and measuring the extent of dissatisfaction is one way the municipal organization can prioritize areas for improvement. Transforming service delivery begins with understanding citizens’ needs and priorities. We may draw an interactive and proresponsive approach to better understand the needs, as Let citizens tell matters need most, Asking people which aspects of service delivery are most and need improvement is the first requirement. Most people will say every aspect is equally important but it is not always correct to assume. It infers that rather than asking citizens to rank the importance of different aspects, it will be in the fitness to listen as to what they want across the services. This method may provide more reliable insights into users’ needs and priorities. The Govt. may accordingly work on such aspects to first, know the sentiments of people and concentrate on the basic needs of the citizens.

Identify areas for customer satisfaction:

Resources vis-a-vis the citizens’ need and measures to achieve a balance are most important. It is well known that the money lies under the authority of the legislature. Nothing can be met if adequate funds are not earmarked for an aspect. Municipal councillors and Peoples’ representatives in the Government can find a balance between delivering high quality, responsive services and managing resources effectively by using citizen-satisfaction services to determine acceptable service levels. One way to do that is by identifying break points—the point at which delays or service shortfalls cause customer satisfaction to drop significantly. Using this technique there may be optimal chance to identify the citizen satisfaction.

Converging energy management and urban planning will play a crucial role in carving out a path for net zero emissions

✓ India is poised to become the world‘s most populous country in 2023. With such a thickly inhabited land, enabling infrastructural facilities becomes indispensable for fostering growth. 

✓ Recent data published by Central Electricity Authority (CEA) highlights that around 10,022 electrical accidents were reported and approximately 55 per cent of these were due to faulty electrical installations. 

✓ A possible solution to mitigate such losses is by adapting a strong approach towards integrating utility services that include electricity, gas supply, water supply, transport, etc. with urban planning, while keeping the security of its citizens at its core. 

✓ With costs being a major deciding factor in urban planning, integration of services is a possible solution to combat the cost vs quality trade-off. 

✓ As large-scale urbanisation is undertaken, converging energy management and urban planning will play a crucial role in carving out a path for net zero emissions. 

✓ With the help of integrating utility services, urban planning will offer higher efficiency, alignment between city planning and capital allocation, thereby, improving customer satisfaction as well as safety. 

✓ Considering the scale of India‘s geography and population, urban planning requires massive restructuring of policies in order to ensure a long-term, successful, sustainable, safe and secure future of its citizens.

Urban planning Concepts

 

Urban planning are classified based on scale, practical approach and theoretical approach. 

Based on Scale:

1. Regional planning : 

  Regional planning implies a strategic overview of how to deal with urban issues at a larger scale, sometimes a national scale. This can include various management and development tools such as resource management and development. Regional planning includes and is not limited to environmental and socio-economic planning. Regional plans and policies have been implemented since ancient civilizations. Some of the popular examples are regional planning of Greater London, Paris and New York. These cities have benefited from their corresponding regional plans. 

2. City planning : 

  City planning is narrower than regional planning. City planning inculcates the policies of the region and focuses on the quality of life in a bordered city. Usually, a small city (also known as a town) is managed by a single entity and a big city is managed by a group of entities, commonly known as municipalities. These entities or municipalities are further divided into departments that oversee various developments in the city. For example, the department of waste management supervises waste collection and disposal in a city. 

3. Neighbourhood planning : 

While some cities do have neighbourhoods with boundaries, other cities call the municipality area a neighbourhood. The dynamic nature of neighbourhoods also makes it difficult to define them. Recently, the concept of neighbourhood planning is taking tread, especially after COVID-19, when people realized the importance of communities and neighbourhoods.

Based on the Practical Approach: 

1.Strategic Urban Planning: 

   Strategic urban planning refers to devising, analysing and recommending the best ways to develop land, which would not only benefit the government but also the community. Parameters such as inclusivity, sustainability and citizens’ quality of life are considered in strategic urban planning. Different regions around the world have different ways of strategic urban planning. While some cities zone the areas into economic development zone, industrial zone, special zone, etc, other cities prefer to develop comprehensive plans at the city level. Comprehensive plans are usually developed for 10 to 20 years that focus on community/citizen development. It is also known as socio-economic planning in some regions. 

2. Land use Planning : 

   Land use planning is the most common tool used by cities for development. It is popularly known as zoning. It is an ideal tool for new developments as well as retrofitting existing developments. Recently, the Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to prepare land use data for existing developments. This is not only useful to recommend policies but also helpful in analysing the issues and challenges of the city. Land use planning is flexible across different scales. Zones can be allocated from regional plans up to plots. Hence, the dynamic nature of land use planning makes it popular among planners and city developers. 

3. Master Planning : 

Master planning is yet another commonly used tool for development. In the case of big cities, each municipality has their area development plans, known as master plans which are eventually integrated with the comprehensive city plans. Under the umbrella of master planning lies area-specific planning as required such as urban renewal plans for the city centre, urban rehabilitation plans for residential areas, urban regeneration plans for old marketplaces or mixed-used areas, urban beautification for special areas, etc. Master planning as a term is used rather freely by architects and urban planners for individual projects. For example, master plans are extensively used while developing a residential block, a shopping plaza, or a project as small as a neighbourhood park. Many times master planning is used synonymously as land use planning. 

4. Infrastructure Planning: 

Infrastructure includes energy, water, communication and transportation. The facilities, technology and land required for the smooth functioning of energy, water, communication and transportation is known as infrastructure planning. Because these facilities are owned by the government and the state, infrastructure planning usually is done by the local authorities at the city level. However, privatization is a new concept in infrastructure planning, it might pick pace in the future. 

5. Environmental Planning: 

Development that does not interrupt nature and its ecosystems is the purpose of environmental planning. Environmental planning has become a mainstream approach in the last two decades owing to awareness of climate change and its implications. One of the important aspects of environmental planning in the city is evaluating the impact of urban development on the environment and its ecosystems and restructuring the city’s planning policies accordingly. 

6. Transportation Planning : 

With the “15 minutes walkable city” idea gaining popularity, fluctuating oil prices and burning of fossil fuels hazardously impacting the climate, transportation planning has become a common tool for city planning. The efficiency of public transportation directly impacts the energy efficiency of the city. Urban planners all over the world are working on making public transportation accessible and affordable to all. However, transportation planning includes planning efficient public transportation and improving the existing transportation networks. 

7. Landscape Planning : 

Landscape planning is branched from landscape architecture, the main difference being the scale. Landscape planners holistically formulate policies and regulations to protect nature, its biodiversity and its ecosystems.

 

Based on the Theoretical Approach :

The list of theories in urban planning is endless. The theories are inspired by time, age, movements and personal ideologies. Many urban planning theories were formulated after the second world when the visionaries were speculating an ideal spatial setting for a city. Some of the proposed theories were put into practice while others are debated upon even today. However, the theories still give insight into the idea of an inclusive and sustainable city. though not the complete model, a part of these theoretical models have been put to practice in regions globally.

 

The other popular theories that took global attention are the sanitary movement, modernist planning, regional planning movement, rational process approach, incrementalism, participatory planning, transactive planning, advocacy planning and many more. 

 

Urban Hierarchy in India: An Analysis of Size-Class Distribution of UAs/Towns

As per the Population Census of India 2011, there were 7,933 individual cities and towns in India. This included 4041 statutory towns and 3,892 census towns. There were 474 urban agglomerations (UAs) and 981 outgrowths. If urban agglomeration is taken as a unit, there were 6,173 cities/towns and UAs in India. Based on the size of the population, the Census of India groups cities and towns into six size classes from Class I to Class VI. The urban areas which have a population above one 100,000 (100,000) are termed as cities while those which have a population less than one 100,000 are termed as towns.

The analyses on size-class distribution have been carried out taking UAs and cities/towns as opposed to individual towns and cities as a unit. Therefore, in this chapter, the urban frame constitutes 6,173 UAs and cities/towns instead of 7,933 individual cities and towns. Class I cities have a population above 100,000 (0.1 million). Towns are the sum of Class II, Class III, Class IV, Class V and Class VI towns, i.e. all those urban centres with a population of less than 100,000.

While there was an increasing concentration of urban population living in the metropolitan UAs/cities of India in the decade 2001–11 the proportion of urban population in non-metropolitan India and towns of India declined during the same decade (Table 4). The percentage share of population in metropolitan cities increased from 37.8 to 42.3 per cent in 2001–11.

Urbanisation in India is top heavy with 70.19 per cent population living in Class I UAs/towns in 2011. The main reason for a higher concentration of urban population in Class I UAs/towns is the real expansion of these UAs/towns due to the addition of new census towns and expansion of municipal boundaries. The pattern of population distribution across size-classes remained the same over the Census years with a decline in the proportional share of population in all size-classes except Class I. The 2011 Population Census shows a slight reversal of this trend in Class V and Class VI towns. These classes reported an increment in their proportional share of urban population. This is again due to the emergence of new census towns in these size-classes.

Components of Urban Growth:

There are four main components of urban growth in India, namely: a) natural increase, b) net rural-urban migration i.e. difference of rural-urban and urban-rural migration, c) net rural-urban reclassification i.e. reclassification of villages in towns and declassification of towns in villages, and d) jurisdictional changes or changes in municipal boundaries. In the present study, the last two components are merged together. It has been discussed in studies (Visaria, 1997; Bhagat and Mohanty, 2009; Bhagat, 2012) that natural increase, which was the most important component of urban growth in India, has lost its dominance since the 1970s with a corresponding increase in net rural-urban migration and net rural-urban reclassification which includes jurisdictional changes and outgrowths. During 2001–11, net rural-urban reclassification including jurisdictional changes emerged as the most important factor in urban growth, because of the unprecedented increment in the number of census towns.

Use of Technology in Urban Planning

Urban planning is the process of both developing and designing open land, urban areas, and the built environment. Urban Planning dated back its history since the town and cities have existed. Early city planning revolved around some essential and significant elements like building structures and bastions with fortification, and has experienced a huge change throughout the centuries. Urban planning is a many-sided process involving infrastructure like physical and social, utility systems, communication networks, distribution chains, and more. Urban planners, also known as city planners, design cities and create plans for future improvements and growth. The plans are in the form of a land use plan. These plans comprise things in an urban environment like streets, parks, public spaces, and more.

It has never been easy to make plans that address various city challenges holistically. Nevertheless, in the modern era, the rapid boom of Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence has more significant potential to incorporate diverse issues of city planning into a general platform, as well as leading to a better way to deal with the challenges of complexity. The use of Information Technology has helped urban planners in many aspects, especially with softwares based on GIS (Geographic Information System).

There are various urban planning apps that can be used by urban planners, and that use contemporary technologies as well as open data to build up comprehensive and lively spaces for inhabitants and commercial businesses. There are various planning tools which help in the urban design process and assist to generate areas that the population of a city needs. GIS in urban planning is becoming gradually more helpful over time. Initially, it had a huge cost, but now in today's world with open source data, many open source Various GIS softwares have come up as a free and open-source cross-platform desktop GIS application that supports the viewing, editing, printing, and analysis of various data and is freely available for all to use. With the help of GIS improved mapping along with locational attributes, this has been possible, which was missing in the earlier drawing and mapping software. GIS is being used in all the Government offices for record keeping, such as property mapping, utility services like water supply and sewerage networks for seeing the coverage of water supply and sanitation system; it is also used in Municipal Solid Waste Management to identify the zones in order to manage the MSW Management system. GIS is also used in network fo analysis by transport planners in order to analyse the road network, to identify the conflict points at various junctions, to identify the various road hierarchies, T etc. Various predictive models, like 3D models can be  made with the help of GIS through its tools, where 3D analysts help in assessing the topography of the town or city by making virtual models. These points help the city planners to analyse the various situations in the city and identify the problems, thus GIS helps in decision-making and policymaking decisions.

Urban planners, decision-makers, policymakers and the general public now have the means to envisage unconventional futures for their cities and regions. In contemporary time, we have moved away from complex and complicated computer architecture, or less important memory or storage devices in the 1950s and 1960s, where huge processor computers were used to process data, with punched cards or magnetic tapes serving as input and output, and at that time, the primary concern was a lack of hard disks. There were no developed operating systems like we have today. In today's time, there are considerable developments in 3D visualisations software as well as the ongoing evolution of analytical capacity of GIS.

There has been a great development and expansion in the accessibility of data and information resources. The speedy development of an information system has fed on hardware and software developments. These topologically correct line files, first used in the 1990 US Census, have proven invaluable to planners and analysts, representing a broad depiction of communities from the viewpoint of their roads and railways. There has been an unbelievable development in satellite imaging, with resolution as fine as one meter now available, thereby meaning that individual vehicles can be counted in a parking lot. The internet has shown immense potential for group interactions. The new technology involves all the stakeholders, ranging from communities, local residents, shopkeepers and NGOs in the development of a town or city. The Information Technology will help in analysing the perception of each stakeholder and providing solutions accordingly through the analysis of databases and their decisions.

Various apps, open source as well, are handy for maps to be used offline, site design-level apps which allow creating and editing the drawings on the phone, presenting 3D models on mobile phone. There are certain apps that allow collecting data in the field, analysing various aspects of the problem. There are certain apps to perform these functions as well, like collecting and accessing data wherever you are through photographs, videos, location and is available to the network of other team easily. There are apps which help planners to provide specific templates like transportation, sustainability, as well as accessibility on mobile and helps to make field reports and punch lists for planners, engineers, and architects with the help of onsite inspections, checklists, and photos. Reports are available on the tap of your mobile phone.

Technology may be used by urban planners to enhance their processes and build better urban areas where people can live and work. Urban planners can establish a database to get information about specific metropolitan regions using cloud technologies. Cloud computing technologies can also aid in the planning of bigger infrastructure projects. Internet: Urban planners may use the internet to create cities that are accommodating to distant workers. As a result, urban designs have better transportation alternatives and reduced traffic congestion.

Source: Yojana Magazine May 2023

Planning System in India

 

Challenges to Urbanization in India

 

Uneven urbanisation: 

The distribution of urban centres and the pace of urbanisation is not uniform across the country. States such as Bihar, Odisha, Assam, and Uttar Pradesh continue to be at a lower level of urbanisation than the national average of 31.1%. Over 75% of the urban population of the country is in 10 States: Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Kerala.

Statutory Towns Growing Without ‘Master Plans’:

Master plans are critical for managing urbanisation. They are statutory instruments to guide and regulate the present and future urbanization (like utilisation of land, expansion, and zoning of cities for 20–25 years). According to the NITI Aayog Report, ~50% of India’s statutory towns are expanding without any master plan to guide their growth and infrastructure. Urban economic activity is growing rapidly in these towns but there is no local government responsible and accountable for infrastructure development or service delivery. They continue to be governed as villages and do not have an urban local body. Haphazard growth, unplanned construction, and ad-hoc provisioning of infrastructure, over a long period of time, will put them at major risks of urbanisation.

Even when master plans exist, there are several challenges during their implementation like delays, disputes in courts etc. Some master plans also get amended more than a thousand times during their implementation.

Sub-Optimal Utilisation of Urban Land: 

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) noted that paradoxically congested land parcels of high population densities co-exist with vast parcels of under-utilized lands. A major reason for this is the fragmented and poorly recorded ownership of urban land. Moreover, multiple public sector organizations/agencies (ports, railways, ULBs, etc.) own land under their jurisdictions. This hinders holistic planning and development. Non-optimal utilization creates scarcity of land which raises land price and reduces space for affordable housing.

Magnitude of Population Living in Slums: 

According to Census 2011, 17.3% of the total urban population was under slums in India and about 70% of this slum population was concentrated in 6 States: Maharashtra (18.1%), Andhra Pradesh (15.6%), West Bengal (9.8%), Uttar Pradesh (9.5%), Tamil Nadu (8.9%) and Madhya Pradesh (8.7%). The proportion of slum population is rapidly rising. Lack of affordable housing is contributing to creation and expansion of slums.

Increasing Risk of Water Scarcity in Cities: 

The World Wide Fund for Nature India (2020) has found that Indian cities dominate current and future lists of global cities with the highest overall water risk. This situation is further exacerbated by the lack of adequate infrastructure in cities and towns to handle their own wastewater and solid waste. NITI Aayog in its Composite Water Management Index noted that hunt for additional water resources to sustain Indian cities will lead to “serious harm to the country’s biodiversity, environment, and ecological balance” (2019).

City Planning for Disaster Mitigation: 

The aspect of disaster mitigation is missing in growth of Indian cities. NITI Aayog notes that the way urban areas are planned, developed, and managed; can create long lasting impacts on the local water availability and vulnerability to disasters. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs in its report observed that the encroachment of lakes and riverbeds had played a major role in urban flooding in Chennai.

Pressures on Coastal Habitations: 

The coastal cities are home to 14% of the population in India and are vulnerable to floods due to multiple causes, that include faulty urban design and planning, dynamic coastline, flash floods, storm surges, cyclones, and tsunamis. Coastal habitations and infrastructural investments are vulnerable to rise in sea levels due to climate change and cyclones.

Urban Sprawl

Urban sprawl is described as leapfrog development. The urban sprawl area is the territory which is continuously losing its rural nature, however cannot be termed as urban yet. Such areas undergo several uncertainties, unorganized growth happens and land is used for various uses other than agriculture. A huge hinterland is created in-between urban and rural settlements, which is termed as Urban Sprawl.

Peri-Urban

Peri-urban areas are a stage of an area's development where it lies between rural and urban, having both rural and urban characteristics. A transitional zone which is viewed as being larger than the edge or boundary separating an urban settlement from a non-urban settlement.

Rural-Urban Fringe

The Rural Urban Fringe is a transition zone between the city and the country where rural and urban land use coexist. The dynamic fringe can be detected by observing changes in the city and vice-versa. The agricultural hinterland, where land use is changing and is characterized in relation to the metropolis.

Suburbs

The word “suburb” is not new; it originates from the Latin suburbium, which means “under the city”. Suburbs are thus described as a location in the Oxford English Dictionary's initial definition: “The country lying immediately outside the town or city; more precisely, those residential parts belonging to a town or city that lay directly outside and next to its walls and boundaries”.

Rurban

Rurban centres are small town or big villages that have both rural and urban activities. These Rurban centres have developed into popular migrant enclaves for adjacent rural villages as a result of urbanization. Rurban centres which are located halfway between rural and urban population.

Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM)

The Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission (SPMRM) is one of the initiatives by the Indian government for the development of rural areas through rurbanization. The SPMRM policy, one of its kind has defined the term ‘rurban’ in the Indian context with respect to population and its geographical locations.

Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission was launched by the Prime Minister in 2016.  It was launched under the Union Ministry of Rural Development with the vision of "Development of a cluster of villages that preserve and promote the essence of rural community life with a focus on equity and inclusiveness, thus creating a cluster of "Rurban Villages".  A 'Rurban cluster' is a cluster of geographically bordering villages with a population of about 25000 to 50000 in plain and coastal areas and with a population of 5000 to 15000 in desert, hilly or tribal areas. The aim is to develop rural areas by ensuring economic, social and physical infrastructure facilities.

The main objectives:

✓ Provide facilities to rural areas which are available to the urban area. These clusters were to be selected for well-planned and holistic development. 

✓ Promote the development of the local economy. 

✓ Promote the development of the value chain and develop market access. 

✓ Improve market access includes the construction of agri-link roads, pedestrian footpaths, inter-village road connectivity projects etc. 

✓ Promote agriculture and allied activities and eco-tourism. 

✓ Conserve the local environment and sites of historical importance to encourage tourism

Expected outcomes of the mission: 

✓ Bridging the rural-urban divide; Economic, technological and those related to facilities and services.

✓ Stimulating local economic development with emphasis on the reduction of poverty and unemployment in rural areas. 

✓ Spreading development in the region. 

✓ Attracting investment in rural areas.

Municipal Financing

RBI released a first ever comprehensive analysis of Municipal finances and covers 201 municipal corporations (MCs) across all States.

Finance of Municipalities: 

✓ The 74th Amendment Act 1992, through the 12th Schedule institutionalized the urban local bodies (ULBs) as the third tier of the government to promote grassroots level democracy.

✓ However, it doesn’t provide for a corresponding ‘municipal finance list’ in the Constitution and it has been completely left to the discretion of the State Governments.

Urban Management

Urban is one of the important and most growing sector particularly in developing countries. One of the predictions envisages that there will soon be four billion city dwellers on the planet, each of them producing consuming and travelling. These growing millions have to be fed, provided with housing, safe drinking water, sanitation and energy, and means of transportation. Management of these services is critical to raise the quality of living in city life. Many urban problems are the result of poor management, poor planning and absence of coherent urban policies rather than urbanization itself. Urban Management although a fragile yet a most important component of urban planning and development.  The concept urban management is a recent, but, widely used concept as the urbanization is growing very fast.

The Urban governments be it central, state or urban local bodies generally carry out the responsibility for managing six inter-related urban sector i.e. urban land, natural environment, infrastructure, urban services and development.

i) Urban Land Use: 

Management of urban land is of the prime responsibility of local governments. The equitable, efficient and effective management of urban land is essential for city development. A few important issues related to urban land management are follows: 

a) Accurate and timely mapping, gathering and maintenance of land related data; 

b) Fair and quick land registration procedures to facilitate effective administration of property rights; 

c) Clear cut and fair mechanisms for assembly, transfer and disposal of land including a transparent market valuation mechanisms; 

d) Effective policy and participatory planning of land users and 

e) Efficient and effective procedures and systems for generating revenue from land through taxation and user fees.

ii) Natural Environment: 

It is one of the important duties and responsibilities of local government to do proper management of natural environment of cities. The cities natural resources must be managed in a such a way that it is free from pollution and environmental degradation. If the cities, especially large towns environment are not managed properly, it would result in serious irreplaceable depletion of essential resources and affect safely to public health and the capacity of natural systems to sustain development. Therefore, there should be proper management of water resources, air quality and land resources in urban areas in tune with environmental protection and sustainable development.

iii) Infrastructure: 

Infrastructure development is critical to urban development. The local government, therefore, need to do proper planning, provisioning, operation and maintenance of urban infrastructure such as road, water supply and treatment system, solid wade management system, provision of electricity, urban transport, housing, communication systems ranging from telephone services to telecommunication. A proper coordination among various divisions such as planning, constructing, operation and maintenance is essential for management of urban infrastructure.

iv) Urban Social Services: 

Local governments are often called upon to manage a diverse range of social services in their areas. These services include urban health care facilities through dispensaries and clinics; education at least pre-primary and primary education; security from crime, public safety from fire and natural disaster and during emergencies; welfare programs of physically challenged and old age; poverty alleviation programe and provision of recreation i.e. open spaces, parks and part of cultural facilities. Provision of urban social services is equally important to that of urban infrastructure. The provision of urban services also called for establishment of schools, hospitals, old age home, care house for physically challenged, recreation clubs and parks. The judicious allocation of resources between various development infrastructure and service infrastructure is sine-quanon for holistic urban development.

v) Urban Economic Development: 

Local governments influence economic development through policies and programmes, which has relation with investment climate, distribution of goods and services and other basic amenities; and provision of services through taxation and other mechanisms. These affect various sectors of urban economy: 

a) Primary sector – economic activities, for example, agriculture activities performed in peri-urban areas in Indian context Nagar Panchayats; 

b) Secondary Sector – activities relating to manufacturing and construction; and 

c) Tertiary Sector – functions relating to services activities such as banking, insurance, information technology. The local government needs to make necessary urban employment provision in under to provide sustainable livelihood to urban migrant labourers. Strong urban economy is essential for faster urban development.