UN-Habitat has identified multi-hazard vulnerabilities, urban sprawl, weak urban mobility and “green-blue disconnect” as the pressing issues for Jaipur city.
UN-Habitat has based its findings on a Sustainable Cities Integrated Approach Pilot (SCIAP) project, as part of which the “sustainable urban planning and management” component was implemented in collaboration with the Jaipur Development Authority and Jaipur Greater Municipal Corporation.
Sustainable city:
A sustainable city is one designed to address social, environmental, and economic impact through urban planning and city management. A sustainable city offers a good quality of life to current residents but doesn't reduce the opportunities for future residents to enjoy.
Key sustainability issues faced by Indian cities :
Climate change:
✓Cities are one of the main contributors to India’s GHG emissions through industrial, vehicular and domestic emissions, energy demands, changes in land use etc.
✓Urban areas/cities are highly vulnerable to climate change events like flooding, sea level rise, cyclones, heat waves, water stress, among others.
✓ Burdened infrastructure, congestion and traffic.
✓ Declining green (trees, parks, fields etc.) and blue (lakes, ponds etc.) spaces which increases threats like urban flooding, Heat island effect etc.
✓ Threats to people’s physical and mental wellbeing due to deterioration of air and water quality, light and noise pollution, lack of green spaces etc.
✓ Lack of affordable housing pushing marginalized populations into disaster prone areas and informal settlements.
✓ High waste generation and limited capacity to collect and utilize solid and liquid waste.
Key barriers in sustainable cities development in India:
✓ Low environmental awareness of urban population resulting in unsustainable lifestyle.
✓ Inefficient funding for necessary investments which are not economically viable.
✓Segmented approach in city’s political and operational structures result in poor integration of plans and actions.
✓Insufficient transfer of knowledge on sustainability management and sectoral solutions, which are needed for improving environmental performance.
✓Lack of integrated planning resulting to sustainable development strategies not being largely taken into account in development plans and not being addressed cohesively in different policy areas.
Way Forward:
✓Increasing nature in city’s infrastructure and built environment through nature-based solutions (NbS) for infrastructure.
✓Improving Urban governance models by mainstreaming citizens health and wellbeing and biodiversity in decision-making.
✓Adopting systems approach in which complex interactions between systems (e.g. healthcare, education and environment,) are mapped, and the outcomes of each action are measured and reported in totality.
✓Prioritizing circular economy and bio-inspired innovations for economic competitiveness.
✓Utilizing novel investment models like Debt-for-nature swaps.
