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

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.