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Sustainable Human Settlements
- T he urbanization fever has hit India, and the Modi Government is making ambitious plans for a 100 smart cities to support the trend. From 31% in 2012, the population in cities is expected to reach 40% by 2030, by adding 220 million people into an urban environment with the concern of unbalanced growth – as in China where 50% of the population will live in cities – demanding better provision of public services, such as clean air and water, public health and safety, and access to resources.
Meanwhile, the World Bank estimates that the impact of growth only oriented policies are costing the Indian economy a staggering loss of 5.7% of the GDP (mainly due to urban air pollution), and 3.5% of the GDP (for loss of ecosystem services). These estimates do not include costs of the choking congestion in Indian cities, which is estimated at about 9% to 10% loss for the GDP. Then, the full brunt of climate change needs to be factored in for the energy guzzling largely urban future which goes hand-in-hand with such traditional models of economic growth. What other justification do we need to change? However, there is hope. The recently released report from the New Climate Economy project makes a strong case that it does not have to be this way. It makes the case that climate smart approaches toward efficient urban form can lead to economic growth. Indian experience in programs like EMBARQ, supports the thesis that the use of land and the urban form have tremendous influence on the efficiency of provision of economic and environmental services, such as modern bus rapid transit systems, for the citizens in an equitable manner. There is an opportunity to support the Modi Government’s initiative to build people oriented smart cities as efficient and sustainable settlements through three sets of interventions. • Urban forms will need to change through well understood but minimally practised concepts such as transit oriented design, to enable 15 minutes access to all opportunities. • Cities can integrate technology systems to perform for people by providing say, 100% renewable energy use leading to life cycle energy consumption in buildings reduced by 50%, zero waste production systems with 100% water requirement met with water from source water protection and restoration, rainwater harvesting and storage, 75% recycling of construction debris, 100% roofs to be productive (green, white and renewable energy) on all platinum rated buildings, 50% of open space to have permeable surface, and other such high performance metrics • Finally, cities can be built to be resilient to provide skills, employment and human capacity, with a Gini coefficient of 30%, to produce per capita potable water requirement less than 50 lpd, 25% food demand met by urban agriculture production, a heat island effect less than 1°C, per capita greenhouse gas emissions less than 1 tCO2e, and institutions for continuous restoration of native species and biodiversity. Thinking big and smart and unreasonable… and why not? q Nitin Pandit
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