Area-Based Urban Renewal Approach for Smart Cities Development in India: Challenges of Inclusion and Sustainability

Cities in the Global South face rapid urbanization challenges and often suffer an acute lack of infrastructure and governance capacities. Smart Cities Mission, in India, launched in 2015, aims to offer a novel approach for urban renewal of 100 cities following an area-based development approach, where the use of ICT and digital technologies is particularly emphasized. This article presents a critical review of the design and implementation framework of this new urban renewal program across selected case-study cities. The article examines the claims of the so-called "smart cities" against actual urban transformation on-ground and evaluates how "inclusive" and "sustainable" these developments are. We quantify the scale and coverage of the smart city urban renewal projects in the cities to highlight who the program includes and excludes. The article also presents a statistical analysis of the sectoral focus and budgetary allocations of the projects under the Smart Cities Mission to find an inherent bias in these smart city initiatives in terms of which types of development they promote and the ones it ignores. The findings indicate that a predominant emphasis on digital urban renewal of selected precincts and enclaves, branded as "smart cities," leads to deepening social polarization and gentrification. The article offers crucial urban planning lessons for designing ICT-driven urban renewal projects, while addressing critical questions around inclusion and sustainability in smart city ventures

Carbon Intensive Urbanization, Climate Variability and Urban Vulnerabilities in Hill Areas : A Case of Gangtok Urban Region, Sikkim <Articles>

Rapid high carbon intensive urbanization is one of the important concerns in the environmental and global warming debates in the context of environmentally fragile and sensitive areas like the Himalayas. Rapid urbanization and urban growth leads to rapid destruction of green infrastructure, high emission of GHG from transportation, construction, manufacturing and associated sectors. High waste generation and improper management and disposal of the waste further aggravate the problem. The ecological footprints of supplying food and basic services like water along with the destruction and deterioration of other eco system services makes the urban areas vulnerable to hazards and climate impacts both in the short and the long term. The problems get further accentuated because of poor regional and urban planning practices and weak implementation of planning bye laws and development control regulations. All these have significant impact on the local climate, including heat island effects leading to increased variability and intensity of rainfall, temperature and humidity. As a result the urban areas become more vulnerable to hazards, disasters and epidemics and disease. Under such circumstances vulnerability mapping and evolving response and coping mechanism by internalizing them in sustainable habitat planning and development practices becomes important. Taking action to mitigate the problem is important but equally important is to evolve adaptation strategies which are locally conducive. The paper intends to understand these issues with respect to Gangtok Urban region using the available census and other statistical information. Attempt has been made to understand the weather, climate variability over the last few decades in the region and document the history of hazards and disasters through secondary literature. The study also focuses on the impacts of rapid urban growth on the local environment and its impact on eco system services. To what extent planning and urban management practices have tried to address these concerns have been explored by reviewing existing plan documents, bye laws and their implementation mechanism. Based on these analyses the study highlights vulnerabilities in Gangtok urban region and suggest coping mechanisms and strategies at the local and state level to address urban vulnerabilities in Sikkim

A Comprehensive Analysis of the Challenges and Opportunities of the 100 Smart Cities Mission in India

India has recently embarked on a massive smart cities mission aiming to use modern technologies to develop sustainable solutions across 100 selected cities. The national government-sponsored initiative appears ambiguous regarding a precise understanding of the ‘smart city’ concept in the Indian context. It is unclear how the Smart City Plan will converge with the broader urban development framework and how local governance needs to be reorganised to deal with the smart city challenge. This thesis begins by examining debate around the smart city concept itself and building a bottom-up approach to define smart cities in the local Indian context. The analysis presented in this study shows that the smart cities definition should not only focus on digital technology but should also integrate the fundamentals of the sustainable city and smart community to emerge as a holistic concept. The research then identifies an appropriate indicator system and builds urban typologies for identification of relative advantage and disadvantage across smart cities. It offers an approach employing cluster analysis to group the 100 selected cities and discriminant analysis to establish the statistical validity of those groups and identify the key factors that distinguish between the ‘leading group’ of cities and the those ‘on the edge’. The urban typology analysis results show that significant disparities remain across Indian regions regarding access to social capital, higher education, health and digital infrastructure. By identifying groups of cities with shared challenges and opportunities, this study generates a new discourse on place-based smart city strategies. Further, this thesis provides a critical appraisal of smart city policies and governance instruments in select case study areas. An integrated smart city planning and institutional strategy is developed for inclusive smart cities development. The discussions in this research link the global theoretical development of smart cities with local urbanisation challenges and aspirations and provide a much-needed scholarly basis for the development of smart cities in India

The spatial association of social vulnerability with COVID-19 prevalence in the contiguous United States

This study aims to examine the spatially varying relationships between social vulnerability factors and COVID-19 cases and deaths in the contiguous United States. County-level COVID-19 data and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention social vulnerability index (SVI) dataset were analyzed using local Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Results suggested that SVI and four social vulnerability themes have spatially varying relationships with COVID-19 cases and deaths, which means spatial heterogeneity is an essential factor that influences the relationship, and the strength of association varies significantly across counties. County hot spots that were subject to all four social vulnerability themes during the pandemic were also identified. Local communities and health authorities should pay immediate attention to the most influential social vulnerability factors that are dominant in their region and incorporate measures tailored to the specific groups of people who are under the greatest risk of being affected during the COVID-19 pandemic

A rapid analytics tool to map the effect of rezoning on property values

Cities are continually evolving through adjustments to zonings. The potential to integrate more equitable and effective value capture mechanisms into the rezoning process makes estimation of increases in land value from rezoning of interest to urban planners. The use of Residual Land Valuation (RLV), while accepted practice in development feasibility calculations, tends to be absent from the rezoning process because it is outside the skill set of most planners. Also, RLV has historically been applied to individual land parcels with limited potential for wider estimation of land value, and is generally not embedded in planning tools limiting the potential for value capture mechanisms to be included in the early scenario phases of rezoning decisions. This study addressed these issues. An RLV tool to estimate value uplift from rezoning was developed and embedded into a planning support system called Rapid Analytics Interactive Scenario Explorer (RAISE) to explore densification options associated with transport-oriented development. The co-design of the RLV tool with end-users and its test in a real case scenario in Greater Sydney has demonstrated the potential of RAISE-RLV. Specific advances included development of an algorithmic approach to RLV, that could be automated and applied across multiple parcels of land in rapid response to changing zoning. Second, such calculations were incorporated into a platform compatible with established rezoning decision making processes. The study demonstrated that it is possible to include RLV in a platform that improves users' understanding of the valuation process. The RAISE-RVL approach and tool can make a significant contribution to well-considered urbanisation. In addition, in the current era of tight government budgets, properly informed value capture mechanisms are a promising strategy for funding new infrastructure supporting both urban growth and the broader goals that growth can realise

Analysis of the shoreline changes using geoinformatics in Ghoramara Island of Hugli Estuary, West Bengal in India

Conceptual Framework: Coastal decrepitude is the loss of topographical resources along the coast as a result of silt, temperature fluctuations, tidal shifts, and wave breaking. Hydraulic activity, scraping, abrasion, and erosion are the major causes of erosion; other factors that affect it include the condition of the shore, rocks, joints, fissures, marine chemical reactions, and wave force. Objectives: The primary objectives of this study are to analyze the coastline changes between 1972 and 2022 utilizing remote sensing and GIS data and forecast the changes in the shoreline in 2032. Methods: The study examined coastal areas from 1972 to 2022 using multi-temporal satellite data from Landsat TM and Landsat OLI/TIRS. Shoreline change and the calculations related to it were examined using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System using near-infrared bands and tasseled cap transformation, to determine the rate of change in the shoreline, the study also employed Shoreline Change Envelope and End Point Rate techniques. Results: Coastal erosion caused substantial damage to the island between 1972 and 2022. The northern, southeastern, and western regions of the coast are seeing the highest levels of coastal erosion. The south coast experiences considerable erosion, whereas the west and southeast coasts experience the least. The EPR of Ghoramara Island has mean, minimum, and maximum changes of −10.59, −4.13, and −35.93, respectively. A notable inshore shift has occurred in the northern portion of Ghoramara, extending from 676 m to 855 m. The study also uses tidal gauge records and Revised Local Reference data from the Haldia Gauge Station to track long-term sea level variations. According to the study, Ghoramara Island's shoreline will change by 2032, with the greatest negative changes expected to occur around the island's western and southern borders. Conclusion: The study shows a significant decrease in Ghoramara's shoreline regions between 1972 and 2022, with a 3,000-population shifted from the place in 2016 due to Lohachara's submergence. Changes in the island's morphology and human activities have reduced cultivation. The study suggests increasing mangrove vegetation to combat coastal erosion and prevent further displacement of people to neighboring islands