There is a rapid increase in the population especially those living in the cities. This fact can be attributed to both the natural growth & in-migration to the cities. Urbanisation though seen as economic development has its own set of problems and poses unique challenges. The increased density and the need to make this density even higher is something world leaders always find difficult to answer.
Theoretically, Metropolitan or Urban areas are places with fixed geographical boundaries. Such boundaries can be based on topography, administrative boundary, watersheds, coastlines, control, farmlands, regional parks, ownership, and river basins. Even the metropolis created from centres that are villages, towns, and cities, each having its very own center and advantages.
The metropolitan area are unavoidable and basic units of our planet. People, policy, Government, Public private partnerships, and financial plans represents this reality. Urban areas features the necessity and delicate relationship to the agricultural locality and compact cities. The association is both ecological, economic, and cultural. Nature and Farmland are essential to the metropolis while the backyard will be in your house. Growth patterns at times can become too random and difficult to define. Infill development & restructuring in existing cities conserves resources, reduces financial investment, and cultural material. Urban growth should take into account such factors and try to make most use of it. Growth should be in a manner to reassure improvement.
Where appropriate, new development adjoining to urban boundaries ought to coordinate with neighbourhoods and districts, and also incorporates into the current urban design. Development planned for balance, fewer bedroom suburbs, and should organize as towns and villages in their edges.
Plausible Solutions:
The evolution and redevelopment of cities and towns need to respect historical patterns, precedents, and bounds. There have been numerous research on how a better quality of life can be achieved. It remains crucial factor to measure the development in a nation but becomes more important when cities are the topic of discussion. Every nation boasts about the rising economic growth & improved “GDP”. Double digit growth fuels the economy of various nations for which they need to invest heavily in developing the urban areas.
Such urban development results in exploring the well-known methods and learning from the past examples. Though the specialised study of Urban Planning is relatively new, but its existence is quite old. Number of scholars & researcher started studying the structures & patterns of cities. They provided us with valuable theories such as Central Place Theory, Rank Size Rule, City Primacy & urban models such as Concentric Zone Model, Sector Model, Multiple nuclei Model etc. These theories, rules & models helped present day Urban Planners & Architects in understanding the need of cities and analyse how the cities grows.
Role of Technology:
The advancement in technology now provide change makers & experts with more power than ever before. Increased interest in last decade and the need to adopt a more sustainable way of development resulted in various solutions & ideas. These might not be the only & perfect answer to our needs but act as the most effective tools to address the situation. Combining the traditional methods & knowledge with the advanced technology such as BIM (Building Information Modelling), GIS (Geographic Information System) & Remote Sensing etc.
The evolving concepts of Eco Friendly Cities, Sustainable Cities, Zero Carbon Cities, Smart Cities has also caught interest of people from all domains. Let it be municipality, government or the private players, everyone now wants to make best use of the opportunity & emerge as a role model for other entity. Private players such as Google, Microsoft, ESRI, Spatial, EOS want to work on as many projects as possible & make use of data. Data processing power of all tech giants has surpassed the capability of the government organisations and thus find it easy to get such contracts from them.
Change in perspective
Building Technology: Companies have realised that a perfect or ideal city is not possible just by looking at the city as a single object, but rather understanding it as a combination of various forms & systems. Each system has its own subsystem which at the bottom narrows down to individual people & buildings. To make best and most efficient use of technology they need to integrate buildings with technology. Concept of Internet of Things (IOT) is one such way. Another role of technology includes using specialised softwares & engineering technology for buildings.
Environmental Awareness: Architects, Civil Engineers, Urban Planners and all stakeholders have realised the need and growing concern of environmental issues. There are various ongoing debates which aims at reducing waste of resources & decreasing carbon emissions. Thus all possible care is taken to make the structure and place as eco-friendly as possible. UN recently came up with SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) which clearly reflects the high time to put more focus on moving towards sustainable development.
Mobility: Mobility and development are interrelated phenomenon. Transport is essential in achieving development of individuals and use of resources. An effective and competent transport framework makes it workable for the mobilization of men and materials amongst different regions and makes large scale production possible. The development of important sectors of the economy such as industry, agriculture, mining, forestry etc. depends upon the efficient transport network. An efficient transport network also facilitates international trade, which is vital for the economy of a developing region. The requirements of transportation are so heavy that no form of transport efforts can be neglected. Most advanced countries are standing examples of the harmonious development of all forms of transport. The reality that emerges is that without an efficient transport network, the region shall continue to remain isolated, unseen and unheard. Transportation involves a combination of policy work, political willingness, patters of development especially commercial * industrial areas. An improved transportation network boost the growth of area and provides work to various sectors. It enables people to look for new work, setup manufacturing units & provide jobs. A good planning and development of transport facilities generally advances living standards of people and improves the quality of life.
