By Raghav Chawla

Abstract

Since the advent of the 21st century, the importance of climate change and environmental damage has increasingly increased in public policy. As part of building public policy, there has been a growing focus on revamping our cities to become smarter and more sustainable. This will in turn help in reducing environmental impact, improve quality of life and promote economic growth. India is encountering tremendous obstacles in this area due to its increasing urbanization population and rising energy consumption. In India, the idea of a “smart city” is still a distant dream and there are many challenges like governance, financing, infrastructure, and public awareness which need to be overcome. This raises the question: can Indian cities become smarter and sustainable, if so then what factors will determine their success? This article will explore the challenges and opportunities associated with building more sustainable cities and identify potential technological solutions to streamline this process. Finally, it will analyze whether these solutions can be drafted in India.

The case of building sustainable and smarter cities is a complex task that involves a delicate balance between economic growth, environmental protection, and community development. According to the data from NITI Aayog, cities in India just occupy 3% of the area, however, their contribution to the GDP is soaring by 60%. Although there are a lot of benefits to creating sustainable cities, there are a lot of complex challenges associated with this target. These problems can range from financing, infrastructure, population etc. This section will evaluate some problems like population, infrastructure and public policy associated with urban sustainability.

Population Influx

India is one of the largest urban systems in the world. According to world bank estimates, 36% of the population now lives in cities. In recent years, metropolitan cities in India have seen a large amount of population influx. This has triggered the problem of overcrowding in our urban systems. It can be stated that cities with big populations packed into compact areas will experience overpopulation. Taking the case of Mumbai one-sixth of an acre of open space per thousand populations through four acres is suggested standard by the Master Plan of Greater Mumbai. 

Metropolitan cities of India are overcrowded both in ‘absolute’ and ‘relative’ terms. Absolute in these terms can be defined as a high density of population in these canters, whereas relative means that if even the population is not high, there aren’t enough service providers or infrastructure to support this system. The population can be associated with other problems hindering our cities, which this paper shall be discussing further.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is one of the key components in building and sustaining our cities. It primarily affects urbanization by accelerating economic growth and social development. According to the World Bank, India’s metropolitan cities will be home to 600 million people by 2036, accounting for 40% of the country’s population. Consequently, there will be a skyrocketing demand for constant water supply, electricity and transport services among other services which are already constrained. Now, the central and state governments pay for more than 75% of municipal infrastructure, with urban local bodies (ULB) paying for 15% out of their surplus fund. To further understand this problem, let’s take the case of Bangalore (India’s Silicon Valley) The city has seen a 10-fold increase in population density in recent years. Although a large chunk of IT professionals shift to Bangalore for employment opportunities, the real question is whether the city’s infrastructure will be able to hold the demands of this growing population. In my opinion, the answer is no, a lot of experts predict a looming water crisis, and this gets worse by the already damaged drainage system. Add to those congested roads, absent civic bodies and ongoing political instability. Therefore, to prevent a potential crisis timely intervention is required.

Public Policy Gap

As India works towards revamping and rebuilding its cities, the concern of defunct public policy is rapidly increasing. To achieve this target, India needs to come out of its old public policy as well to meet the demands of a growing population. Let’s look at some of these gaps in legislation. Statutory Towns Growing Without ‘Master Plans: The master plan is a plan document prepared for managing urbanization. This document presents a tool for town urbanization and regulation. According to NITI AAYOG annual report 50% of India’s statutory towns are expanding without any master plan to guide their growth and infrastructure. Disaster Management Strategies: One of the biggest missing factors in urban planning is disaster management strategies. NITI Aayog notes that the way urban areas are planned, developed, and managed; can create long-lasting impacts on the local water availability and vulnerability to disasters. The case of flooding in Chennai is an example of the consequence of a lack of policy in planning. Irregular Governance: Nearly half of the 7933 urban towns continue to be governed as rural communities and have the status of census towns. This can result in problems like financing, civic body, and lack of master plans.

Transforming Cities with Technology

Cities are confronted with an increasing number of complicated issues linked to sustainability, efficiency, and quality of life as they continue to urbanise. In the twenty-first century, technology offers a solution to all of these problems. Urban centres can leverage technological advantages like data and analytics to build more intelligent environments that make cities more liveable.

Smart Traffic Management System

One of the cornerstones to understanding a city is to analyse the kind of traffic flow in the city; in fact, traffic congestion is one of the city’s largest issues, with 1.5 lakh people dying on city roads each day in India, according to data. In a country like India, there is an annual loss of Rs 60,000 crores due to congestion (including fuel wastage). Congestion in India has also led to slow speeds of freight vehicles and increased waiting time at checkpoints and toll plazas. As a result, a smart traffic management system offers a planned, systematic approach to decreasing congestion and enhancing street safety via connected technology. It comes with an IOT (Internet of Things) enabled software that works with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags at traffic signals which allows monitoring of real-time movement of cars, keeping traffic in control, dispensing emergency vehicles and parking assistance. Apart from this, features like road safety analytics and modular control are key to the success of this technology. This technology also allows the automatic detection of speed limit violations and the billing of toll charges. An example of deploying this technology is the operation of RFID tags in India; FASTag operated by the National Highways Authority of India.

Geospatial Technology

A smart city is one where everything is measured in real-time and in great detail due to the use of high-tech sensors. Technology will play a major part in integrating mountains of real-time data so it can be acted upon. Smart cities are the future to sustainably support population growth and urban expansion. Location is a common dominator in every aspect and geospatial technology is central to providing a technology platform that forms the backbone of the city. Geospatial technology is increasingly being incorporated into everyday technologies across industries and spectrums, from drones and IoT to spatial analytics, enabling growth, safety, and improved quality of life. There are several use cases of geospatial technology in operation. 

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a technology that gives IT infrastructure for each aspect, starting from planning to the development of a smart city. It provides location-based data as well as collecting spatial data for seamless distribution to every stakeholder. The applications of GIS in sustainable cities are countless. High population is a characteristic of a busy urban centre and, GIS allows authorities to analyse the current/future infrastructure requirements to meet regulatory demands. Various spheres in this aspect include land acquisition, slum rehabilitation development, infrastructure planning, and utility development planning. In recent all infrastructure projects and properties are geo-enabled and tagged. GIS enables authorities to derive information about properties like age, type and tax defaulter analysis. The location-based services provide information about inaccessible regions using geospatial technology. Access to healthcare services (hospitals/clinics, drugstores, rural/primary health centres, and many more) will be made faster. The deployment of this technology was widespread in India during the covid 19 pandemic to identify cases and deployment of vaccines. GIS is a technology that has the potential to govern multiple cases that can be identified in areas like water supply networks, emergency services and municipal civic body management. A primary example of geospatial technology was the SunRise smart city project which aimed at the construction of a large-scale model at Lille University.

Can these technologies be deployed in India?

These technologies have the potential to transform the urban ecosystem in India. Sustainability and clean cities In India, metropolitan cities will be home to 40% of the country’s population. This will put additional pressure on already strained services like water, road safety, transport systems and electricity. Currently according to the world bank estimates India’s infrastructure need stand at $55 billion per year for the next 15 years. The question is can these technologies fill this gap? A smart traffic management system that combines the use of IoT sensors and RFID is already in operation in a few metropolitan cities in India. The Delhi police have already deployed an AI-driven intelligent traffic management system. Although this system has been successful in monitoring and policing traffic, a big gap remains in reducing traffic-related deaths. Indian roads are still among the most dangerous in the world. Although technology may be deployed, however, they have not been successful in managing traffic congestion because the condition of Indian roads doesn’t work hand in hand with technology. Geospatial technology which provides location-based monitoring services has also been deployed in India. It is being used by various government agencies for monitoring like the Smart Cities Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, Clean India Mission etc. However, in my opinion, these technologies still need to be adopted on a much larger scale in India to create a much big impact. The issue of outdated public policy and lack of skilled human resources are still required to fill the urban sustainability gap in India.

CONCLUSION  

Creating sustainable and intelligent cities in India necessitates a holistic strategy that addresses the issues of population growth, limited infrastructure, and policy gaps. Embracing technology can offer effective solutions, but larger-scale deployment must take place. Examples include smart traffic management systems and GIS technology. To close the urban sustainability gap, public policy changes and investments in highly qualified human resources are also required. India may work towards building sustainable cities that enhance livability, reduce environmental impact, and promote economic development by adopting a comprehensive strategy.

Author’s Bio

Raghav Chawla is a graduating student at OP Jindal Global University, majoring in International Relations. His interests include International Economics, Public Policy and Global South Studies.

Image Source: https://www.thesmartcityjournal.com/en/cities/the-key-characteristics-of-the-smart-city-6-0-concept