Asfa Siddiqui

Urban Settlement Pattern and Growth Dynamics in Northwest Himalaya

The urban settlements in Northwest Himalaya (NWH) are experiencing a rapid pace of urbanization. However, this development is rather skewed in nature. The hilly regions of NWH are experiencing a negligible growth in their population, whereas the population pressure is rising in urban settlements at foothills. One of the primary reasons is the lack of economic opportunities and infrastructural facilities. The economic base of these hilly urban settlements, which is mainly based on tourism, was further eroded due to the recent series of natural disasters. A direct outcome has been reduction in the tax base of urban local bodies, due to which they are now struggling to sustain their existing infrastructure leave apart its augmentation.

Smart Chandigarh Tri-City Region: Spatial Strategies of Transformation

The inception of the “City Beautiful” dates back in the early 1950s, right after India attained independence. The planned visionary modernist settlement designed by famous architect Le Corbusier started gaining a ‘magnet’ status. The regional phenomenon observed around Chandigarh gave way to the establishment of counter magnets Panchkula and Mohali, together referred to as “Tri-city”. Soon, the green buffer zones around the city got into urbanisation processes and started showing signs of uncoordinated growth. The demographic profile suggested a slowing pace of growth in Chandigarh Union Territory (UT) while other settlements in the Chandigarh region (the 16 km periphery Control Area) kept expanding. A need for regional development was felt in 1970s resulting in various regional plans severely lacking legal status and hence had no prominent effect. A region can attain a planned development through careful understanding in incorporating sub-regional objectives through Smart Information, Smart Decision-making, Smart Connections and ultimately leading to Smart Development. Smart tools and techniques offered by the geospatial technology can play a pivotal role in analysing the existing scenarios of an urban purlieu and aid significantly in the decision making process for better development. The study asseses the spatial growth of Chandigarh region using Neural Network based modelling growth scenarios and suggests that nearly 400 sq. km. of area will be urbanised by 2048. The study effectively demonstrates the importance of geospatial techniques and recommends spatial strategies in order to have a holistic development in the region. Smart strategies incorporating inclusive planning can for transform settlements into Smart Metropolitan Regions.

Understanding Urban Environment in Northwest Himalaya: Role of Geospatial Technology

An urban area is a complex ensemble of interrelated and entangled socio-economic, spatial and environmental processes. The irreversible demographic changes being witnessed in an urban set-up pose threat to the rapidly depleting resources. Therefore, the study of urban footprints and the services with associated infrastructure is a subject that intrigues urban planners. Although planning has more to say about cities, it is equally imperative to explore all perspectives of a holistic regional development keeping in view the social, economic, cultural, environmental and governance issues. Interestingly, with the advent of smart city concept, the conceptualization of six key enablers of the mission, viz. smart governance, smart living, smart people, smart mobility, smart environment and smart economy, finds its complete implementation scope in spatial planning aided with information and communication technology (ICT) solutions. Various pillars of smart planning of an urban set-up ranging from infrastructure to resource management and smart energy to smart environment are achievable with the help of geospatial technologies.

Geo-enabled e-Democracy Tools and Services for Smart Cities

In the recent past, an overwhelming growth in geo-enabled open source data and tools through web services and data repositories is witnessed. Internet technology has significantly enhanced the utility of geo-enabled data and applications by making them more accessible to a wider range of users, planners and decision makers through geoportals, mobile Apps and Cloud GIS. The Cloud Computing Architecture (CCA), Internet of Things (IoT) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) represent new technological development which allow them to send and receive data without requiring user interaction and enhance interoperability in data and information services. The geospatial information available through geoportals and online data repositories have immense scope for its utilisation in smart city planning with many success stories world over. Geo-enabled data and tools can go a long way in creating a range of smart city applications where citizen participation is one of the key objectives. These tools and services have immense application potential for public participation, grievance management and to address many more aspects of e-democracy and e-governance such as Tourism GIS, Municipal GIS and so on. These citizen-centric Apps and web services facilitate faster information dissemination and improve the efficiency and management of infrastructure, which is essential to enhance the quality of life of urban dwellers and one of the key objectives of the smart city movement. In India, the “Bhuvan” geoportal developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) provides a milieu of data sets which can be used for building smart city applications. Bhuvan portal hosts high-resolution data (~1 m resolution) of more than 350 Indian cities till date and planning to cover other cities in near future. It also offers thematic maps useful for Master Plan formulation for 152 towns prepared under National Urban Information System (NUIS). Effort is on to use high-resolution satellite images for the overlay and fine-tuning of Urban Framework Survey. It also hosts many other data sets, e.g., land use/land cover, road network, soil, geomorphology, etc. which can be used to plan and manage the smart cities effectively.