Sustainable Urban Planning

With high urbanisation rate in past decades, India is soon going to have more than 50% of population residing in urban areas. Moreover with newer challenges of climate change, flood resilience, shortage of housing, traffic congestions etc. the urban planning mechanism needs to widen its scope and effectively prepare and implement plans. Hence, it is very important to focus on urban planning practices in the country. Urban planning legislations and planning process varies significantly across different states. Since there are challenges pertaining to effective co-ordination between departments and limited inter-sectoral integration in urban plans, it has become imperative to devise a ‘sustainable’ approach to planning cities that ensures effective and timely implementation of plans. Thus, by addressing urban planning at various scales, it will contribute to the targets of ‘SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities’. For this training program, ‘sustainable urban planning’ can be described as an approach to planning process that strengthens integrated and inter-sectoral planning through key planning tools and implementation mechanisms, thereby increasing synergies and funding efficiency.