2 Urban Open Space-1

Roshan Toshniwal

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This lecture is a summary to emphasize the necessity of open space in urban areas which is generally characterized by congestion and chaos. Cities in developing nations and especially in India are undergoing several infrastructure up-gradation and transformation. So to begin with we discuss generally about the existence and importance of the city. The second lecture in this series captures about urban planning and importance of cities.

Definition of an urban areas and why cities are important? The city planning principals and the growing urban needs? As per the census of India urban areas need to match the following four characteristics to be considered an urban area

–          Population should be above 5,000.

–          The density should be 400 people per square kilometre

–          More than 75% of working male population should be working in non-agrarian sector.

–          The area should have a local body like Panchayat, Nagar Palika, municipality etc.

This definition was derived from the parameters on which the world defines urban areas. It changes from country to country depending on the country’s planning systems. But the criteria of population, density, employment and governance of space continues to remain.

The government of India formulated UDPFI (Urban Development Plan Formulation and Implementation) guidelines in 1996 to simplify town planning laws, preparing and implementing innovative mechanisms for spatial development and resource mobilisation. This guidelines were not followed as the cities grew rapidly and the guidelines did not include the regional development surrounding the city in these guidelines. Thus in 2014 the ministry of urban development in the created a draft of URDPFI (Urban and Regional Development Plan Formulation and Implementation) guidelines to include the regional development as well. As per the UDPFI guidelines there should be minimum 9-10m²of urban open space per person, but it is far lesser in the Indian cities. In India, Delhi has the highest urban open space per person of about 4 m²/ person.

Open space is necessary to improve the climate of urban areas and reduce urban heat islands. Open spaces are generally covered with vegetation and creates an eco-system that helps in better air-circulation, thereby reducing heat. The open space which helps in creating dense vegetation also helps in screening noise, improving storm water management and creating habitation for flora and fauna. Thus, the integration of ecological considerations into economic development is vital and valuable to ensure long-term well-being of people in the cities.

Cities are centre of power, the image of the country and thus the city planning principles and the structure of the city plays a big role in creating this image. Even in cities certain natural and man-made structure becomes the image of the city, for instance – Taj Mahal for Agra; Eiffel tower-Paris or the garden of Babylon; central Park New York; Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Queen’s necklace – Mumbai.

The cities can be categorised as planned, unplanned and semi-planned based on the vision, master plan and intervention adopted by the urban authorities. Since cities are dynamic in nature they are constantly changing and growing. The growth of the city may not be restricted to boundaries but a city structure defines the movement and shape. For example Mumbai is considered a linear city due to geographical constraints, while Ahmedabad is a radial city divided by the Sabarmati River at its centre. On the other hand Chandigarh is defined by man-made rectangular grids conceived by Le-Corbusier. Thus the cities follow a pattern of development based on urban policies and planning. In most developing nations cities evolves into a larger settlement by engulfing existing small settlements and by planning and developing infrastructure and transport network surrounding the small settlements. Thus with changing economic, political and philosophical perspectives, the morphology of the cities also change drastically.

Religion also affects the city structure in a large way. For instance, in Islamic countries, religion has had an important influence on development and use of open public spaces. The mosque have been the centre of the social life and examples of the western style of urban squares cannot be seen in Islamic countries. Similarly throughout the history of Turkish settlements, the squares were formed around the mosques. Since markets and commercial regions were also located around mosques, these squares were where the social life took place, especially in Ottoman Empire period.

In this process there are several issues that paralysis urban development like affordable housing, traffic and public transport, inadequate open spaces, pollution and energy/ electricity. The third lecture in the series explains these issues. All these issues are people centric and in developing countries the authorities tend to reticently ignore people in the process of creating solutions. Larger urban sprawl and low density development increases carbon footprint and although it increases open space per capita, it also increases infrastructure cost and dependence on private vehicle, thus it is not sustainable in long run. Thus cities need to constantly upgrade itself by urban renewal programs and develop sustainably. Network of streets are the largest open space in the most cities, especially developing countries.

“The street is the river of life of the city, the place where we come together, the pathway to the center.”

Streets/ Roads were created to access the abutting property, but with automobile revolution, the streets serve both serve transportation and essential services. With increasing transportation and logistics needs network of streets emerged as the largest urban open spaces. Streets of most developed and developing nations are designed to cater large volumes of vehicles and thus speedy transportation become priority over safety. Street design became vehicle centric over people centric in 1960s with the creation of cities like Brasilia and Chandigarh.

“It is difficult to design a space that will not attract people. What is remarkable is how often this has been accomplished.” – Anonymous

The fourth lecture in this series talks about roads and street designs as streets are the biggest urban realm in most of our cities. With the rising road fatality and surge in vehicle population around the world, many countries were rethinking their transport and land use strategies. Some countries like Netherlands and Denmark strategized reduction of speeds in neighbourhood streets by implementing a system called “woonerf”. Both the countries also encouraged cycling and sustainable transport policy, and the design of streets across cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Cities in Latin America like Curitiba and Bogota created dedicated BRTS lanes and thus improved the state of public transport, and increased its ridership. The streets in both residential and commercial zones should be pedestrian friendly and promote non- motorised vehicle by creating a separate lane. The modal share of walking and non-motorised transport are higher varying from 25-35% in older and high density cities but the infrastructure for these modes are limited and diminishing because of car centric designs. Thus a large percentage of public realm is effectively underutilised by people because of faulty street design. In the forthcoming lectures we discuss about road and pavement designs.

In India, the National Urban Transport Policy 2006 recommends to ensure safe, affordable, quick, comfortable, reliable and sustainable access for the growing number of city residents to jobs, education, recreation and such other needs within our cities. It also brings focus to bringing more equitable allocation of road space with people, rather than vehicles as its main focus. It encourages greater use of public transport and non-motorized modes by offering central financial assistance. It is also enabling the establishment of quality focused multi-modal public transport systems that are well integrated, providing seamless travel across different transit modes.

The last lecture in this series talks about the general design principles for urban realm, urban square, water edges etc. and briefly describes about the need for urban agriculture and forestry. Design details of other public realms like water edges, public parks, beaches, public plazas are also necessary for effective usage. In India most rivers are considered holy but with increasing development, the rivers have become polluted and inaccessible. This affects the hygiene and general health of the city. Cities in coastal areas have advantages of sprawling sandy beaches which is thronged by people. The lack of dustbins and vending regulations often results in the beach becoming a dumping ground. Public parks are spaces not merely for children to play. Public parks needs to have flexible seating arrangements, freedom for people to move and clearly aligned pathways, manicured lawns based on the size of the gardens and adequate shade which is inviting. In the last decade or so, world over public plazas have become space for congregation of human activities. Several protests for political and social reasons have occurred at these squares like Tahrir square in Egypt, India Gate in India etc. Thus the size and design of the squares should be built to serve a purpose otherwise it could have a snow bowling result.

A well-known earliest example of public squares is the Greek’s “Agora”. Democracy played an important role in shaping Greek cities. The Agora was an open place in the city center where political, social and economic activities took place. Greek Agoras were public spaces for all kinds of gatherings; such as political meetings, athletic and musical games, theatre performances and commercial activities. Similarly, the Roman Forum was a large open space where people gather for political, economic and social activities.

According to Lewis Mumford (1961) the Roman forum was the combination of agora and acropolis since it included more activities (such as shrines, temples, the hall of justice and the council houses) with more formal order.

The cities in developing nations have slowly become devoid of greenery. When Paris was restructured by Baron Haussmann, he insisted on creating boulevards with trees shading most parts of the roads. The city is solely dependent on the country side for its food supply, but the neo urbanisms conceptualised urban forestry and agriculture.

“If we’re talking about social justice it has to encompass the food that we eat, the people that grow the food, how they’re treated, their health benefits, and their wages. So for me, the movement started about growing food but then blossomed into this social justice conscious.” – Darron Joffe aka “Farmer D”

Urban forestry and repository of large trees also serves many purposes like amelioration of urban heat island, reducing flooding due to storm water drain besides becoming a reservoir of urban bio diversity. In India presently there exists legislation and preservation of urban trees and landscape but is not being strictly implemented. Trees are our natural resources that needs to be conserved to make the settlements more habitable and healthy. The science of restoration ecology attests that the diverse natural forests and the living soils they spring from, once destroyed, are difficult and costly or infeasible to bring back, and it may take long time to restore. So while cutting trees it is not adequately factored into the estimation of net present value (NPV) of forests that tries to approximate economic losses. In the debate over ecology versus economy, one must reconsider that both words originate from the greek word oikos, meaning home. The science of our home environment (ecology) must inform the management of our home resources (economy). What is often forgotten between environment versus development is that for almost every destructive project, there are often alternatives and means of implementation that cause less harm to environment and local communities, and can provide overall long-term benefits. Hence afforestation and urban forestry is a key to sustainable development.

To conclude, well designed open spaces are need of developing cities. Besides beauty these open spaces acts as a physical and mental relief for the citizens and the city itself.

Case study

All the clips shown in the lecture are taken from the movie urbanised. I thought a visual experience with my verbatim would help the viewers to relate it to Indian context. Following is a link to a blog about movies/ documentaries on urban space and life.

http://ubanplanner.blogspot.in/2012/07/top-ten-documentaries-about-urbanism.html

Web Links

http://newurbanismfilmfestival.com/

References

http://www.le-notre.org/urban-spaces/urban-spaces.php?encyclopedia_id=260

http://envdes.ucdavis.edu/people/websites/francis/Urban%20Open%20Spaces-Francis.pdf

http://www.acta.sapientia.ro/acta-agrenv/Supl2011/11_Balogh.pdf

http://censusindia.gov.in/

http://www.sustainabilityoutlook.in/content/open-spaces-urban-sustainabilitySpiro Kostof – City shaped; city assembled;

Glossary

Master plan– Master plan is a long term planning, generally for 20 years. It is also a comprehensive planning for service area as per likely spread of city in next 20 years. It describes all works required in next 20 years in phased manner. The designs and estimates are prepared approximately. At present the general practice is to prepare master plan for urban towns, however these master plans address town planning aspects including land use but does not include Infrastructure master plan for each sector. As such separate master plan for each sector is required. Master Plan should be updated say every 5 years. (National Capital Region Planning board n.d.)

Urban heat island– is a metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding country side due to human activities. This are many reasons for urban heat islands and one primary reason is lack of open space between buildings. (nationalgeographic.com n.d.)

Urban Open space– An urban open space is any piece of open land that has no built structure and is accessible to public. Open spaces are essentially created for recreation and enhance the environmental quality of neighbourhoods. (http://www.epa.gov n.d.)

Urban Ecology – Urban Ecology is the study of ecosystems that include humans living in cities and urbanizing landscapes. It is an emerging, interdisciplinary field that aims to understand how human and ecological processes can coexist in human-dominated systems and help societies with their efforts to become more sustainable. (J.Marzluff 2008)

Regional development – Regional development is a broad term but can be seen as a general effort to reduce regional disparities by supporting (employment and wealth-generating) economic activities in regions. (OECD n.d.)