INTRODUCTION

What is "Human Settlements"

Vancouver UN Declaration on Human Settlements (1976) defined human settlements as follows: the totality of the human community - whether city, town or village with all the social, material, organizational, spiritual and cultural elements that sustain it.

(conference, called Habitat)

Human Settlements

Human Settlements

the spatial dimension as a framework for Economic and Social Development the influence of settlement conditions an objective of development in that places where people can live, learn and work in conditions of safety, comfort and efficiency an indicator, the most visible expression of a society's ability to satisfy some of the fundamental needs of its members a prerequisite for social and economic development

no social progress for sustainable economic growth can occur without efficient settlements systems and settlement networks
Human Settlements

Habitat II:

The Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements

was held in April 1996 at Istanbul, Turkey

Popularly called the "City Summit" adopted the Habitat Agenda, a global action plan to realize sustainable human settlements

The Regional Action Plan and the Habitat Agenda have become the major guide to improve the quality of life and promote the sustainable development of human settlements

Human Settlements

What Is Planning?

is a dynamic profession that works to improve the welfare of people and their communities by creating more convenient, equitable, healthful, efficient, and attractive places for present and future generations enables civic leaders, businesses, and citizens to play a meaningful role in creating communities that enrich people's lives helps create communities that offer better choices for where and how people live helps communities to envision their future

Human Settlements

What Is Planning?

It helps them to find the right balance of new development and essential services, environmental protection, and innovative change is done in many arenas and involves professionals who are planners and those who are professionally certified

Planners work with elected and appointed officials to lead the planning process with the goal of creating communities of lasting value
Planners help civic leaders, businesses, and citizens envision new possibilities and solutions to community problems

Planners working with community members help communities meet the challenges of growth and change
Human Settlements

What Skills Do Successful Planners Possess?

In addition to a formal educational background, planners possess a unique combination of skills that enhance their professional success Planning is a dynamic and diverse profession, individual skills vary depending on a planner's role and area of specialization Successful planners possess a combination of these skills : Knowledge of urban spatial structure or physical design and the way in which cities work Ability to analyze demographic information to discern trends in population, employment, and health Knowledge of plan-making and project evaluation

Human Settlements

What Skills Do Successful Planners Possess?

Mastery of techniques for involving a wide range of people in making decisions Understanding of local, state, and central government programs and processes Understanding of the social and environmental impact of planning decisions on communities Ability to work with the public and articulate planning issues to a wide variety of audiences

Ability to function as a mediator or facilitator when community interests conflict

Human Settlements

What Skills Do Successful Planners Possess?

Understanding of the legal foundation for land use regulation Understanding of the interaction among the economy, transportation, health and human services, and land-use regulation

Ability to solve problems using a balance of technical competence, creativity, and hard-headed pragmatism Ability to envision alternatives to the physical and social environments in which we live
Mastery of geographic information systems and office software

Human Settlements

Overview

Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs

Meeting the basic needs of all and extending to all the opportunity to satisfy their aspirations of a better life

Human Settlements

Role of Urban Design in Planning Process

The fundamental role is concerned with the relationship of buildings, and the space between, the public and private realm, not just aesthetic experience they provide, but with all aspects of human needs in the external built environment

They also embrace needs for creativity, self-esteem, a sense of belonging to the place, safety and security, shelter and healthy environment, issues of recreational spaces, public spaces and actitivities, community identity and legibility, safe and accessible streets and spaces, privacy and public contact, healthy and comfortable environment

Human Settlements

Overview
Adoption to change will be one of the key issues in the sustainability' aspects of city of tomorrow The changing values, attitudes, beliefs and lifestyle balancing the demands of change in the face of traditional life style, is all about sustainability in large cities Sustaining or Survival ? It implies that a living, functional city that fosters development, aspirations, provides security for its residents, supports gender equity, and uses stock of available resources within the limits of regenerative capacity without crossing the critical environmental thresholds

Human Settlements

Design synthesis in the city

What is worth saving? Can we create a more human environment? What are the citys assets? What are the recurring problems? How can we systematize the urban functions? How can we reinforce a citys urban frame and reorganize its components? What are the immediate action should we take? Are our goals mutual goals? Formula for City Works = Clear Response X Technical Economic Goals Humanistic

Human Settlements

Nature and the City

Cities are globally connected with their diverse and yet interdependent functions The rich and the powerful, though the main catalyst of environmental change and degradation often get away without bearing any costs Unprecedented urbanization has awarded the rich through legal sanctions for development Most megacities in Asia and especially in India have a huge informal sector

Mostly self regulated, unensured and self helping interms of employment and shelter
By year 2010 when nearly half the worlds population lives in cities, nearly 50 percent of this population will be below the age of 25 years

Human Settlements

Nature and the City

A city is a system The inherent quality of a system is that the objects that constitute the system are linked with each other with inputs that get processed and exit as outputs A city is a living organism City dependent on intangiable factors such as collective emotions, memory, cultural experiences and ethnicity Most of our cities, especially in the developing countries, do not have this mechanism of dynamic equilibrium

Human Settlements

Nature and the City

Need to design and implement regulatory mechanism Achieving a sustainable urban environment means the city resolves the omnipresent problems, assuring a basic quality of life, administered and managed with peoples representatives in a transparent and accountable system Impact of pollutants on the biosphere knows no national boundaries and thus the issue of sustainability clearly underlines the role and importance of cities as a part of a global network

Human Settlements

City : The large Village

Unlike the cities in the developed world which went through a phase of 'manufacturing-production service /IT economy cycle, the cities of the developing countries have jumped directly from a predominantly agrarian economy to technological information economy The cosmopolitan fabric of our cities is irreparably damaged when heterogeneous culture of the city instead of becoming its strength, tends to becoming its weakness

The issue of technology transfer, specially in traditional societies with a strong cultural identity, needs to be given due importance

Human Settlements

The New culture of Technology

According to the UN report, the ratio of the income of the worlds richest 20% to that of the poorest 20% has undergone a change as :In 1960 it was 30:1,In 1991 it was 61:1 and in 2000 it was 80:1 Regretfully the high quality of life of the highly advanced industrial countries is indicative of highly wasteful life style If a child born in the US is the unit of burden on the environment then it equals 2 born in sweden,3 in Italy,13 in Brazil,35 in India,140 in Bangladesh and 280 in Nepal

This thinking translates into the idea of an Ecological Footprint (EF) of cities and nations. That is the aggregate land area required to provide the resource input to production processes and to absorb the associated waste products

Human Settlements

Checklist in assessing Urban function

Image goals Social functions Economic functions

Natural and site functions

Cultural resource Standards and design for health, safety and security Citizen reaction

Human Settlements

Checklist in assessing Urban frame

Massing Landuse Circulation Infrastructure

Public facilities and services

Human Settlements

Checklist in assessing Urban Quality of life

The Character or image of the total place The well-being of the individual The well-being of social constraints

Human Settlements

Conclusions

The global problems are common so are these solutions

To balance the advance of cities into a global network while maintaining its local character
Strategies to guarantee benefits to being needy citizens ( as opposed to benefits obtained by persons by simply being citizens ) Respect and involve all stakeholders (basic rights and freedom ) Not to over depend on government. Use the dynamism of business and civil society Actions and solutions Investment in human capital Reduce social and environmental costs and achieve basic level of security

Human Settlements

Managing the Cities of India

Planning & Management approaches Functional hierarchy in the human settlement system, through regional development strategies Sense of flexibility, innovativeness and responsiveness to urban grown dynamics The institutional base? National Commission on Urbanisation (NCU) Only 23 states have levels higher than the national average of Urbanisation A rare phenomenon : Abundance in vast and rich natural resources zones of the country are with least urbanisation : MP, Bihar, Orissa & WB captive towns- New towns (more than 100)

Human Settlements

Urban Planning

The Development Plan (Master Plan) Comprehensive Planning System T& CP Act of United Kingdom 3rd Five year Plan (1961-66) Comprehensive Master Plan system State to establish town planning Delhi Master Plan (1962) Model Town and Country Planning act 4th five year Plans Master Plan phased development Combines policies, programmes and detailed proposals

Human Settlements

Urban Planning

NCU Master Directive Plan (MDP) Execution Plan (EP) Action Area Plan Zonal Plans Growth Foci Theory - Five tier human settlement system Growth Pole (National) Growth centre (Regional) Growth Point (sub regional) Service centre (micro-regional) Central village (local level)

Human Settlements