What : Urbanization refers to the population shift from rural areas to urban areas, the gradual increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas, and the ways in which each society adapts to this change.

Need :

• As drivers of economic growth, cities must offer a decent quality of life and facilitate job creation. These imperatives are fundamental to India’s ambitions of becoming a five trillion-dollar economy by 2025 and a 10 trillion-dollar economy by 2030.
• Population associated issues : Notwithstanding their criticality, cities face several challenges today. Inadequate affordable housing has meant that almost one-sixth of the urban population lives in slums. Water supply is unreliable. Mountains of solid waste sit on the fringes of our cities. Poor drainage, congested roads and deteriorating air quality are other challenges. From a population of 377 million in 2011, Indian cities are projected to house 870 million people by 2050, according to the UN’s projections — by far the highest among all nations.

What needs to be done :

PROPER PLANNING

• Large cities offer agglomeration economies but are complex to manage.
• Dense cities are harbingers of infrastructure-related economies but are vulnerable to the spread of disease, as evident from the Covid-19 pandemic.
• A proper balance between agglomeration economies and manageability as well as density and distance will hold the key in determining the right size for our cities.
• Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa have been role models for the rest of the world. The country must focus on good urban planning, instead of prioritising construction.
• Decisions on what to build need to emerge from a good plan, not in isolation.
• Planning must be dynamic enough to adjust to a city’s growth.
• SOLUTION : A way around this is a kind of decentralised urbanisation where multiple cities are clustered into growth regions. These would facilitate agglomeration economies and yet be of a manageable size. Example - The Paris region

FINANCES

• Resources other than the public budget need to be tapped.
• Although Capital markets are good choice but involving them would require pricing basic services in a manner that allows a reasonable return on investments.
• High prices will make services unaffordable.
• SOLUTION: Monetising land assets

SUSTAINABILITY

• Despite having 18 per cent of the world population, India has only 2.5 per cent of the world’s landmass and 4 per cent of the world’s freshwater.
• Global standards of land and water use may be too generous for us. Resource efficiency should be integral to urban planning.

CHALLENGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

• large share of our future carbon emissions will be in cities. Fortunately, our cities are still growing, and we are well placed to guide them into a low-carbon growth path.
• SOLUTION
  • Energy-efficient buildings, sustainable building materials, clean energy, water harvesting, segregation of waste, electric mobility, public transport, walking and cycling are sustainable practices that need to be mainstreamed into urban planning.
  • Building resilience to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change will also be critical.

DEVELOPMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY

• Technology must make it easier to work remotely will test older paradigms of office-based work. This work culture could change travel patterns and the need for transport infrastructure.
• An urbanisation policy should take cognisance of future mobility patterns. Increasingly, travel patterns are getting limited to shorter distances, requiring more non-motorised transport infrastructure rather than high-speed systems better suited to longer trips.