Event: City Form-India: Sustainable Urban Form for Indian Cities
Date: 21 August 2008
Venue: Conference Room, NIUA, New Delhi
Prof. Chetan Vaidya, Director, NIUA welcomed all participants and resource persons. In his remarks, he presented a brief background of the conference emphasizing that sustainable urban form based on environmental, social and economic aspects is an area of major debate all over the world, and hoped that this conference would create the required platform for dealing with concerned issues in India.
Dr. M. Ramachandran, Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, in his inaugural address mentioned that in view of emerging urban challenges, Government of India has made substantial efforts to address them. He stated that Urban Planning process in India needs to be improved within the framework of sustainable development and linked to issues like resource mobilization, environmental protection and governance. Mainstreaming sustainable development policies and the inclusion of climate-change related measures in urban development initiatives are the need of the hour. In this context, he appreciated the initiatives by NIUA, OBU and other partners in organizing this conference on Sustainable CityForm in India.
Dr.
Nitin Desai, President NIUA and Dr. Ramchandran jointly launched the book
"World Cities and Urban Form" edited by Prof. Mike Jenks, OBU
and others. Dr. Desai in his keynote address stated that this type of
dialogue linking urban and sustainable development is very important. He
emphasised that the impact of cities-and urban design-on the global
climate is becoming increasingly important.
Prof. Jenks, OBU made a presentation on Importance of Sustainable Urban Form and sustainability efforts. Various issues brought out in is discussion included role of density, polycentric but connected network, compact forms, and inclusive design. He added that physical form does not determine behaviour and cultural issues play an important role in this process.
Dr. Shibu Raman and Dr. Nicola Dempsey, OBU made presentations on findings from CityForm, UK. The research covers a wide range of findings ranging from energy use, transport behaviour and bio diversity. Extensive discussions on the two presentations took place dealing with optimal size of city, productivity of city, lessons from old city development in India and role of private developers in developing CityForm, feasibility of mixed land use and role of governance.
The four parallel workshop sessions
looked at how urban form - the size, shape, density, land uses and layouts
of a city
- can influence its social, economic and environmental
sustainability and transport use. The parallel technical sessions covered
some rich and varied presentations delivered by speakers from outside the
country and India.
The closing session was chaired by Mr. A.K.Mehta, Joint Secretary, UD, MoUD. In this session, Prof. Mike Jenks presented brief summary of deliberations of the conference. He mentioned that there is need to identify key research areas in India and identify role of various partners. Based on the deliberations in the conference, NIUA, OBU and other partners will prepare a research proposal for further action. Mr. Mehta said that the findings of the conference and research are very significant for the Ministry. Some of the areas of key interest for the Ministry are developing appropriate urban form for Indian cities in the context of energy efficiency and transport needs. Prof. Vaidya thanked all the participants and the partners.
Speakers presenting at the workshop
