Neighborhood Planning: Approach in Improving Livability and Quality of the Life in the Cities

Abstract

With the growing rate of urbanization in India from 19.9 % in 1971 to 30.02 % in 2001 and projected 38.21 % in 2021 (Vaidya C, Urban issues, reforms and way forward in India. Working paper No.4/2009-DEA, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, New Delhi, 2009), there is an ardent need to adopt human value-based planning approaches in order to foster livability and quality of life in the neighborhoods of ever-expanding cities. Planning a neighborhood is not just arranging buildings for multiple functions. This needs deep insight of the everyday routine and the social and economic restraints of the society that divide people. The proper provision of amenities, living and working spaces, keeping in mind the above links, will lead to better-designed spaces which in turn lead to an interactive and a healthy society. Thus, the livability and quality of life in cities would reach a desired criterion. This paper deals with planning-oriented approaches, where options can be provided with respect to factors like social mix, affordability and adaptive use, level of interaction, spatial organizations, degree of enclosures, and sense of option. A city has to grow together – from economically weaker sections to higher income groups. Otherwise, only mere cities can be created and not “livable cities” (Evans P, Livable cities?: Urban struggles for livelihood and sustainability. University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles, 2002). This paper focuses on a typical module which can be studied by developed, developing, and underdeveloped nations to create a basis for urban study to improve the quality of life.

[N.B.: The observation, analysis, and inferences discussed in this paper are a result of a series of case studies, questionnaire surveys, and situation analysis carried on by the author as a part of his undergraduate thesis during the year 2011–2012 and extended later as a basis of his research. These studies were conducted in Indian cities of Kolkata, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Old Delhi, Visakhapatnam, and Bhopal.]