Advantages And Disadvantages Of Urban Planning

Urban planning was traditionally seen as a means to control and regulate the development of towns and cities. In the cities of the developing world, however, traditional planning approaches have failed to address the challenges of rapid urbanisation and the poverty, exclusion, informality and vulnerability it brings in its wake

Inclusion as an approach forces us to rethink integration

• The shift towards inclusion involves respecting a wide set of values, and sometimes choices as to emphasis among them. What do we value most?

• Which of these values are universal and which are relative to culture / context? How can the values of local communities be taken into account?

• What are the practical steps to be taken in developing more inclusive

India will have 68 cities with populations of more than 1 million, 13 cities with more than 4 million people and 6 megacities with populations of 10 million or more amongst which two cities will be among the five largest cities in the world by 2030. As India’s government prepares to submit its approach paper for its 12th five-year plan (a plan which covers years 2012 to 2017), the Planning Commission’s focus on instilling “inclusive growth” is making headway. There are a number of challenges in inclusive urban planning in India today. Like poor delivery of basic services, housing shortages, differences between informal and formal sector, transport access for the poor and most important is a need to build real local capacity. Even when there is a scheme in place, local governance structures and local officials are not able to implement them. Nor are officials in charge of planning, skilled in urban planning, let alone inclusive planning. Without more inclusive planning, megacities such as Mumbai and Delhi are likely to become increasingly polarized with increased disparities in wealth, housing, transportation and access to

This, in turn, relates to the need to improve attitudes towards inclusive urban planning, on all sides. The poor need to be part of the planning process

The issue of urbanization — how to make India’s towns, cities, and metropolises work for a more inclusive development — is one of the most important policy issues confronting the nation today. What are the core elements of an efficient and inclusive urbanization strategy? How will a planning approach that takes into account specific needs of various social groups and is focussed on participation, transparency and accountability.

Role of urban professionals

An attempt has been made by the authors to practically educate inclusive planning process through inclusive education as a tool and participatory planning as a method to implement design and planning options. Global Studio Bhopal has attempted, through design, planning and research modes to engage with communities, to ensure that the communities we have worked with, (albeit over a very short period of time) have been included, and that their voice has been heard . Where possible some groups have attempted to bring about some improvements in people’s lives, in some instances working with