Chapter 5Urban Planning Approach

URDPFI Guidelines 2014 Volume I

2014 · PDF page 148

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5.1 Introduction

The location, site and situation significantly contribute to growth and function of a settlement. Location and surroundings could have positive and negative impact on settlement development. However, careful planning should be able to use well the advantages that the location of a town provides. Particularly location in the context of waterfront of sea, river and large lakes provides special resources, which can be effectively used for development of the town. Similarly, the town located on the hills provide other special opportunities for development. Any appraisal of the value and importance of a particular site must involve a knowledge of its historical past, evolution and landmarks of change.

The growth of clusters of urban settlements is more frequently found around large metropolises and results in what are sometimes called “city regions”. Often these are made up of small towns and villages, which have been enormously expanded as a result of national policy on dispersal of economic activities away from the metropolises. The small and medium towns in these city regions are related to one another by the functions, which they perform. Site condition in the hilly and mountainous regions may occupy site in: Ridges, Valleys, River terraces, Confluences, Rolling Meadows and in cases linear settlement growth along the major transportation routes or at the entrance to specific hill region.

5.2Guidelines for Study on Location, Site and situation of Settlement

5.2.1 Location

Location attributes to be considered in a planning exercise:

a) Location in terms of latitude and longitude, population size and area and connectivity with other settlements etc.

b) Nodal significance in the national or regional transport and communication network, power network and industrial development etc.

c) Location in terms of agricultural produce collection and distribution centre, agro-industries linked to local markets, irrigation network, agricultural extension services etc.

d) Status that the settlement in hierarchy in the State or the Region

e) Role and status of the city/ town in the national delivery systems of social services;

f) Relative significance of locations of city/ town in proximity to a Metropolitan/Megapolis:

i. Nodal significance

ii. Presence of high productive economic activities

iii. Presence of large scale market

5.2.2 Site

Site attributes to be studied for planning exercise:

a) Conditions of site: low-lying, swamp, or dry land, ridge, on a riverbank or canal side. Within the town-flat, slopping (in which direction), undulating-gentle slope, moderate slope, steep slope.

b) Value and importance of the site and its historical past, that is, when the nucleus was established.

c) Analyse the factors responsible for determining the site:

i. In alluvial plains

ii. In hilly and mountainous regions

iii. In arid regions

iv. In the areas of territorial ruler ship

v. In the areas around some localised physical resources, mining settlements, manufacturing towns, resort towns

vi. Around large metropolis

d) Climate and its influence on daily life, construction, range of crops and how the city activities have modified the natural climate, particularly in the built-up area.

e) Analysis of climate type, variations in temperature, wind velocity and wind directions in different parts of the city; study of the climate with reference to summer, rainy and winter seasons.

f) Limiting and the favourable factors of site in the spread and growth of the city/town.

5.2.3 Situation

The following to be considered for situation analysis:

a) The endowment of the situation (wider setting) for the subsequent growth in size of the city/town and for the enhancement of its functions

b) The important and interrelated aspects of situation, namely,

i. Physical configuration

ii. Route patterns

iii. The extent of the territory to which the urban functions are related

c) Suggest measures to retard or even overcome the weakening of the original value of the site and situation.

5.2.4 Hinterland

The endowment of the hinterland is another factor on which growth of an urban centre rests. An urban centre, for example, can establish a mutually interacting relationship with its hinterland if the hinterland has a variety and extent of natural resources in terms of both agriculture and economic potentials. A city's growth may be consistent and stable mainly because its economic base is closely linked with that of its hinterland. It is also conceivable that the city can be an instrument not merely for effectively utilising the existing potential of its hinterland but also of increasing the hinterland's potential itself. The development of the regional economy helps the growth of small towns, which in the process become the main service centres for their hinterlands.

Therefore, considerable attention should be given to the delimitation, functionality, social and economic link to a particular urban settlement. The area linked socially and economically to an urban settlement has been given various names, such as “Hinterland”, “Upland”, “Urban Field”, “Sphere of Influence”, “Zones of Influence”, “Tributary Area”, or “Catchment Area”. The immediate hinterland of a large city, which is directly under the influence of the agglomeration, is the ‘peri-urban area’.

5.2.4.1 Peri-urban area

The area influenced by a town is not a two-dimensional feature, not a sphere, nor does it necessarily form a continuous zone. Flow of goods, services and information into and

out of a town/city: most modern urban settlements and their immediate hinterlands are economically interdependent, rather than one being a tributary to the other. An analysis of the rural area served by a city/town gives some indication of the relation between city and the urban-rural mix (the peri-urban area), which is of practical application in examining the provision of goods and services in an urban centre. However, as mentioned in the Regional planning chapter, Peri-urban is the zone which is within the planning area limits but outside the limit of the municipal corporation / authority or metropolitan planning committee or authority.

As smaller towns fall within the areas served by larger metropolitan regions, the delimitation of urban zones of influence also sheds light on the manner in which a city at a particular level in the urban hierarchy provides specialist services for the surrounding population and settlements (such as service towns, satellite towns or service villages). Finally, very large cities extend a particularly intensive influence over the areas around them; so much so that these can be well defined peri-urban areas. Delimitation of peri-urban areas is directly influenced by accessibility as of highways and/or prime economic investments. With rapid urbanisation conditions, the peri-urban zone is dynamic. Hence peri-urban limits undergo alterations subject to high stress for urban growth and therefore always in fast transition.

In examining zone of influence, one commonly adopted method is to establish on a map the areas served by employment, shopping, entertainment, education, health services and so on. This method of analysis is applicable to cities and towns at all level in urban hierarchy. At a higher level in urban hierarchy the criteria used reflect the distinctive functions of larger settlements and employ information like:

The area served by the city's services and amenities like water supply, electricity, gas supply and telephone, health services, educational, cultural, recreational elements, security services such as police and fire brigades, postal services, mainly the local delivery areas and postal zones; banking and insurance facilities, the circulation of its daily newspapers.

- Flow of wholesale products, trip generation, intensity and speed of movement should be taken into consideration.

- Other reflective elements, which may be considered, are land use ratio of non-agricultural to agricultural population, density trends in population growth, settlement pattern, growth of built-up areas and pattern of communication.

In respect to a typical industrial town, its peri-urban area may be much more restricted than that of the other types of town. An intrusive industrial town may well not have the full range of urban services appropriate of its size. These missing functions will be supplied from other centres, thus making its zone of influence less clearly defined.

It will be clear that the analysis of urban zones of influence is most appropriate for those cities whose dominant role is that of serving as a central place, although most settlements of any reasonable size will have this among their various functions.

5.2.4.2 Leap Frog Development and Urban Sprawl

Leapfrog development refers to the occurrence of urban settlement in places separated from denser areas by open space and land under agricultural production. This development has “jumped” land unavailable for such development because it is held by the state, by other private owners, or because it is under the control of traditional authorities. This type of development may take the form of upmarket residential and business park development, or it may take the form of low-cost housing projects or informal settlements which may be implemented, or which may occur as a consequence of rapid urbanization $^{1}$ .

Urban sprawl refers to urban growth; along transportation routes in linear form with one or a few property depth as width on both sides of the road, taking advantage of accessibility, flow of goods and services. These urban developments have higher infrastructure systems cost such as water supply, power supply, which often have to be long extended from the nearest serving areas.

Municipal Planning & Management should apply careful control over change of agricultural land for non-agricultural uses. These conversions are commonly seen in peri-urban areas and are neither covered under Municipal laws not under any planning regulations as the location is outside the limits of municipality or even a planning authority.

Often, sporadic and scattered conversions create problems for future planned urban development, where many of these are done for speculation purposes to gain high capital returns from land lots. Though the laws require the land revenue authorities to take the advice of State Town Planning Department about viability before permitting conversions, but due to absence of any approved land use plan and weak structure of Town Planning Department, this step is rarely taken or even if taken it is hardly effective from planning perspective. Such haphazard urban sprawl needs to be curbed and regulations should be in place to discourage unplanned growth, which can be achieved through the Regional Planning Approach (see Chapter 4).

5.2.5 Accessibility

Accessibility is the dominant factor influencing the location, growth and functions of urban centres. It is to combine at least three elements: the location of a place within a region (in general, centrally located places are more accessible); the form of the transport system; and accessibility within the area of the activities: access to employment opportunities, access to population, access to educational or health facilities, etc.

$^{1}$ Sustainable Urbanization: Guidelines to Manage Urban Growth, Volume 2: Tools and Guidelines, McIntosh Xaba& Associates.

Urban settlements tend to grow on transport routes only at specific places, particularly at junctions and break-of-bulk points, where one form of the transport is changed for another. Hence settlements whose locations are guided by transport routes are found not only at the end of these routes, but also along them. The number of routes, which come together at a particular point, is important, but the degree to which passengers and goods are interchanged is more important.

The guidelines for the study of accessibility are as under -

Establish the role of:

i. Long-distance regional/inter-regional transportation in determining the locations of the city/town;

ii. Both the long distance as well as local and intra-urban transportation in the growth of size of the city/town;

iii. Inter-urban and intra-urban transportation in affecting urban structure.

iv. Inter-regional easy access by different modes;

v. Good mobility within city/town due to construction of tunnel results in the development of new areas with commercial, industrial and residential activities, which leads to population increase in the entire urban area.

5.2.6 Socio-Economic Profile

City is not alone a characteristic of its physical or locational forms; its population and its characteristics determine the social processes that set the City culture. Socio-economic class-wise distribution of the population is a key indicator of the social parameters in a settlement. In case of existing settlement, the pattern of population on the basis of socio-economic levels can be studied for planning to understand the services and facilities. On the contrary, it is useful for the greenfield sites, where zoning can be proposed based on the income of the settling population class, higher, middle or low. Spatial plan is usually influenced by living and work places of different of population classes.

This principle of Urban Strategic Planning $^{2}$ should in consonance with the income distribution structure of the city region with the urban poor located near public transport nodes/links and specially providing space for the urban poor in master/development plans for living, selling and working - at city, zone and local levels.

Overall, the social indicators allow the planner to understand the city, link it with the city spatial form and its behaviour pattern. In short, unlike the traditional approach to zoning, social parameters can be used for creating zones and its functions. This can directly point at the urban facilities such as bus services, dedicated transportation corridors, facilities of social infrastructure and physical infrastructure.

$^{2}$ Report of the Working Group on Urban Strategic Planning, 12 $^{th}$ Five-year Plan'

5.3Distribution of Land Use

5.3.1 Developed Area Average Densities

For the purpose of these guidelines, the densities mentioned in this section are the Gross Population Densities defined as person per unit area (in hectares) for developed area only. The calculation includes population of the settlement on the developed land of the settlement.

Fixation of density norms should be based on carrying capacity analysis focusing on parameters - space per person, access to facilities, available piped water per capita, mobility and safety factors. The task should be settlement specific. However, for overall planning approach density ranges are suggested in Table 5.1.

Table 5.1Developed Area Average Densities

	Persons per Hectare(pph) in
Settlement Type	Plain Areas	Hill Areas
Small Towns	75-125	45-75
Medium Town	100-150	60-90
Large Cities	125-175	60-90
Metropolitan Cities	125-175	100-150
Megapolis	More than 200	--

Source: Revised based on UDPFI Guidelines.

These are suggestive population densities as per the settlement size. However, while planning for compact and TOD development, these densities should be modified to suit the requirement and should be based on carrying capacity analysis. Developed area densities suggested above is useful to calculate total developed area requirement at city level, when the target population for the city is given. When used along with the suggested norms for different land use, area can also be calculated.

5.3.2 Proposed Land use Structure of Urban Centres

The proposed land use structure for urban centres is indicated in Table 5.2:

Table 5.2Land use Structure for Developable Area in Urban Centres

		Percentage of Developed Area
S.No.	Land use Category*	Small	Medium	Large Cities	Metropolitan Cities & Megapolis
1	Residential	45-50	43-48	36-39	36-38
2	Commercial	2-3	4-6	5-6	5-6
3	Industrial	8-10	7-9	7-8	7-8
4	Pub. & Semi Public	6-8	6-8	10-12	10-12
5	Recreational	12-14	12-14	14-16	14-16
6	Transport & Communication	10-12	10-12	12-14	12-14
7	Agriculture, Water bodies and Special areas	Balance	Balance	Balance	Balance
8	Total Developed Area	100	100	100	100

Source: Revised based on UDPFI Guidelines, 1996

Note:

It would be desirable to fix the recommended Landuse share for essential uses (Residential, Transportation and Recreational) while the proportion for other uses may be flexible. Actual land use percentage in a given city case should be calculated based on local conditions and needs.
Zoning regulations given in Table 9.1 – ‘Simplified land use classification’ to be followed in consistency with the land use structure given in the table above.
*Land occupied under Special Areas (refer Table 9.1 for uses) to be included in the land use categories 1-6 given in the table above, unless large special areas to be considered as a separate entity for planning, such as cantonment areas.
*However, to propose the mixed land use of a city –percentage share of residential, commercial and industrial land use to be adjusted proportionally as planned by the local authority. Mixed land use should be either non-industrial oriented or industrial mix oriented (refer Table 9.1 for uses).
The adjustment in the residential, commercial and industrial land use (dominant use) to be based on the land area proposed for mixed land use zone and reduction of respective proposed mixed land use(s). Appropriate reduction in residential, commercial or industrial uses and adjustments in other uses to be made so that the total land use becomes 100%. The mixed use of land to be envisaged at vision development stage of the plan formulation.
Detailed study is to be undertaken on the co-relation of and effects of FAR/Densities in our towns (both small towns and metropolitan cities) and guidelines to be adopted for the optimal use of land.

Specific attention needed on areas in urban planning approach.

5.4Urban Planning Approach

Though urban development increasingly accounts for a large share in the National economy, huge gap between the need of infrastructure services and available resource

still remains unbridged as a major concern. It adversely effects provision of employment, mobility and lifestyle of large sections of city's population. Challenges like environmental sustainability, changing but stressed lifestyle put pressure on mobility and health. In order to reduce pressure on land and response to climate change impact, alternative approaches of city planning and building is the need of the hour.

Such solutions lay in keeping the city compact by mixing uses of land to an optimum level, decreasing trip generation and high population density making mass rapid transit systems technically and economically viable. Aspect to be encouraged by urban planners are walk to work best designed pedestrian safety, protection of natural features and environmentally sensitive areas, along with finding new source of financial resources for city development.

To moderate the environmental impacts of urbanisation, sustainable ways of planning are required. Urban centres by its conventional form play a significant role in mounting urban heat island. Green city modules such as street orientation in lines with sun direction, prevailing wind direction and use of heat repelling material not only help reduce the impact, but also slow down the gas emissions from artificial cooling systems. Further green spaces within the urban set-up ensure cooling effect and better public interaction spaces, apart from psychological supports in reducing human stress levels.

Both compact city and green city approach should help to release land for open space and recreational use purposes, reducing pollution levels, decentralising waste handling, encouraging public transportation and simplifying land use segregation.

To technically meet the demand of the urban centres in making it cost effective and in optimum utilisation of available resources to any of the urban planning approaches, Information Communication Technology (ICT) has emerged as a solution. Smart city concept facilities better living experience for human kind, declining dependency on contingencies by using ICT enable development of smart communities, providing a communication web that connects buildings, energy and mobility devices such as Electric Vehicles (EV) by using bi-directional information exchange. 3D City Models may be used to facilitate orientation of views in terms of scale and spatial position and planning other urban utilities.

The following sections cover the key benefits of compact city, green city and smart city approaches and its aspects in planning.