urban (6)

Urgent Requirement for Urban Professionals

We are looking to appoint personnel for the following positions:

1.Urban Planner: Bachelor Degree in Urban Planning with around 5 years experience; Sound knowledge of land use and urban & spatial planning, data collection and analysis and urban reforms;

2.Municipal Finance/Accounts Professional: Masters Degree or equivalent in Finance/ Commerce/ Economics with around 5 years of experience. Sound knowledge in municipal financial analysis, municipal budgeting, taxation, accounting, audit related matters, municipal financial reforms and Double Entry Accounting System.

3.Municipal Engineering Professional: Degree in Civil Engineering with 5 years of experience in municipal services (water supply, sewerage, drainage, solid waste management) delivery assessment & reforms, design norms and contracting.

4.Social /Community Development Professional: Masters Degree or equivalent in Social Development disciplines with around 5 years of experience in social safeguard issues, community mobilization , urban poor development activities and pro poor reforms. Knowledge of working with urban poor in Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) programs will be an additional advantage.

5.IT Professional: Graduate in Computer Science/ IT related discipline with 5 years experience. Good knowledge of municipal e-Governance, conversant and hands on experience of working on Electronic Data Processing (EDP), networking solutions, basic IT troubleshooting, data management and IT related reforms.

The positions would be based out of the following places: Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Rourkee, Dehradun, Haridwar, Jammu, Shimla, Allahabad, Farukkabad, Varanasi, Bharuch, Udaipur, Jabalpur, Dewas, Chhindwara, Raipur, Nagpur, Sholapur, Vishakapatnam, Guntur, Repalli, Hubli, Gulbarga, Kollam and Panaji.

Project duration is 42 months.

Interested candidates could send in their resumes within October 6, 2013 to:antara.ray@in.pwc.com

Read more…

The Waste Capital, Delhi

While the almost every well-read urban Indian youth is today, in some way, involved in advocacy or activism, none seems to be too keenly interested in being responsible citizens or Environmentally conscious and we've a proof of that.

Perhaps one would expect the young, all one-third of the total to be a little more responsible in their actions. Quite the contrary, as we observed to our utter dismay. Welcome to Vishwavidyalaya metro station premises, in the core University area, a hub of Delhi youth. 

http://www.theunknownpen.com/editors-desk/the-other-side-of-delhi/

Read more…

The fast growing economy, rapid industrialisation and growing urban population in India along with increasing wastewater generation are reasons for concern and reiterate the need for appropriate water management practices.

Centre for Science and Environment recognises this need and has developed a five-day hands on training programme aimed at giving practical exposure to participants on wastewater treatment for industrial and
urban wastewater management including reuse and recycle.

The objective of this programme is to build capacity and create awareness among regulators, developers, consultants, NGOs, students and academics to understand wastewater treatment process, technologies and affordable treatment options. The programme further aims at evaluating the performance and design parameters along with the applicable cost implication associated with each treatment system.

TOOLS
Lectures by experts, site visits to existing projects, practical group exercises, presentations by participants, reference materials and film screening.

 

TARGET AUDIENCE
Regulators, Consultants, Engineers, Environment Managers, NGOs, Academics and Students.

COURSE FEE:
The course fee is Rs. 9900 per participant. The fee includes training material, field visit, lunch, tea/coffee and refreshments during training and field visit.

Discounts for NGOs and students: They can avail a discount of 25% on the course fee. Discounted seats are limited and offered on first come first serve basis.

Fellowships Available for South Asian Participants.
Participants will get a certificate at the end of the course.

 

PROGRAMME SCHEDULE
Date: January 7-11, 2013
Timings: 9.00 am to 5.00 pm

 

Venue: Anil Agarwal Green College
Centre for Science and Environment,
38, Tughlakabad Institutional Area (Near Batra Hospital)
New Delhi- 110062

 

FOR REGISTERATION
Last Date for Applying: December 29, 2012

 

For information contact:
Deblina Dwivedi
Senior Research Associate – Urban Water Programme
Swati Singh
Research Associate – EIA Unit
Email: deblina@cseindia.org, swati@cseindia.org
Mobile: 9899596661, 9910496283

urban%20wastewater%20AD%281%29.pdf

Read more…

The 21st Century Urban City Planning

garden-city-urban-planning.jpg
The main factors governing Urban planning are: Climate Change,Resource Depletion,Food Insecurity and Economic Instability. If cities have to be sustainable for the future these issues have to be addressed immediately. An argument was put forward in the meetings of UN Habitat world forum and the World planners congress in Vancouver, 2006 that the profession of Urban planning has to be reviewed under the light of policies which are pro-poor and create sustainable livelihoods at the center of planning efforts.
 

Influential Forms of Urban Planning of the 20th Century 
 
1. Neighborhood Unit - Low population density,full of open spaces, focused on community facilities, and assumed to create viable social communities.
 
2.Radburn Layout - Separates motorized traffic from pedestrians, characterized by open spaces and super blocks free of traffic.
 
3. Urban Renewal - Slum clearance and rehousing projects following Radburn and neighborhood layouts.
 
4. Road Hierarchy - creates a hierarchy of roads to take care of the urban traffic and its management. The lowest level of the hierarchy is the Environmental Cell, which takes care of local traffic. At the higher levels are the district and long distance traffic grids.
 
5. Suburbia - Assumes very high level of car ownership and large densities of population around structured areas of growth in a city. The residential complexes are development at the Urban periphery, are single family units and consists of large areas of Car movement systems and community facility networks.
 
city_planning.jpg
The challenges confronting the cities of 21st Century

 
Environmental Concern - 
1.The economics of climate change include access to basic elements of life such as Drinking water,Food production, and health and sanitation requirements.
 
2. Current economies are Oil based. Hence emission control is a major concern in both developing and developed economies.
 
Economic Concern -
 
1. The economic restructuring in current decades have lead to addition of gender dimension to the existing working culture. Women are disproportionately concentrated in the informal economies,particularly trades which involve low paid activities.
 
2. As the world economies have become integrated, rapid effects of recessions are predominant across all the countries of the Globe. Unemployment is a rapid phenomenon in almost all the countries of the world whenever the cycles of economics turn towards the recessionary position.
Urban Population Expansion -
 
1. From 2007 to 2025, the annual rate of change of urban population is expected to be 2.27% (developing regions) and 0.49% (developed regions), as per a report by UN Habitat,year 2008. The result of such a phenomenon is that while some of the cities in the West are experiencing 'Shrinkage', others in the East are becoming 'Mega-cities' of the future. This causes problems in terms of infrastructure management and local governance.
 
2. According to the Human development report 2009 by UN Habitat, close to 37% of the Urban population live in slums in inequitable and life threatening conditions. This issue of Urbanization of poverty is becoming a rapid phenomenon in developing countries experiencing rapid rate of growth in urban population.
 
Thus such concerns have refocused attention on Urban planning. The findings that approximately 17% of the cities in the developing world are experiencing an annual growth rate of around 4% or more, have lead to the growing concern of accommodating such population in the cities of the future. As, in many parts of the world old and conventional  methods of Urban planning still exist, new methods of sustainable urban planning need to focus on Pro- poor dwelling developments,Improved resource utilization and better access to the local economies to reduce unemployment.
 
6a0120a66d2ad4970b013489ad0302970c-500wi
New Approaches of Urban Planning 
 
1. Strategic Spatial Planning - It focuses on those aspects of a city that are important to the overall objectives of the Urban plan. The Spatial planning consists of directives and frameworks of conceptual urban plan rather than actual detailed plan. The important aspects of the Spatial plan have to be integrated with the regulatory aspects of Governing local policies.
 
2. New Approaches to Land Regularization and Management - The informal sector of cities are an issue of concern in New age Urban planning. These approaches focus on Positive Business aspects of such a sector and plans the urban dwelling accordingly.
 
3. New Forms of Master Plan - These plans are Bottom up, Participatory, Social Justice Oriented and aim to counter the effects of Land speculations. One important aspect is the Special Zones of Land access. This aims to control the dynamics of real estate market, provide secure housing to all and protect against down raiding the poor.
 
4. Compact City and New Urbanism - This approach adheres to spatial principles but at the local levels. This promotes cities with a fine grained mix of housing types,attractive public realms, pedestrian friendly street-scapes and public transportation access at ease.
 
 
4dc1c4445b46c.preview-300.png
To conclude, most of the new developments in Urban Planning aim to integrate with the governance processes. The regulatory frameworks need to have socially inclusive policies. The planning system should have the ability to adapt to the impending problems of environmental concerns and economic issues. Moreover, such activities have to be closely aligned with progressive National policies to promote long term sustainability of such Urban landscapes. 
Read more…

Delhi- The village I started knowing

I had a dream I, stood beneath an orange sky...with my brother standing by.The kaleidoscope is much clearer and boisterous when you actually squat there like other living entities and be a part of the whole experience. On a nice lazy Sunday evening, when there are chances of you might getting few drops of rain, you see it as an opportunity to beat the heat, rather thrash it into the puddle.So I went out, rather my legs took me wherever they liked; I basically surrendered to my 6th sense. As I moved along the road near my house, the alleys became narrower and after a point of time I could see lesser human habitation and more of downtrodden houses and shambles of trees, but interestingly longer farms and other forms of settlement that included birds, insects and fishes.It just seemed like a rural village in the midst of city. And then my mind took its leap, and I started thinking about a thousand of these urban villages. As I moved along a narrowed road, like the ones we have in remotest hill stations, I saw a trail of sunflowers and then my sight widened into a field of short grass, and an orchard where there were fruit trees of diverse varieties. It felt like I was in a very different state or I hadn’t seen this part of my city.I could see a bridge cum (linking two worlds) gate in front. It is called “Kheri Baba Pul” where Pul is for bridge. Its name reminded me of something amusing. There were people selling Fish, Corn, Cigarettes. I could hear loud noise of water somewhere around me. My brother said it’s a River. Though my geography was never at its peak, I couldn't imagine a river flowing anywhere near Dwarka. I asked a local if it’s some drain and he replied affirmatively. In any case there is hardly any difference between a drain and river. The pollution levels have shot up their limits. Locals are forced to take bath, wash clothes, utensils and even catch fishes which become a slightest part of their livelihood. There I saw few men wearing lungis and children running criss cross over mud and moving cycle tyres with the help of little sticks. People were looking at the drain where few men were collecting fishes. It was a great source of entertainment option for these people, in a way revenue source too. There was a single government school in the whole of godknowshowmuch kilometres and looking at it a something struck my mind “Berlin Wall”.On the other side of the bridge, I could not see anything. I was blinded by the dust storm. After it all settled down, I could see there wasn’t proper road or I should say any road on the other side. There were all sorts of animals cows, buffaloes, Horses. There were cow dung cakes being dried up on the walls. All of a sudden I saw 2 Pajero’s vrooming past me. Crowd didn’t care much for that, their interests were sidelined by Drain fishing game or run thy rubber competition.It was as if the people, their lives were a maze, all jumbled up. Their faces were coherent, almost inescapable to any naked human eye. They were like human magnets that could attract any life in vicinity. My mind raced amongst those running tyres and I started thinking, “What does this kind of living mean to them, what all they expect out of this mess?” Then I looked at the eye spying clouds that had totally lost their charm for me for they had started disappearing out of ignorance, I guess and all I saw was orange sky above my head.I squat there like others and started, glaring at it and other events happening around, slowly even I settled down and I kept on looking at the mighty orange coloured sky and I never cared for my answer after that.
Read more…