Sustainable Urbanism in Developing Countries

Uday Chatterjee, Arindam Biswas, Jenia Mukherjee, Dinabandhu Mahata, Uday Chatterjee, Arindam Biswas, Jenia Mukherjee, Dinabandhu Mahata

• Editorial: CRC Press
• Año: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000572391
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Arquitectura
• Categoría: Planificación urbana y paisajismo

The mushrooming of illegal housing on the periphery of cities is one of the main consequences of rapid urbanisation associated with social and environmental problems in the developing countries. Sustainable Urbanism in Developing Countries discusses the linkage between urbanism and sustainability and how sustainable urbanism can be implemented to overcome the problems of housing and living conditions in urban areas. Through case studies from India, Indonesia, China, etc., using advanced GIS techniques, this book analyses several planning and design criteria to solve the physical, social, and economic problems of urbanisation and refers to urban planning as an effective measure to protect and promote the cultural characteristics of specific locations in these developing countries.

FEATURES

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• Investigates an interdisciplinary approach to urbanism, including urban ecology, ecosystem services, sustainable landscapes, and advanced geographical systems

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• Analyses unique case studies of rapid urbanisation from a local to a national scale in countries such as India, Sri Lanka, China, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia and their global impact

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• Examines the use of GIS and spatial statistics in analysing urban sprawl and the massive amount of data gathered by every operational activity of municipalities

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• Focuses on the holistic perspective of sustainable urbanism and the harmony in the human–nature relationship to achieve sustainable development

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• Covers a wide range of issues manifested in urban areas with economic, societal, and environmental implications contributed by leading scholars from the Global South

Part I Local, Regional and Global Perspectives on Sustainable Urbanism

1 Alternative Rehabilitation Program against Agricultural Land Acquisition for New Development Projects A Case Study of New Town, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Puspita Sengupta

Purash Kanpur Haridas Nandi Mahavidyalaya (University of Calcutta), Howrah, India

DOI: 10.1201/9781003131922-2

Contents

1. 1.1 Introduction
2. 1.2 Study Area
3. 1.3 Planning and Policies behind the Development of New Town Kolkata
   • 1.3.1 Planning Stages
   • 1.3.2 Assessment of Policies
4. 1.4 Issues and Concerns from Land-Use Change
5. 1.5 Provision of Rehabilitation under Land Legislation
   • 1.5.1 Land Acquisition Act (LAA), 1894
   • 1.5.2 The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Henceforth RFCTLARR) Act, 2013
   • 1.5.3 The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014
   • 1.5.4 The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015
6. 1.6 Existing Rehabilitation Program
7. 1.7 Proposal for Alternative Rehabilitation Program
   • 1.7.1 Mango Orchard in Vacant Land
   • 1.7.2 Floriculture in Open Space
8. 1.8 Conclusion
9. Acknowledgments
10. References

1.1 Introduction

Land is a vital natural resource which is limited and immovable. Land plays a dynamic role in determining the economic, societal and cultural progression of mankind. Since the dawn of human civilization, men have been domesticating land in their need for food, fodder and shelter. However, such land conversion has severely impacted the landscape over the last 300 years through the period of post-industrial revolution. Land conversion is ‘the process by which land is converted from one use to another like agricultural to urban use and from one urban use to another’ and ‘is indeed a normal outcome of the urban development process’ (Firman 1997). With the increasing dependency of the majority of the global population on land for their livelihood, agricultural land conversion is not merely a matter of environmental concern but also significantly related to social well-being. According to Grigg, in England and Wales in the 1930s, about 240,000 hectares/year of farmland was lost, while about half a million hectares of farmland was converted to non-farm uses during 1940–1950 in California (Grigg 1995). Taiwan has also witnessed significant reduction of cultivated land area by approximately 17,000 hectares, from about 907,000 hectares in 1980 to about 890,000 hectares in 1990. ‘A large portion of the area lost to farming has been converted to industrial, urban and other development uses’ (Tsai 1993). Estimates show that the annual increase in built-up areas was around 3.6% in developing countries between 1990 and 2000 (Angel et al. 2005). Among world regions, East Asia, including the Pacific, and Southeast Asia witnessed the most intensive land consumption, with growth rates of 7.2% and 6.4%, respectively (Siedentop and Nuissl 2021). In the year 2000, there was more than 650,000 sq. km of urbanized land globally, while another 550,000 sq km of fringe area is waiting to be urbanized by 2030 (Berg 2012). In respect of the European Union, Kuemmerle et al. (2016) made this observation in relation to land conversion:

The most widespread changes in the extent of land-use categories in the EU between 1990 and 2006 were cropland decline (∼136,660 km²), followed by expansion of grazing land (∼75,670 km²), and expansion of forest areas (∼70,630 km²). The least common conversion among broad land-use categories was urban expansion (∼16,820 km²). … At the European scale, these area changes translate into moderate land-conversion rates in the agricultural sector between 1990 and 2006, ranging from −13.4% for permanent crops to +6.5% for meadows and pastures, while urban areas expanded by approximately 21%.

(Kuemmerle et al. 2016)

The various reasons behind the development of the built-up areas include rapid and uncontrolled population growth, industrial development and economic growth which have continuously necessitated transformation of land-use patterns (Dutta et al. 2019). The changes in land use in the suburbs are mainly due to the expansion of urban areas due to the urban sprawl (Bhat et al. 2017) or the development of new towns and the growth of the public transport system which permits a significant amount of the labor force to commute daily (Karasian et al. 2017). The urban areas expand outwards naturally, leading to conversion of agricultural and other natural land cover types into built-up area (Dutta et al. 2020). This land- use change causes global environmental changes (Turner et al. 1994) and the livelihood of the primary sectors are also at stake.

India has witnessed speedy growth in urbanization as the urban population rose from 25.72% (1991) to 27.86% (2001) and in 2011, it was 31.16%. Another data reveals that about 42% of the total urban population (311.7 million in 2011) lives in metropolitan cities resulting in overcrowding and congestion. Average population density of the top seven metropolitan areas in India remains as high as 3,768 persons/km² (2011). To cope with these problems, new towns are being developed in the vicinity of major metropolises, such as Navi Mumbai near Mumbai, New Town Kolkata near Kolkata and Gurgaon near Delhi. Under the regime of neo-liberalization, these new towns are generally developed by converting agricultural land to built-up areas as they are established purely on a ‘plantation’ basis (Beresford 1967). In this conversion process generally three parties with unequal bargaining power are involved, namely developers, government and the land owners, with the environment, identified as the mute fourth party to this conversion process, mostly remaining unattended and ignored. This land conversion has required huge investments which are generally carried by private investors, which in turn may lead to job creation and a rise in the income of local people. Moreover, the creation of infrastructure speeds up economic development as well as facilitating foreign direct investments, leading to an increase in export revenues and helping maintain the national trade balance (Lohr 2010). On the other hand, additional revenues in the form of different taxes are earned by the local government, and these can be spent on welfare programs. Hence, land conversion and planning for new developments usually occur under the nexus of interest of private investors and the government. Land owners from primary occupations, such as farmers, fishermen and forest dwellers, are obviously weaker parties in the negotiation process, with limited ability to resist land conversion. Also, land conversion is often preceded by land acquisition and eviction of the original inhabitants (both people and other creatures). Though there is land legislation to protect individuals’ property rights in most countries, in the case of India, the state enjoys the legitimate power to acquire private land for defined ‘public purposes’ or is indirectly legitimized to displace people from their land for the sake of ‘public interest’. Estimates show that 60 million Indians were displaced between independence and 2004, and over 25 million hectares of land, including 7 million hectares of forest land, have been converted for various purposes (Fernandes 2008). 1.5 m...

Índice

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Editors
• Contributors
• Part I Local, Regional and Global Perspectives on Sustainable Urbanism
• Part II Urban Planning, Innovation and Urban Resilience for Sustainable Development
• Part III Environmental Management and Ecosystem Services
• Part IV A Multidimensional Approach to Urban Ecology, Space, Society and Sustainability
• Index