National Institute of Urban Affairs

Climate change has catastrophic consequences, resulting in a rise in the duration, frequency, and severity of these events. The IPCC predicts that the upsurge in temperatures will cause the melting of glaciers and thawing of permafrost, resulting in a visible shift in the mountain ecosystem. This phenomenon will cause flooding in the downstream regions and subsequent changes in land surfaces, making it critical to research the impact of rising temperatures on low land temperatures, essentially permafrost. Permafrost undergoes biological processes, and its thawing leads to the release of trapped GHGs. This would only accelerate the existing problem of climate change, making it one of the primary factors causing catastrophic events worldwide. Studies suggest that permafrost degradation raises the dangers in mountain areas by increasing the likelihood of landslides and land subsidence. Against this setting, this paper focuses on assessing and monitoring the mountainous permafrost land surfaces found in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh, India. The initial results of permafrost thaw can be observed as they are local, with an increase in green cover and the formation of craters. An emphasis on this research will aid in developing predictive modelling tools, early warning systems, and strategies for safeguarding people, as well as provide localised solutions using digital SOPs for preparedness in case of events. Furthermore, a bi-annual geospatial analysis to monitor changes, their leading causes, and impacts on livelihoods and ecosystem services is imperative to plan strategies for the NDCs at the national level.

This paper is an empirical attempt to demonstrate the significance of capacity-building training which was conducted by the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) on behalf of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U). The paper focuses on sanitation and solid-waste management (SWM), two issues which are directly under the purview of urban local bodies (ULBs). The objectives of the SBM-U 1.0 are to make all cities and towns open defecation free and garbage free by 2 October 2019. Towards this end, NIUA has conducted training-cum-exposure workshops in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 for ULBs. These comprise orientation, technical sessions as well as field visits. The pedagogy of these workshops is based on experiential learning theory (ELT), with suitable innovations, employed for educating through first-hand experience. An evaluation of the efficacy of the ELT model was carried out through a research questionnaire filled out by the participants during 2017–2018 and 2018–2019 of selected states and was analysed for the understanding and implementation of service-level processing parameters in their states.

The present research has been performed to analyze the chemical behavior of rainwater of the Shaune Garang catchment (32.19° N, 78.20° E) in the Baspa basin, located at a high elevation (4221 m above mean sea level) in the Himachal Himalaya, India. During the study period, sixteen rainwater samples were collected from the Shaune Garang catchment at five different sites. The volume-weighted mean (VWM) pH value of rainwater ranged between 4.59 and 6.73, with an average value of 5.47 ± 0.69, indicating the alkaline nature of rainfall. The total ionic strength in the rainwater ranged from 113.4 to 263.3 µeq/l with an average value of 169.1 ± 40.4 µeq/l. The major dominant cations were Ca2+ (43.10%) and Na+ (31.97%) and anions were Cl− (37.68%), SO42− (28.71%) and NO3− (23.85%) in rainwater. The ionic ratios were calculated among all the ions. The fraction of (NO3− +Cl−) with SO42− was measured as 2.3, which specifies sour faces of rainwater due to HNO3, H2SO4, and HCl. A multivariate statistical assessment of rainwater chemistry through Principal Component Analysis (PCA) shows the significance of four factors controlling 78.37% of the total variance, including four-component (PC1 explained 27.89%, PC2 explained 24.98%, PC3 explained 14.64%, PC4 explained 10.85%). However, the individual contribution of Factor 1(PC1) explains 27.89% of the total variance (78.37%) and displays a strong optimistic loading for Ca2+ and Cl−. Further, high loading of Ca2+ and NO3− and moderate loading of SO42− signify the contribution of burning fossil fuel and soil dust. Anthropogenic and natural pollutants influence the composition of rainwater in the pristine Himalayas due to local and long-distance transportation. The study area receives precipitation from the West and North-West, transporting dust and fossil fuel emissions from the Thar Desert and Northwestern countries.

Resilient water infrastructure is critical for public and environmental health, as well as for different economic sectors. It is the one of the primary mediums through which the overall concept of resiliency is translated on the ground. Therefore, the role of water infrastructure in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cannot be over-emphasized. It essentially cuts across most of the seventeen goals directly or indirectly. This chapter elaborates and clarifies the linkages between water infrastructural solutions and various elements of sustainable development through national level statistical analysis and five local case studies in Asia. It also highlights issues and challenges in water infrastructure development and implementation that will have to be addressed in order to make a meaningful contribution to the achievement of the SDGs.

Growth of slums, urban poverty and inequality, deteriorating quality of the urban environment, unplanned growth, rapid periurbanisation and growth of sprawls, and deficiencies in the coverage of basic urban services have plagued Indian urbanisation. Through micro-level surveys in select slums and squatters in Delhi and Bangalore, this study attempts to identify the structural and institutional barriers to full engagement of marginalized groups in processes and mechanisms of local democracy, including participation in community based organizations in the provision of basic urban services. Results indicate two prominent categories of exclusion, viz, institutional including housing, land and basic services and structural including barriers to participation of women in economic, social and political activities. These manifest in various forms of inadequacies for different vulnerable groups. To elucidate, the migrants, living mostly in rented accommodation, have lower coverage to basic amenities as compared to the non-migrants. Similarly, the condition of the scheduled population is poor as compared to non-scheduled population. The condition is also poor for the low-income households. The slum dwellers from both cities perceive that providing support to elderly and disabled population, women and child safety, improving connectivity to slums and developing infrastructure and community based preparedness for disaster should be on high priority for the government. The slum dwellers showed low faith in local government as compared to NGOs, in whom they have higher confidence. An integrated approach to urban planning and management with proper targeting of beneficiaries may ensure inclusion of the disadvantaged sections of the society.

With the changing global epicenter of urbanization to Asia and Africa, the present concern is to formulate a clear agenda to guide the developing countries of these two continents on their ways towards being urban. Most of these countries are poised with several challenges, emerging from lack of a context-specific national-level policy framework. Therefore, NUP has been a central agenda to SDG (11) and National Urban Agenda (NUA), proposed in the UN-Habitat III conference (2016), which provides a vision to these countries. Whereas most of the developed countries of Europe and Australia are at their second or third generation of NUP, most of the developing countries are at their initial stages of policy formulation and need a lot more guidance to frame a clearer path for a sustainable urban future. Also, the smart city experiences from countries like Korea and Singapore may be of help to the developing countries in the formulation of their respective NUPs.

Madurai city, in the state of Tamil Nadu, is one of the ancient temple cities of India and has been existing since two millennia. It is the second largest city in terms of area and the third largest in terms of population in the state. Despite this, the city’s population and economy is shrinking. In 2010, the city’s boundary expanded to cover the entire urban agglomeration. But even after 9 years of integration, differences exist between the newly merged areas and the old city. The spatial division in provision of basic services coupled with the characteristics of a shrinking city has posed fundamental challenges in the path of sustainable development. This article discusses the development of Madurai city with regard to its history, demography, economy, health and education infrastructure. It also offers insights into the unique challenges faced by the city and discusses the policy implications for reversal of the retardation of the city to that of holistic progress.

Abstract The interest in planning theory, particularly focused on housing, and the need to explain a resurgence of the urban informal sector in First and Third World contexts within the framework of globalization have particularly influenced emerging research in this area. The dynamism exhibited by the Asian metropolises and their particular location in national economic and political trajectories result in specific contestations which are manifested spatially and among diverse communities. Emerging global financial, cultural, ideological, and political flows through these cities configure urban informality in unique ways that offer insights on temporospatial processes in cities as well as on transnational urbanism. This entry focuses on the major dimensions of urban informality as a subject, changes over time, and current emphases of work in research theory. It argues that planners across the globe must learn to work with emerging urban forms. Policy epistemologies emerging from such studies are useful not only for cities of the developing world but also more generally for the discipline of urban planning.