Most of the world’s prosperous and largest cities are in the world’s largest economies. This is another evidence of the link between economic wealth of nations and cities. Can you think of the United States of America without New York and Chicago? The United Kingdom without London; China without Beijing and Shanghai; and Japan without Tokyo? Similarly, India’s growth story will be completely different sans Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.
Large functional urban regions have their advantages. These are generally self-contained in that they generate a big share of demand for what they produce. Many linkages required for successful business operation remain available in metropolitan regions. Business houses get benefits from each other’s complementary roles hence urban centres become more productive than any rural region in which many layers work in isolation at long distances.
No country has achieved and sustained economic growth without the growth of their cities. Cities account for anywhere between 60 and 90 per cent of GDP of almost every nation. Cities are the driving force of national economies. According to an UN-Habitat report titled ‘Economic Role of Cities’, cities generate more than 80 per cent of global GDP today. Of which the top 100 largest cities could account for 35 per cent of global GDP; the top 600 cities are expected to generate 62 per cent of global GDP by 2025; the top 1,000 cities could account for 68 per cent of global GDP and the top 2,000 could account for 75 per cent of global GDP.
This makes the role of cities very important for everything a nation aspires to do. Cities are indeed engines of growth, prosperity. It becomes very important for nations to give adequate attention to all the components responsible for building and sustaining a city. Because when cities fail, nations falter and stumble on their path to prosperity.
Cities in different countries are plagued with different issues and they have developed some successful models which are worth looking at because those simple models can resolve complex urban issues elsewhere too. Some models have failed too but they also provide us with an important lesson on what does not work in cities. Whether it is livable cities of Australia or forest cities in China or smart cities of India, they all have a story to tell, a script to write for a better urban future.
China’s Forest City
In these times when many countries are struggling to sustain their urban forests and trees as builders and many other players are eying expensive urban lands, China is building its own Forest City, Liuzhou Forest City, in northern China’s mountainous province-Guangxi. This is commissioned by Liuzhou Municipality Urban Planning and designed by Stefano Boeri Architects, famous for Milan’s Vertical Forest, or Bosco Verticale in Italian.
The city will be built on an area of about 175 hectares next to Liujiang Lake. The city that will house over 30,000 people will be an organized unit of buildings, streets, trees and plants. And, in this city, trees and plants will not be only for decoration purposes but will be a primary part. The inhabitants will be able to enjoy all kinds of urban services amidst a forest. The construction of this city is expected to be completed by 2020.
The project plan claims that it will be nearly impossible to distinguish the urban centre from the green area that surrounds it when observed from above. It further adds: “Liuzhou Forest City will be the first zero impact, autonomous urban agglomeration. As underlined by Stefano Boeri Architects, the city will have all the characteristics of a fully self-sufficient settlement from an energy standpoint: geothermal energy will be used for temperature regulation inside the buildings and an integrated solar panel system will be installed on the roofs; the connections between the new centre and the city of Liuzhou will be guaranteed by an electric
train railway.”
Such projects in existing cities can become the lungs of cities and address the problem of air pollution, increasing temperature, etc. without affecting the productivity of a city. The forest city project of China is expected to absorb 57 tonnes of CO2 and particulate matter, and produce 900 tonnes of oxygen every year, as well as reducing average temperatures. This single project has proposed to plant 40,000 trees and approximately one million plants of more than a hundred different species that will be placed in streets and buildings. There are many redevelopment works underway in Indian cities too under various missions of the Government of India and our planners can follow this kind of city development model for addressing environmental issues.
The fundamental concept behind the theme advanced by Boeri and his team are those of urban forestry and the protection of biodiversity in large cities. Some of the key aspects of his approach include restraint on the use of cement, blocking the expansion of cities by enclosing them in forests, safeguarding forests and biodiversity within cities to reduce pollution, and finally making nature an essential component of architecture. In a report, he says, “Cities produce nearly 70 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions, the cause behind phenomena such as the greenhouse effect, the melting of ice caps and sea-level rise, whilst forests and oceans are the main enemies of CO2, absorbing approximately 35 per cent of the amount emitted. Bringing forests within cities or creating forest cities means fighting the enemy on its turf, and transforming carbon dioxide into a fertiliser to feed plants”.
Barcelona: Leader among Smart Cities
Barcelona is among the few cities that started the smart city revolution. The city along with a select few other global cities such cities as Singapore, Vienna, San Francisco, and Copenhagen has been a pioneer player in smart urban planning and integration of technology in urban services.
The city has taken advantage of technological advancements in almost every urban service for the benefit of residents. The city has used smart sensors, big data analytics in parking and transportation, trash collection and waste management, air quality, and water supply. For this, the city has its own Chief Technology Officer who continues to utilize the new inventions for improving civic services.
According to details available on its official website, the city has also developed data infrastructure consisting of three components: Sentilo, an open-source data collection and sensor platform; CityOS, another open-source platform that analyzes the data; and a user interface level of service apps to enable easier access to the data – all the data. The city also makes the data available to citizens and private companies but the citizens decide the proper access and issues related to privacy. Making data available to people has enabled them to come up with solutions to their day-to-day problems.
The city is also working to make its citizenry smart and digitally literate. Barcelona Digital City website also has sections such as FabLabs which focus on imparting digital education in children; VinclesBCN for helping senior citizens to learn digital technology; Decidim provides an experimental, “open, secure and free” platform to crowd-source ideas and test their viability. If the citizens have approved the idea then the city takes the idea to the implementation level.
Not just with digital intervention, the city has also rolled out some simple yet powerful policies to improve quality of life of its citizens. Superblocks is one of those ideas. The concept was developed by Salvador Rueda, director of the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona. The city released its Mobility Plan in 2014 in which “organization of the city’s urban pattern in superblocks and other calming measures” was the first mainline action for making city’s mobility safe, sustainable, equitable and efficient.
The plan read: the implementation of the different phases of the Plan of Superblocks in the city of Barcelona will allow to reorganize the mobility networks and, in turn, increase the proportion of public space dedicated to the citizen. With the full implementation of the Plan, the pedestrian areas will go from the current 74.5 hectares to 750 hectares where pedestrians and bicycles will have priority. The inner streets will win urban quality by incorporating improvements in accessibility, reducing noise and pollution and enhancing road safety, with the possibility of increasing urban green spaces and recreational uses and activities in the streets, etc.
Salvador Rueda, in an interview to Cities of the Future, explains, “A Superblock is defined by a grid of nine blocks where the main mobility happens on the roads around the outside of the Superblock, and the roads within the Superblock are for local transit only. The one-way system inside the Superblock makes it impossible to cut through to the other side of the Superblock. That gives neighbours access to their garages and parking spaces but keeps the Superblock clear of through traffic.” The maximum speed on the roads within the Superblock is limited to 20 km/h. By restricting car traffic within each Superblock, neighbourhoods have become less polluted and noisy, and the streets are freed up for children, pedestrians, and small businesses.
Some other good examples
Australian cities have been among the most livable cities of the world for years together in many indices. They have also been promoting walkability in their cities for quite a long time. When Indian cities are trying to become smart by optimizing and making basic civic services available, many global cities have moved forward with making 311 services online that address non-emergency services.
Indian cities also need to make complaint redressal mechanism robust. When the government has been introducing new taxes and people are managing ways to pay, people will not mind paying extra charges for the services they require. People should be able to register their complaints such as noise complaints, pothole repair, animal menace, water leakage, defunct street light, waterlogging, disease control, and other services. Indian cities should also think of a model similar to 311 in the USA. Now with the advancement in technology, WhatsApp or Social Media platforms can also address the problem. Many small councils may not find it feasible to implement such projects but cash-rich corporations like BMC can take the lead.
Chicago and Boston in America have taken the lead by providing a wealth of 311 open data that allows programmers to create innovative apps that keep citizens up-to-date and help city workers provide faster, better services. The city of Denver has built a Peak Academy to train its employees on innovation. London has initiated a crowdsourcing program for public works. Many such ideas are floating in the urban domain. Many of them can be initiated locally and some of them need policy reforms in which the central government can play an important role. It is also the time that cities begin demanding such reforms based on their needs. The bottom-up approach in policy reforms can bring visible changes in our cities.