What is urban planning.

What is Urban Planning?

Urban planning can be defined as a technical and political process concerned with the welfare of people, control of the use of land, design of the urban environment including transportation and communication networks, and protection and enhancement of the natural environment.

Urban development is societal development.

Planning and managing the development of contemporary cities is one of the major societal challenges all over the world today.

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Career Opportunities:

Career opportunities for Urban Planning graduates remain strong. These graduates would get jobs in public sector, private sector, real estate, service firms, social agencies, non-profit housing groups, international consulting companies and many more. Foreign countries like USA, Europe, Asia would definitely hire these graduates. One can also pursue higher education like master's degree in urban planning and Ph.D in urban planning in foreign nations. What are the job roles: Urban Planner Urban Designer Planning Advisor City Planner Planning Manager

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Defining urban contexts

The definition of an urban setting varies from one context to another; it is usually agreed upon by governments at national level. However, there are a number of elements that constitute an urban setting that can be adapted and applied across contexts.

Type

Description

Urban Setting

An urban setting can be defined broadly on the basis of population density, concentration of administrative bodies and infrastructure and a diverse set of livelihood and income generation activities. Urban areas will be characterized by high population density when compared to other areas. While some cities are defined by municipal boundaries, many urban centers have not been designated as such. They are usually characterized by the presence of administrative structures such as government offices and courts and a relative concentration of services such as hospitals and financial institutions such as banks. In an urban setting, the forms of livelihood and income generation activities will be diverse and unlike rural areas not bound mainly to agricultural production. If the area in question fits some if not all of these basic characteristics, it can be regarded as urban.

Peri-urban Setting

Traditional definitions of peri-urban are tied to proximity to urban areas. Areas that are located on the outskirts of cities or large urban areas but retain rural characteristics such as substantial reliance on agricultural production are generally considered as peri-urban. It is important to note that peri-urban areas are not merely those which are close to cities and may include areas that are not neighboring urban centers. Peri-urban areas are those which are characterized by a mix of rural and urban characteristics.

Rural

Relatively low to no presence of administrative structures and government services and other infrastructure. Livelihood activities are predominantly centered on agricultural production.

How to differentiate Urban Areas from Rural Areas

There are often national differences in the characteristics that distinguish urban from rural areas. For national purposes, as well as for international comparability, the most common unit of classification for urban and rural locations cited by the United Nations is the

1. Size of the locality, or if this is not possible,
2. The smallest administrative division of the country.

Scope of Urban Planning

The professional urban planner works on the creation and management of the urban environment, including its physical, economic, and social elements.

1.     Housing,

2.     Transportation,

3.     Air and water quality,

4.     The preservation of historic communities,

5.     And the development of community-level economic and employment programs

Types of Urban Settlements

DEFINITION OF URBAN SETTLEMENTS:

Defines urban settlements as “All places which have municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee and have a minimum population of 5000 persons, at least 75 per cent of male workers are engaged in non-agricultural pursuits and a density of population of at least 400 persons per square kilometers are urban. 

EVOLUTION OF Urban Settlements:

The first urban settlement to reach a population of one million was the city of London by around. A.D. 1810. By 1982 approximately 175 cities in the world had crossed the one million population mark. Presently 48 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban settlements compared to only 3 per cent in the year 1800.

BASIS FOR CLASSIFICATION OF URBAN SETTLEMENTS

The definition of urban areas varies from one country to another. Some of the common bases of classification are size of

• population,
• occupational structure and
• administrative setup.

POPULATION SIZE:

In India the size of population, density of 400 persons per sq km and share of non-agricultural workers are taken into consideration.

OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURE

In India if more than 50 per cent of its economically productive population is engaged in non-agricultural pursuits.

Administration Setup:

For example, in India, a settlement of any size is classified as urban, if it has a municipality, Cantonment Board or Notified Area Council.

Types of Urban Settlements:

Depending on the size and the services available and functions rendered, urban centers are designated as town, city, million city, conurbation, and megalopolis.

Town (more than 5000ppl):

The concept of ‘town’ can best be understood with reference to ‘village’. Population size is not the only criterion. Functional contrasts between towns and villages may not always be clear cut, but specific functions such as, manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, and professional services exist in towns.

City (more than 1 lac):

A city may be regarded as a leading town, which has outstripped its local or regional rivals. In the words of Lewis Mumford, “the city is in fact the physical form of the highest and most complex type of associative life”. Cities are much larger than towns and have a greater number of economic functions. They tend to have transport terminals, major financial institutions and regional administrative offices. When the population crosses the one million mark it is designated as a million city.

Conurbation (pop of 2 or more cities combined):

The term conurbation was coined by Patrick Geddes in 1915 and applied to a large area of urban development that resulted from the merging of originally separate towns or cities. Greater London, Manchester, Chicago and Tokyo are examples.

Megalopolis (more than 10 million):

This Greek word meaning “great city”, was popularized by Jean Gottman (1957) and signifies ‘super- metropolitan’ region extending, as union of conurbations. The urban landscape stretching from Boston in the north to south of Washington in U.S.A. is the best known example of a megalopolis.

Million City (more than 10 lacs):

The number of million cities in the world has been increasing as never before. London reached the million mark in 1800, followed by Paris in 1850, New York in 1860, and by 1950 there were around 80 such cities. The rate of increase in the number of million cities has been three-fold in every three decades – around 160 in 1975 to around 438 in 2005.

Town groups

The concept of ‘Town Group’ was first introduced in 1951 to include urban areas adjacent to cities with population of 1 lac and over. In 1961, census defined town group as ‘a group of towns which adjoined one another so closely as to form a single inhabited urban locality’. Further, the census identified town groups only when the aggregate population of the towns in a group exceeded one lakh. In 1961, there were as many as 132 town groups out of a total of 2700 urban places.

The town Groups emerged in two types:

1. Town groups which were made up of a cluster of neighboring municipalities only
2. Town groups which were made up of municipal and non-municipal localities.

The town group idea was severely criticized by geographers in 1968 at the international geographical union congress held in Delhi. The main arguments against it were:

1. The town group is not a compact and contiguous area, but a scattered collection of towns, with intervening rural villages, which are left out of the town group.
2. It is not possible to prepare city plans for such a dis-contiguous set of settlements, where, in the process of development, the intervening spaces are likely to be urbanized.
3. In some cases (42 out of a total of 137 town groups), the town group consisted of an amalgam of towns of small size, without the large unifying city. In such cases, the town group failed to convey the essence of cohesion as one unit. The census definition becomes an artificial entity.

A town group defined by the census will have no stability over time and will thus create problems of comparability of data overtime as well as loose its unity as a unit of city planning. With each decade, the town group cluster will grow with the addition of new town into the cluster.

Definition of Town

The definition of urban areas has not been uniform all over the country as one would wish. However from 1961 census onwards a uniform and rigid definition was adopted to maintain the comparability and to study the trends of urbanization. In the subsequent censuses viz., 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001 the same urban concepts were adopted with some minor changes. In 2001, places were designated as urban or towns on the following principles.

(a) All places with Municipality, Corporation, Cantonment Board, Sanitary Board, Notified Area Committee etc.

(b) All other places which satisfy the following criteria:

i) A minimum population of 5,000 ;

ii) At least 75 per cent of the male working population being engaged in non-agricultural (and allied) activity ;

iii) A density of population of at least 400 per square kilometer (or one thousand persons per square mile)

It is proposed to retain the same definition at the 2011 Census also as this will ensure the comparability with the previous Censuses and also provide the basis for analysis of trends of urbanization in the State.

Statutory towns:

All places which have been notified under the Karnataka Municipal Act and have local bodies like Municipal Corporation, City Municipal Council, Town Municipal Council, Town Panchayat etc., irrespective of their demographic characteristics will be considered as “urban units”.

Non-Statutory towns

Further, all rural units which satisfy the demographic criterion cited above (in Definition of Town 2b) have been identified as urban units based on 2001 Census data in this Directorate. For Census purposes these places are treated as urban units and are called “Non Municipal Census Towns’.

District/Taluk headquarters

A district/taluk headquarter which is not a statutory town and fails to satisfy the demographic criterion, is treated as ”rural unit” only.

The Urban Agglomeration

For census 2001, it was decided that the core town or at least one of the constituent towns of an urban agglomeration should necessarily be a statutory town and the total population of all the constituents should not be less than 20,000 (as per 1991 census).

Urban agglomeration is a continuous urban spread constituting a town and its adjoining urban outgrowths (OGs), or two or more physical contiguous towns together and any adjoining urban outgrowths of such towns. Examples of Outgrowth are railway colonies, university campuses, port area, military camps etc. that may have come up near a statutory town or city but within the revenue limits of a village or villages contiguous to the town or city. For Census of India, 2001, it was decided that the core town or at least one of the constituent towns of an urban agglomeration should necessarily be a statutory town and the total population of all the constituents should not be less than 20,000 (as per 1991 Census). With these two basic criteria having been met, the following are the possible different situations in which urban agglomerations could be constituted.

i) a city or town with one or more contiguous outgrowths;

ii) two or more adjoining towns with or without their outgrowths.

iii) a city and one or more adjoining towns with their outgrowths all of which form a continuous spread.

STANDARD URBAN AREA:

A new concept that had been developed for the 1971 Census for the tabulation of certain urban data was the Standard Urban Area.

The essential of a Standard Urban Area are :

(i) it should have a core town of a minimum population size of 50,000,

(ii) the contiguous areas made up of other urban as well as rural administrative units should have close mutual socio- economic links with the core town and

(iii) the probabilities are that this entire area will get fully urbanized in a period of two to three decades.

The idea is that it should be possible to provide comparable data for a definite area of urbanization continuously for three decades which would give a meaningful picture. This replaced the concepts of Town Group that was in vogue at the 1961 Census. The town group was made up of independent urban units not necessarily contiguous to one another but were to some extent inter-dependent. The data for such town groups became incomparable from census to census as the boundaries of the towns themselves changed and the intermediate areas were left out of account; this concept came for criticism at one of the symposium of the International Geographic Union in Nov.-Dec.1968 and the concept of Standard Urban Area came to be developed for adoption at the 1971 Census. If data for this Standard Area were to be made available in the next two or three successive censuses it is likely to yield much more meaningful picture to study urbanisation around large urban nuclei.

Defining Urban Area

SOURCE: Demographic Yearbook 2005, Table 6

AFRICA

Botswana

Agglomeration of 5 000 or more inhabitants where 75 per cent of the economic activity is non-agricultural.

Burundi

Commune of Bujumbura.

Comoros

Administrative centres of prefectures and localities of 5 000 or more inhabitants.

Egypt

Governorates of Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, frontier governorates and capitals of other governorates, as well as district capitals (Markaz).

Equatorial Guinea

District centres and localities with 300 dwellings and/or 1 500 inhabitants or more.

Ethiopia

Localities of 2 000 or more inhabitants.

Liberia

Localities of 2 000 or more inhabitants.

Malawi

All townships and town planning areas and all district centres.

Mauritius

Towns with proclaimed legal limits.

Niger

Capital city, capitals of the departments and districts

Senegal

Agglomerations of 10 000 or more inhabitants.

South Africa

Places with some form of local authority.

Sudan

Localities of administrative and/or commercial importance or with population of 5 000 or more inhabitants.

Swaziland

Localities proclaimed as urban.

Tunisia

Population living in communes.

United Republic of Tanzania

16 gazetted townships.

Zambia

Localities of 5 000 or more inhabitants, the majority of whom all depend on non-agricultural activities.

NORTH AMERICA

Canada

Places of 1 000 or more inhabitants, having a population density of 400 or more per square kilometre.

Costa Rica

Administrative centres of cantons.

Cuba

Population living in a nucleus of 2 000 or more inhabitants.

Dominican Republic

Administrative centres of municipalities and municipal districts, some of which include suburban zones of rural character.

El Salvador

Administrative centres of municipalities.

Greenland

Localities of 200 or more inhabitants.

Guatemala

Municipality of Guatemala Department and officially recognized centres of other departments and municipalities.

Haiti

Administrative centres of communes.

Honduras

Localities of 2 000 or more inhabitants, having essentially urban characteristics.

Mexico

Localities of 2 500 or more inhabitants.

Nicaragua

Administrative centres of municipalities and localities of 1 000 or more inhabitants with streets and electric light.

Panama

Localities of 1 500 or more inhabitants having essentially urban characteristics. Beginning 1970, localities of 1500 or more inhabitants with such urban characteristics as streets, water supply systems, sewerage systems and electric light.

Puerto Rico

Agglomerations of 2 500 or more inhabitants, generally having population densities of 1 000 persons per square mile or more. Two types of urban areas: urbanized areas of 50 000 or more inhabitants and urban clusters of at least 2 500 and less than 50 000 inhabitants.

United States

Agglomerations of 2 500 or more inhabitants, generally having population densities of 1 000 persons per square mile or more. Two types of urban areas: urbanized areas of 50 000 or more inhabitants and urban clusters of at least 2 500 and less than 50 000 inhabitants.

U.S. Virgin Islands

Agglomerations of 2 500 or more inhabitants, generally having population densities of 1 000 persons per square mile or more. Two types of urban areas: urbanized areas of 50 000 or more inhabitants and urban clusters of at least 2 500 and less than 50 000 inhabitants. (As of Census 2000, no urbanized areas are identified in the U.S. Virgin Islands.)

SOUTH AMERICA

Argentina

Populated centres with 2 000 or more inhabitants

Bolivia

Localities of 2 000 or more inhabitants.

Brazil

Urban and suburban zones of administrative centres of municipalities and districts.

Chile

Populated centres which have definite urban characteristics such as certain public and municipal services.

Ecuador

Capitals of provinces and cantons

Falkland Islands (Malvinas)

Town of Stanley.

Paraguay

Cities, towns and administrative centres of departments and districts.

Peru

Populated centres with 100 or more dwellings.

Suriname

Paramaribo town.

Uruguay

Cities.

Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic

Centres with a population of 1 000 or more inhabitants.

ASIA

Armenia

Cities and urban-type localities, officially designated as such, usually according to the criteria of number of inhabitants and predominance of agricultural, or number of non-agricultural workers and their families.

Azerbaijan

Cities and urban-type localities, officially designated as such, usually according to the criteria of number of inhabitants and predominance of agricultural, or number of non-agricultural workers and their families.

Bahrain

Communes or villages of 2 500 or more inhabitants.

Cambodia

Towns.

China

Cities only refer to the cities proper of those designated by the State Council. In the case of cities with district establishment, the city proper refers to the whole administrative area of the district if its population density is 1 500 people per kilometre or higher; or the seat of the district government and other areas of streets under the administration of the district if the population density is less than 1 500 people per kilometre. In the case of cities without district establishment, the city proper refers to the seat of the city government and other areas of streets under the administration of the city. For the city district with the population density below 1 500 people per kilometre and the city without district establishment, if the urban construction of the district or city government seat has extended to some part of the neighboring designated town(s) or township(s), the city proper does include the whole administrative area of the town(s) or township(s).

Cyprus

Urban areas are those defined by local town plans.

Georgia

Cities and urban-type localities, officially designated as such, usually according to the criteria of number of inhabitants and predominance of agricultural, or number of non-agricultural workers and their families.

India

Towns (places with municipal corporation, municipal area committee, town committee, notified area committee or cantonment board); also, all places having 5 000 or more inhabitants, a density of not less than 1 000 persons per square mile or 400 per square kilometre, pronounced urban characteristics and at least three fourths of the adult male population employed in pursuits other than agriculture.

Indonesia

Places with urban characteristics.

Iran (Islamic Republic of):

Every district with a municipality.

Israel

All settlements of more than 2 000 inhabitants, except those where at least one third of households, participating in the civilian labour force, earn their living from agriculture.

Japan

City (shi) having 50 000 or more inhabitants with 60 per cent or more of the houses located in the main built-up areas and 60 per cent or more of the population (including their dependants) engaged in manufacturing, trade or other urban type of business. Alternatively, a shi having urban facilities and conditions as defined by the prefectural order is considered as urban.

Kazakhstan:

Cities and urban-type localities, officially designated as such, usually according to the criteria of number of inhabitants and predominance of agricultural, or number of non-agricultural workers and their families.

Korea, Republic of

Population living in cities irrespective of size of population.

Kyrgyzstan

Cities and urban-type localities, officially designated as such, usually according to the criteria of number of inhabitants and predominance of agricultural, or number of non-agricultural workers and their families.

Malaysia:

Gazetted areas with population of 10 000 and more.

Maldives:

Malé, the capital.

Mongolia:

Capital and district centres.

Pakistan:

Places with Municipal Corporation, town committee or cantonment.

Sri Lanka:

Urban sector comprises of all municipal and urban council areas.

Syrian Arab Republic:

Cities, Mohafazacentres and Mantikacentres, and communities with 20 000 or more inhabitants.

Tajikistan:

Cities and urban-type localities, officially designated as such, usually according to the criteria of number of inhabitants and predominance of agricultural, or number of non-agricultural workers and their families.

Thailand:

Municipal areas.

Turkey:

Population of settlement places, 20 001 and over.

Turkmenistan:

Cities and urban-type localities, officially designated as such, usually according to the criteria of number of inhabitants and predominance of agricultural, or number of non-agricultural workers and their families.

Uzbekistan:

Cities and urban-type localities, officially designated as such, usually according to the criteria of number of inhabitants and predominance of agricultural, or number of non-agricultural workers and their families

Viet Nam:

Urban areas include inside urban districts of cities, urban quarters and towns. All other local administrative units (commues) belong to rural areas.

.

EUROPE

Albania: Towns and other industrial centres of more than 400 inhabitants.

Austria: Communes of more than 5 000 inhabitants.

Belarus: Cities and urban-type localities, officially designated as such, usually according to the criteria of number of inhabitants and predominance of agricultural, or number of non-agricultural workers and their families.

Bulgaria: Towns, that is, localities legally established as urban.

Czech Republic: Localities with 2 000 or more inhabitants.

Estonia: Cities and urban-type localities, officially designated as such, usually according to the criteria of number of inhabitants and predominance of agricultural, or number of non-agricultural workers and their families.

Finland: Urban communes. 1970: Localities.

France: Communes containing an agglomeration of more than 2 000 inhabitants living in contiguous houses or with not more than 200 metres between houses, also communes of which the major portion of the population is part of a multicommunal agglomeration of this nature.

Greece: Population of municipalities and communes in which the largest population centre has 10 000 or more inhabitants. Including also the population of the 18 urban agglomerations, as these were defined at the census of 1991, namely: Greater Athens, Thessaloniki, Patra, Iraklio, Volos, Chania, Irannina, Chalkida, Agrinio, Kalamata, Katerini,

Kerkyra, Salamina, Chios, Egio, Rethymno, Ermoupolis, and Sparti.

Hungary: Budapest and all legally designated towns.

Iceland: Localities of 200 or more inhabitants.

Ireland: Cities and towns including suburbs of 1 500 or more inhabitants.

Latvia: Cities and urban-type localities, officially designated as such, usually according to the criteria of number of inhabitants and predominance of agricultural, or number of non-agricultural workers and their families.

Lithuania: Urban population refers to persons who live in cities and towns, i.e., the population areas with closely built permanent dwellings and with the resident population of more than 3 000 of which 2/3 of employees work in industry,

social infrastructure and business. In a number of towns the population may be less than 3 000 since these areas had already the states of “town” before the law was enforced (July 1994)

Netherlands: Urban: Municipalities with a population of 2 000 and more inhabitants. Semi-urban: Municipalities with a population of less than 2 000 but with not more than 20 per cent of their economically active male population engaged in agriculture, and specific residential municipalities of commuters.

Norway: Localities of 200 or more inhabitants.

Poland: Towns and settlements of urban type, e.g. workers' settlements, fishermen’s settlements, health resorts.

Portugal: Agglomeration of 10 000 or more inhabitants.

Republic of Moldova: Cities and urban-type localities, officially designated as such, usually according to the criteria of number of inhabitants and predominance of agricultural, or number of non-agricultural workers and their families.

Romania: Cities, municipalities and other towns.

Russian Federation: Cities and urban-type localities, officially designated as such, usually according to the criteria of number of inhabitants and predominance of agricultural, or number of non-agricultural workers and their families.

Slovakia: 138 cities with 5 000 inhabitants or more.

Spain: Localities of 2 000 or more inhabitants.

Switzerland: Communes of 10 000 or more inhabitants, including suburbs.

Ukraine: Cities and urban-type localities, officially designated as such, usually according to the criteria of number of

inhabitants and predominance of agricultural, or number of non-agricultural workers and their families.

OCEANIA

American Samoa: Agglomerations of 2 500 or more inhabitants, generally having population densities of 1 000 persons per square mile or more. Two types of urban areas: urbanized areas of 50 000 or more inhabitants and urban clusters of at least 2 500 and less than 50 000 inhabitants. (As of Census 2000, no urbanized areas are identified in American

Samoa.)

Guam: Agglomerations of 2 500 or more inhabitants, generally having population densities of 1 000 persons per square mile or more, referred to as “urban clusters”.

New Caledonia: Nouméa and communes of Pa?ta, NouvelDumbéa and Mont-Dore.

New Zealand: All cities, plus boroughs, town districts, townships and country towns with a population of 1 000 or more.

Northern Mariana Islands: Agglomerations of 2 500 or more inhabitants, generally having population densities of 1 000 persons per square mile or more. Two types of urban areas: urbanized areas of 50 000 or more inhabitants and urban clusters of at least 2 500 and less than 50 000 inhabitants.

Vanuatu: Luganvillecentre and Vila urban.