Rajendra P Sharma
Urbanisation has been an essential part of economic growth, social and political change, technical and scientific advances and overall human progress. Historically, urbanised settlements have been shaped by trade, religion, politics and the natural environment. In pre-industrial times, people lived and worked on the farms; there were no factories, tenement houses or automobiles and most people conducted business from their homes. Urban growth began to accelerate in the 1950s, a time when the urban population accounted for one-third of the world’s total. Since then, the rural population has steadily declined while urban poverty has risen. In 2007, the world’s urban population equalled the rural population for the first time.

In Nepal, 15 percent of the people now live in the nation’s 58 municipal towns, almost half of them in Kathmandu. They are having to cope with inadequate facilities and services, scarce jobs and the faltering rule of law and governance. Urbanisation is becoming synonymous to slum dwelling as more and more people live in poor informal settlements. These municipal towns are also affected by resource depletion, food insecurity, population growth and economic instability. As such, the ‘urban agenda’ is increasingly becoming a priority for governments, local authorities and non-governmental partners in Nepal.



Policy,  planning and commitments

As more and more settlements urbanise, proper planning is necessary to shape their future. Urban authorities should focus on issues of housing, sanitation and unemployment and the central government must create an enabling environment for investments. Municipal planning helps the municipality to ensure sufficient living conditions and control development. Unsurprisingly, municipal planning is becoming a priority to deal with issues like poor infrastructure, poverty and marginalisation. In this context, Nepal made a commitment at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000 to adopt the eight Millennium Development Goals. Following this, the government introduced a national urban policy to align urban development plans with the MDGs. But alarm bells have started to ring as not enough has been done to take decisive actions to achieve the MDGs by the target year of 2015. In order to meet the target, large-scale programmes on effective service delivery as well as sensitising and localising MDGs through municipal periodic planning are required.

Urban future and planning
In paving an urban future, planning has a profound influence on our natural environment, our quality of life and the value of our property. Urban planning has only existed as an organised profession for 60 years. Still, most cities show forethought and conscious design in their layout and functions. The pre-classical and classical ages saw a number of cities laid out according to plans, though many did tend to develop organically. Designed cities were characteristic of the totalitarian Mesopotamian, Harrapan and Egyptian civilisations of the third millennium.

Urban centre, city and town planning integrates land use and transportation to improve the built and social environments and deals with a larger environment in less detail. Planning is implemented using a wide variety of tools including traditional plans, zoning and subdivision regulations and some newer concepts such as growth boundaries and conservation easements. As long as people live in cities, there will be a need for urban planning. Urban planning could even go beyond the Earth as NASA has been planning a “city in the sky”.

Meeting challenges for a better urban future
Urban centres have a tremendous potential to combine safe and healthy living conditions and culturally rich and diverse lifestyles. A well-balanced urban system matters for social cohesion and economic development. The developed world is already heavily urbanised, but urban areas of developing countries are growing much faster.

In 1975 only 27 percent of people living in the developing world lived in urban areas; that figure reached 40 percent in 2000 and projections suggest that by 2030 the urban population will be 56 percent. Every week world urban areas gain another one million people.

How governments meet the concurrent challenges of urbanisation, poverty, development and protection of the environment will determine the world’s urban future. Urban areas are the centres of diversity and change and engines for economic growth in the global economy. They are also at the crux of the struggle to achieve better living standards. In Nepal, with rapid population growth, poverty and inadequate public

institutions, many urban areas are in trouble. If the people’s needs are not addressed on time, poverty will increase and infrastructure, services and opportunities will further deteriorate. The planners must balance the speed of urbanisation with public demand and participation while addressing issues of urban quality and equality.

Looking forward, much more is needed to cope with the risks of urban living. Urban areas can be managed better in the future if urban interven-tions are up-scaled to act as drivers for change.

To this end, we must demonstrate political will, initiate collective action, call on public and private partnerships and support legislation that provides an enabling environment to scales-up urban planning and foster a participatory process. Such a legislation should also promote urban governance, mitigate urban poverty, initiate social security and hospice provision and amend policies that hinder the planning and management of urban affairs. If we act together, there are real opportunities to shape our urban future towards inclusive and sustainable globalisation. But we must also act differently. We can’t plan our future based on past experiences.

Rather we must think about building infrastructure that can withstand new conditions and support greater number of people with limited resources. We must change our mindsets to respond to tomorrow’s needs. This will require new information about changing patterns of urban features and adaptation of urban policies. Planning, with MDGs as guide-lines, can reshape urban life towards a  sustainable urban future.

source: Sharma, Rajendra(2011),"A better urban future", The Kathmandu Post, 21 April 2011

Sharma is on the faculty at the Society, Urban Planning and Development Department at National College, KU