The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
Can you tell us something about the Auroville township? The Auroville township project has a population of about 60,000 people covering 13 villages. But in the designated Auroville area, there are only five villages with a population between 8,000 and 10,000. The Auroville community comprises only 1,500 people, 30 per …
the Union government is considering applying the Green City Concept to Gurgaon in its commitment to the United Nations Development Project's ( undp ) Agenda 21. Agenda 21 is the world community's response to the un General Assembly's call to halt and reverse the effects of environment degradation. This decision …
for the people of Kashmir, the unbelievable is happening. Their famed Dal lake is dying before their eyes. The government says it is "committed' to save the lake, but ifs and buts rule the roost. One such attempt to save the lake was made in 1997 with the launch of …
the Union ministry of environment and forests ( mef ) has brought out a much-needed and promising draft for management of Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998. It is currently being discussed with the ministry of urban development, prior to its notification. Once the notification is issued, the …
nature flourishes most alone, far from the towns where (humans) reside, wrote the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. According to him, cities do not have an ecosystem of their own. Frederic Clements, the American plant ecologist went a step further and describes habitats as a series of closed loops that …
THE race of turning the urban areas of Nagaland into a concrete jungle with no attention to effective and proper planning has emerged as a major cause for concern in this tiny Indian hill state. A recent conference held in Kohima, the state capital, discussed these and various other related …
it is heartening to note that in the present decade, the intellectuals and academicians of the nation are not pontificating and publishing in just the realm of abstract theory but are directly linking their expertise and studies to the very real situations and problems faced by people. Ghanshyam Shah is …
Urban planning is not an extension of architecture, but requires the co-ordination of a wide variety of skills and inputs. Most importantly, planning is meaningless unless it is firmly linked to implementation. The planner's best course of action is to set the objectives of his plan, and use these to …
In order to improve the condition of the urban poor and health care facilities in Bangladesh, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will give US $90 million as micro credit. According to ADB resident mission chief, Bhanuphol Horayangura, the bank would advance the credit in two parts
We present results of an empirical investigation and comparison of housing supply in three rapidly growing countries: Malaysia, Thailand, and Korea. These countries offer three contrasting examples of different approaches to development control. Korea has relatively strict control of housing supply. Thailand has little effective regulation of development. Malaysia offers …
With the Tamil Nadu government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signing the final document to bring Madras under the global Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP), key environmental concerns will now become a part of development planning for the city. The UNDP will provide a grant of US $605,000 over …
Malaysia's new federal capital was unveiled recently by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed. The administrative nerve centre of the country will be known as Putrajaya after Malaysia's first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra. The futuristic metropolis will be built on 4,400 ha of land 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur …
WRITTEN for city administrators, these 3 books are meant to be handbooks which collate the facts of urban areas degeneration, the theories of a constructive approach to urban management, and state-of-art update of city governance.The facts reveal a chilling story of the facets of urban living conditions in developing countries. …
ON NOVEMBER 7, residents of Vivekanandapally in Calcutta staved off yet another attempt by a group of real estate developers, which has been trying to fill up a shallow 0.134 hectare lake in the area for more than a decade. The developers, lured by the prospect of selling the filled …
Metropolitan municipalities can now heave a collective sigh of relief. The Centrally-sponsored scheme for infrastructural development of megacities has brought them a welcome respite, burdened as they were by huge fiscal deficits. Infrastructural development in Calcutta, Bangalore, Bombay, Madras and Hyderabad is to take place through innovative institutional and financial …
RESPONDING to a West Bengal proposal to seek massive external aid to conserve the Calcutta Wetlands, the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) has recommended they be designated a waterbody of national importance. Such a recommendation would not only protect the wetlands from rapacious real estate developers, but also …
1865: Acquisition of a 1-square mile area by the municipal authorities for dumping the city's garbage. 1868-1872: Construction of a railway line and a canal were constructed across the square mile area. 1884: Completion of the drainage scheme with canals and sluices across the wetlands for the disposal of sewage …
Mud housing enthusiasts received a blow recently when the Delhi High Court dismissed a writ petition by the Mud Village Society (MVS), staking claim to a 2.1 ha plot in East Delhi on which it intends to build a housing colony. The court held that as there was no letter …
In a ruling that may have far-reaching implications, a Delhi sessions court has banned slaughter of buffalo calves, export of live animals for meat and slaughter of livestock for export as meat. Judge C K Chaturvedi made the ruling on a petition by residents of the north Delhi colony of …
