Is Smart Growth Really So Smart?

The importance of water in our lives and for our sustenance cannot be stressed enough. It is a proven fact that the freshwater on our planet earth is only 2.5% of the total available water resources. Two thousand nineteen statistics on water scarcity state that 25% of the world population is facing water scarcity, making it one out of every five people. Grave and current issues like climate change, population explosion, urbanization blowing out of proportion in comparison to the services provided, and finally rapidly growing industrialization have made water into a scarce and valuable commodity. Growing demands on the use of water have resulted in a drop in its quality and capacity to self-cleanse. Water is one of the most crucial and significant components of national development planning in the twenty-first century. Realizing the importance of water, the United Nations declared that safe water must be inexpensive and easy to get for everyone by 2030. It has made this goal a part of the 17 sustainable development goals that must be achieved by 2030 by 193 member nations of the United Nations per their pledge (Population by Country, https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/ , 2020). This is possible when every nation focuses on the legitimate and appropriate management of the limited water resource because it is crucial to ensure food security and resolve growing conflicts due to water scarcity. Hence, the water policy of any nation should recognize and adequately address the challenges faced by the world in the present and the future. This challenge is getting tough day by day as the world population has touched the 7.7 billion people mark recently, and India’s population has increased to 1.36 billion (Population by Country-2020). India has a 54% urban population of the total population in the world. There was a drastic increase in the international urban population, which went up to 54% from 30% (1950) in 2015. As per the estimates, it is expected to increase to 68% of the total world population’s urban population by 2050. The issues mentioned earlier have been established to be the major cause in predicting an increase of 2.5 billion in urban population by 2050. Asia and Africa would be the leaders in the major problem of population crisis by 90% approximately ( https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html . Retrieved 27 April 2020). India has 4% share of the earth’s land area which is highly disproportionate to its 17.71 population. The United Nations has reported that it is on the edge of an urban revolution based on the statistical prediction of its population to reach six billion by 2031. So, India will have about 40% of the urban population by 2031 (First Post) (Firstpost, Sunday December 1, 2019. Retrieved February 1, 2020, 2019). The increase in urban population has created numerous problems for the Government and private organizations in dealing with the provisions of essential services to the people. The most severe challenge for urban planners is to tackle the impact of disasters. They have to increase and ultimately optimize disaster risk resilience.

Rapid urbanization causes increase in urban population. Over half of the world’s population lives in cities. By 2050, seven out of every 10 people will be city dwellers. India is a part of this global trend. Nearly 28% of India’s population lives in cities and this is expected to increase to 41% by the year 2020. Urban population will generate huge amount of domestic wastewater (WW). The promising alternative for disposal of wastewater is its utilization for irrigation after treatment. To utilize domestic wastewater, it is vital to generate the information about of different quality parameters and their variations due to seasonal weather conditions. Physiochemical water quality parameters (EC, pH, turbidity, total solids, NH4–N, NO3–N, P, K, Na, Ca, Mg, CO3, HCO3 and heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, Cr, Mo) of domestic wastewater were determined for the period of one year. The data set is used to present spatial and temporal variations of the domestic wastewater quality. Identification of wastewater quality parameters responsible for temporal variations due to effect of semi-arid climate was done through multivariate cluster analysis. Correlation study between the identified parameters was also conducted. Wastewater was slightly acidic in nature with mean value of pH 6.87. Highest concentration was observed for total solids. Concentration of ammoniacal nitrogen was higher than nitrate nitrogen; similarly bicarbonate concentration was higher in comparison to carbonate concentration. In the category of heavy metals highest concentration with mean value 0.98 mg l−1 was observed with iron and least with molybdenum with mean value 0.01 mg l−1. Most of the water quality parameters concentration was higher during summer season, moderate during winter season and least during rainy season. Correlation study between quality parameters shows the presence of bicarbonate with calcium and magnesium. Presence of calcium, magnesium and bicarbonate play important role for the quantum of total solids in domestic wastewater. Wastewater quality was under safe limit throughout the year in terms of irrigation water quality indices SAR and Mg/Ca ratio. But it was under safe to moderate limit in terms of residual sodium carbonate (RSC) index. Cluster analysis divides the months of a complete year in three clusters. First cluster have six months (July, August, September, October, November and December), second cluster have four months (January, February, March and April) and third cluster have two months (May and June).

HAT rural populations are more fertile than urban is one of the most widelyobserved phenomena in the field of human fertility.' Most of the data on this subject have been collected in the industrialized countries of the West, but some evidence exists that this relationship is widespread among underdeveloped countries as well.2 Whetten's study, published in 1948, included data showing that the fertility of Mexican women was much lower in cities having more than ten thousand inhabitants than in localities having less than ten thousand.3 The present paper pursues further the problem of differential fertility in Mexico utilizing data that have more recently become available. Mexico, in common with other Latin American countries, has a high level of fertility. Since 1932, when the registration of births was considered to be reasonably complete, the annual crude birth rate has not dropped below 42.2 per thousand, and in 1947 it was 46.1 births per thousand population. In 1950 the crude birth rate was 45.7 per thousand.4 This high level of fertility, coupled with decreasing mortality, brought about an 18.7 per cent increase in Mexico's population between 1930 and 1940 and a 31.2 per cent increase between 1940 and 1950. This increase, however, has not been experienced equally by all segments of the population. Since at least the year 1900 urban places in Mexico have grown at faster rates than the country as a whole. Between 1930 and 1940 urban places increased 30.3 per cent; and between 1940 and 1950 they increased 73.0 per cent 5 as compared with 31.2 per cent for the country as a whole. This large increase in Mexico's urban population has come about in large part from differential internal migration. Indirect evidence of this is shown by an analysis of state-of-birth data from the Mexican Censuses of 1940 and 1950. During the decade, 1940-50, urban municipios experienced a total increase in population of 3,569,892 persons and the remaining municipios 2,550,846 persons. In urban municipios, the increase during the decade in the number of persons born in other states represents 30.4 per cent of their total population increase, while in the rural municipios the net increase in persons born in other states represents only 5.4 per cent of the total increase over the decade.6

By 2030 Cyprus committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% and increase renewables’ energy share by 19% according to the European engagements. Difficulties appear due to the continuous increase in domestic energy consumption, the large dependency on fossil fuels and the adverse climate. A number of macroeconomic, demographic and climatic indicators that influence Cyprus’s electricity consumption (EC) was analysed for years 2000–2018 using augmented Dickey–Fuller unit root test and the autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL). The ARDL model revealed that an increase in population could radically increase EC in the long-run and short-run. Results posit that a 1% increase in urban population, electricity price and unemployment decrease domestic EC in the long-run by 17.25%, 0.48% and 0.30%, respectively. In the short-run smaller elasticities were found because time was too short for adjustments to be made. However, their decrease could not outweigh the population growth effect on increasing domestic EC.

The phrase “smart growth” has clearly captured the imagination of organizations and individuals whose work is focused on protecting the environment and promoting increased standards of living and quality of life. In Table 1, we can see that smart growth, the newest of the phrases included, is actually in greater use in the popular media (as depicted by the search engine, Google) than other phrases that have been in use much longer. As I write this, a search on the phrase “smart growth” produced nearly a 100,000 more results than “growth management,” a phrase that is closely related and is such a fundamental part of the planning lexicon that it is formally incorporated into the curriculum and specializations of its degree-granting programs. It also produced nearly 200,000 more results than the phrase “urban and regional planning,” even though many planners would argue that our field has been engaged in efforts to promote smart growth since its inception. While the raison d’etre for smart growth is to influence the direction of urban and regional development, the search on this phrase yielded less than 21,000 results in the popular media. The Library of Congress Online Catalog was searched to assess how smart growth, and the other four phrases in Table 1 that historically characterize much of the planning discipline’s focus are present in the formal literature. Here, it can be seen that smart growth has only a small presence. Reassuring to planners, the phrase “urban and regional planning” has the largest presence. Two thoughts emerge from this simple exercise of comparison. First, it is disappointing to observe how underrecognized urban (city) and regional planning is in the popular media. Would the wildfire spread of the smart growth concept have occurred if the public had a greater understanding of what urban and regional planning is about? Clearly, our discipline has not done an adequate job of communicating to the larger world what we are about and what we have to contribute. Second, now that the smart growth concept has taken off, it is essential that the planning discipline be engaged in the dialogue that will increasingly appear in the literature on what its goals are and how it is implemented. The three articles included in this special issue on smart growth increase planning’s contribution to the dialogue and highlight some of the areas where more scholarship is needed. These articles focus on relatively neglected issues in the smart growth dialogue that reflect planning’s particular concerns for process and implementation, land preservation and green space, and neglected areas of decline within metropolitan regions. In the first article, “What Is ‘Smart Growth’— Really?” Ye, Mandpe, and Meyer ask whether the smart growth label has failed to develop any clear-cut meaning in the time it has been adopted by many different

Due to the increase in urban population and comfort levels, the use of electricity in the building sector has rapidly grown. Recently, building energy demand has significantly increased. Buildings consume almost 40% of the world’s energy. Combining energy efficiency measures with renewable energy sources in an integrated building system will improve the building performance and consequently reduce the electricity consumption and carbon emissions. Research demonstrated that it is technically possible to achieve significant reductions in energy consumption with the proper combination between energy efficiency measures and renewable energy sources. Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs) have come a promising technology for energy generation and life-cycle costs reductions. In this regard, photovoltaic-integrated shading devices (PVSDs) constitute an essential part of BIPVs and play a significant role in electricity generation and energy consumption reductions. This research investigates and explores the potentials of combining PV technology in shading devices. Different types of external shading devices with integrated photovoltaic panels were examined for different orientations using DesignBuilder simulation software. The cooling loads, the electric lighting consumption, and the electric energy production related to the use of PVSD have been evaluated. The research aims at optimization of shading device configuration for energy efficiency and energy production.

Nepal's urban population is estimated to be around 15 percent. This is a tremendous increment considering that the urban population some 50 years back was just around 3 percent. The rapid increase in urban population in the last five decades has resulted in unplanned and haphazard urban growth. Urbanization causes a shift in employment, from the agricultural sector to the nonagricultural sector. However, in Nepal, despite the increase in the urban population, the economy is still largely dictated by the agricultural sector. Urbanization is creating and adding new risks to the existing risks from natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, and flooding. Building a culture of safety is the key to building resilience of communities to disasters and the involvement of the community in managing risks is instrumental in reducing the adverse impacts of these disasters. Public awareness in dealing with disasters and in responding to emergency situations can save a great number of lives.

Geospatial analysis framework for evaluating urban design typologies in relation with the 15-minute city standards

Over the past decades, urbanization has surged globally, with more than 50% of the population now residing in cities. Projections indicate a continued increase in urban populations, accompanied by significant changes in land use and land cover. These alterations are expected to affect the temporal and spatial distribution of precipitation. Combined with the effects of climate change, which is likely to increase the frequency and intensity of short-duration heavy rainfall, the risk of flooding in urban environments is expected to rise. Understanding the combined impacts of urbanization and climate change on rainfall dynamics is therefore critical for effective flood risk management and urban planning. In this study, we investigate the influence of urbanization and climate change on short-duration rainfall events in Milan. We used the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to simulate 8 rainfall events in the current urban setup and climate, and to assess how these events will alter in different scenarios of urbanization and climate change. Results reveal that the impact of global warming on rainfall space-time characteristics is stronger than that of urbanization. However, urbanization significantly contributes to the urban heat island effect, which, when combined with global warming, amplifies its influence on rainfall patterns. These findings underscore the importance of accounting for the combined impacts of climate change and urbanization in studies of future rainfall patterns, particularly for flood risk assessments and urban resilience planning.

With the majority of the world population projected to live in urban areas, cities are experiencing rapid rates of urbanization and population increase. Most of the projected increase in urban population is concentrated in Asia and Africa which have relatively lower levels of resilience. The majority of the larger cities are also located in low-lying coastal areas, which are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of sea level rise. One of the main reasons for the increase in urban population in the Global South stems from over-population and crowding in the rural areas. This results in the seasonal or permanent migration of mostly younger males to urban areas in search of employment and better living conditions. The consequence is even more overcrowding in the big cities, exerting pressure on the already thinly stretched resources and infrastructure in these cities. As a result, most of the migrants end up living in slums with the bare amenities, unhygienic conditions, and hot spots of crime. There has been an increasing number of media reports of crime on women and girls in many of the larger cities in the Global South often attributed to young unemployed men who have migrated to the cities in the search of jobs. In addition, cities are also experiencing higher levels of air pollution and detrimental effects associated with urban heat island effect.

Chapter 1: Governance and Planning of Mega-City Regions: Diverse Processes and Reconstituted State Spaces Jiang Xu and Anthony G.O. Yeh Part I: Multi-Level Governance and Planning in Europe Chapter 2: The Polycentric Metropolis: a Western European Perspective on Mega-City Regions Sir Peter Hall Chapter 3: Innovations in Governance and Planning: Randstad Cooperation Willem Salet Chapter 4: Strategic Planning and Regional Governance in Europe: Recent Trends and Policy Responses Louis Albrechts Part II: Multi-Polity Governance and Planning in Federacy Chapter 5: Novel Spatial Formats: Megaregions and Global Cities Saskia Sassen Chapter 6: America 2050: Towards a Twenty-first Century National Infrastructure Investment Plan for the United States Robert D. Yaro Chapter 7: Mega-City Regional Cooperation in the United States and Western Europe: A Comparative Perspective Linda McCarthy Chapter 8: Regions of Cities: Metropolitan Governance and Planning in Australia John Abbott Chapter 9: The Upper Spencer Gulf Common Purpose Group: A Model of Intra - Regional Cooperation for Economic Development Jim Harvey and Brian Cheers Part III: State-Led Governance and Planning under Transition Chapter 10: Coordinating the Fragmented Mega-City Regions in China: State Reconstruction and Regional Strategic Planning Jiang Xu and Anthony G.O. Yeh Chapter 11: Spatial Planning for Urban Agglomeration in the Yangtze River Delta Chaolin Gu, Taofang Yu, Xiaoming Zhang, Chun Wang, Min Zhang, Cheng Zhang and Lu Chen John Abbott is a practicing metropolitan planner in South East Queensland, Australia. He was previously the Project Coordinator of the SEQ 2001 and SEQ 2021 regional planning projects. He teaches planning theory and metropolitan planning at the University of Queensland. He has analyzed metropolitan planning processes in South East Queensland, Greater Vancouver, and New York using concepts of planning as managing uncertainty. Louis Albrechts is Professor of Department of Architecture, Urbanism and Planning at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. His research interests include strategic spatial planning, sustainable development, and regional design, and he has published widely on these issues. He is the founder and co-editor of European Planning Studies, a corresponding member of the German Academy for Research and Planning, and a member of the Advisory Board of the global Research Network on Human Settlements. Brain Cheers is Research Professor Emeritus of Community Development and former Director of the Center for Rural and Regional Development at the Whyalla Campus of the University of South Australia. He is also Founding Director of the Northern Australia Research Institute and the Center for Social and Welfare Research at James Cook University. He has published four books, and many monographs and papers on rural and regional issues. Lu Chen is PhD candidate in Economic Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Chaolin Gu is Professor, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University. He has published sixteen books and over 260 articles on urban and regional planning, regional economics, and urban geography in China. He is the principal investigator of a number of projects on China's urban and regional development and planning. He is Vice President of the Chinese Geographical Association, and serves on editorial boards of many journals and academic councils. Sir Peter Hall is Bartlett Professor of Planning and Regeneration at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, University College London. He has received the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for distinction in research, and is an honorary member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, which awarded him its Gold Medal in 2003. He holds fourteen honorary doctorates from universities in the UK, Sweden, and Canada. He received the 2005 Balzan Prize for work on the Social and Cultural History of Cities since the Beginning of the 16th Century. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the European Academy and President of the Town and Country Planning Association. He was knighted in 1998 and in 2003 was named by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as a Pioneer in the Life of the Nation at a reception in Buckingham Palace. Jim Harvey is Adjunct Professor of the Center for Rural Health and Community Development at the University of South Australia. His most recent publications have been on intra-regional cooperation in urban and regional development. He is currently the Australian Manager of an Australian Aid (AusAid) community development project in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua and New Guinea. Linda McCarthy is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and is also a certified planner. Her research focuses on urban and regional economic development and planning in the United States, Western Europe, and China. Her publications comprise books, book chapters, reports, and articles in peer reviewed journals such as Environment and Planning A, The Professional Geographer, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Journal of Planning Education and Research, and Land Use Policy. Willem Salet is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. He is also the President of the Association of European Schools of Planning. His research specializes in spatial planning and metropolitan governance, urban networks, and decision making in strategic urban projects. He coordinated various research projects on behalf of the European Union, national ministries, the National Scientific Foundation, and other stakeholders in the field of urban studies, and has published widely on regional planning and governance. Saskia Sassen is Robert S.Lynd Professor of Sociology of Department of Sociology and Member of the Committee on Global Thought, at Columbia University. Her most recent books are Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages (Princeton University Press 2006) and A Sociology of Globalization (W.W.Norton 2007). Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. Her comments have appeared in Guardian, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Newsweek International, and Financial Times, among others. She serves on several editorial boards and is an advisor to several international bodies. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Cities, and chaired the Information Technology and International Cooperation Committee of the Social Science Research Council (USA). Chun Wang is an urban planner in the Master Planning Department at Beijing Tsinghua Urban Planning and Design Institute. Jiang Xu is Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Resource Management, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is a specialist in urban and regional issues, and is currently leading research projects in intercity competition and cooperation, as well as urban and regional governance in China. Dr. Xu has published widely on urban and regional development in leading international journals and is co-author with F. Wu and Anthony G.O. Yeh of Urban Development in Post Reform China: State, Market and Space (Routledge 2007). She was the recipient of the 2008 Research Output Prize of the University of Hong Kong. Robert Yaro is President of Regional Plan Association, America's oldest independent metropolitan policy, research, and advocacy group. He is also Professor of Practice in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught at Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts. He co-chairs the Empire State Transportation Alliance and the Friends of Moynihan Station, and is Vice President of the Forum for Urban Design. He serves on Mayor Bloomberg's Sustainability Advisory Board, which helped prepare PlaNYC 2030, New York City's new long-range sustainability plan. Anthony Yeh is Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is also Chair Professor and Head, Department of Urban Planning and Design, and Director, Center of Urban Studies and Urban Planning, University of Hong Kong. His main areas of specialization are in urban development and planning in Hong Kong and China, and the application ofaGIS in urban and regional planning. At present, he is Secretary-General of the Asian Planning Schools Association and Asia GIS Association. He is on the editorial boards of key international and Chinese journals, and has published over thirty books and monographs, and over 180 academic journal papers and book chapters. He received the 2008 UN-HABITAT Lecture Award for his outstanding and sustained contribution to research, thinking, and practice in the human settlements field. Taofang Yu is Lecturer, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University. He has published four books and about fifty articles on urban competition and the mega city-region. Cheng Zhang, is a certified urban planner, and is performing civil service at the Nanjing Urban Planning Bureau. He has published five articles on the mega city-region and the mega-project. Min Zhang is Associate Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Nanjing University. She has published about 30 articles on urbanization, the megalopolis, and the global city-region. Xiaoming Zhang is PhD candidate, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University. He has published about six articles on the mega city-region and spatial regionalization.

“Haphazard urban growth” or the expansion of physical and nonphysical elements in a city without a clear guideline, is a common phenomenon in many developing countries. Rapid increase in urban population, increase in urban poverty, formation of squatter settlements, and degradation of the urban environment are the main characteristics of haphazard urban growth. Urban planning in developing countries should be focussed towards planning and management of haphazard urban growth. However, in many situations urban planners find it difficult to acquire adequate data on urban problems. This situation results from a lack of an effective mechanism for collecting, storing and updating of data required for planning. The Geographical Information Systems (GIS), is a powerful set of tools for collecting, storing, retrieving, transforming, and displaying spatial data from the real world for a particular set of purposes. It is useful in almost all phases of the planning process. This thesis develops a GIS to monitor and manage haphazard urban growth, as well as to assist urban planning in the developing countries. Clear identification of the functions or tasks that the GIS is expected to support, is the first step in the process of developing a GIS. The other components of the system such as data base content, institutional structure, software and hardware, personnel and financial resources, should be formed subsequently, based on the functions of the GIS. Though the GIS has potential to support many development efforts and activities carried out in developing countries, it has not been used to its maximum potential due to reasons such as: financial constraints; non availability/ low-quality of data; low computer literacy/ lack of interest in modem tools among professionals including planners; linguistic problems; difficulties in maintenance of GIS; administrative difficulties; and shortage of trained personnel. Of 3.9 million urban dwellers in Sri Lanka, approximately 54% live in “Colombo Urban Area” (CUA). Like many other urban areas in the developing world, the CUA too is experiencing unguided expansion. Thus, establishing a GIS which is capable of monitoring and managing urban growth, and assisting the urban planning process, is timely and appropriate in order to uplift the quality of urban life in Sri Lanka. Due to limited availability of data as well as other resources such as adequate funds, personnel and equipment for data conversion, attempting to establish a large GIS, with a huge database covering all local authorities in CUA at one instance, is not very practical in the Sri Lankan context. Hence, the establishment of complete GIS covering all local authorities in CUA, should be carried out under a number of stages, over an extended period of time, rather than at one instance. In establishing the GIS for urban planning in Colombo, the priority should be given to installing a GIS in Kesbewa where the population growth is highest in 1991 -2001. This may also acts as the pilot project. Since the future generation of Sri Lankan planners are already being trained in GIS technology, the establishment of GIS, may improve the quality of urban planning in the country. However, improving the GIS knowledge among practising planners, is essential in order to acquire the full benefit of introducing GIS. Sri Lanka may be able to acquire necessary financial resources, and any other technical resources, for initial establishment of GIS from foreign aid, and the country might be able to finance the subsequent maintenance of the system. Nevertheless, execution of activities such as: surveys for investigation of data availability; preparation of a plan for phasing -in the implementation of GIS, as well as to improve the knowledge of GIS among practising planners; improving capabilities and co-ordination among institutions; and investigating the financial feasibility of the GIS, are important, prior to establishment o f a full scale GIS for CUA.

Global temperatures and changes in extreme weather patterns require special attention to building facade design as an effort to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Inappropriate facade design can lead to high energy consumption for cooling and heating, as well as increase carbon emissions from the use of this energy. The importance of this innovation is increasingly urgent given the projected increase in urban population and the need for comfortable and energy-efficient buildings in the future. One concrete step in overcoming this challenge is to implement a facade design that is adaptive to the climate and efficient in energy use. This study will analyze the complex in Serpong Garden as a case study to see how facade design can be optimized for climate adaptation. The housing is located in Serpong Garden which is geographically located at 6 '0 - 6 '20 South Latitude and 106 '20- 106 '43 East Longitude which is in a tropical and humid climate. The focus of this study is to meet the conditions of thermal comfort which are influenced by heat radiation, temperature, humidity and air/wind movement. Based on the analysis of the measurement results, it can be concluded that the design of the modern house facade is not optimal in creating thermal comfort conditions inside the room.

One-half of the world's population lives in cities and towns; this is expected to increase to 70% by 2050. One in three urban dwellers lives in slums. As the urban population grows, so does the number of urban poor. Out of a billion children living in urban areas, approximately 300 million are suffering from exclusion or are at risk of exclusion. Urban poor children are devoid of basic rights of survival, development and protection and are marginalised in challenging conditions in overcrowded settlements. Rapid urbanisation and the consequent increase in urban population is one of the biggest challenges that developing countries, including India are facing. Thirty per cent (that is, 367.5 million) of India's population of 1.23 billion live in urban areas. Moreover, this figure is increasing rapidly and is expected to reach 432 million (40%) by 2021. Rapid urbanisation has unfortunately outpaced development, and a large proportion (43 million) live in substandard conditions in slums. Now is the time to pay attention to the basic rights of the urban poor, especially the urban poor children, the most vulnerable group at the launching of 12(th) Five-Year Plan & National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) in India.

As the world becomes increasingly urbanized, cities play a crucial role in addressing global challenges, including environmental sustainability and human well-being. The presence of natural green spaces in urban areas is essential for mediating the interaction between the built environment and humans, providing ecosystem services, and promoting population health and wellbeing. However, the demand for urban green spaces is often at odds with urbanization, densification, and sprawl, leading to the loss and fragmentation of urban natural areas. In response to these challenges, the European Union has introduced a range of policies and legislations, such as the New Urban Agenda, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Nature Restoration Law. Along with such initiatives Konijnendijk (2022) launched a new rule of thumb for urban forestry and urban greening: the 3-30-300 rule. The 3-30-300 rule aims to ensure that everyone should be able to see at least 3 well-established trees from their home, workplace, or place of learning; have at least 30 % tree canopy cover in their neighborhood; and live within 300-m of a high-quality public green space (at least 0.5 ha in size).This study presents the first comprehensive evaluation of the 3-30-300 rule across 894 European cities, using recent data on urban green space distribution, tree cover density, and human settlement. The analysis reveals significant disparities in the distribution and access to urban green areas, with only 1.7% of the total population in European cities living in accordance with the 3-30-300 rule. There are no EU cities where more than 15% of the population satisfy the rule, and just 10 cities where this percentage is larger than 5%. Our results show that there is a clear gap in the distribution and access to urban green areas across European cities. Thus, the projected urban population growth in European regions underscores the need for a paradigm shift in urban planning. The recent decade (2010-2020) has witnessed a significant increase in urban population (+16% on average) and urban area expansion (+2.3% on average) within city boundaries. However, this urban growth has not been accompanied by a commensurate increase in green urban areas and tree cover density with both indicators exhibiting stable or declining trends.Such results highlight the need for a paradigm shift in urban planning, integrating green spaces and trees within city planning to provide ecological and social benefits, including climate change mitigation and adaptation. To address this gap, targeted financial support and coordinated strategies are necessary to ensure that vulnerable cities can secure adequate quantities of green spaces and provide equitable access to these areas, ultimately promoting more resilient and sustainable urban environments.