Sustainable Integrated Development of Urban Infrastructure for Udupi District

Abstract

India is moving towards development of urban facilities reaching all parts of the nation. The characteristics of urban development have been four types- one is the town developed prior to 16th century, second towns developed up to 17th century, colonial towns and finally post-independence towns. Many of the remote areas of India have town having history of more than four centuries. These towns have sustained and passed the strongest test of time which has not turned into ghost towns. Hence there are lessons of sustainability to be learnt in these old towns which is beneficial to the regional development. In coastal Karnataka and Kerala the rural urban divide is minimal and hence there are many urban centers spread across the district with long history. In such a scenario instead of aiming for a concentrated urban development, strengthening of existing urban centers is more sustainable. The trend of new urbanism propagating smart code where the local character of land and society is conserved along with modern development and efficiency is achieved with density and compactness. The paper discusses the process of arriving at key design principles for a node or town which has a long history and super imposing the rules of smart code over this to arrive at a model for future towns in Udupi district. These development guidelines will address the issues of resource management, sustainable physical and social infrastructure development, waste management, education and opportunities for rural development, encouragement for agrarian economy and environmental sustainable practices of technology and energy generation and consumption.