Urban Centers In India Research Articles

Colonial Canal Built Environment of Multan Punjab: An Analysis of Administrative & Residential Structures

Architectural structures are mirrors of society’s standard of living, norms as well as values, especially the old architectural structures, that are not only the tangible realities rather the providers of the clues to the patterns of living and human sense of understanding including the aesthetic sense. This research aims to analyses about the residential and official built structures of colonial era Multan in this perspective. The study also explores the architectural representation, ornamentation patterns, usage of spaces, and usage of material and climatic aspects of built structures of canal department in colonial Multan. Studying the drawings of the built structures (colonial circuit offices and bungalows of Multan), photographs, original and secondary type of documents are used while analyzing the colonial architecture of canal department of Multan. Analyzing the bungalows, the question taken up is: how different styles of architecture were adopted? and why these residential and official structures were built separately away from local populated area of Multan? Although the structure was developed in the sub-continent, both in terms of form and name, yet an indigenous typology of built environment was adapted and adopted by the Europeans and Bungalows as representative element of colonial built environment were restricted to Europeans. The colonial architecture fulfilled represented the social, environmental and political requirements of administrative European and mercantile class. Among the urban centers in India, Multan was one of the most important canal center that was occupied by the British in 1849 CE. It became an important frontier cantonment station in Punjab and very soon the major canal colony district of the British India. Therefore, the study analyses an important section of colonial continuity as Multan Canal Division still is represented as the agricultural center of Pakistani Punjab and Canal built structure is still functional and used residentially, administratively and for communication and irrigation purposes..

Beyond the metropolis: street tree communities and resident perceptions on ecosystem services in small urban centers in India

Abstract Although 41% of the global urban population lives in smaller cities, the nature and trajectories of urban nature, ecosystem services and human-nature connections in smaller centers is relatively unknown. While megacities in developed countries move towards biophilic urban planning and participatory decision making, basic information on tree communities and their perceived services is a bottleneck in achieving these goals in such small urban centers. Through a combination of field measurements (258 transects, 931 trees) and semi-structured interviews (497 individuals), we assessed the street tree community and resident perceptions of ecosystem service values in two coastal cities on the west coast of India that are under rapid change. We found that mean street tree density is low in both cities, and corresponds to perceptions of recent change in tree cover (−28% in Kochi, −11% in Panjim). The street tree community in both cities were dominated by ornamental avenue trees such as Albizia saman and Peltophorum pterocarpum, but native coastal species like Cocos nucifera, Terminalia catappa and Thespesia populnea were also common. Despite recent urban growth, residents in both cities reported low value of trees for food, fodder and medicine, but high value for regulating services like shade and water. Moreover, we found strong evidence for aesthetic and cultural values of trees in both cities. Our study establishes critical baselines for biophilic planning in these small urban centers towards urban sustainability in India.

Pneumatic waste collection system - A proposed innovation for Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee Campus, India

Solid Waste Management (SWM) is a challenging issue to be addressed in most of the urban centres in India. Heavy population densities and exponential growth of the cities’ boundaries, due to migration, create kiosks to the cities’ resources such as land and other amenities. In such cities, the unsegregated waste gets generated in huge quantities while the rest are dumped in landfill sites without any specific treatment. Centralised and holistic approaches are missing, as most of the waste-to-energy & waste treatment plants are either getting closed or not working to its fullest efficiency. The strategies for a decentralised collection system, segregation and treatment of waste are not usually standard practices. In spite of the global impacts being pretty visible due to global warming, a massive amount of plastic gets dumped into ocean, which reaches the human beings via food chain and results in the most number of incurable diseases like cancer. Further, it also results in rapid extinction of the indigenous species. Campuses are known as mini-city or autonomous urban centres for knowledge sharing and the development of innovations. The time is here to make the Indian campuses smatter in collecting and treating the waste on their premises. Hence, the pneumatic collection process of the garbage can play an essential role in making the campus, an advanced and a sustainable one. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop a compact and a decentralised strategy to manage the waste in various urban centres. Also, a formalised informal sector of waste could be contributing to further recycling and processing of the garbage on the campus. The aim of the current research investigation is to identify various possibilities for making the campus, a smart one, in terms of waste management. Furthermore, the study also intends to find out how the compact, decentralised waste collection methods in urban can manage their solid waste in the limited available space. Making zero-waste campuses is a herculean task and a massive challenge must be dealt with immediately to help the cities achieve long-term sustainability.

Restructuring Urban Public Transport in India

Transportation in the urban context assumes great economic significance, as the productive efficiency of urban areas will be maintained only if mobility requirements in the cities are fully met. However, this productive efficiency is now threatened by the increasing number of vehicles causing congestion, and thus slower speeds on roads. An effective way to address this problem is to encourage greater use of public transport instead of personal vehicles. This requires both an increase in the carrying capacity of the public transport system and a quantum improvement in the quality of public transport.In addition, despite the high volumes of traffic, most urban centers in India do not have any rail transit system to cater to intracity movements. Hence, there would be substantial dependence on bus services to meet public transport needs for the next several years. This is likely to result in a major restructuring of the current provisioning of public transport in the urban centers. This article highlights various options for restructuring the provision of road-based public transport and synthesizes them into a strategy for reform, given the commercial viability of the various activities carried out by public transport operators in India.

Sustainable Consumption: Will They Buy It Again? Factors Influencing the Intention to Repurchase Organic Food Grain.

Global consumption trends point to rising demand for organic food as people become more health-conscious. The factors that people consider while making initial organic purchases have been discussed at length. However, the published research is scant about the factors that affect consumers’ propensity to repurchase organic goods. The present research fills this gap by focusing on what influences consumers’ decisions to repurchase organic grain. The Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour are the theoretical foundations of the present investigation. The consumer’s attitude toward organic grains and their desire to repurchase organic grains are influenced by health consciousness and previous experience. The repurchase intent was determined to be controlled by the buyer’s willingness to pay and their level of trust in the organic grain. This cross-sectional study collected the necessary data from five chosen urban centres in India. Smart PLS 3.2.9 was used to analyse the gathered data from 463 respondents. According to the findings, health consciousness and past experience favourably influence attitudes and repurchase intent. The trust that consumers have built up in organic grain as a result of past experiences is what drives their desire to make more purchases. Willingness to pay significantly controls and impacts the inclination to repurchase. The association between health consciousness and repurchase intention is partially mediated by attitude, as is the relationship between past experience and repurchase intention. The relationship between health consciousness and the desire to repurchase is partially mediated by the willingness to pay.

Case Study of Solid Waste Management in Indian Urban Areas Examination of Law Practice

Abstract: The case study examine different Indian solid waste management laws and practise in several urban centres of . The main focus of this study is that most of the urban areas in India appear to be heavily affected by poor solid waste , due to lack of proper government effort to tackle the solid waste problem. The most of urban centres of India like Karnataka and Gujarat west Bengal and many more. have abysmal facility of solid waste management facility. As we all know Karnataka is our IT capital and Gujarat is also called the diamond capital of India despite of this achievement, solid waste management is a big issue. Now we have to study exactly how the study is mounted on various lenses. We need to revaluate about the laws, if they can be same as the need of urban communities and also other organization who are involved in waste management or special regulations are needed to reduce the solid waste management problem. For municipal solid waste management, what will be its legal framework? Finally, it is the responsibility of community members and stakeholder to manage solid waste properly several recommendation are drawn from conclusion ,some are the establishment of an independent body to address solid waste management, formalization of this sector is important. Keywords: Waste Management, legal framework, formalization

Assessment of the Impact of Urbanization on Geoenvironmental Settings Using Geospatial Techniques: A Study of Panchkula District, Haryana

Urbanization is an unavoidable process of social and economic growth in modern times. However, the speed with which urbanization is taking place produces complex environmental changes. It has affected the surface albedo and roughness of the soil, thereby modulating hydrological and ecological systems, which in turn has affected regional and local climate systems. In developing countries of South Asia, rampant and unplanned urbanization has created a complex system of adverse environmental scenarios. Similar is the case in India. The state of the urban environment across India is degrading so quickly that the long-term sustainability of its cities is endangered. Many metropolitan cities in India are witnessing the harmful impacts of urbanization on their land ecology. In this context, remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) based assessments provide a comprehensive and effective analysis of the rate and the impact of urbanization. The present study focuses on understanding the spatiotemporal characteristics of urban growth and its implications on the geomorphology of the Panchkula District, Haryana, one of the fastest-growing urban centers in India. The study links the changes in land use/land cover (LULC) with the changing geomorphology of the study area using satellite remote sensing and GIS. The results showed that between 1980 and 2020, agricultural (+73.71%), built-up (+84.66%), and forest (+4.07%) classes of land increased in contrast to that of the fallow land (−76.80%) and riverbed (−50.86%) classes that have decreased in spatial extents. It has been observed that the hill geomorphological class had decreased in the area owing to conversion to industrial and built-up activities. Assessment of the environmental quality of cities involves multiple disciplines that call for a significant amount of scientific evaluation and strong decision making, and the present study shall lay down the baseline analysis of the impact of changing LULC on the geomorphological setup of the selected urban center.

Moths (Insecta: Lepidoptera) of Delhi, India: An illustrated checklist based on museum specimens and surveys.

BackgroundThere have been several recent checklists, books and publications about Indian moths; however, much of this work has focused on biodiversity hotspots such as North-east India, Western Ghats and Western Himalayas. There is a lack of published literature on urban centres in India, despite the increased need to monitor insects at sites with high levels of human disturbance. In this study, we examine the moths of Delhi, the national capital region of India, one of the fastest growing mega-metropolitan cities. We present a comprehensive checklist of 338 moths species using 8 years of light trapping data (2012-2020) and examining about 2000 specimens from historical collections at the National Pusa Collection of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi (NPC-IARI) spanning over 100 years (1907-2020). The checklist comprises moths from 32 families spanning 14 superfamilies with Noctuoidea (48.5%) and Pyraloidea (20.4%) being the the two most dominant superfamilies. We provide links to images of live individuals and pinned specimens for all moths and provide detailed distribution records and an updated taxonomic treatment.New informationThis is the first comprehensive annotated checklist of the moths of Delhi. The present study adds 234 species to the biodiversity of moths from Delhi that were not reported previously, along with illustrations for 195 species.

An Investigation into the Financial Performance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nanded, Maharashtra

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are an indispensable part of the Indian economy. In terms of Gross Value Added (GVA) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), MSMEs accounted for about 33% and 31% of India's GVA and GDP, respectively, in the year 2019-20. Unlike large enterprises that are concentrated in the metros, MSMEs are spread across smaller and larger rural as well as urban centres of India. They are also the biggest source of employment, especially in rural India, and contribute to the rural development and industrialisation. MSMEs also act as a great social bridge as smaller enterprises are owned by socially backward classes and women than are larger enterprises. For these reasons and more, the India government has always promoted the growth and development of MSMEs through policy initiatives, technology up gradation, and via other means. Consequently, MSMEs have also grown in multi-folds in the past decades in terms of the number of enterprises in operation and the collective revenue of the sector. Several challenges affect the growth of MSMEs, however. One of these is the limited academic studies into the financial performance of MSMEs, probably due to the unavailability of adequate data. The present research attempts to fill this gap by conducting a financial performance evaluation of 51 sample MSMEs based in the district of Nanded, Maharashtra. The research utilizes Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to compare the financial performance of sample MSMEs selectively using the suitable variables identified by Arasu et al. (2021). Findings suggest sharp differences in the financial performance of sample units. Inefficient units are suggested to improve their return on asset, return on capital employed, and net profit margin.

An Investigation into the Financial Performance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nanded, Maharashtra

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are an indispensable part of the Indian economy. In terms of Gross Value Added (GVA) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), MSMEs accounted for about 33% and 31% of India's GVA and GDP, respectively, in the year 2019-20. Unlike large enterprises that are concentrated in the metros, MSMEs are spread across smaller and larger rural as well as urban centres of India. They are also the biggest source of employment, especially in rural India, and contribute to the rural development and industrialisation. MSMEs also act as a great social bridge as smaller enterprises are owned by socially backward classes and women than are larger enterprises. For these reasons and more, the India government has always promoted the growth and development of MSMEs through policy initiatives, technology up gradation, and via other means. Consequently, MSMEs have also grown in multi-folds in the past decades in terms of the number of enterprises in operation and the collective revenue of the sector. Several challenges affect the growth of MSMEs, however. One of these is the limited academic studies into the financial performance of MSMEs, probably due to the unavailability of adequate data. The present research attempts to fill this gap by conducting a financial performance evaluation of 51 sample MSMEs based in the district of Nanded, Maharashtra. The research utilizes Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to compare the financial performance of sample MSMEs selectively using the suitable variables identified by Arasu et al. (2021). Findings suggest sharp differences in the financial performance of sample units. Inefficient units are suggested to improve their return on asset, return on capital employed, and net profit margin.

Predicting Ground Level PM2.5 Concentration Over Delhi Using Landsat 8 Satellite Data

ABSTRACT Comprehensive monitoring of urban air pollution is paramount to better understand and work towards ameliorating hazardous air quality level in urban centres of India. This study aims at developing a multispectral empirical model useful in estimating the concentration of particulate matter of 2.5 micrometres (μm) or less in diameter (PM2.5) on a city-wide scale using Landsat 8 satellite’s data over the metropolis of Delhi, India. The data pertaining to PM2.5 mass concentration as well as meteorological parameters like relative humidity and temperature were taken from the field observation stations of the Central Pollution Control Board in New Delhi conform to the date of data collection from Landsat 8 satellite. The ambient reflectance in the visible spectrum bands was measured and compared with the in-situ concentration of PM2.5 and the meteorological evidence acquired from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC). The correlation coefficient and root mean square error value were utilized to analyse the feasibility of the algorithm proposed. It can be concluded from the results that the aforementioned multispectral PM2.5 model can predict particulate matter concentrations with an adequate level of accuracy.

Gendering COVID-19: Impact of the Pandemic on Women’s Burden of Unpaid Work in India

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the already existing gender inequalities with substantial implications on women. With the closure of offices and educational institutions, and the emerging norm of work from home and online education, along with the lack of services of domestic worker, the need to perform unpaid chores in the household has increased. Simultaneously, the requirements of social distancing and sanitization have created new unpaid chores. Owing to the sexual division of labour, and gendered roles and social norms of performing domestic and care work, the burden of unpaid work falls disproportionately on women. In this context, the objective of the paper is to study the impact of COVID-19 on time spent on unpaid work and the underlying gender differences in the urban centres in India. Specifically, the paper will do a comparative analysis of the gender differences in time spent on unpaid work before and during the lockdown, and analyse the reasons for the same.

Decline in Phytoplankton Biomass along Indian Coastal Waters due to COVID-19 Lockdown

The SARS-CoV-2 (or COVID-19) lockdown in India, which started at an early stage of its infection curve, has been one of the strictest in the world. Air quality has improved in all urban centers in India, a major emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG). This study is based on the hypothesis that an abrupt halt in all urban activities resulted in a massive decline in NO2 emissions and has also altered coastal nitrogen (N) inputs; in-turn, this affected the trophic status of coastal waters across the country. We present the first evidence of an overall decline in pre-monsoon chlorophyll-a, a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, in coastal waters off urban centers during the peak of the lockdown in April. The preliminary field data and indirect evidence suggests the reduction in coastal chlorophyll-a could be linked to a net decline in nutrient loading, particularly of bioavailable N through watershed fluxes and atmospheric deposition. The preliminary results stress the importance of a further understanding of the relationship between fluctuations in anthropogenic N, due to lockdown measures and coastal ecosystem responses, as countries open-up to a business-as-usual scenario.

Status of urban hydrogeology research with emphasis on India

Urban areas have witnessed an inexorable expansion in population density, urban sprawl, industrialization and agricultural activities in the past few decades. Withdrawal of groundwater to meet water demand has resulted in over-drafting of aquifers and, commonly, lowered water tables in many urban centres of India, like Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Kolkata and others. Overdraft has also deteriorated the chemical and biogeochemical quality of surface water and groundwater. This paper highlights some of the research approaches, namely hydrogeochemical investigation, groundwater modeling, and use of geographic information systems and remote sensing, used worldwide to resolve issues specific to urban groundwater. The paper also highlights approaches that are practiced internationally (combined hydrogeologic and multi-isotopic studies, integrated modeling techniques, etc.) but still need to be developed on a large scale in India. A detailed overview of the literature indicates the need for a more holistic approach incorporating various types of conceptual and management models to strengthen the research level in India and elsewhere. For instance, a computational tool that can incorporate different models, such as for urban water and contaminant balance and pipeline leakage, should be developed to generate predefined scenarios of potential groundwater contamination and help in the socio-economic analysis of different scenarios. In hydrogeochemical approaches, multi-isotope ratios should be coupled with hydrogeologic approaches for better understanding of water quality problems.

No home for the disabled: The disabling metropolis of Delhi

Delhi is today one of the most diverse urban centers in India. While the Delhi metro, with its many disabled-friendly features, seems an exemplar of the ideal inclusive and open city, other attempts to create more inclusive constructions of habitation there remain fragile. Through an analysis of Shivani Gupta’s autobiography No Looking Back: A True Story, which captures her attempts to negotiate India’s national capital as an orthopedically disabled person, this article examines how the social and architectural construction of public spaces in Delhi privileges particular forms of embodied citizenship associated with a normalized body. It reveals that the development process is characterized by socio-institutional structures and relations which are insensitive to and ignorant of the needs of disabled people. This is symptomatic of an architectural apartheid and a wider set of ableist power geometries. The “reflexive modernization” thesis of Ulrich Beck is applied here to the geographical understanding of disablement.

“What do we Know … What have we Learnt?”: Zombified Neoliberal Fantasies in Go Goa Gone

Placing the Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK directed zombie comedy Go Goa Gone (2013) within the recent zombie movie spurt of production in South Asia, this paper analyzes the ambivalent position adopted by the film text towards discourses of neoliberalism and the desires it unleashes in India. I argue that Go Goa Gone demonstrates a playful and ironic engagement with the vicissitudes of everyday life in urban centers in India and also with the new economies of affect, especially those fueled by relatively novel patterns of consumption and participation in forms of new media. Simultaneously the essay also perpetuates some problematic aspects of racialized cultural fantasies associated in India with the paradoxically inside-outside topos of Goa.

Vehicular exhaust emissions under current and alternative future policy measures for megacity Delhi, India

This study analyses the impact of integrated mass rapid transit system (IMRTS) and other policy measures on air emissions from vehicular sources in Delhi region. The impacts have been studied for the passenger and goods vehicles separately. For this purpose three alternative scenarios for the passenger vehicles and two alternative scenarios for the goods vehicles have been analysed for the year 2021. The interventions include stringent source emission norms, modal shift resulting from introduction of effective public transport alternatives, speed regulation measures and hiking of parking fee of private vehicles. These scenarios have been compared to the base year 2007. An important finding that emerged from the study is that stringent fuel emission norms and introduction of alternative public transport systems alone may not result in the modal shift and hence reduction in exhaust emissions. It is actually a combination of these measures and management measures such as increased parking fee and regulated uniform speed of public transport that results in desired benefits. Further, the inclusion of goods vehicle demand during transport policy formulation can help in controlling air pollution in new urban centres in India and in major developing regions of the world.

Cost efficiency benchmarking of urban water supply utilities: The case of an Indian state

AbstractIn most developing countries like India, benchmarking of water supply utilities is rarely carried out as these services are not run on professional lines to ensure profitability, even as social goals of making provision for all, including the poor, take priority over profitability. When performances of these services are not measured, efforts to improve these services remain directionless and arbitrary. Urban water supplies in India, therefore, suffer a self‐inflicted fate, wherein city municipalities remain mired in mundane issues, leading to large dissatisfaction and inefficiencies. This paper attempts to evolve a framework for evaluating cost efficiencies of water supply services and applies stochastic frontier analysis to 18 urban centres in India through six models. The results indicate large relative inefficiencies and a scope of savings of 24.5% of average current operating and maintenance costs even with existing levels of resource inputs. The results are discussed from a regulatory and policy‐making perspective.

Social Collectives, Political Mobilisation and the Local State

The paper attempts to explore the emergence and role of select civil-social and religious collectives, i.e., ethno-religious groups, caste collectives, religious social orders and petty business and trade associations in political mobilization and surfacing of new political and social elites at the local level as well as their relationship with the local state apparatus. The study is based on field surveys conducted in two urban centres of India, viz. Lucknow and Ahmadabad. It contextualises the findings of two urban areas with the larger national and federal level social and political processes.

Application of satellite observations for identifying regions of dominant sources of nitrogen oxides over the Indian Subcontinent

We used SCIAMACHY (10:00 LT) and OMI (13:30 LT) tropospheric NO2columns to study diurnal and seasonal patterns in NO2concentrations over India. Using characteristics of seasonal variability in tropospheric NO2columns, we present a simple methodology to identify the dominant NOx source category for specific regions in India. Regions where the dominant source category is classified as biomass burning are found generally to agree with the ATSR fire count distribution. Relating OMI NO2columns to surface NOx emission, we find that biomass burning emission account for an average flux of 1.55 × 1011molecules cm−2 s−1during the peak burning period. Furthermore, extrapolating this estimated flux to the total burned area for the year 2005, biomass burning is estimated to account for 72 Gg of N emissions. Additional analysis of fire events in Northeast India shows a marked increase in TES retrieved O3concentrations, suggesting significant photochemical ozone formation during the peak biomass burning period. Regions where the dominant source type was categorized as anthropogenic are in good agreement with the distribution of major industrial regions and urban centers in India. Tropospheric NO2columns over these anthropogenic source regions increased by 3.8% per year between 2003 and 2011, which is consistent with the growth in oil and coal consumption in India. The OMI‐derived surface NO2mixing ratios are indirectly validated with the surface in situ measurements (correlation r = 0.85, n = 88) obtained from the air quality monitoring network in Delhi during August 2010 to January 2011. Most of the OMI‐derived surface NO2values agree with surface‐based measurements, supporting the direct utility of OMI observation for emission estimates. Finally, we use OMI NO2columns to estimate NOx emissions for selected large cites and major thermal power plants in India and compare these estimates with the INTEX‐B and EDGAR emission inventory. We find that, for a few locations, OMI‐derived emission show fair agreement; however, for many locations, NOx emissions differ from INTEX‐B and EDGAR inventories.