Faculty of Architecture

Housing studio: Selected reading:

Urban area:
The definition of 'urban' varies from country to country. An urban area can be defined
by one or more of the following: administrative criteria or political boundaries
(e.g. area within the jurisdiction of a municipality or a town committee), with a
threshold of population, population density, economic function (where a majority of
the population is not primarily engaged in agriculture, or where there is surplus
employment) or the presence of urban characteristics (e.g. paved streets, street
lighting, water supply and sewerage, medical facility, administrative functions and
educational institutions.)

A sewage treatment plant: Jaipur, Rajasthan

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 1

Urban area can also be defined as a human settlement with high population density,
infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization
(refer urbanization) and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, towns,
conurbations or suburbs. In urbanism, the term contrasts to rural areas such
as villages and hamlets and in urban sociology or urban anthropology it contrasts
with natural environment. The creation of early predecessors of urban areas during
the urban revolution led to the creation of human civilization with modern urban
planning, which along with other human activities such as exploitation of natural
resources leads to human impact on the environment.

A conurbation is a region comprising a number of cities, large towns, and

other urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion,
have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area.
In most cases, a conurbation is a polycentric urbanized area, in which
transportation has developed to link areas to create a single urban labour
market or travel to work area.
The term "conurbation" was coined in 1915 by Patrick Geddes in his book
Cities In Evolution. He drew attention to the ability of the then new technology
of electric power and motorised transport to allow cities to spread and
agglomerate together, and gave as examples "Midlandton" in England, the
Ruhr in Germany, Randstad in the Netherlands and North Jersey in the
United States.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 2

For the Census of India 2011, the definition of urban area is as follows;

1. All places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee,
etc.
2. All other places which satisfied the following criteria:

a. A minimum population of 5,000;

b. At least 75 per cent of the male main working population engaged in non-
agricultural pursuits; and

c. A density of population of at least 400 persons per sq. km.

Roads in an urban area

The first category of urban units is known as Statutory Towns. These towns are notified
under law by the concerned State/Union Territory (UT) Government and have local bodies like
municipal corporations, municipalities, etc., irrespective of their demographic characteristics
as reckoned on 31st December 2009. Examples: Vadodara (M Corp.), Shimla (MCorp.) etc.

The second category of Towns (as in item 2 above) is known as Census Town. These were
identified on the basis of previous census data (for 2011 census 2001 census data would be
used).
Urban Growth The (relative or absolute) increase in the number of
people who live in towns or cities. The pace of urban population growth
depends on the natural increase of the urban population gained by urban
areas through both net rural-urban migration and the reclassification of
rural settlements into cities and towns.

Urban areas are created and further developed by the process of urbanization. Urban
areas are measured for various purposes, including analyzing population density and
urban sprawl.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 3

Unlike an urban area, a metropolitan area includes not only the urban area, but also
satellite cities plus intervening rural land that is socio-economically connected to the
urban core-city, typically by employment ties through commuting, with the urban core
city being the primary labor market.

Urban sprawl

Urban sprawl or suburban sprawl describes the expansion of human populations

away from central urban areas into low-density, mono-functional communities, in a
process called suburbanization. In addition to describing a particular form
of urbanization, the term also relates to the social and environmental consequences
associated with this development.
In Continental Europe the term "peri-urbanisation" is often used
to denote similar dynamics and phenomena, although the term
urban sprawl is currently being used by the European Environment
Agency.
Some measure sprawl only with the average number of residential
units per acre in a given area. But others associate it with
decentralization (spread of population without a well-defined
centre), discontinuity (leapfrog development), segregation of uses,
and so forth.

The meaning of Urban sprawl is also taken in a way for causing environmental
degradation, and intensifying segregation and undermining the vitality of existing urban
areas and attacked on aesthetic grounds. The term has become a rallying cry for
managing urban growth.

Urban Sprawl- Delhi

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 4

Urbanisation
Urbanisation refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, "the gradual
increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas", and the ways in which each
society adapts to the change. It is predominantly the process by which towns and cities
are formed and become larger as more people begin living and working in central areas.

Aerial View of Chicago

Urbanization is relevant to a range of disciplines, including urban planning,

geography, sociology, economics, and public health. The phenomenon has been
closely linked to modernization, industrialization, and the sociological process
of rationalization.
Urbanization creates enormous social, economic and environmental changes, which
provide an opportunity for sustainability with the “potential to use resources more
efficiently, to create more sustainable land use and to protect the biodiversity of natural
ecosystems.
Peri-urbanisation relates to those processes of dispersive urban growth that creates
hybrid landscapes of fragmented urban and rural characteristics.
Peri-urban areas (also called rurban space, outskirts or the hinterland) are defined by
the structure resulting from the process of peri-urbanisation. It can be described as
the landscape interface between town and country, or also as the rural—urban
transition zone where urban and rural uses mix and often clash. It can thus be viewed as
a landscape type in its own right, one forged from an interaction of urban and rural land
use.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 5

Peri-urbanisation
Its definition shifts depending on the global location, but typically in Europe where
urban areas are intensively managed to prevent urban sprawl and protect agricultural
land, the urban fringe will be characterised by certain land uses which have either
purposely moved away from the urban area, or require much larger tracts of land.
As examples:

 Roads, especially motorways and bypasses

 Waste transfer stations, recycling facilities and landfill sites
 Park and ride sites
 Airports
 Large hospitals
 Power, water and sewerage facilities
 Factories
 Large out-of-town shopping facilities e.g. large supermarkets

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 6

 Sewage disposal

Despite these urban uses, the fringe remains largely open with the majority of the land
agricultural, woodland or other rural use. However the quality of the countryside around
urban areas tends to be low with severance between areas of open land and badly
maintained woodlands and hedgerows.
In this case, peri-urbanisation is seen as the expansion of functional rural—urban
linkages such as commuting.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 7

 Land use (not zoning) involves the management and
modification of natural environment or wilderness into built
environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats
such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods. It also
has been defined as "the total of arrangements, activities, and
inputs that people undertake in a certain land cover type.

Urban fringe development

Urban fringe
The urban fringe, or rural-urban fringe also known as the outskirts or the urban
hinterland, can be described as the "landscape interface between town and
country", or also as the transition zone where urban and rural uses mix and often
clash. Alternatively, it can be viewed as a landscape type in its own right, one forged
from an interaction of urban and rural land uses.
Its definition shifts depending on the global location, but typically in Europe, where
urban areas are intensively managed to prevent urban sprawl and protect agricultural
land, the urban fringe will be characterised by certain land uses which have either
purposely moved away from the urban area, or require much larger tracts of land.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 8

A few examples as characteristics:

 Roads, especially motorways and bypasses

 Waste transfer stations, recycling facilities and landfill sites
 Park and ride sites
 Airports
 Large hospitals
 Power, water and sewerage facilities
 Factories
 Large out-of-town shopping facilities, e.g. large supermarkets

Despite these 'urban' uses, the fringe remains largely open, with the majority of the
land agricultural, woodland or other rural use. However, the quality of the countryside
around urban areas tends to be low.
The word rural has been defined as “living in the country having the standing
qualities or manner of peasants of country folk, engaged in country occupation
agricultural or pastoral, or pertaining to, or characteristic of the country or country
life as opposed to the town”. Rural urban fringe is a complex zone on the
periphery of a growing urban area. Rural-urban Fringe is a zone rather than a
boundary. Hence, the rural-urban fringe cannot be precisely demarcated.
Rural-urban differentiation can be examined in several aspects, for example,
occupational difference, environmental differences, differences in the nature of
housing and house holding, difference in the density of population, difference in
social mobility and migration and the differences in social interaction and
stratification.
(Source: Delineation of Rural Urban Fringe of Indian Cities: A Case Study of
Jammu City * Nisha Lecturer in Geography G.G.M. Science College, Jammu,
University of Jammu, Jammu And Kashmir, India)

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume; it is

a quantity of type number density. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and most
of the time to humans.

Settlement
A settlement, locality or populated place is a community in which people live. A
settlement can range in size from a small number of dwellings grouped together to the
largest of cities with surrounding urbanized areas. Settlements may include hamlets,
villages, towns and cities. A settlement may have known historical properties such as the
date or era in which it was first settled, or first settled by a particular people.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 9

 Unplanned growth leads to chaos

In the field of geospatial predictive modeling, settlements are also are defined as "a city,
town, village or other agglomeration of buildings where people live and work."
A settlement conventionally includes its constructed facilities such as roads, enclosures,
field systems, ponds, parks and other public places.

Urban morphology
Urban morphology is the study of the form of human settlements and the process of
their formation and transformation. The study helps in understanding the spatial
structure and character of a metropolitan area, city, town or village by examining the
patterns of its component parts and the ownership or control and occupation.
Typically, analysis of physical form focuses on street pattern, plot pattern and
building pattern, sometimes referred to collectively as urban grain. Analysis of specific
settlements is usually undertaken using cartographic sources and the process of
development is deduced from comparison of historic maps.
(Cartography is the study and practice of making maps)

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 10

Special attention is given to how the physical form of a city changes over time and to
how different cities compare to each other. Another significant part of this subfield deals
with the study of the social forms which are expressed in the physical layout of a city,
and, conversely, how physical form produces or reproduces various social forms.

The essence of the idea of morphology was initially

expressed in the writings of the great poet and
philosopher Goethe (1790). In geography, urban
morphology as a particular field of study owes its
origins to Lewis Mumford, James Vance and
Sam Bass Warner. Peter Hall and Michael
Batty of the UK and Serge Salat, France, are also
central figures.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 11

 Lewis Mumford (1895 - 1990) Patrick Geddes (1854 - 1932)
American historian, sociologist, Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer, and
philosopher of technology, and philanthropist and pioneering town planner
literary critic

Urban morphology is considered as the study of urban tissue, or fabric, as a means

of discerning the environmental level normally associated with urban design. Tissue
comprises coherent neighborhood morphology (open spaces, building) and functions
(human activity). Neighborhood exhibit recognizable patterns in the ordering of
buildings, spaces and functions (themes), within which variation reinforced an
organizing set of principles.
This approach challenges the common perception of unplanned environments as chaotic
or vaguely organic through understanding the structures and processes embedded
in urbanisation. Complexity science has provided further explanations showing how
urban structures emerge from the uncoordinated action of multiple individuals in highly
regular ways. Amongst other things this is associated with permanent energy and
material flows to maintain these structures.

Infrastructure
Infrastructure is the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or
other area, including the services and facilities necessary for its economy to function.
Infrastructure is composed of public and private physical improvements such
as roads, bridges, tunnels, water supply, sewers, electrical grids, telecommunication
(including Internet connectivity and broadband speeds). In general, it has also been
defined as "the physical components of interrelated systems providing commodities and
services essential to enable, sustain, or enhance societal living conditions."
There are two general types of ways to view infrastructure, hard or soft. Hard
infrastructure refers to the physical networks necessary for the functioning of a modern
industry. This includes roads, bridges, railways, etc. Soft infrastructure refers to all the

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 12

institutions that maintain the economic, health, social, and cultural standards of a
country. This includes educational programs, parks and recreational facilities, law
enforcement agencies, and emergency services.

A
Metro rail project in progress Daily commuters

Flooding: a major problem

Built environment
The term built environment, or built world, refers to the human-made
surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from buildings
to parks. It has been defined as "the human-made space in which people live, work, and
recreate on a day-to-day basis."
The "built environment encompasses places and spaces created or modified by people
including buildings, parks, and transportation systems."
Currently, built environments are typically used to describe the interdisciplinary field
that addresses the design, construction, management, and use of these man-made
surroundings as an interrelated whole as well as their relationship to human activities
over time.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 13

Metropolitan area
A metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as a metro area or commuter belt, is
a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated
surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing.
A metro area in general comprises multiple jurisdictions and municipalities,
neighborhoods, townships, boroughs, cities, towns, exurbs, suburbs, counties, districts,
and states. As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan
areas have become key economic and political regions. Metropolitan areas include one
or more urban areas, as well as satellite cities, towns and intervening rural areas that
are socio-economically tied to the urban core, typically measured
by commuting patterns.

Transportation: A Horse carriage Trams: Kolkata

City centre
A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and
geographic heart of a city, especially those in the Western world. The term "city centre"
is primarily used in British English. In North America, the term downtown is used.
A Central Business District (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city.
In larger cities, it is often synonymous with the city's "financial district". Geographically,
it often coincides with the "city centre" or "downtown", but the two concepts are
separate: many cities have a central business district located away from its commercial
or cultural city centre or downtown.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 14

 CBD Mumbai

The CBD is often also the "city centre" or "downtown", but this is also often not the
case. Midtown Manhattan is the largest central business district in New York City and
in the world; yet Lower Manhattan, commonly called Downtown Manhattan,
represents the second largest distinct CBD in New York City and is geographically
situated south of Midtown.
For example, London's "city centre" is usually regarded as encompassing the
historic City of London and the medieval City of Westminster, whereas the City of
London and the transformed Docklands area are regarded as its two CBDs.

London City Center

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 15

Mexico: Historic City Center

Mexico City also has a historic city centre, the colonial-era Centro Histórico, along with
two CBDs: the mid-late 20th century Paseo de la Reforma - Polanco, and the new Santa
Fe.

CBD Taipei, Taiwan

In Taipei, Taiwan, the area around its main railway station is regarded as the historic
city centre while the Xinyi Planned Area located to the east of the said railway station
is the current CBD of Taipei, being both the financial district and the premier shopping
area.

The shape and type of a CBD almost always closely reflect the
city's history. Cities with strong preservation laws and maximum
building height restrictions to retain the character of the historic
and cultural core will have a CBD quite a distance from the center of
the city. This is quite common for European cities such
as Paris or Vienna.
In cities in the New World that grew quickly after the invention of
mechanized modes such as road or rail transport, a single central
area or downtown will often contain most of the region's tallest
buildings and act both as the CBD and the commercial and cultural
city centre.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 16

 The New World is one of the names used for the
majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically
the Americas (including nearby islands such as those
of the Caribbean and Bermuda).

Increasing urbanization in the 21st century have developed megacities, particularly

in Asia, that will often have multiple CBDs scattered across the urban area. Downtowns
(as understood in North America) are conceptually distinct from both CBDs and city
centers. No two CBDs look alike in terms of their spatial shape.

Satellite town
A satellite town or satellite city is a concept in urban planning that refers essentially
to smaller metropolitan areas which are located somewhat near to, but are mostly
independent of larger metropolitan areas.
Satellite cities are small or medium-sized cities near a large metropolis, with
characteristics that:

 predate the metropolis' suburban expansion

 are at least partially independent from that metropolis economically and socially
 are physically separated from the metropolis by rural territory or by a major
geographic barrier such as a large river; satellite cities should have their own
independent urbanized area, or equivalent
 have their own bedroom communities
 have a traditional downtown surrounded by traditional "inner city" neighborhoods
 may or may not be counted as part of the large metropolis' Combined Statistical
Area.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 17

Suburbs
Satellite cities differ from suburbs in that they have distinct employment bases,
commuter sheds, and cultural offerings from the central metropolis, as well as an
independent municipal government. Satellite cities are not bedroom communities.
Satellite cities differ from edge cities, which are suburbs with large employment bases
and cultural offerings, in that satellite cities must have a true historic downtown, a
distinct independent municipal government, existed as a city prior to becoming
interconnected with the larger metropolitan core, and are surrounded by both their own
family of bedroom communities and a belt of rural land between themselves and the
central city.
Conceptually, both satellite cities and some types of edge city could be (and once were)
self-sufficient communities outside of their larger metropolitan areas, but have become
interconnected due to the suburban expansion of the larger metropolis. However, while
edge cities may have their own government and share many characteristics with satellite
cities, they are much more physically integrated with the core city and would not exist in
anything like their present form if not for the suburban expansion of their larger
neighbor. Edge cities are activity nodes within a metro area, not miniature metro areas
themselves.
A community is a small or large social unit or a group who have
something in common, such as norms, religion, values, or identity.
Communities often share a sense of place that is situated in a given
geographical area (e.g. a country, village, town, or neighborhood) or
in virtual space through communication platforms.
Besides, durable relations that extend beyond immediate
genealogical ties also define a sense of community. People tend to
define those social ties as important to their identity, practice, and
roles in social institutions (such as family, home, work, government,
society, or humanity at-large)

Some satellite cities that are particularly close or well connected to their larger
neighbors and/or have their own historic downtown may also qualify as the uptown
variety of edge cities, but the terms are not synonymous.

Multi-polar cities
In some cases large metropolitan areas have multiple centers of close to equal
importance. These multi-polar cities are often referred to as twin cities. Multi-polar
cities differ from satellite cities in such cases :

 satellites are clearly much less important than the larger center around which they
are located, while the various nodes of multi-polar cities are close to each other in
importance
 satellites are separated from the larger center by a substantial belt of rural territory,
while twin cities may be fully integrated in physical form

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 18

Vallabh Vidya Nagar and Anand in Gujarat are two such urban centers with no
significant boundaries. So are the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. They
are proportionally close enough and physically integrated enough to be considered a
twin rather than a satellite.

Generally speaking, cities that are listed as being part of the same urbanized area should
be considered twins, rather than one having a satellite relationship to the other.

Metropolitan areas
Conceptually, satellite cities are miniature metro areas on the fringe of larger ones.
Satellite cities are sometimes listed as part of the larger metro area, and sometimes
listed as totally independent. In the United States, satellite cities are often (but not
always) listed as independent Metropolitan Statistical Areas within a single Combined
Statistical Area that is unified with the larger metropolis.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 19

 Chennai Metropolitan Area

Definitions:
Towns: For the Census of India 2011, the definition of urban area is as follows;
1. All places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area
committee, etc.
2. All other places which satisfied the following criteria:
i) A minimum population of 5,000;
ii) At least 75 per cent of the male main working population engaged in
non-agricultural pursuits; and
iii) A density of population of at least 400 persons per sq. km.
The first category of urban units is known as Statutory Towns.
These towns are notified under law by the concerned State/UT Government and have
local bodies like municipal corporations, municipalities, municipal committees, etc.,
irrespective of their demographic characteristics as reckoned on 31st December 2009.
Examples: Vadodara (M Corp.), Shimla (M Corp.) etc.
The second category of Towns (as in item 2 above) is known as Census Town. These
were identified on the basis of Census 2001 data.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 20

Urban Agglomeration (UA):
An urban agglomeration is a continuous urban spread constituting a town and its
adjoining outgrowths (OGs), or two or more physically contiguous towns together with
or without outgrowths of such towns.
An Urban Agglomeration must consist of at least a statutory town and its total
population (i.e. all the constituents put together) should not be less than 20,000 as per
the 2001 Census.
There were similar other combinations which have been treated as urban
agglomerations satisfying the basic condition of contiguity. Examples: Greater Mumbai
UA, Delhi UA, etc.
Out Growths (OG):
An Out Growth (OG) is a viable unit such as a village or a hamlet or an enumeration
block made up of such village or hamlet and clearly identifiable in terms of its
boundaries and location.
Some of the examples are railway colony, university campus, port area, military camps,
etc., which have come up near a statutory town outside its statutory limits but within the
revenue limits of a village or villages contiguous to the town. While determining the
outgrowth of a town, it has been ensured that it possesses the urban features in terms
of infrastructure and amenities such as motorable roads, electricity, public water
supply system, drainage system for disposal of waste water etc. educational institutions,
post offices, medical facilities, banks etc. and physically contiguous with the core town
of the UA.

Population of UAs/Towns:
1. The total urban population in the country as per Census 2011 is more than 377 million
constituting 31.16% of the total population.
2. Class I UAs/Towns: The UAs/Towns are grouped on the basis their population in
Census. The UAs/Towns which have at least 1,00,000 persons as population are
categorised as Class I UA/Town. At the Census 2011, there are 468 such UAs/Towns.
The corresponding number in Census 2001 was 394.
3. 264.9 million persons, constituting 70% of the total urban population, live in these
Class I UAs/Towns. The proportion has increased considerable over the last Census. In
the remaining classes of towns the growth has been nominal.
4. Million Plus UAs/Towns: Out of 468 UAs/Towns belonging to Class I category, 53
UAs/Towns each has a population of one million or above each. Known as Million Plus
UAs/Cities, these are the major urban centres in the country. 160.7 million persons (or
42.6% of the urban population) live in these Million Plus UAs/Cities.18 new UAs/Towns
have been added to this list since the last Census.
5. Mega Cities: Among the Million Plus UAs/Cities, there are three very large UAs with
more than 10 million persons in the country, known as Mega Cities. These are Greater
Mumbai UA (18.4 million), Delhi UA (16.3 million) and Kolkata UA (14.1 million). The

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 21

largest UA in the country is Greater Mumbai UA followed by Delhi UA. Kolkata UA
which held the second rank in Census 2001 has been replaced by Delhi UA.
The growth in population in the Mega Cities has slowed down considerably during the
last decade. Greater Mumbai UA, which had witnessed 30.47% growth in population
during 1991-2001 has recorded 12.05% during 2001-2011. Similarly Delhi UA (from
52.24% to 26.69% in 2001-2011) and Kolkata UA (from 19.60% to 6.87% in 2001-2011)
have also slowed down considerably.

Urban agglomeration
The population of a built-up or densely populated area containing the city proper / core
city, suburbs and continuously settled commuter areas or adjoining territory inhabited
at urban levels of residential density. Large urban agglomerations often include several
administratively distinct but functionally linked cities. For example, the urban
agglomeration of Tokyo includes the cities of Chiba, Kawasaki, Yokohama and others.

The definition of urban agglomeration

2.1. The conceptions of urban agglomeration

As early as 1898, the British urban scholar, pioneer of modern urban planning and
social activist Ebenezer Howard proposed the concept of the “town cluster” in his
book Garden Cities of Tomorrow (Ebenezer Howard, 1902). This concept
deviated from the then popular spatial focus on cities themselves.

Howard attempted to study as an integrated entity the spatial organization and internal
dynamics between cities and their surrounding countryside. In his vision of the
urbanized landscape, the urban form is not only the areas occupied by cities but also an
area comprising several peripheral Garden Cities integrated with a Central City. This
concept eventually evolved into the early forms of the “Garden City” model of urban
agglomeration.

In 1915, the British sociologist and humanist urban planner Patrick Geddes published
his Cities in Evolution, based on his research on cities in the United Kingdom
(Geddes, 1915).

Geddes was among the first scholars to employ a comprehensive regionalization

approach to exploring the internal dynamics of cities and the process of urbanization.
He observed the co-existence of urban sprawl and the over-concentration of both cities
and industrial and economic activities. Geddes further argued that urban sprawl was a
result of over-separation between cities and their suburban areas, whereas over-
concentration was a result of the concentrated locations’ having apparent resource
advantages (such as coal) and transportation conveniences (such as
intersections among railways, highways, and waterways).

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 22

Geddes regarded such a concentration of urbanization and collective human activities as
a new form of population development. He predicted that this conurbation/urban
cluster would be the future trend of urbanization development. In his analyses, he also
identified seven concentrated urban areas and one London urban cluster in the United
Kingdom.

During this same period, newly emerging urban clusters could be identified in the
Greater Paris region of France, the Berlin-Ruhr region of Germany, the Pittsburg-
Chicago region of the United States and the Greater New York region of the United
States (Geddes, 1915).

In 1918, the Finnish urban scholar E. Saarine proposed the theory of

organic decentralization, which regarded cities as “organic entities,” in his work The
City – Its Growth, Its Decay, Its Future (Lin & Chen, 2003).

Saarine suggested that the development of cities should follow the order from chaotic
concentration to ordered decentralization. The Greater Helsinki Master Plan was
based on this theory. Similar master plans started to appear in various countries,
suggesting that studies on urban clusters were attracting increasing attention.

Greater Helsinki Master Plan

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 23

In 1920, scholars in the former Soviet Union also proposed a variety of concepts to
describe the clustering of cities that was similar to urban agglomeration. These concepts
included the urban economic zone, the economic city, and the planned area. Scholars
such as Bogelade also studied the urbanization and clustering process in Ukraine. These
researchers proposed a set of indicators, including the minimum amount of population
in the central city, the minimum number of peripheral residential locations, and the
distance from the central city to the edge of the cluster, to identify spatial extension and
forms of urban agglomerations (Liu, 2003).

Developed and Undeveloped Land

In the simplest sense, developed land has been fully prepared for home building while
undeveloped land has not.

One of the most important things that a developer does with raw land is bring roads
onto the site and connect those roads to the public right-of-way. Lots are usually located
adjacent to the new road and have direct access to it. If the subdivision remains private,
the homeowners will maintain the roads but often they’re deeded to the city and
maintained by the municipal service department. Undeveloped land is usually an area
that lacks the infrastructure, services and buildings that are often characterized as urban
development.
Land development is altering the landscape in any number of ways such as:

 Changing landforms from a natural or semi-natural state for a purpose such

as agriculture or housing
 Subdividing real estate into lots, typically for the purpose of building homes
 Real estate development or changing its purpose, for example by converting an
unused factory complex into condominia.
Land improvement or land amelioration. It refers to investments making land
more usable by humans. For accounting purposes it refers to any variety of projects that

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 24

increase the value of the property. Most are depreciable, but some land improvements
are not able to be depreciated because a useful life cannot be determined. Home
building and containment are two of the most common and the oldest types of
development.
In an urban context, land development furthermore includes:

 Road construction
 Access roads, walkways and parking lots
 Bridging
 Landscaping
 Clearing, terracing or land levelling
 Setup of fences and, to a lesser degree, hedges
 Service connections to municipal services and public utilities
 Drainage, canals
 External lighting (street lamps, etc.)
Landowner or developers on any size of project will often want to maximise profits,
minimise risk and control cash flow. This "profit enhancement" means identifying and
developing the best scheme for the local marketplace, whilst satisfying the local
planning process.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 25

Land development puts more emphasis on the expected economic development as a
result of the process;
"Land conversion" tries to focus on the general physical and biological aspects of
the land use change.
"Land improvement" in the economic sense can often lead to land degradation from the
ecological perspective.
Land development and the change in land value does not usually take into account
changes in the ecology of the developed area. While conversion of (rural) land with
a vegetation carpet to building land may result in a rise in economic growth and
rising land prices, the irreversibility of lost flora and fauna because of habitat
destruction, the loss of ecosystem services and resulting decline in environmental
value is only considered a priori in environmental full-cost accounting.

Usually, the first step is to have the land zoned as residential (or commercial, industrial,
or other), then it is surveyed and laid out in lots or parcels. Curbs are built, utility lines
installed, and streets are paved, then lots that have been sold are built upon. The land
that was once natural land is by this process developed.

 A survey, if required
 Hookup to utilities: phone, electric, cable, gas, and sewer and water (municipal or
community systems). Include both the cost to extend lines to your house and the
“tap fee” to hook up.
 Septic system design and installation (conventional or alternative, if required)
 Well drilling, pump, and hookup to house

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 26

  Earthwork: excavation, cut-and-fill, and blasting, if required.
 Paving: road, driveway, patios
 Landscaping
 Permits and fees: The number and size of fees vary widely. Ask for a list of all
permits and fees required in your jurisdiction
 Legal costs: title search and other closing costs. Also may include variance
requests, addressing challenges from abutters, resolving conflicts over rights-of-
way issues, boundaries, etc.
 Impact fees – varies by state and municipality. Also called development fees,
mitigation fees, service availability charges, facility fees, and other creative names.

IMPACT FEES

Impact fees are now assessed by many towns to help them pay for schools,
infrastructure, and other public costs associated with adding new homes to their
community. Depending on the state, they may be called development fees, mitigation
fees, service availability charges, facility fees, and other creative names.

Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976

The Urban Land Ceiling Act was a law in India, that was passed in 1976. This act
had a huge bearing on urban development, by barring development on large tracts of
available land. As a result, the act has already been repealed in some states, such
as Gujarat.
This act was repealed in November 2007 in the state of Maharashtra. The repeal was a
pre-condition to the state government with a grant under the Jawaharlal Nehru
National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), to be used for
major infrastructure development projects (like the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link,
the Mumbai Metro Project, the Bandra-Worli, the Worli-Nariman Point sealink and
the Mumbai Urban Transport Project-II).
However, there is still considerable confusion in the process required for the clearance
of land for buildings; the repeal has not had much impact on the ground. The
Maharashtra Government has purchased large tracts of land under provisions of this
act, to be used to provide low-cost housing to the common people. However, this land
continues to lie vacant.
Unfortunately, this Act has led to a Lack of Managed Green Areas in cities which acts as
Lungs of the City and greater population density in developed areas as owners had to
sell off their excess Land to builders and the resultant corruption of Building
departments of Government Municipality.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 27

The Bhoodan Movement or Land Gift Movement, was a voluntary land
reform movement in India, started by Acharya Vinoba Bhave in 1951 at Pochampally
village in Telangana which is now known as Bhoodan Pochampally.

The mission of the movement was to persuade wealthy landowners to voluntarily

give a percentage of their land to the landless people. However, this land could not be
sold. In effect, landless labourers were being given a small plot of land on which they
can settle, as well as grow some of their own food.
The Government of various Provinces, passed Bhoodan Acts which generally stipulated
that the beneficiary had no right to sell the land or use it for a non-agricultural purpose-
including forestry. For example, under section 25 of Maharashtra State Bhoodan Act,
the beneficiary (who must be landless) should use the land for agricultural cultivation to
secure his own and family's daily bread. If he/she fails to cultivate the land for over a
year or tries to use it for some other non-agriculture activities, the government has the
right to confiscate it.
Vinoba Bhave walked across India on foot, to persuade landowners to give up a piece of
their land. He also wanted peasants to give up using bullocks or tractors or other
machines for agricultural purposes. This was called 'rishi-kheti'. He also wanted
everybody to give up using money, this was called 'kanchan-dan'. By constantly keeping
on the move, he escaped defamation. He was followed by crowds nearly everywhere he
went.
Philosophically, Vinoba Bhave was directly influenced by the Sarvodaya movement
of Gandhi of whose he was the spiritual heir. The movement was started on 18 April
1951 at Pochampally village in Nalgonda district when Telangana peasant movement on
the land issue reached the peak. It was a violent struggle launched by poor peasants

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 28

against the local landlords. Bhave said that rural rich must participate in voluntary
distribution of land.
The Urban Land (Ceiling & Regulation) Act, 1976 provides for imposition of a
ceiling on vacant land in urban agglomerations, for the acquisition of such land in excess
of the ceiling limit, to regulate the construction of buildings on such land and for
matters connected therewith, with a view to preventing the concentration of urban land
in the hands of a few persons and speculation and profiteering therein and with a view
to bringing about an equitable distribution of land in urban agglomerations to sub-serve
the common good.

The Act provided for imposition of a ceiling on both ownership and possession of vacant
land in urban agglomerations; acquisition of the excess vacant land by the state
government, with powers to dispose the vacant land for common good; payment of an
amount for the acquisition of the excess land; and granting exceptions in respect of
certain specific categories of vacant land.

This legislation fixed a ceiling on the vacant urban land that a ‘person’ in urban
agglomerations can acquire and hold. A person is defined to include an individual, a
family, a firm, a company, or an association or body of individuals, whether
incorporated or not. This ceiling limit ranges from 500-2,000 square metres (sq. m).
Excess vacant land is either to be surrendered to the competent authority appointed
under the Act for a small compensation, or to be developed by its holder only for
specified purposes. The government acquired any land owned in excess of the
prescribed limit by following a specific method of calculation, which was based on the
income the acquired land was able to generate.

The Act provides for appropriate documents to show that the provisions of this Act are
not attracted or should be produced to the registering officer before registering
instruments compulsorily registrable under the Registration Act.

Initially States of Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka,

Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal adopted the Act.
Thereafter, it was adopted by six more States namely Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,
Manipur, Meghalaya and Rajasthan.

Ceiling limit.—
(1) Subject to the other provisions of this section, in the case of every person, the ceiling
limit shall be,—
(a) where the vacant land is situated in an urban agglomeration falling within category A
specified in Schedule I, five hundred square metres;
(b) where such land is situated in an urban agglomeration falling within category B
specified in Schedule I, one thousand square metres;
(c) where such land is situated in an urban agglomeration falling within category C
specified in Schedule I, one thousand five hundred square metres;
(d) where such land is situated in an urban agglomeration falling within category D
specified in schedule I, two thousand square metres.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 29

Donors:
Shri Vedre Ramachandra Reddy Bhoodan
Vedire Ramachandra Reddy got his title " Bhoodan " as he was the first donor and
initiator of the great land donation movement in early 1950s (18 April 1951) in Andhra
Pradesh (now Telangana) at a village called Pochampally in the Nalgonda district
of Telangana.
Acharya Vinoba Bhave started the land donation movement in Pochampally village in
April 1951 with initiation of donation of 100 acres, (later on he has donated another 800
acres) of land from Vedre Ramachandra Reddy (who owned 3,500 acres and who had
resigned from a Govt. job to enter Politics), which led to a total of 1 million acres
(4,000 km²) of land donation and distribution among the poor in post independence
Era in India.
The Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan donated a whopping 14,000 Acres of his
personal land to the Bhoodan Movement for re-distribution among the landless.
Vedire Ramachandra Reddy was born on July 17, 1905 into a very prominent family
during the Nizam Rule in Deccan and died on December 9, 1986. He completed his
law/Barrister training in Ferguson Law College in Pune. After practicing for a few years,
he resigned as he was fed up with British system and joined social reform and helped
initiate Land Donation movement in Pochampally of Telangana (formerly Hyderabad
State).
After him, the land donation movement is maintained under a Bhoodan trust movement
till date with the help of his sons.
Raja Bahadur Giriwar Narayan Singh ,Bhuvanesh Reddy C.B.E., Raja of Ranka(Garhwa
Jharkhand) also donated 111,101 acres of land to the Vinoba Bhave Bhoodan initiative
which became the highest acreage of land given by any landlord or estate-owner in
India.

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Incremental Housing – The new site & services – Reinhard
Goethert, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Informal builders provide the bulk of affordable housing and define large areas of our cities.
Originally created for those long considered as poor and unable to house themselves, over time the
resultant informal housing generally matches higher income standards. This incremental process
has been adopted by governments into programmes called ‘site and services’, focusing on housing
and land development, and embracing process as the key. A methodology to capture this process
has been developed which offers a base for developing effective policies in supporting the
incremental builders.
SYNOPSIS
The rapid urban population surge of the 60s driven largely from migration with resultant massive
unauthorized city expansion provided challenges in finding effective housing interventions.
Upgrading programs became widespread despite high monetary and spatial costs. This lecture
focuses on a mimic of the informal housing process which offered a direction for policy, adopted in
the 70s by development agencies worldwide and known as ‘site and services’. Difficulties and
unresolved challenges in these projects ended their attraction and they fell out of widespread use by
the mid 80’s. However, as credible studies indicated that urban population growth was expected to
double in the next 20 years, a ‘site and services’ approach has again recently become the option of
choice for housing intervention as one of the few proactive options available. After-the-fact ‘catchup’
policy of upgrading communities as the policy choice was no longer seen as sufficient.
Reinhard proposes that to learn from the successful informal developments as seen everywhere
around the world, and to tap their energy and resources, is providing a viable affordable option – this
pay-as-you-go process is a key way by which families succeed. However, the process takes a long
time, with a clear burden on the families. Safety concerns of proper construction and lack of
appropriate skills are challenges to the family-builders, particularly when additionally confronted with
effects from global climatic change. Longitudinal surveys of informal areas and the previous site and
services projects of the 70s offer a base for understanding the informal process and suggest areas
of necessary and successful intervention.

Reinhard argues that the focus should continue the shift to ‘starter core units’ that can be expanded
by owner energies, as they provide initial security and a frame for expansion, while also offering a
‘safe room’ for the increasing disasters from environmental change. A wide range of ‘starter’ options
are now available to fit specific situations, from single story units to multi-story expandable
apartments for increased densities. Support/guidance for densification of existing housing provides
an effective strategy for mitigating expensive urban sprawl. Standards need to be reoriented to
reflect and embrace an incremental, pay-as-you go process. Funding support, and technical
assistance needs to be reoriented. Infrastructure can also be developed incrementally, to parallel
growth and demands at both neighborhood and house scales.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 37

Case Studies:
Raj Rewal Asian Games Village
Charles Correa Belapur Housing
Kanchanjunga Apartments
CIDCO Housing
BV Doshi GSFC Township
Aranya Low cost Housing, Indore

Le Corbusier Marseille Apartments

Domino House
Chandigarh

Kamal Mangaldas Row Houses

Apartments
Condominium

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 38

Housing in the Third World Cities:
Millions of urban families in the so-called Third World face a severe housing problem.
They live in homes that lack adequate sanitation, have an irregular electricity supply and
are built of flimsy materials. However, the form that the housing problem takes varies
greatly between and within countries: homelessness is significant in some places,
elsewhere the main problem is one of overcrowding or the unavailability of
infrastructure and services.

In many Third World cities most poor families rent accommodation, elsewhere they are
forced to live in their ' own ' flimsy shelter. One relatively constant feature is that
housing in the countryside is generally worse than that in urban areas. There are no easy
solutions to the Third World's diverse housing problems because a lack of adequate
shelter is merely one manifestation of generalised poverty. Decent shelter for all can
never be guaranteed so long as there is widespread poverty. At the same time, sensible
policies can help mitigate shelter problems.

It is important to remove biases in official policy, for example subsidies should be

shifted from the rich to the poor and unnecessary land-use and building regulations
should be removed. More should also be done to improve the chances of poor families
contributing to their own housing solutions.

Making land more accessible, guaranteeing that building materials are not overpriced
and providing land with basic services would all help. Little is likely to be gained by slum
demolition because that simply increases the number of families requiring shelter. More
should be done to encourage the development of rental housing, especially where most
poor urban dwellers are tenants and where most landlords live in the same
accommodation themselves.

Notes prepared by Bijoy Bordoloi 39