With the multi-dimensional complex challenges facing the world today, participatory maps provide a unique way of engaging citizens. Photo by Lee Shaver.

Urban planners, designers and architects have their work cut out for them. The rate of urbanization around the world means that we have to reconfigure the way we think, design and plan cities. It is not like starting from scratch on a clean canvas. Reconstructing existing cities to fit the needs of a larger population will be especially difficult because it will require planners to accommodate the needs of current urbanites, while forecasting the needs of future urbanites. It will require a balancing act between the environment, public health and mobility, from the design stage all the way through implementation.

This is where participatory maps are an increasingly important aspect of studying and planning more inclusive cities. Inviting residents to participate in map-making gives them a voice in the spatial planning process. It also provides insights into how they use their cities – where they live, where they work, where they cycle. Take, for instance, the incredible map made by Anton Polsky, a Russian artist who goes by the name “Make” and is the founder of a participatory urban re-planning website: www.partizaning.org.

In 2010, Make designed and shared a map, which he calls “USE/LESS,” to bring to attention the dismal circumstances cyclists had to endure in his hometown of Moscow. Using the resources and opportunities available to him, Make created the map and designed a second online version to crowd-source the marking of cycling routes, dangerous roads and bicycle parking spaces. The map received a lot of support and attention from urban residents and the media, and it became part of an alternative vision for the city, called “Moscow 2020.” This is just one incredible example of participatory community mapping, which uses art as a method to engage citizens on important urban issues.

There are also efforts to map cycling routes in China, which is important given that many Asian cities—particularly in India and China—are seeing a reverse trajectory: a shift away from walkability, pedestrianism and cycling that instead promotes and facilitates car driving.

Participatory mapping and spatial planning are also important and effective as visual and spatial tools that build rich urban fabrics. The “What Shape is Bushwick” mapping project in Brooklyn, New York, for instance, is a good example of mapping and participatory sewing.

With the multidimensional complex challenges facing the world today, participatory maps provide a unique way of engaging citizens, and they are a means to promote creative, relevant solutions to problems facing our urban future. Livable and humane cities require inclusive and participatory planning, where the voices of urban residents and their shared vision for the future can effectively materialize.

Can India transform its planning practices to equally represent the voices of the most marginalized groups? Photo by ILRI.

The urbanization boom in India is not taking place without heated discussions and an attempt at inclusive planning. If crafted correctly, Indian cities can serve as role models in participatory planning. In fact, many India-based projects and enterprises are leading the way with more inclusive planning methods, hoping to create human-centric cities.

Private Sector Involvement

New Delhi-based architecture firm Morphogenesis runs public projects like the Delhi Nullahs to reuse the neglected water drainage system in Delhi. These ravines transform the city’s storm water networks and can play a big part in the city’s sustainability efforts.

The city’s nullah network is 350 kilometers long (a little more than 200 miles), contiguous and intertwined in the national capital. Currently, the nullahs exist as unhygienic and sewage-laden drains, and they pose a health risk to citizens of Delhi. Among some of these concerns is that the nullahs smell of sewage, breed mosquitoes because of stagnant water, and direct pollutants into the Yamuna river. However, according to the architects of Morphogenesis, “a relatively small investment can turn the nullahs into a valuable asset for the common citizen.” Other public projects by the firm address various facets of urban infrastructure, including the postal system.

Delhi’s urban problems are complex because several cities have existed over the same space for centuries. Master planning approaches are therefore nearly impossible. But creative approaches like that of Morphogenesis that build on the existing infrastructure are an important step in improving the city’s sustainability. Private sector involvement in urban issues also shows that there is interest to improve the city’s infrastructure. Private investment also sends the message to citizens that their city is worth the investment–a powerful reason to get involved.

Individual and Community Interest

Sleek and modern, India's malls are attractive, but they are not affordable and socially exclusive to a large part of the population. Photo by steve_w.

Planning Wallah, a project by researcher and artist Adriana Valdez Young, combines planning with play to promote participation in the city of Mumbai. Her research on malls and “mallification” has highlighted the politics of social exclusion in Indian cities. India added 15 million square feet of mall retail space in 2011 and these malls are changing the urban shopping landscape in a problematic way. For one, malls remove the social aspects of bargaining and the democracy of pavement selling. Malls also echo a sentiment of social exclusion, especially in terms of where they are located and the westernization of the shopping experience. This has immense implications for the country’s urban fabric.

One way to tackle this challenge comes from a program called URBZ, a community initiative that promotes user-generated cities that is based in Dharavi Slum, Mumbai. URBZ organizes participatory workshops, designs adaptable structures and develops web tools for urban communities and practitioners.

This site-specific and immersive research can provide crucial insights for contemporary urban development, especially in a country like India, by giving power and legitimacy to a large poor urban population.

Government Buy-In

The National Urban Sanitation Policy in India engages cities in tackling challenges with sanitation, like public toilets and waste removal. Photo by Ignas Kukenys.

The Ministry of Urban Development of the central government in India is drafting several interesting concepts and policy guidelines to steer urbanization in a sustainable manner. These include the National Urban Transport Policy and National Urban Sanitation Policy, which engage cities to develop plans that improve their transport and sanitation issues in line with certain goals and guidelines. The NUTP, for instance, targets pedestrians and sustainability in the context of climate change. The NUSP looks at urban sanitation issues, such as access to public toilets and waste removal.

These efforts also exist at the local level. In New Delhi, for example, the local urban government is asking architects and universities to help design wards. This is in line with the Master Plan of Delhi 2021 (MPD), which requires local bodies to prepare detailed development plans for community centers, drainage, roads, parking spaces and shopping areas. This is a positive collaborative effort to promote better cities and a chance to incorporate more voices in the planning process, but it’s still important to incorporate the opinions of more marginalized groups.

In India, cities are divided into wards, which are then governed by their own administrative bodies in an attempt  to promote participation and self-government. Although these governing bodies bring in experts and professionals to resolve urban issues, the voices of those present often include and promote only middle class interests, instead of the collective interests of an economically diverse city. A collaborative and interdisciplinary effort is important in solving India’s complex urban issues, but this must include the voice of the lowest-income groups.

Provisions need to be in place that include the opinions of marginalized populations and put them on the map, so to speak. With these types of participatory approaches, India’s urban trajectory map is looking positive; mapping projects would be the likely next step, in order to improve and adequately address the issues facing Indian cities.

However, big questions still remain: Are Indian cities being planned by academics, activists and the middle class ? How will cities ensure that marginal voices are also part of the debate? This is a challenge, but if effectively addressed, could become a replicable trend for cities worldwide.

How can Delhi encourage more cycling? Photo by anna.

New York City last month announced the launch of its new bike sharing program. What is the feasibility for bike sharing in a city like Delhi, where during post-monsoon season, biking is a more affordable and accessible transport mode?

Bike sharing could be huge mobility investment, and a way to help alleviate air quality, climate change and congestion issues. Delhi already has cyclists of all kinds. There are bicycle riders, who generally own their cycles, as well as cycle rickshaws, who dominate older parts of the city and the suburbs like Gurgaon. There is also a new breed of electric cycle rickshaws, which run on electric batteries.

Once upon a time, blogger Magali Mander says, Delhi used to have separate lanes for cyclists. But then, “the space was taken over by cars and planning was taken over by those who thought a modern city needed wide streets for cars rather than lanes for its inhabitants to walk on, or ride on their bikes.” Clearly, non-motorized transport needs to be prioritized in Indian cities, whether by constructing shaded walkways, elevated bike paths, or safer and well-maintained pavements.

Health for All

A paper by Geetam Tiwari, a transport and planning expert from the Indian Institute of Technology, notes a “failure to consider the broad spectrum of health effects that may result from transport and land use policies and investments has resulted in decisions that penalize the least affluent groups of the population and make it more difficult for them to get to jobs, education, health care, amenities, and services.”

Unlike most Indian cities, Delhi traffic is made up predominantly of motorized vehicles, but the share of non-motorized modes of transport ranges between 8 percent and 66 percent at different locations. Nearly 32 percent of all commuter trips in Delhi are walking trips. Tiwari notes that “planning of land use should reflect the demands of people with low incomes (shorter distances to travel and high-density mixed land use) as well as the demands of people with higher incomes (low-density large residential plots, infrastructure for private vehicles, etc.).”

In terms of health impacts, Tiwari notes that air pollution and traffic injuries are the two major and adverse impacts of transport land use policies evident in the city. Increased air pollution in Delhi, which affects the health of all citizens—rich and poor, equally—has become a major public concern and has been recognized as a public health issue. One way to improve this situation would be to promote cycling and walking, along with the development of facilities that make cycling safer. Targeting the needs of cyclists is one of the key mobility challenges in Indian cities.

Bike Sharing in Delhi?

The management and monitoring of a bicycle share program would likely be difficult in a city as large as Delhi. But there are perhaps lessons that can be drawn from the existing rickshaw sharing and rental industry. It would require city-wide infrastructure changes, such as installing bike racks, as well as educational outreach, like promoting road safety. It is also perhaps not something that can easily be afforded by the local government who are now tasked with many responsibilities. Distances that people travel in the city are often not short, but having cycle share systems that feed into the subway could be important.

Additionally, bike riding is not convenient to everyone; women in sarees for instance are unlikely to cycle, and people that are elderly, disabled and handicapped once again become excluded from the cycling program. Cultural norms exist and would have to be challenged. An extremely targeted but affordable scheme could form part of an entire package aimed at improving public health and mobility, with improvements to lighting, pavements and segregated cycle lanes.

There are also external inconveniences to consider—the sun, the dust in eyes—which means educating the public about wearing helmets or protective visors. Biking would need to come with a slew of its own ammenities to ensure safety, but it would be in the interest of the city and its overall health.

A cycle share program would have to be largely seasonal because in the summer, cycling is uncomfortable in the summer heat, as well as during the rains. But elevated bike routes and walking paths constructed with shading are a possible solution. Clearly, architects, planners and policymakers need to be in a dialogue with city’s citizens to explore these opportunities.

There is potential in a project by a Delhi-based architecture firm Morphogenesis, called the Delhi Nullahs project, which would integrate several modes of non-motorized transport. The project seeks to establish a green and sustainable network through the city, connecting older heritage parts through walking and cycling routes. This kind of endeavor would make mobility across the city more sustainable.

A report from the United Nations Environment Program’s “Share the Road project, “Towards people-oriented indicators for accessibility, road safety and environment,” outlines some possibilities to shift away from a vehicle-oriented approach to transport:

“…concern to the livelihoods of the urban poor should be aware of the negative effects of the explosive growth of infrastructure for motorized traffic as shown in the western world. For this we can learn from these long term (negative) developments. The awareness of these effects should be used as a challenge for low and middle income countries to provide a mobility system which will be good for the society as a whole.”

But cycling is not just an option for the urban poor; it is a valid mobility option for many other Delhi residents because of its many benefits.

Monsoon rains can bring a city like New Delhi to a standstill. Photo by Shriya Malhotra.

Monsoons are a seasonal reality for Indian cities. These rains vary by region and extend from June to September. The rains are not heavy in all places and do not fall all the time. Yet every year, the experience for city dwellers in megacities like Delhi and Mumbai—not to mention smaller cities—is the same. The massive rains cause road floods because of a lack of proper road drainage. And they can bring a city to its knees, causing temporary halts and setbacks. (Learn more in our blog series, “Mumbai through the Monsoon.”)

The situation recurs annually, with varying intensity, which is likely due to climate change. Just this week, Delhi experienced some of the heaviest rains it had seen in almost a decade for the month of September. Roads became flooded in the heavy downpour. Traffic became congested, halting mobility in the city. The development of the Delhi Metro has never seemed more timely.

An article in TIME Magazine published just before the Commonwealth Games were held in India’s capital in 2010 highlights some of the issues at the intersection of planning, transport and public health. While construction debris and poor planning plague the city, they also create breeding grounds for mosquitoes, resulting in innumerable cases of dengue fever and malaria.

Flooding is a serious problem for growing Indian cities. Photo by Sonal Shah.

The situation of rain and clogged roads poses several mobility and health hazards, particularly for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. It also resulted in traffic chaos this Friday. These problems affect a vast majority of commuters in Indian cities, despite the increasing use of personal vehicles.

Because of their direct exposure to the weather, cyclists, pedestrians and two-wheel drivers, such as motorcyclists and scooter drivers, find it extremely difficult, if not simply uncomfortable, to get around the city. While the Delhi Metro and revamped bus systems are changing this to a degree, it still poses a challenge for policymakers.

With growing inequality, the situation in Indian cities is complicated by the fact that in a tropical climate, once people can afford to, they often prefer the comforts and conveniences of cars and their climactic control, despite the many associated costs. This brings to light the fact that transport, as well as urban planning policies, should focus on enabling mobility and better health, especially for the poor, instead of excluding and overlooking their requirements. This means a priority on walkability, cycling and mass public transportation.