Urban Environment in India: Issues and Challenges

Growing urbanization is posing serious environmental concerns in India in terms of changing land use pattern, increasing carbon emissions, solid waste generation and disposal, air and water pollution and poor sanitation amenities. A large segment of urban population in India resides in slums, squatters and informal settlement. These settlements are often located in low laying areas prone to direct and indirect risks due to environmental degradation including changes in the climate and lack of basic urban services. An urban environment is complex primarily because of rapidly changing variables such as socio-economic and demographic indicators, land-use patterns, resource demand and utilization patterns, lifestyle changes etc. In the light of climate change, a new layer of uncertainty is added in terms of changes in precipitation, temperature and occurrence of extreme events. Furthermore, there are scale mismatches; in terms of the timescales over which policymakers and urban planners operate, and scales over which projected impacts of environmental decisions, degradation, climate variability and change will manifest. Major challenge for cities in the face of rapid population growth is to maintain sustainability within the social, economic and environmental dimensions. Urban systems are at risk to different kind of hazards. Several factors contribute to the urban risk profile. The changing urban environment has implications on ecology, human morbidity and mortality. There is wide array of problems faced by urban centers. Therefore, there is need for creating efficient sustainable plans to overcome the challenges. The improvements in living conditions like improved transportation, sanitation, clean drinking water, improved sewage and solid waste management and well-managed infrastructure lead to preventive measures. The present volume highlights the dynamics of urban environment, sustainability and emerging issues and challenges in the context of changing urban eco systems. It is expected the volume will be highly useful in understanding of urban environment, and evolving roadmap for improving environmental conditions and sustainable environmental planning in India.