Blog Posts: Urban Development

This blog post was originally published on TheCityFix

Around the world, urban leaders including university presidents, renowned architects, city mayors and financial managers are recognizing the need to manage explosive energy demand growth from rapid urbanization. But changing business-as-usual development is not an easy task.

Today, 12 new cities are committing to accelerate their efforts in making buildings more energy efficient by joining the...

Technology has revolutionised daily commutes by providing increasingly efficient transport options in Indian cities. Young and dynamic entrepreneurs are deploying technology-bases solutions to offer more convenient, comfortable, and reliable commutes. For example, ridesharing and similar apps have changed the way people in cities like Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai commute.

Earlier this year, WRI India Sustainable Cities launched the New Mobility Accelerator 2016, offering new and innovative early-stage shared mobility businesses an...

This blog originally appeared on TheCityFix

Globally, 1.3 million people die each year in road traffic crashes. India, with only 2 percent of the global motor vehicle population, accounts for more than 10 percent of those fatalities. Further, in 2014 about 1.41 million people lost their lives on India’s roads—which is 3 percent greater than the fatalities in 2013. With one fatality roughly happening every 4 minutes, Indian road are considered some of most dangerous roads in the world.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)...

This article was originally published by the Indian Express.

At the very least, the odd-even policy will initiate a conversation on car use.

Kudos to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and all others in the Delhi government responsible for announcing a car-restriction programme. It is great to see city leaders realise that private vehicles cannot solve its mobility problem and start a diet programme. Even London needed 30 years of debate before a visionary mayor, Ken Livingstone, put in...

This blog post originally appeared on Insights.

We cannot curb the effects of climate change without building, managing and living in our cities differently. And finally, the world is starting to realize this.

Historically, discussions on climate policy have largely portrayed cities as the source of problems, painting them as major polluters and areas of intensive resource consumption. The conventional wisdom was—and partially still is—that national governments were...

This blog post originally appeared on Insights.

Today, as negotiators haggle over the details of a climate agreement in Paris, my home town is literally underwater. Chennai has seen 17 days straight of rain, precisely the kind of extreme weather event that experts say will only become more common in a warming world.

As Indian Adaptation Strategy Head for WRI’s Climate Resilience Practice, I’m in Paris this week for events surrounding negotiations...

This blog post originally appeared on TheCityFix

Over the last century, India’s landscape has urbanized considerably: the urban population has grown 14 times since 1901, and by 2050 up to 54 percent of India’s population will be urban (ACCCRN). Much of this urban growth is occurring in large villages or small to medium sized cities (IIHS 2011), resulting in...

India is undergoing rapid urbanisation. About 600 million Indians will live in urban areas within fifteen years. Given that cities practically run on water, India must find a way to route clean, reliable water supplies to its citizens, helping meet their needs for drinking, hygiene and sanitation. The 2015 World Economic Forum identified “water supply crises” as one of the top five global risks, and as many as...

This piece originally appeared in The Indian Express

No responsible city government can afford to ignore the benefits of rapid transport. As cities grow, investments are needed to ensure that the majority of citizens can travel safely and rapidly. Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) systems are best placed to solve commuter problems in Indian cities. They take about a tenth of the cost and implementation time of metro systems, and can be easily expanded.

Any new public service must withstand...

Over 140,000 people lost their lives on our roads last year, giving India the dubious distinction of having the highest number of road accident victims in the world. As our country continues to motorise exponentially, this problem will only grow– unless we make urgent and far-reaching changes to our road safety approach.

Cyclists and Pedestrians Most at Risk

Any road safety strategy will mean nothing if it neglects to consider the mobility and safety of the most vulnerable road user groups, that is pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. In most major cities in India,...