Increased urbanization is posing challenges to maintain and improve quality of life in towns and cities of India. Urban areas, undoubtedly, are the economic engines. Simultaneously, they are facing challenges of the increased number of people, traffic, commercial activities, structures, creating new and expanding existing slums, environmental deterioration and pro-growth policies are just adding fuel to the fire. This raises number of questions. Are existing urban centers are ready and equipped to provide required infrastructure, services, amenities, and social and cultural needs of the existing and incoming people? Can India build smart and sustainable communities for today and tomorrow? What is smart planning in Indian Context? And finally, can India lead the world in planning, designing, and developing futuristic cities? The book is attempting to explore answers to these questions. This book is a concise document to understand built environment and human activities and provide smart, practical and functional planning solutions. Furthermore, this book explains theory and practice of many elements and facets of urban and rural planning ranging from need of planning, planner's identity, zoning, land use planning, transportation, urban design, landscaping, environment, and historic preservation. This book is designed to guide to build smart, sustainable, harmonious, and futuristic communities with smart, innovative, and creative tools such as sustainability, context sensitive design, form-based codes, mixed-use and life-style developments, charrettes, creative design options for Indian urban and rural areas. Execution and implementation of the suggested solutions and models can make urban and rural areas to be the most beautiful places to live, work, play, learn, invest, worship and raise a family on the most beautiful place on earth – India. This book is designed for practicing, academics, and students of urban/city/town/regional/rural planning, civil engineering, architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, environmental studies, economics, development studies, Indian Administrative Services (IAS) trainees, trainers/faculty, and practitioners, elected officials (all levels), policy makers, business and city managers, sociologists, religious leads, land-use and zoning lawyers, judicial judges, development community, civic society groups, citizens active and interested in improving quality of life, and organizations with goals to improve living conditions for humanity, such as World Bank, United Nations, and Shack-Slum Dwellers International.

Driven by advances in technology and societal needs, the next frontier in remote sensing is urban areas. With the advent of high-resolution imagery and more capable techniques, the question has become "Now that we have the technology, how do we use it?" The need for a definitive resource that explores the technology of remote sensing and the issues it can resolve in an urban setting has never been more acute. Containing contributions from world renowned experts, Urban Remote Sensing provides a review of basic concepts, methodologies, and case studies. Each chapter demonstrates how to apply up-to-date techniques to the problems identified and how to analyze research results. Organized into five sections, this book: Focuses on data, sensors, and systems considerations as well as algorithms for urban feature extraction Analyzes urban landscapes in terms of composition and structure, especially using sub-pixel analysis techniques Presents methods for monitoring, analyzing, and modeling urban growth Illustrates various approaches to urban planning and socio-economic applications of urban remote sensing Assesses the progress made to date, identifies the existing problems and challenges, and demonstrates new developments and trends in urban remote sensing This book is ideal for upper division undergraduate and graduate students, however it can also serve as a reference for researchers or those individuals interested in the remote sensing of cities in academia, and governmental and commercial sectors. Urban Remote Sensing examines how to apply remote sensing technology to urban and suburban areas.

The role of real estate in our cities is crucial to building sustainable and resilient urban futures. Smart Urban Regeneration brings together institutional, planning and real estate insights into an innovative regeneration framework for academics, students and property professionals. Starting by identifying key urban issues within the historical urban and planning backdrop, the book goes on to explore future visions, the role of institutions and key mechanisms for smart urban regeneration. Throughout the book, international case studies and discussion questions help to draw out global implications for urban stakeholders. Real estate professionals face a real challenge to build visionary developments which resonate locally yet mitigate climate change and curb sprawl, and foster biodiversity. By avoiding the dangers of speculative excess on one side and complacency on the other, Smart Urban Regeneration shows how transformation aspirations can be achieved sustainably. Academics, students and professionals who are involved in real estate, urban planning, property investment, community development and sustainability will find this book an essential guide to smart urban regeneration investment.

This thought-provoking book questions the framework of the Horizon 2020 strategy and the policies of smart development. It aims to answer the following question: Is there any possibility for a policy of smart development and smart specialization in rural and peri-urban areas? Based on detailed analytical studies, empirical and econometric methods, as well as various European case studies, several conclusions are drawn. Smart development policies are well adapted to the developed or intermediate regions containing at the same time rural and urban areas, but do not really function for the more rural or more peripheral regions. The development policies of rural areas must be adapted to their particular characteristics, to the structure of their economies (agriculture, small firms), as well as in their diversity (distant regions, intermediate regions, rural areas near the urban areas). It appears interesting to exploit natural and cultural amenities, to develop the multifunctional character of the agriculture, to promote territorial innovation under all its forms, to favor the synergies between the various uses of land and space, and to develop the knowledge on the ecological, socioeconomic processes, as well as on the mechanisms of territorial governance. These results are very important because they question the validity of the H2020 policy and the smart development and smart specialization policies and their applicability to the whole European area, and not only for the most urban and rich areas. It will be valuable reading for students, researchers and policy-makers in regional development, rural studies, spatial planning and economic geography.

An unflinching look at the aspiring city-builders of our smart, mobile, connected future. From Beijing to Boston, cities are deploying smart technology—sensors embedded in streets and subways, Wi-Fi broadcast airports and green spaces—to address the basic challenges faced by massive, interconnected metropolitan centers. In Smart Cities, Anthony M. Townsend documents this emerging futuristic landscape while considering the motivations, aspirations, and shortcomings of the key actors—entrepreneurs, mayors, philanthropists, and software developers—at work in shaping the new urban frontier.

This Handbook presents a comprehensive and rigorous overview of the state-of-the-art on Smart Cities. It provides the reader with an authoritative, exhaustive one-stop reference on how the field has evolved and where the current and future challenges lie. From the foundations to the many overlapping dimensions (human, energy, technology, data, institutions, ethics etc.), each chapter is written by international experts and amply illustrated with figures and tables with an emphasis on current research. The Handbook is an invaluable desk reference for researchers in a wide variety of fields, not only smart cities specialists but also by scientists and policy-makers in related disciplines that are deeply influenced by the emergence of intelligent cities. It should also serve as a key resource for graduate students and young researchers entering the area, and for instructors who teach courses on these subjects. The handbook is also of interest to industry and business innovators.

The book is an effort to evolve and present a humane approach for urban planning practices in India. The planning approach followed in India, mostly, ignores the cultural peculiarities, habits, preferences of Indian users. This is mainly because the city planning –preparation of development plans – is based on the planning norms formulated in Europe or North America. Due to socioeconomic, demographic and cultural differences in Indian context, the Indian users and their preferences are very much different. It may be useful to incorporate culture-specific user aspects and evolve a humane approach to city planning in India. The consideration of user preferences will not only reduce conflicting situations in urban areas due to non-congruence between planning principles adopted and principles of urbanism rooted in the place, but will also help to develop living social environments in developing cities. Hence in the book, a study about user preferences is presented. It brought out few facts about the peculiarities of Indian users, their preferences and Indian principles of urbanism, which is discussed in the book. The study establishes the fact that there are culture-specific user preferences in Indian context. It further evolves framework for humane approach to deal evolving built environments in urban India.

For America’s rural and suburban areas, new challenges demand new solutions. Author Randall Arendt meets them in an entirely new edition of Rural by Design. When this planning classic first appeared 20 years ago, it showed how creative, practical land-use planning can preserve open space and keep community character intact. The second edition shifts the focus toward infilling neighborhoods, strengthening town centers, and moving development closer to schools, shops, and jobs. New chapters cover form-based codes, visioning, sustainability, low-impact development, green infrastructure, and more, while 70 case studies show how these ideas play out in the real world. Readers —rural or not—will find practical advice about planning for the way we live now.

This volume provides the most current research on smart cities. Specifically, it focuses on the economic development and sustainability of smart cities and examines how to transform older industrial cities into sustainable smart cities. It aims to identify the role of the following elements in the creation and management of smart cities:• Citizen participation and empowerment • Value creation mechanisms • Public administration• Quality of life and sustainability• Democracy• ICT• Private initiatives and entrepreneurship Regardless of their size, all cities are ultimately agglomerations of people and institutions. Agglomeration economies make it possible to attain minimum efficiencies of scale in the organization and delivery of services. However, the economic benefits do not constitute the main advantage of a city. A city’s status rests on three dimensions: (1) political impetus, which is the result of citizens’ participation and the public administration’s agenda; (2) applications derived from technological advances (especially in ICT); and (3) cooperation between public and private initiatives in business development and entrepreneurship. These three dimensions determine which resources are necessary to create smart cities. But a smart city, ideal in the way it channels and resolves technological, social and economic-growth issues, requires many additional elements to function at a high-performance level, such as culture (an environment that empowers and engages citizens) and physical infrastructure designed to foster competition and collaboration, encourage new ideas and actions, and set the stage for new business creation. Featuring contributions with models, tools and cases from around the world, this book will be a valuable resource for researchers, students, academics, professionals and policymakers interested in smart cities.