Are we really developing ‘Cities For The Future’ or are we commonly found developing ‘Cities of Issues’?

Does planning ever-expansive cities only involves managing its physical outfit and rest of the stuff is only to be seen as isolated structures or should they be planned in a comprehensively comprehensive manner not just for the namesake but in really real terms? To be a planner of human settlements is not an easy thing because there is no scope of leaving any subject in isolation if we really are eyeing upon a future that sustains and help us progress collectively at all levels - may it be physical comforts, aesthetics of the eyes, sociological presentation and their lifestyle, a human’s natural needs in terms of requirement of the ecological system around and also in terms of its spiritual needs which are nearly completely forgotten in this so-called developed world of ours which in reality has merely become a case of developing duplicate copies of each other just to put it in some words in the lack of any other metaphor. And to understand the entire spectrum of human existence and its settlements requires dedication, devotion, passion for the upliftment of the human race which unfortunately is completely out of discussion especially in the times of ever-increasing specialisation and specialised experts who are not even given a wholistic view to say the least. 

The human race is doing many things to upkeep its own derived pace of development and in this ever increasing acceleration, nations are often seen managing stuff only on the surface, not necessarily due to filthy intentions but majorly due to lack of knowledge which eventually produces ignorance and lack of care. Every nation is talking about urbanisation, is talking about cities, but very rarely some of them understands the depth of these term/s or rather phenomenons. 

The structure of the cities is largely managed and visualised by the political outfit at first because it lays down the overall vision plan for the concerned nation and by the planning fraternity thereafter. Then comes the role of citizens. And nearly everyone would be acquainted with this nearly a factual data that politics is largely done to win elections and not to create or develop cities with a far-sighted empathetic vision. Above all of them comes various multi-national organisations who can be commonly found flooding the discussion table with their low-grade researches rather than providing a firm-rooted vision plan for the human collective. 

Cities all across are commonly found creating issues at first and then in attempt to sort them out, they are often found multiplying the issues rather than dealing with them in a thoughtful and wholistic manner. There is confusion and chaos all around not just in the developing world but nearly all across and we’re often handed over with heavy concepts like sustainability without it even being understood in its entirety by its own most determined professors. The tendency to escape from deeply lying issues is seemingly becoming prominent as the time is passing by and in this all big games of development, the small lives of the citizens has been nearly destroyed. 

Does a human being gets its birth to live afar from the natural system when it itself is nothing but a derivative of the natural system? Does a human being gets its birth just to eat, live and die? Does a human being’s highest goal is to maximise its physical comforts and not the comforts related with its other aspects of existence? The ideology from which the cities of present times are being visualised and developed has unfortunately become a case of following some cities as an example which may be lying completely in opposite conditions may it be geological, geographical, sociological, ecological, etc,. We as a collective global society cannot afford to stretch this predatory approach and we should become really serious about our cities, about our settlements, about our environment, about our animal and plant family, about our own wholistic progress at all the levels or else the history does not leave anyone behind and it will definitely reveal our shallow developmental approach someday and we would then become a case of mockery in the eyes of the generations yet to follow. 

Our entire pride of our advancements and developments will then be of not much use if looked in from a very long term perspective as we are not discussing to build a house for twenty-thirty years rather we are discussing about building cities, creating cities that usually lasts multiple generations if not centuries and a lot is needed to be put to place before we get to our collective pathway of wholistic progress and I’m pretty hopeful that we as the most advanced specie of this natural system will rise up once again as it has done several times in our glorious collective past. 

Image from theconversation

A Call To Remember For Urban Planners and Related Fraternity

Human settlements were built then. Human settlements are built now. But what has changed immensely is the nature of intervention - they were very very local then and they are seemingly becoming more and more dependent on external produce now. They were planned by realised beings then and they are now being planned by beings with no or very less realisation of the functioning of a human society within the natural realm whose primary focus should be an individual personal development as per his/her distinct capabilities. The number of relationships were less then and it can be said that it was a bit easier then to plan efficiently but the planners of the society should undergo at least that much of pain to understand the inter-dependent nature of a human urban ecosystem if they really are concerned about efficient and productive human urban development. 

The isolated nature of the various kinds of specialisation being taught to the budding planners leaves a very small ray of hope behind for real efficient human development - its the wholistic vision and implementation which is upmost needed in present times when there arises a new set of urban issue every now and then and we seemingly have forgotten that very old wise proverb - ‘precaution is better than cure’ and have been falling on the lines of ‘let the issue arise, we will sort it out then’. The latter has proved catastrophic across the Globe in various human urban settlements and we should be sincerely serious about planning the lives of human beings and the future of our planet simultaneously. 

We should stop hiding our spineless plans under some fancy words. As time progresses level of human advancements changes but that doesn’t changes the essence and purpose of being a human being for whom cities are planned and developed. The basic concepts are needed to be put straight back into their deserving places. To understand something as profound as human development only basics can serve as the foundation from where everything else arises. The perspective with which it is currently being taught at various universities and institutions is too limited to produce quality planners and planning isn't at all that one thing which the community can/shall compromise with - from the nature of planning exercise arises everything else - the nature and character of a human urban settlement and those of its citizens. 

The nature with which cities are being planned especially in the technologically developing nations in general is very disappointing which often superficially discusses big words like 'sustainable development' or 'safe cities' or even 'smart cities' without even understanding a real bit of what these words literally stands for. The fraternity related with urban human development shall understand the holy nature of the profession they are attached with as not only the lives of human beings are at stake but the entire natural system is also one of those influential things which would be heavily influenced by the ever-increasing perspective less human interventions in a phase when our race - the race of human beings is experiencing the most widespread urban revolution of all times of our collective existential history.

Image from careerinstem

A Losing Race or A Winning Opportunity - The Battle of Human Urbanisation

A human being migrates to an urban outfit with aspirations of increased living standard and enhanced overall quality of life. But what does he receive - suspicious water supply, polluted air quality, vehicles all around on the roads, residences nearly touching the sky and what not. The migrant accepts them thinking them as a transformed way of living one’s life till he realises the cumulative trap of urban issues and problems he/she has been trapped into. Exceptions are always there and therefore barring some cities nearly every city is overdosed by technological solutions to even a minuscule of an issue rather than eyeing them as a part of the human system which itself is a part of the universal natural system. The situation gets worse in cities which without even realising their own potential blindly follow the ideas of another in the absence of proper inter-disciplinary knowledge. The planning of human settlements can become one of the toughest jobs of the universe if perceived through isolated windows with a set framework or it can become one of the easiest works to accomplish if done with an inter-dependent understanding of an urban system. 

We are in the midst of one of the biggest or simply the biggest revolution of human history. The history doesn't give any other scenario of such large scaled widespread human migration and we shall understand the intensity of the situation with an unbiased inter-dependent perspective to further plan it more efficiently. Nearly all the discussions around sustainability across the Globe seems to lack either clarity or will and though it should be at the upmost focus like generally found in present times, the arena with which it is generally viewed is too small to fight the battle of ever increasing human interference in the natural system. The ever increasing urban issues along with their sub typologies shall be taken as a warning before the bigger catastrophe takes place. The sinking of coastal cities like Jakarta, the housing shortages of cities like Mumbai, situations of traffic unrest in national capitals like Delhi, the filthy conditions of Lagos, the ever increasing density of Dhaka, the waste emergency of Naples, the increasing smoggy conditions of Delhi or Beijing in recent times are just some examples to give some perspective of its spread across all directions and to quantify the intensity to a bit.

We have beautified our settlements like never before and technology has certainly helped us to achieve the heights of comfort and ease but we shall ask some questions from ourselves - are we building our settlements to enhance our overall physical, mental and spiritual well being or are we just losing out the race already by engaging our valuable human resource in a wrong/less productive/less efficient manner? Till when we will pass on the problems from us to someone else? Till when we’ll first plan unknowingly and then rely on cursing the ever increasing complexity? Educational institutes teaching such courses shall scrutinise their outlook and shall move towards an inter-disciplinary mode of imparting knowledge rather than imparting them in isolation under different specialisations. There are already some sparks where it can be seen being adapted though slowly & being realised by the concerned authorities and fraternities but its effects can be increased acceleratingly if the global human community of those who are directly involved in shaping human lives realises the intensity of the responsibility on their shoulders and act accordingly. The objective of the human race should be universal but the approach to achieve it shall be more towards being local with necessary adaptations as per the global scenario only then we can flourish as a system to the maximum of its potential rather than planning them as different sub-systems in an unsynchronised fashion. A winning opportunity lies ahead of us to create a more empathetic, inclusive & productive Global community to gift our coming generations a space to blossom to the new glories of human progress & natural development. 

Image from amazonaws

Nuwara Eliya - The Tea Capital of Sri Lanka Also Known As The Little England of This Island Nation

Dr. John Davy was a British Surgeon who along with his other mates was once on a hunting expedition in the forest ranges lying across Mt. Pedro (locally known as Pidurutalagala) which is also the tallest mountain of the island nation of the then Ceylon in 1818 which later on was renamed as Sri Lanka in 1972. They found an elephant in the forest area, they chased him and got lost in the jungle. In the absence of food, etc, the soothing and refreshing climate of the region supported them which helped them to identify the distinctness of the region and its unique biodiversity. Dr. John Davy’s own expression of his first sight of the space was - ‘I was walking in the middle of a forest. I saw beautiful white shining diamond watered waterfalls falling. I came to the top of a mountain. The people who came with me said that it is the highest land of this country.’ He informed the regional Governor Edward Barnes about it somewhere after 1824 and presented it as a place where soldiers after exhaustive fights could rejuvenate at a faster pace. The Governor was thrilled with the idea and decided to build his own holiday home for which he spent around 8,000 pounds for its construction which has now been converted into ‘The Grand Hotel’ which was formerly known as the Barnes Hall. The developments which took place after it in the region took shape in the form of a human settlement which is now known as Nuwara Eliya which literally means the city of light. 

The city has often been referred to as the capital city of Raavan - one of the prime characters of Ramayana - an Indian epic who is mentioned to have kept Sita, the wife of Rama - the protagonist, in one of the gardens of this gloriously mentioned city made of gold & the place where he kept Sita was termed to as ‘Ashoka Vatika’ (Sita Eliya in present times). Interestingly, Dr. Davy also quoted something in parallel with the identification with which it was presented as in the Ramayana - with the tree of ‘Ashoka’ & its abundance. Further elaborating upon his first sight discussed above he mentioned that the place had so many ‘Ashoka’ trees, elephants, wild animals and gemstones suggesting some common reference between the two.

Travelling through the history, William Horton then succeeded Edward Barnes in 1831 who also acted as the editor of Colombo Journal and he wrote a few articles about Nuwara Eliya in the same which brought this human settlement into a spotlight especially amongst the foreign tourists and visitors. Samuel Baker, a British explorer who is also attached with one of the first Europeans to discover River Nile and interior of Central Africa also arrived Nuwara Eliya during the same timeframe and built a house at Magasthota and developed a huge vegetable and animal farm space. He returned then to England and came back in 1848 along with his brothers John and Valentine. He also brought plants, animals and other equipments alongside experts in the field of farming on the ‘Pearl of Hard Week’, the name of the ship. While transporting the goods from Colombo to Nuwara Eliya on bullock carts, the vehicle fell down the valley due to the steep slope near Ramboda Pass and Baker lost his accompanying brothers in that accident. Following the incident, Baker made a hospital at Nuwara Eliya and dedicated it to his brothers alongside developing his farmland. 

William Gregory became the governor of the region in 1872 and he has some big plans about Nuwara Eliya - one of them was making it the capital city of  Sri Lanka. He drained out a swamp region and developed it into a lake which came to be known as the Gregory Lake following the legacy of the human who visualised it at first. Following such announcements and things accomplished by Gregory, Nuwara Eliya began seeing an increase in the number of foreign visitors visiting this human settlement. Railways was brought in by Robert London the successor of Gregory which thereafter made accessibility to the settlement much easier. Till 1918, it was dominatingly a foreign colony with only two Sri Lankans owning houses in Nuwara in 1910. Sri Lankans started migrating to Nuwara especially after end of the First World War and the land which costed Samuel Baker around Rupees 25 per Acre is suggested to have raised upto Rupees 50,000 per Acre when Sir Ponnambalam, a local resident brought a piece of land for himself. 

The population of Nuwara Eliya crossed 7,00,000 in 2013 & it has became one of the most important tourist attractions of Sri Lanka especially due to its geographical conditions & refreshing climatic conditions which though are just an outcome of the former one. It was often termed to as the Little England by its visitors due to the predominance of the foreigners especially the Europeans till most part of its initial developmental phases. Tea which was brought to Sri Lanka in 1867 by James Taylor on a 19 acre land Loolecondera Estate in Kandy eventually became an industry of over 1.5 billion US $ as per the figures of 2013 and Nuwara Eliya led it from the front in the nation’s transformation in terms of its major economic activities and transitioned itself from being a lush green forest into the tea capital of the country and one of the major sites of the world as far as tea plantation is concerned for which the relief of the settlement has proved decisive in deciding the character and nature of the local culture and economy besides the influence caused by its ‘modern founders’. 

Images from shutterstock, panoramio, kuoni, leolandtravels, srilankavacationtours, kuoni, tripadvisor,  

for91days, fromicetospice, thevillaguide, squarespace, beautyknot, wikimedia & holidaysinsrilanka (top to bottom)

Hrishikesh - An Ancient Indian Knowledge Centre Which Eventually Became Yoga Capital Of The World

The literature written during the 3rd & the 10th century AD by the Indian society is commonly termed to as ‘Puranas’  which were collectively like an encyclopaedia of that phase of Indian human development which wasn’t all about gods and goddesses as generally thought of as but they also discussed a wide range of disciplines like cosmology, astronomy, grammar, mineralogy, philosophy, etc, to name some making them one of the earliest multi-disciplinary writings of the mankind. The original content however was written in different interpretations by different writers over different phases making it highly inconsistent over the course of time. There are eighteen major Puranas out of which SkandaPurana is the largest one which alongside providing other informations compiles in itself an encyclopaedic travel handbook with meticulous Tirtha Mahatmaya (pilgrimage tourist guide) which contained geographical locations, historical contexts, etc, of pilgrimage centres of India, Nepal and Tibet. In SkandaPurana, one such pilgrimage site has been referred to as Kubjāmraka which went on to adopt its modern name of Hrishikesh at a later part of history when Raibhya Rishi, a sage is said to be given an appearance of Lord Vishnu, a Hindu God as Lord Hrishikesh as a result of his performed austerities. There are other versions for the etymology of its modern name as well but this is one of the most widely accepted ones. Hrishikesh literally means the lord of senses (Hrishik in Sanskrit means senses and ish is referred to as the lord) though its generally took as the hairs of a sage both by the local population & those visiting it from foreign lands in contemporary times.

Hrishikesh has traditionally been a pilgrimage site and was part of the legendary ‘KedarKhand’ of the above mentioned SkandaPurana but got into highlight when Adi Shankaracharya, a human visionary who later was responsible for the establishment of various Hindu Matths across all the directions of India visited the place in the eighth  century during his journey towards Kedarnath - a Shiva temple in the higher Himalayas and it thereafter became a common hotspot for the sages and the seers serving them with different purposes - as a stopping point towards their journey of the upper Himalayas and also as a discussion place for developing the knowledge and wisdom of the then collective human consciousness. He built the temple of Bharat (the brother of Lord Rama) whose is also said to have visited the place as per the Indian literary texts of Ramayana which was later on destroyed by Taimur in his Indian invasion of 1398. The famous jute rope bridge commonly known as Lakshman Jhoola, a 450 feet spanned bridge connecting the two villages of Tapovan and Jonk on two sides of the River Ganga was replaced by an iron rope suspension bridge in 1889 which subsequently was replaced by an another stronger version of it when it got washed away during the floods of 1924. Another similar bridge was built in 1986 at around 2 kms. downstream of the river from Lakshman Jhoola.

The largest river of India in terms of its in-boundary catchment area Ganga flows through the city which has been one of the main reasons behind the existence of human settlement over here from ancient times & it leaves the Shivalik Ranges of Himalayas here to flow through the great Northern Indian Plains. Hrishikesh lies in the Indian state of Uttarakhand 35 kms from Haridwar and around 250 kms from the national capital of New Delhi. Due to its historicity, there are various architectural built-ups in the forms of temples, aashramas, etc,. which has only increased its global presence over the period of time. In a recent development of 2015, the Indian government has announced to develop the twin cities of Haridwar and Hrishikesh as natural heritage twin cities to attract tourist furthermore - the nature of whom has transformed majorly towards being tourists with their primary interest in adventure tourism in present times especially that of the local visitors with the onset of various such activities providing agencies which has traditionally been a centre of serenity, knowledge & wisdom. 

The centres and institutions providing teachings of Yoga (a state of Union) has also increased substantially with the increasing number of foreign tourists visiting the place to decipher the Indian perspective of spirituality in the past couple of decades with the ever increasing globalisation which brings along with itself an ease in long distance human mobility - transforming it to as a Global Hotspot of Higher Spiritual Studies at first and as the Yoga Capital of the World eventually - a title which it rightly deserves in many senses. In recent times various other forms of therapy sciences & healing processes has also found their base in the boundaries of the city which are nothing but healing instruments for specific type of ailments or pains especially after the announcement of 21st June as the International Day of Yoga by the United Nations. The population of the census town of Hrishikesh was 8,033 as per the Indian census of 2011 while that of the entire district was around 70,000 in 2011 which crossed the mark of 100,000 in 2016 as reported by different individual institutions. Hrishikesh imbibes in itself inspirational vibes of some higher order and its historicity provides it a perfect platform for flourishing the quality of ones consciousness level where historically the community of the mankind has lived along a life in the spheres of answering the questions of knowledge, spirituality & wisdom. It can also be stated to as one of the earliest identified and inhabited hill stations of the Indian subcontinent and the heritage of this nature shall be preserved and conserved to the maximum of our abilities so as to lengthen its role which it has played in the story of human development & settlements. 

Images from haridwarrishikeshtourism, bizimages, ytimg, mouthshut, tapovanresort & yogainrishikesh (in the order from top to down)

Potosi - A Bolivian City Which Sprang Around A Silver Mountain

Cerro Rico, literally meaning a rich mountain in Spanish is a mountain name in the Andes  mountain ranges in Bolivia in South America. The richness of the mountain attracted miners in the 16th century which eventually led to the development of a human settlement around the first identified mining area on the site while also becoming one of the highest human settlements on Earth located geographically at an elevation of over 4,000 metres. It became a major supply medium for silver for Spain during the establishment of the New World Spanish Empire and population exceeded 200,000 before Bolivia got its independence in 1825.  During those times, a Spanish phrase ‘vale un Potosi’ became one of the most used phrases of the settlement which means ‘to be of great value’ which later on became the identity of the settlement till date as Potosi which was once the world’s largest industrial complex in the 16th century. The population went down to as low as 10,000 after the nation's independence due to the exhaustion of the silver ores of the mountain which at once contained upto 40 % silver in the previous couple of centuries.

The extraction of silver ore was dependent on a series of hydraulic mills where water was provided by an intricate system of aqueducts and artificial lakes of whose remnants can still be found on the site. Price of silver dropped down towards the last phase of the 19th century due to the identification of more affordable minerals and their workability which shifted the focus of miners towards mining tin which had a more elaborated market than silver to sustain themselves. The example of Potosi provides a case where a settlement grew to become one of the planets largest in a very short span of 70-100 years due to the presence of rich natural resources on one hand and an instance when thousands of human lives were kept at stake to dig out various ores at such a high elevation where Oxygen content is low naturally and the miners were traditionally provided with acetylene gas lamps making it furthermore low and it is henceforth often termed to as ‘A Mountain That Eats Men’. 

Images from craigbellamy, happytobehomeless, unesco, bmktcn, the-wanderlusters, notesfromcamelidcountry, forkingitup

Cesky Krumlov - A Pearl of European Renaissance

Vitkovki, a Czech noble clan which also include the residents of the famous House of Rosenberg started the construction of the castle and their settlement in 1240 at a site in the South Bohemian Region of the then Czechoslovakia chosen due to its location on an important trade route of the region which was traditionally known as Chrumbenowe and now as Český Krumlov which literally means a crooked meadow in German. Gold was found at a site near to the settlement in the 15th century which attracted the German miners to come and settle here which eventually led to a shift in the ethnic characteristics of the region to an extent that the natives became a small minority. 

Rudolf II, the then emperor of the present regions of Croatia, Hungary and Austria who is also led responsible for the deadly Thirty Years War period of European religious war history bought Český Krumlov in 1602 and gifted it to his son. The castle which is now identified as a World Heritage site since 1992 then went into the hands of House of Schwarzenberg in 1719 whose current head Karel served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic & remained in their hands up till the onset of the twentieth century. After the first world war, the city became part of the Bohemian Forest Region & was declared a part of German-Austria though it didn’t lasted very long & the Czechoslovakian army occupied it by the end of 1918. The town experienced a phase of decay since the completion of both the world wars until 1989 when it restored its historic beauty as a result of Velvet Revolution and is now one of the important tourist destinations of the Czech Republic. 

Český Krumlov lies in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic along the meanders of River Vltava which is the longest river of the nation. The population of the town in 2007 was around 14,000 which is approximated to be around 8,000 in 1910 just before the first world war. The architecture of the Castle and the town is a mix of Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque schools of Architecture and the period of Renaissance had a huge impact in the making of it. There are various festivals like the five petaled rose festival & the International Music festival which are organised by the local society. This human settlement beholds in itself the rich medieval European Architectural Expression Style preserved and conserved for centuries along with a culture that started off around the lifestyle of the royal families to the theatrical tradition of contemporary times that got enriched after the second world war especially with the onset of the South Bohemian Theatre Festival in the mid parts of the twentieth century. 

Images from vutbr, lonelyplanetimages, hellojetlag, wisemanfreetour, ceskykrumlov, stretchingintoinfinity, businessinsider, visitceskykrumlov & airpano

Coastal Cities - Our Glorious Past at Risk in its Future

Human Settlements of early and medieval times got shaped around water, may it be in the form of a river or of an ocean. The former saw development of big settlements along with the development of rich culture and the latter acted as a facilitator to transport culturally produced items to other parts of the world by means of Oceans and Seas in the absence of Airways or any connecting mode of transportation. A boat is said to be in existence much earlier than 3000 BC when the Egyptians knew how to assemble wooden planks into a hull. There are numerous such examples which got developed as a means of connection between two culturally different regions/nations. For instance - three out of four India’s earliest metropolitan cities are on the Indian coastline and reasons behind it are quite obvious - the then East Indian Company governing on some parts of Indian boundaries like any other company was doing its business and their business was closely linked to those of the importers and exporters. Coastal Cities got their existence majorly to boost the trading activities and nearly every coastal city has the same story - a story of cultural exchanges in various forms. And henceforth these acted as a source of connection between different regions of human settlements which were otherwise not accessible by any other available means of transportation. 

They have a rich glorious past & they used to help in shaping the identity of the citizens of a country in the minds of the citizens of another. Time has never been stagnant and will never be. It changes for everyone but it seemingly looks to be changing more for the coastal cities and their citizens in the coming decades of the ongoing century. The rise in the sea levels is known to many now and many knows about the effects of climate change & global warming but the direct effect it has on over 100 million human beings is generally less talked about. 

As per the third assessment report of IPCC, a global sea level rise ranging from 1.0 to 2.0 mm annually is being experienced by the oceans and seas depending on the nature of the region. Economically, as per a prediction made in a study conducted by World Bank and OECD suggests that the global flood losses will rise upto $52 billion annually by 2050 which was around $6 billion in 2013 and the figure only considers socio economic factors such as increasing population and ever increasing land value. This is comparatively an old news now but still no national government has took steps in this matter that will sustain in the longer duration of human developmental story and measures which are being taken are just eyeing on current conditions as if cities are just a case of a couple of year developmental process. Senior Economist at the World Bank Stephane Hallegate describes the situation as ‘coastal defences reduces the risk of floods today, but they also attract population and assets in protected areas and thus put them at risk in case of the defence fails, or if an event overwhelms it’.

The cities which are most vulnerable to are Guangzhou with an average annual loss of around 1.32 % of its total GDP, New Orleans losing around 1.21 % & Guayaquil 0.95 %. Mumbai has an average annual loss of around 0.47 %, for Kochi its around 0.29 % while for Surat it is 0.25%. If overall damage cost is taken into consideration then Guangzhou still tops the list while Miami comes at the second spot. Its just not about economics though - around 2.8 million people are nearly crammed into low-lying slums that flood regularly in Mumbai. Around 40 % of the population of the United States of America lives in the coastal counties which are affected by it in some way or the another. Natural Disasters are unpredictable but not that much that the government is there just to act once the calamity does its work. 

New Orleans

Chennai

Jakarta

Human Developmental Planning has seemingly transformed into mere an urban planning exercise and that too ironically more towards planning physical facets of human development and settlement and the results are very well evident of themselves - planning without considering cities as a part of natural system will eventually lead to an increase of such urban flooding situations in the times to come & rise in the sea levels will only add to it. Human Settlement Planning isn’t an exercise which can be done as per the plans of a term-based government whose vision is generally and logically based upon short-term gains and success. Planning isn’t just providing better amenities & physical comfort - its rather a tool that  shapes the lives of human beings not only of the living generation but also of those who are yet to touch this turf & it can only arrive when one understands the amount of collective hard work that goes into shaping a human settlement and that too many generations back to back building it brick by brick. 

When planning for coastal cities, planners should keep in mind that there once was a coastal city of Muziris on the west coast of India which was in existence at least from 1st century BC till the devastating floods in River Periyar in the 14th century AD which for centuries acted as the doorway to India for its varied culture & natural gifts. Every city is at the mercy of nature for that matter but the role of human development planners is to maximise the glory in its entirety in the best possible manner and not just enhance its glory in terms of the number of high rise buildings a city has or by doing things like building the tallest buildings in different categories out of lack of understanding of concepts and ideas of real collective well-being.  

Human Settlements are a testament of human generations and their collective creative & imaginative skills & therefore those shall be given their right worth and place in the overall human developmental process. There is a lot of economic & emotional cost that goes into building a human settlement and for situations like these the race of humanity shall learn to act as early as possible else all the intelligence which the human race has collectively discovered from time immemorial will be of no or very little use in the future to come.

Images from absolutemag, wikimedia, intoday & japantimes