Abstract
Ensuring sustainability of urban centres, particularly in environmentally sensitive hill areas, is important for protecting the quality of their natural and built environment, as well as wellbeing of its people. Although the basic principles of sustainable urban development remain the same in all contexts, the type and extent of problems and issues of sustainability vary significantly due to the generic differences between plains and hills. This requires a deeper understanding of the intrinsic characteristics of their natural environment as well as built environment; and the impacts of one on the other through actual cases. This paper attempts to understand and identify the critical sustainability issues of Indian hill towns based on literature review and observational studies of selected hill towns of North India. Some of the issues of sustainability in hill towns in India include those of hill instability, fragile ecology, proneness to natural hazards, inaccessibility, presence of natural resources, and visual incompatibility of built forms. Proper understanding of these issues is essential for ensuring sustainable development of hill towns and their surrounding regions.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
UNCED: Agenda 21—World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). Rio de Janerio, Brazil (1992) (ebook)
Bai, X., Nath, I., Capon, A., Hasan, N., Jaron, D.: Health and wellbeing in the changing urban environment: complex challenges, scientific responses, and the way forward. Curr. Opin. Environ. Sustain. 4(4), 465–472 (2012)
Nilsson, C., Grelsson, G.: The fragility of ecosystems: a review. J. Appl. Ecol. 32(4), 677–692 (1995)
Kumar, K.: Brief about Mountain Division (5th Unit of the Institute) (2019). http://gbpihed.gov.in/beta/Mountain_Division_detail.php. Last accessed 29 Feb 2019 (Blog)
Prime Minister’s Task Force on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India. Released by Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, India (2010). http://dcmsme.gov.in/Final_Report.pdf. Last accessed 29 May 2019 (Online)
National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Eco-System: Government of India Department of Science & Technology. Ministry of Science & Technology, New Delhi (2010)
Negi, G.C.S., Rawal, R.S., Sharma, S., Kumar, K., Dhyani, P.P.: Need for strengthening mountain specific research. Curr. Sci. 106(5), 659–661 (2014)
World Commission on Environment and Development—Our common future. Oxford University Press, vol. 383, Oxford (1987) (Report)
Kirkby, J., O’Keefe, P., Timberlake, L.: The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Development. Earthscan, London (1995)
Basiago, A.D.: Economic, social and environmental sustainability in development theory and urban planning practice. Environmentalist 19, 145–161 (1999)
Khan, M.: Sustainable development: the key concepts, issues and implications. In: International Proceedings on Sustainable Development Research Conference, Sustainable Development, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 63–69. Manchester, UK (1995)
Kaur, H., Garg, P.: Urban sustainability assessment tools: a review. J. Clean. Prod. 210, 146–158 (2019)
Pushplata, Kumar A.: Building regulations: a means of ensuring sustainable development in hill towns. Asian J. Environ. Res. Dev. 7A(1A), 553–560 (2012)
Mahat, T.J.: Issues in Sustainable Mountain Development: The Himalayan Experience. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu, Nepal (2004)
Price, M.F., Jansky, L. F., Iatsenia: Key Issues for Mountain Areas. United Nations University Press, Tokyo, Japan (2006)
Dung-Gwoma, J., Jugub, A.: Characteristics and planning challenges of hilltop settlements in Jos Metropolis, Nigeria. Urban Plan. Landsc. Environ. Des. 2(2), 129–149 (2017)
Pushplata: Urban design matrix for hill towns. Ph. D. thesis, Department of Architecture and Planning, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India (2000) (Unpublished)
Sah, N., Kumar, M., Upadhyay, R., Dutt, S.: Hill slope instability of Nainital City, Kumaun Lesser Himalaya, Uttarakhand, India. J. Rock Mech. Geotech. Eng. 10(2), 280–289 (2018)
Sidle, R.C., Pearce, A.J., O’Loughlin, C.L.: Hillside Stability and Land Use, 2nd edn. America Geophysical Union, Water Resources Monograph, vol 11 (1986)
Hosseinzadeh, S.R.: The effects of urbanization on the natural drainage patterns and the increase of urban floods: case study Metropolis of Mashhad-Iran. Int. J. Sustain. Dev. Plan. 1, 423–432 (2005)
Pushplata: Urban development and its impact on natural water springs in a hill town—a case study Almora. Spatio Econ. Dev. Rec. 13(3), 25–34 (2006)
Pushplata and Anbalagan R.: Geo-environmental assessment for determining suitability of buildable land in context of a hill town. J. Eng. Geol. 14, 391–399 (2008)
Pushplata: Planning and Design of housing in hill towns. In: 36th IAHS World Congress on Housing Sciences, Kolkata, India (2008)
American Society of Planning Officials: Hillside Development. Planning Advisory Service, Illinois, Chicago (1968). https://www.planning.org/pas/reports/report126.htm. Last accessed 21 Apr 2018 (Online)
Pushplata and Vishwamitter: Sustainable development of hill towns through integrated environmental conscious planning. In: International Conference on Civil Engineering for Sustainable Development, Roorkee (1997)
Kumar, A., Pushplata: City profile: Shimla. Cities 49, 149–158 (2015)
Pushplata: Management of pollution and siltation of lakes in hill towns—case study Nainital. J. Ind. Build. Congr. 12(1) (2005)
Dasgupta, S., Pushplata: Transformation of architectural character of Darjeeling. J. Ind. Inst. Arch. 81(11), 39–44 (2015)
Monalisa: A methodology for character appraisal of hill towns. Ph. D. thesis, Department of Architecture and Planning, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India (2015) (Unpublished)
Pushplata and Vishwamitter: Promotion of tourism and conservation of hill towns. In: Conference on Methodology for Conservation of Heritage, C.B.R.I., Roorkee (2002)
Pushplata and Vishwamitter: Eco-synergism and planning for tourism in hill towns. In: International Conference on Creating Environments for Tourism, Las Vegas, USA (1994)
Kumar, A.: Area specific building regulations for hill towns. Ph. D. thesis, Department of Architecture and Planning, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India (2014) (Unpublished)
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR), Uttarakhand, India and Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) for providing platform and grant in completing the research.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Garg, P., Kaur, H. (2020). Sustainability Issues in Context of Indian Hill Towns. In: Littlewood, J., Howlett, R., Capozzoli, A., Jain, L. (eds) Sustainability in Energy and Buildings. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 163. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9868-2_53
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9868-2_53
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-32-9867-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-32-9868-2
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)