How can we shape greener cities across India?

Already in this regard there is a good news as Delhi suburbs Gurgaon and Faridabad—they who will witness the transition of their cities into green/solar cities within the next five years.

The state of Haryana has got in-principle approval to develop Gurgaon as a solar city by using renewable energy sources for power generation. The step is being taken in the wake of rising electricity demand—which has gone up by 15% over the last couple of years—in the major cities of the state.  And its the same state in most of the Indian cities where there is too much of demand for power, so if we want to go for greener cities in future, we need proper plans for the cities to use renewable energy more than Non-renewable which will get extinct one fine day..

The idea of vertical farming is similar to indoor farming, but differs in many other aspects. This indoor farming was not new in Indian as well as in International community. 2Indoor farming was employed to grow tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, cucumbers, herbs, spices, wide variety of herbs, and many other food crops. 3The concept of vertical farming was developed by Dickson D. Despommier, president of Vertical Farm Technologies LLC, USA, along with the help of 94 graduate students of Columbia University. Vertical farming is a type of agricultural technique that make use of large-scale agricultural area of of urban "farm-scrapers". 4Using recycled resources and greenhouse methods such as hydroponics, these buildings would produce fruit, vegetables, edible mushrooms and algae year-round.

Advantages of Vertical farming

1. It elevates round the year crop production.
2. It eliminates agricultural runoff.
3. It remarkably reduces the use of fossil fuels (as observed in machines and transport of crops).
4. It makes proper use of abandoned or unused properties.
5. It prevents crop failures, as is observed due to unsuitable weather condition.
6. It offers maximum possibility of sustainability for urban centers.
7. It makes the conversion of black and gray water to drinking water possible by collecting the water of trans-evaporation.
8. It adds energy back to the grid via methane generation using inedible parts of crop plants.
9. It avails fresh urban employment opportunities.
10. It lowers the chance of acquiring infection from agents transmitted at the agricultural interface.
11. It returns the farmland to nature, thereby helping to restore ecosystem function and services.

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Build Eco Friendly Buildings

Provide Low Emitting and Fuel Efficient Vehicles, to reduce the carbon emission which depletes the ozone layer and increases global warming potential.

by strictly fallowing the rule of leaving 40% open space for greenery in the layouts

The present 20th century model of development should give way to a more eco friendly and people friendly model of development.

We can make transportation greener by making public transport more efficient, effective and a preffered mode. Available green options for transport like bio fuels, electric & hybrid vehicles etc shold be made available at subsidised rates and with tax incentives.

Our cities should be also be made more walkable. Side walks are considered an unneccessary luxury by our planners. It is extremely difficult and dangerous to walk in our big cities. This approach should change.

More high rise, dense, mixed use planning should be encouraged, to reduce the need for long, vehicle borne travels.

Green building practices like rainwater harvesting, solar power, waste water recycling etc should be encoraged by means of awareness programmes and tax incentives.

I'd also like to present before you some new emerging technologies in this area. Please read my article here http://trivandrumlife.com/a-vision-for-trivandrum-2035-ad/ 

The present 20th century model of development which revolves around high energy transport and buildings should give way to a more eco friendly, people friendly model of development.

Transportation 

We can make tansport greener by making public transport an attractive and preffered means of transport. This can be acheived by making public transit more efficient and comfortable and also by tax incentives.

For both public & private vehicles, available green options like hybrid, electric and bio fuels vehicles should be promoted by means of tax incentives and subsidies.

We should also make our cities safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Side walks and cycle tracks are considered as unnessecary luxuries by our planners. It is extremely difficult to walk and even more dangerous to cycle in our big cities. This approach to urban planning should change.

Clean Power

All available sources of renewable natural power should be utilised to the maximum. 

Solar power is a great source of free renewable energy. The total solar radiation absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and landmasses is approximately 3,850,000 Exajoules (EJ) per year. The total global primary energy use in 2005 was 487 EJ and electricity use was 56.7 EJ. Thus if a total of 543.7 EJ is taken as the approximate global energy requirement per year, it accounts to only 1/7000 of the total solar radiation received. This is the case of solar energy alone. When the other sources like wind and bio mass is also considered, man’s power requirement is a minuscule fraction of what nature freely provides. (Source: Wikipedia -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_energy)

Greener Buildings

Green building practices like rainwater harvesting, waste water recycling, solar passive design etc should be promoted by means of awareness programmes and tax incentives.

Better City planning

The traditional ideas of rigid zoning should give way to a more dense mixed use planning built around public transit networks, so as to reduce the need for long, vehicle borne trips and for a more efficient utilisation of public transit systems like metro.

I'd also like to share with you some new emerging technologies in this regard. Kindly read my article on the city of the future here http://trivandrumlife.com/a-vision-for-trivandrum-2035-ad/