ME Civil Engineering(Town and Country Planning)

Real challenge for urban local body through developers, architects, and professionals is to protect and preserve the built heritage. Most difficult task ahead is to conserve the local traditional and cultural values of communities for future generations to appreciate. This paper discusses a case for the renewal & restoration of historical Gopitalao, Surat that is accomplished by Surat Municipal Corporation and on the verge of completion. This study comprehends on the past, and present conditions and development undertook for restoration and redevelopment. Further, the administrators of the city have planned for a grade separated road along the partial periphery of Gopi-talav that will add to beautification feature of the lake.

Since, past many years, administrations have keep attempting to make transportation systems intelligent, however, conventional methods are applied for collection of data to a large extent. In general, these methods lack in availing real-time information, tedious and involve extreme cost-time consumption if not intelligent enough. In India, any ULB (Or personnel) initiate working for the traffic survey to address the transportation problem, the survey process consumes more time and observes difficulty in obtaining reliable and valid data. It makes the collected data obsolete (and not real time). As a result, proposed alternative solution based on this data may not fulfil the need as it could be different altogether. Alternatively, travel time and delay data collection system can be developed using mobile phones. This paper explores the use of Android-based application for obtaining travel time and delay using various types of mode of transit on selectively a busy road stretch in the core area of Surat. Employed personnel using different transit modes with mobile phone having an application “My Tracks” generated data on which conventional analysis is applied to search appropriate alternative. The application revealed the travel route, total travel time, total moving time and average speed of the vehicle. The route (2.4 km length) is being fixed with start and end nodes that further allowed for indirect assessment of traffic congestion that later can be addressed to identify remedial measures of relief or minimize the adversity. It shows that the use of such application for traffic data collection may prove to be advantageous giving real-time data using this technique. An idea for such system explored on a pilot basis that may be developed in full using a server-based system, keeping anonymity of the user through tracking road stretches and performances. Congestion affected locations then may be investigated further, to draw suggestive alternative remedial measures. Current paper limitedly explores the smart mode of data collection and analysis stages only.

The city core is the centre of all major activities reflecting the culture of an urban centre in the most comprehensive manner and mostly, have a unique functional significance. Such centres run on and through transportation nerves and several nodes. In walled cities, the space devoted to transportation has remained more or less the same over the years while the demand for such space has undergone a tremendous upswing. The vehicular population in Surat is around 24, 21,043 (2015) so it is essential to manage its movements and ill effects like as air and noise pollution, traffic congestion, time loss, and so on.

Rajmarg (Road connecting Chowk to Delhi Gate) -2.4 km long stretch of Surat, an oldest and most important link passes through the CBD area. Naturally, it observes the problem of heavy traffic congestion due to its mixed land-use and direct
connectivity with Railway station from Rander-Adajan. There is no scope for further expansion of the available physical infrastructure within the CBD of Surat; it is the need of today to manage the available resources and make optimum use of it.

Basic details of study stretch are taken into the consideration like identification of land use (made by ground truthing), road cross-section, and special traffic generating activity. For addressing the traffic congestion, classified volume count survey and pedestrian count of 3 days i.e. Saturday, Sunday and Monday (by CCTV camera of Surat traffic police), speed and delay survey (by android mobile application “My Tracks”) has been performed and analysed. Analysis proved that the PCU/hour passing from Rajmarg is excessive than the limit (IRC-86:1983).From all analysed data, congestion location is identified, directional movement on all that location is surveyed and future traffic forecasting is done. Based on that alternative remedial measures is explored, a best alternative is chosen by SWOT and validated by the stakeholder.

If the final remedial measures are implemented, definitely it will lead to improving the present scenario for traffic congestion.

Sustainable development is a significant concern in the 21st century around the world. The world is becoming a global village. The top most priority is to use available resources without compromising the need for the future generations with an emphasis on social, economic and environmental parameters. In the context of urban land use planning, the sustainable term means to address major aspects of a city inclusive of the urban sprawl, transportation network, socio-economic development, city expansion, various land uses, and so on. It all contributes to improving the standards of living and make an urban environment livable. This paper focuses on identification of the need for formal land use planning using GIS tools. The paper discusses the situation on urban land use planning for a case from Post-War City of Monrovia, Republic of Liberia, which was ravaged by 14 years in civil conflicts. In the decade of 1980, by the then planners attempted to formalize land use. However, in the duration of the war, haphazard development evolved which need to be addressed in the post-war condition of present time. At the stage, research reveals that the efforts are essential to treat from scratch. Monrovia habitats a population of about 1.2 million wherein the density of population is very low spreading over a large space. A compact and sustainable planning considering the land use is emphases in the paper. For identification of current land use and to address diverse issues in relation, GIS tools are extensively used for deriving interventions and interpretations.

Urbanisation refers to the concentrated human settlements in discrete areas as a result of the transformation of productive or non-productive land into diversified use such as residential, commercial, industrial, transportation, public purpose and so on. India (NIUA) claims to have the World’s second largest urban population which is predicted to cross 600 million by the year 2031. Among the states in India, Gujarat emerged as one of the advanced federations in terms of economic activities, education and other such aspects related to promoting urbanisation. In the South region of Gujarat state, the Surat city is developing on the banks of Tapi River. The city was declared as the “fastest growing city” in Asia during 2001, and the city registered a decadal growth rate of 85.09% during 1991-2001. Recently, in 2011 the city crossed a total population of 4.46 million with a decadal growth rate of 55.29%. The city had merely 1.02 million population in year 1981. It shows the tapping of available potential opportunities resulting in migration from across the country that increased urban population 4.5 times in three decades. Projections depict the rise of the population to 10 million in next three decades leveraging city status as a Metropolitan. The urbanisation brings challenges along with opportunities. The paper discusses on urban health and care facilities. Better health for the urban population results in reduced infant mortality (average rate of 18.02 since 2001 till 2013) as well as affects maternal mortality (average rate of 0.43 for the duration). Reduction in deaths is ensured by means of availing a variety of facilities including pocket level actions, as well as city-wide services. It seeks attention from the authority to avail all such infrastructure (social) and services (health and care) to be available with maximum possible accessibility by the citizens. The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) is one of the oldest urban local body (established in 1852 AD). It is by constitutional provisions and the GTPUD Act; 1976 is responsible to make assessments of the social infrastructure requirement. It also needs to make planning arrangements as well as to look after the implementation. In absentia of information regarding planning approach to allocating such facilities motivated the authors to carry out a study in the area. The study aims to identify the demand-supply and gaps underlying in the sector using population projections by AIM and IIM tools. It also includes recommendations to carry out detailed planning and allocation prioritisation of facilities at different zones (through TPS mechanism of land plot reservation). Initial assessment till 2011 revealed that four out of total seven zones are not meeting with the requirements based on prevailing URDPFI guidelines.

Population projection is a scientific attempt to peep into the future population scenario, conditioned by making certain assumptions, using data relating to the past available at that a point of time. Assumptions used and their probability of  adhering in the future, forms a critical input in this mathematical effort. Population forecasting is the useful tool for infrastructure service design and planning. It helps in visualising the needs for future planning to the Urban Local Bodies and Authorities.

For finding the future infrastructure demands, an essential task is to perform population
projection exercise. Available methods and models are based on mathematical or birth, death and migration correlation base. Applying some of the methods for Surat, it was found that projected population using seven different methods for years 2021, 2031 and 2041. Alarming difference indicate an acute need to identify governing parameters (density, industrial growth and activates, built up area, health and education sector, infrastructure government policy and so on) that affect the increase or decrease in the projected population. Present work attempts to devise a statistical method for population projection of urban area. Such a model being valid for one city (Surat) may not be applicable to another city with same weightage of variables which leaves a scope to change these values as per the situations observed in different cities.

After identifying the natural growth and migration parameter and identification of parameters which are directly affecting the migration is important. Total main worker as per category, non-worker, 0-6 year age population, density, decadal population growth those all are set in one equation as per the correlation and validation for 2011 and then apply for future projection. The equation is passing out the validation criteria and its variation is less than 1%. This equation is more reliable and it can apply for population projection. Use of that equation it includes all growth parameter and creates land fact picture and it is derived less difference than any other method.

Parking really matters to urban mobility. Due to economic development of state, the urbanization in Gujarat spreading at very fast rate in last few decades. Urbanization in Gujarat is governed by Land pooling and redistribution tool of land management which is mentioned in Gujarat Town Planning and Urban Development Act, 1976. It is called the Town planning scheme mechanism. The Act provides criteria for different land use reservation, but it lacks specifications about parking area provision for public utility. Need to integrate the parking area reservation in the town planning scheme process just as the other land use reservations mentioned is essential, because the parking give major contribution in congestion through reducing the carriageway capacities and by reducing the flow of traffic through making obstruction. If we are going to make city growth in planned manner then, all components should be taken in planning process to make better execution of it by using existing experience of congestion and parking issues. Focus of my present work shall be identification of unauthorized parking observed at intersections of important roads in a planned and implemented final T. P. Schemes of Surat and to intervene if any relation is there between land use composition and parking area requirement. There is the reason why only the land use relations, because when the draft TPS prepared, the land use structure previously identified and known before the implementation done on the real site, so we can predict the parking area need.