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Planning Principles for Sustainable Management of Human Settlements

People First, October 1998

Extracts from the Report of the Group on Planning and Environment: Earth Charter Consultation Process

The spread or urban lands into rural hinterlands in an unplanned manner all across developing countries is not only gobbling up agricultural land at a rapid pace and thus threatening food security; uncontrolled extraction of resources, especially water, and dumping of wastes, both human and industrial, is poisoning our land and water resources in often irreparable ways. The root of the problem lies in incorrect planning and resource allocation for use for human settlements and livelihoods.

"Conservation and protection of the Earth’s precious and fast depleting resources demands far - reaching changes in our mind sets and a totally new paradigm for Development and Planning". Planning - a field associated with the way physical development in terms of settlements are organized and placed in their contexts has disregarded the finite and fragile of nature of the very contexts in which the development is placed. The planning processes have almost always ignored the very people they are meant for and as such have resulted in alien impositions of regulations over people and communities.

People First has been invited by the Earth Council to organize consultations on the Earth Charter Process for India. Preliminary consultations organized with resource persons on the issues of Planning and Environment have resulted in the identification of four basic principles for Human Settlement planning that are essential for the sustainable management of the settlements. These are:

• Self governance
• Land ownership (values and rights)
• Planning with nature
• Appropriate technology

Self governance

It is important that the people have a sense of ownership over local environmental resources. It is only then that they will efficiently utilise these in keeping with the long term objectives for the sound management of resources. Self-governance, i.e., fully empowered grassroots governments and nor mere "people’s participation" in planning process is vital for sustainability.

Land ownership (values and rights)

Traditional societies regarded land as a community resource. They could not comprehend how land could be "owned" by any individual. When asked if they would sell land, indigenous people have always questioned how one could sell the earth?

Many today, hold that land ownership should be a restricted land-use right. Banks would then not be able to extend loans against land values but only against the assets developed on land. This will control speculation on real estate.

The Indian ethos advocates a social and economic structure in which power flowed upward from the villages. The villages controled all village resources including land and therefore, land rights. They would allow transfers based on the credentials of the transferee and the proposed land-use.

At the grassroots level, there is a confluence of the community and governance. The concept of community ownership in traditional societies thus gets translated into ownership of land by the village governments instead of state or national governments. The village governments would lease the land to individuals on specified conditions and allow transfers with their approval.

In the urban context, this would mean neighbourhood governance. Land would then be recognised as a local resource, and neighbourhood governments as the first tier of urban governance. The city government would place urban lands excluding those required for city level infrastructure, under the management control of neighbourhood governments. The city government would issue lease to individuals and neighbourhood governments would control land-use, tenancy, transfers and other rights and obligations. They would recover the necessary property taxes, manage neighbourhood services and regulate tenancy and uses.

Planning with nature

Indigenous settlements the world over have invariably been planned within the context of and in response to the constraints of the environmental limitations. Hilly lands near water sources were used for building settlements to ensure proper drainage and adequate water supply. Water courses were properly conserved while rain water harvesting in various forms was practiced religiously.

In the modern context, land-use planning for both urban and rural developments should take advantage of the advancements in scientific knowledge that enable knowledge of the extent and limitations of existing resources through satellite imagery based GIS systems. Watersheds at regional and micro-levels should be the basis for planning of settlements, industrial zones and agricultural lands.

Resources required for urban and rural development should be properly coordinated. Resource extraction and waste recycling should be closed loop systems within the micro-watershed based settlements, thus preventing over extraction of rural resources by cities for their growing populations and dumping of wastes by cities and industries into the rivers and lands of hinterlands. As a primary rule, concerns of food security should be kept supreme and proliferation of urban development on rural agricultural lands should not be permitted. This will facilitate the dispersal of settlements as viable units rather than mammoth developments of metropolitan cities.

Appropriate technology

Technology has been considered a panacea of all of societal problems. However, shortsighted technological developments are often a source of secondary and tertiary problems.

The basic guiding principle should be that resources for both infrastructure and building be obtained from within a defined radius. Regeneration, efficiency in utilisation, conservation and recycling should govern our use of any material resources for building and infrastructure.

Policy and programmes should encourage the development and use of technologies that follow these principles. Solar, wind and other renewable energy sources should be promoted while strict regulations should be imposed on the over extraction and use of non-renewable petroleum based energy. Climatic considerations in design of dwellings, offices, industries and settlements would foster energy and material efficiencies in construction.

People First is a trust promoted by Development Alternatives dedicated to institutional reforms for good governance.

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