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Rapid urbanization has resulted in sudden degradation of the environmental quality of urban settlements, which are difficult to measure and quantify. The present study attempts to provide an assessment of the environmental quality by developing environmental quality index (EQI) for the Ernakulam district in Kerala, India. The index values are spatially mapped to develop an environmental quality index map for the study area under five different classes namely, very poor, poor, moderate, good, very good. The EQI values are calculated for nineteen composite variables classified under three domains namely, ecological, meteorological, and socio-economic domains. A preliminary statistical analysis and detailed principal component analysis (PCA) were performed to construct the environmental quality index for the study region. This was followed by a spatial mapping and analysis to provide a better understanding of the status of the environmental quality to the local residents, environmental planners, regional scientists and policy makers. The results obtained from the analysis show that the study area has a low overall environmental quality. The region considered in this paper has highlighting features of various settlement patterns, population distributions, and land use distributions, which indicates a clear transition in the environmental quality index of different settlement units. Hence, by selecting this region and observing various number of indicators, the real effect of urbanization on the quality of the environment was projected. The systematic methodological procedure explained in this paper can be used elsewhere also, where the study area has similar characteristics as that of the area considered in this study. The outcome of the study is applicable for present and future urban planning, building construction, land and resource management for a sustainable environment.

Smart-Global-Economic-Community (SGEC) is the basic module of planning megacities. It connects the local economy to the global economy. The design of the SGEC-Kattangal which is a part of the Kochi-Kannur megacity study is discussed in the present chapter. Significant concerns about the community are unplanned urban growth, exclusion and rising inequality, challenges in providing municipal services, economic sluggishness due to bureaucracy and political system. The study aims at making a reference module (SGEC-Kattangal) for the likely to be Kochi-Kannur megacity. The study has three parts. The first and second parts of the study which deals with the identification of possible sectors and the analysis of the issues and potential to transform the selected community cluster (Kattangal at Kozhikode, India) into an SGEC, are already discussed in the previous chapters. The third part of the study presented in the current chapter, explains the proposals that could help to make a smart-global-economic-community in Kattangal. The study redefines the approaches to issues and strategies based on smart principles; the initial plan based on economic development, which leads to growth in other sectors. The custom framed smart components include smart-economy, smart-living, smart-environment, smart-mobility, and smart-governance. Smart-economy bases on Industry-4.0, Social Manufacturing, and it frame strategies that utilize the untapped skilled workforce in Kattangal to build an economic base for the community. Smart-living gives proposals that enhance the living quality of the people by well-defined public spaces. The study discusses strategies for smart-water management and smart-waste management under the smart-environment principle. Smart-mobility encourages a sustainable transport model based on electric vehicles (EV) and non-motorized transportation (NMT). Smart governance integrates information and communications technology (ICT) and the internet of things (IoT).

The economy is the heart of any Smart City. As the world progresses to third industrial revolution, the economy focus is expected to shift from large-scale production industries to industries with cultural and ethnic uniqueness. Urban form of a city is its biggest brand image of its culture. A Smart City needs to maintain its urban form to highlight its cultural and ethnic uniqueness and evolve a branding for its products. This chapter like many other chapters in this book is the outcome of an academic project conducted by Department of Architecture and Planning at NIT, Calicut. The project is to develop a Smart City within the premises of Calicut City, with a smart economy at the core. Malabari food production is the core economy of Umami. This chapter proposes a systematic approach for derivation execution and management of the city’s urban form to function it as brand image. It is necessary to turn to the collective wisdom of various classes of people to ensure unique solutions. Bringing people to participate in every stage of urban design is a challenge. All stages of urban design in this chapter use e-Design, which relies on various digital communication techniques to bring in unique solutions from a large number of stakeholders and arrives at an acceptable-to-all solution. A modified Hybrid Form-Based Coding Regulation is used for structuring urban design process and its implementation. The process addresses issues from a broader perspective starting with a Zonal Plan and goes into minute details like signage, architectural features, and landscaping. It also proposes various smart technologies required in Smart Mobility, smart environment, smart governance, etc.