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Highlights • Urban growth management strategy in India's National Capital Region is evaluated. • There is a lack of regulatory and non-regulatory instruments for growth management. • Problems in the institutional environment are determined. • Policy implications are derived for growth management in the global South. Abstract Considerable progress has been made in theoretically understanding the process of sprawl and devising corresponding growth management strategies in the global North. However, urban growth as sprawl remains a serious challenge in the global South, cutting across various geographic and municipal boundaries. The undesirable consequences are excessive expansion as well as inadequate infrastructure and service provision. At the core of steering this development are growth management strategies aiming to secure economically, socially and environmentally sustainable growth. This paper evaluates the performance of the growth management strategy in the National Capital Region of India based on a conceptual framework covering programme design, institutional setting and market interactions. It uses a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate policy performance across multiple scales (city, metropolitan, state and region). The research found the limited success of policies, the failure to combine policy with regulatory and non-regulatory instruments, and insufficiencies in the institutional environment, all of which hinder effective growth management. To curtail sprawl, this paper recommends moving towards flexible growth boundaries, introducing self-contained communities as policy component, integrating and enforcing land-use and transport planning, empowering lower-tier authorities and adopting regulatory and non-regulatory instruments for plan implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the countries of the Global South such as India, rapid urbanization and the increase in individual motorization may lead to a predominance of unsustainable commuting patterns. However, urbanization also has important positive effects, including the empowerment of women. This paper examines newly released, spatially disaggregated data on home-to-work commuting by non-agricultural workers in the National Capital Region of India. It aims to understand and compare commuting patterns in urban and rural areas, including choice of travel modes, commuting distances, and gender differentials. The results reveal a tendency observable in urban residents to use individual motorized transport more often both for short and for long trips, although the proportion of individual motorization is far from what it is in the industrial world. Rural areas are characterized by the predominance of non-motorized travel modes and a large share of long trips. The mobility gap between men and women does not appear to increase with literacy. In urban areas, women often choose to commute by car rather than using green modes of transportation (especially in higher-income districts). The paper stresses the importance of the area and gender differentials that need to be taken into account when formulating regional transport policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the growth of census towns in India's Capital Region because the unregulated growth of census towns has been the key feature of recent urbanization in India. The article first examines the population and municipal status dynamics, location and economic characteristics of census towns as well as their migratory and commuting patterns. The status and costs of providing basic amenities and social infrastructure are then analyzed. The paper emphasizes the contribution of contemporary theories that explain the growth of census towns and the role of secondary and primary data in capturing their characteristics. Taking advantage of the economic potential of India's urbanization as census towns will require the following: (i) the enforcement of reforms to empower Gram Panchayat for spatial planning and growth regulation; (ii) the discontinuation of subsidized infrastructure provision and charging development tax; and (iii) investment in decentralized infrastructure for more accountable and more efficient delivery of basic amenities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the importance of distance as specified by Central Place Theory and New Economic Geography, this paper investigates the distance effect on urban transformation in the Capital Region of India by using spatial data and recently released census data on employment and urban amenities. This study applies a multiple-ring model and identifies a shadow effect for lower-tier settlements at a distance of 50 km and beyond 100 km from the megacity of Delhi. The higher-tier settlements produce 50 km wide shadow on lower-tier settlements, after which latter starts to trigger growth. The population seems to concentrate in the megacity and other million-plus cities in the region to maximize the utility of urban amenities, which are available only in higher-tier centres. The growth of million-plus cities in close proximity to Delhi state is a complementary effect. As the distance from higher-tier settlements increases, employment opportunities and the availability of urban services decrease, thus hindering the growth of the lower-tier settlements in the hierarchy. The paper concludes that traditional spatial decentralization polices have met with limited success and recommends embracing space-based policies to increase the growth potential of lower-tier settlements in the hinterland and to reduce spatial disparities in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper empirically examines the applicability of the planetary urbanization concept to understand the complexities associated with the rural-to-urban transformation process unfolding in India. It contributes to the rural-urban debate by investigating the role of non-urban spaces – here census towns – in accelerating India's process of urbanization. The Capital Region of India is taken as a study area and a mixed methods approach is used to establish concentrated and extended urbanization as interlinked processes in relation to the growth of census towns. The applied mixed methods approach helps to overcome the critiques of deploying Global North theories, here planetary urbanization, on the Global South context by not only establishing a general pattern and dynamics of growth but also by contextualizing the local characteristics of rural to urban transformation as census towns. The analysis established a dense network of transport and a high level of commuting for work between statutory towns and census towns in the urban periphery and hinterland overcoming the traditional urban and rural divide. This paper makes a methodological and analytical contribution to the concept of planetary urbanization, whereby growth of census towns can be explained as an interlinked process of concentrated, extended and differential urbanization. The political economy analyses established that the differences between statutory and census towns can be traced back to state rescaling and investment policies. In this process, rural areas are rapidly acquiring urban characteristics as census towns and to some extent perform better on socioeconomic and infrastructural aspects compared to statutory towns (official urban areas). • Concept of planetary urbanization applied to India's rural to urban transformation. • Concentrated and extended urbanization established as interlinked processes. • Rural areas are rapidly acquiring urban characteristics as census towns. • Mixed methods help overcome the critique of planetary urbanization concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 20th and 21st centuries, the world has experienced rapid urbanization and slum proliferation. Slum residents form a significant portion of urban populations and contribute to the development of cities. However, due to their highly concentrated consumption and waste production patterns, slums endure and exacerbate, among other things, environmental degradation. To date, our understanding of slums in Indian cities has been primarily based on census data and evidence from remote sensing images. These data do not yet provide spatial slum dynamics over time and are limited to static and statistical representation. In addition to the obsolescence of spatial data, the non-availability of consistent socio-economic data leads to data integration problems. Therefore, new approaches that consider the scarcity of data and the choice of analytical techniques are needed; planners without advanced technical training should also be able to easily apply these approaches. This study provides a comprehensive approach to examine the urban transformation of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT-Delhi), India, from 1971 to 2011. Combining data from multi-temporal remote sensing images, census population statistics, slum enumeration and the provision of essential services, these investigations reveal a previously undocumented rapid increase in built-up areas outside municipal boundaries. The findings confirm the spatial shift of slums from the city center towards the periphery. The analysis provides a revealing insight: the emergence and growth of slums are outcomes of the prevailing urban planning environment, the limited success of adopted policies and the government's inability to foster growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Managing growth in rapidly growing complex mega urban regions in India is a growing concern for planners and scholars. Although the government attempts to regulate the development by spatial decentralization, there are no easy solutions, resulting in undesirable growth and associated problems. However, a good mix of (fiscal and regulatory) interventions, although difficult to implement, has the potential to achieve effective urban growth, as exemplified by Tokyo in Asia and London in Europe. Examining the National Capital Region (NCR) Delhi as a case study, this study evaluated the performance of some aspects of spatial decentralization policy. The investigation identified the need to link jobs and housing, redefine the concept of greenbelt, and integrate transport and land-use planning. We recommend introducing a mix of interventions to effectuate spatial decentralization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The urbanisation process in the Global South is characterised by the blurring of the boundaries between urban and rural areas and the lack of institutional capacity, which have made the process highly unsustainable. In India, an example of such development is the rapid growth of "census towns". These settlements are not acknowledged as urban by the state, but they play an important role in accommodating population growth. This paper aims to elucidate and understand the process and characteristics of Indian urbanisation better in light of relevant theoretical discourses by using a mix of statistical analysis and field survey. It argues for moving from traditional master planning, which originated from the Global North to a more participatory and strategic approach in order to achieve infrastructure integrated development. • Contemporary theories are validated on census towns growth in India. • Mixed-methods approach helps uncover important characteristics of urbanisation. • Census towns are unplanned developments, but are crucial for Indian urbanisation. • A move from master planning to participatory strategic planning is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Alternative approaches to define urban hierarchy in India are compared. • Mismatch between population-based hierarchy and urban amenity provision is identified. • Compared to large towns, small towns have better potential to accommodate growth. • Strong institutional structure for implementing cross-border projects is recommended. • Empowerment of local authorities for facilitating growth in urban centers is advocated. This paper uses concepts and measures from the central place theory to describe and analyze the settlement hierarchy in India. Using statistical analysis, a mismatch between the population-based hierarchy and the functional hierarchy is identified. Large cities lack adequate provision of urban amenities compared to small urban centers, which are relatively better provided to sustain future population growth. The findings confirm that spatial disparities might be exacerbated by large investment projects like the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor in the absence of regional planning. The paper argues for a strong institutional structure and advocates for place-based policies in order to facilitate implementation of large-scale cross-border infrastructure projects and to harness the potential of smaller urban centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]