%0 Journal Article
%T Sustainability in South Asian city
%A Ghulam Akhmat
%A Muhammad Mahroof Khan
%A Mumtaz Ali
%J International Journal of Human Sciences
%D 2011
%I International Journal of Human Sciences
%X City brings about the most complex interplay of social, cultural, and political dimensions of space. It will have to accommodate around one billion humans only in South Asia by the year 2030. Therefore it needs to be prepared to absorb huge increases in urban population and resulting pressure on basic infrastructure and livelihood opportunities. In order to secure a better future and to improve the quality of life of all the citizens, city needs to be reinvented, by incorporating creativity and innovation with the approaches, we use in its planning. Here we present an overview of the progress, challenges and some key interventions to reinvent the city in South Asian region as well as in the developing world, with the examples of the most populous countries in the region: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Planning transforms geometric space in city into lived space. City planning in South Asia is as old as the human settlement itself, but the current situation is well below the level to be admired. Most of the city plans have been faulty with poor economic base and implementability, and fostered unintended city within the city, whose growth rate shadows the growth rate of the city itself. City in the developing world desperately needs to follow a sustainable development pattern which satisfies the requirement for equity; meets basic human needs; allows social and ethnic self-determination; promotes environmental awareness, integrity and inter-linkages between various living beings across time and space. It requires a combination of strategic policy making, supported by a system that combines personal opinion with scientific knowledge. It needs to reset the basis for the articulation of the initiatives of all relevant stakeholders to seek synergies for its development.
%K South Asian City
%K Sustainable Urbanisation
%K Sustainable City
%K Strategic Urban Planning
%U http://www.insanbilimleri.com/ojs/index.php/uib/article/view/1419