Climate-Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) stated that nine Indian cities have taken significant measures to mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis and inculcated a climate-sensitive approach to urban planning, according to the cities.
Ahmedabad, Indore, Pimpri Chinchwad, Vadodara, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Pune, Rajkot, and Surat were adjudged top performers among 126 cities that participated in the second edition of the assessment launched in September.
The joint secretary and mission director of Smart Cities Mission, HUA, Kunal Kumar said, “The CS (Climate-Smart) is a unique national framework that covers almost every aspect that impacts climate in the cities. Water management, mobility (especially increasing public transport), green buildings, and urban planning are areas where there are lacunas that need to be improved. The good things about this assessment framework help in improving all these indicators in an integrated manner. Now, cities have a real-time dashboard on how they are performing on climate aspect, which will help them in better planning.”
Sewa Ram, professor of transport planning, School of Planning and Architecture, said, “It is easier for cities to develop NMT (non-motorised transport) infrastructure in greenfield developments. To address issues related to air pollution due to transport, there is a need to increase public transport and develop NMT infrastructure. But in most cities, we have to do retrofitting. There is a need to provide assistance to cities to develop the infrastructure.”
Of the 126 cities, including 100 smart cities, 44 cities are yet to initiate regular monitoring of air quality. Amaravathi, Bilaspur, Mangalore, Nashik, Pimpri Chinchwad, Rajkot, and Vijayawada are the cities that have achieved the National Air Quality standard in all the four main pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, NOx, SOx).
Only Pune has managed to progress beyond implementing the identified actions under Clean Air Action Plan (planning and monitoring) indicator for air quality and has documented the impact, as per the report.
The Delhi government’s Electric Vehicle Policy is an example of efforts made by cities in addressing mobility and air quality concerns. The national capital’s performance on various parameters was judged largely based on information provided by the New Delhi Municipal Council, which is part of the smart cities mission.
Officials said that in some categories, overall data available in the public domain was considered.
While the national capital was given a five-star rating in waste management (which was assessed based on the performance of Swachh Survekshan 2020), the city got a three-star rating in mobility and air quality, energy, and green buildings and urban planning, green cover and biodiversity themes.
Water management is one area where a large number of cities have to do a considerable amount of work. Ahmedabad, Surat, and Vijayawada are the only three cities that have considered the climate change aspect in water management and are in the process of implementing it.
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