A Digital City Can Be A Game-Changer

Bundi, a small city in Rajasthan, is known for its architectural merits. It is not even in the “smart cities” list of the central government. But this sleepy town may soon have an e-municipal council which digitises demographical and geographical information. It is hard to overstate the importance of digitising such information. Such data is now being stored in a pre-Independence era building in Mumbai, and people do not have access to this information.

Anybody in any part of the world would be able to access demographical and geographical information on Bundi by visting the website very soon. Digitising information may also allow Bundi to cut down duplication of labour. Government officials would not have to physically move data from one part of the office to another. This will also eliminate corruption to some degree, because government employees often hide files or claim that some files go missing. Excuses along the lines of “Dog ate my homework” are common in government offices in India.  Citizens and researchers would not have to shuttle between government offices to get information.

But the benefits of digitising data goes much beyond this. Demographical and geographical information is very important in city planning. It is true that cities emerge through spontaneous actions of many people, and that such actions cannot be planned centrally. Nevertheless, some aspects of urban growth are planned by urban local bodies and central and state governments. So long as such planning happens, it is much better if planning is data-driven. Even though Indian cities engage in formulating masterplans for cities, this is rarely based on relevant facts. This is why costly masterplan exercises are often failures.

Data on density levels in a city, for example, is not perfect. It usually shows where people are between midnight and morning. This is because density figures are arrived at by looking at where people live, and not by looking at where people work or shop during the day. However, this is important because despite its flaws, this would tell us where they are likely to start from at the beginning of a day. Such data can help cities in planning transportation networks. For example, dense areas need better infrastructure, and transportation networks.  If such data is periodically revised, authorities can also decide how to raise the height of buildings in dense areas.

Delhi, for example, was more monocentric in the past. What does this mean? Connaught Place is Delhi's central business district (CBD). In monocentric cities, activity is more concentrated around the CBD. There was greater activity in and around Connaught Place in the past, and this has been declining, though moderately. Delhi has become more polycentric now, with more commercial centres elsewhere. In polycentric cities, activity is not concentrated around the CBD. When cities become more polycentric, they become less compatible with development of good transportation networks. Why? Cities usually become more polycentric when car ownership rises, and when more trips are within various sub centres. To pay attention to such information, and quickly respond to it, municipal corporations need information on where people live and work, and how they travel to work.

Similarly, cities can find more about the shape of the city, and whether housing and office space consumption fits in well with its shape. This is often more important whether activity is comcentrated or not. Shape of a city would tell how far the epicenter of a city is from other areas. A city is likely to be more efficient if more people live around the epicenter, because the average length of the trips would be shorter. Data on real estate prices combined with information on floor area ratios will help urban planners to make housing affordable. This is because they can make sure that floor area ratios correspond to density levels and real estate prices in a neighbourhood.

There is, of course, much more to this. But, such data is crucial to deciding whether a city is compatible with a metro system, in making housing affordable, and in finding ways to lower air pollution.

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