Green Building Index ... Malaysia's Approach towards Sustainable Built Envrionment

Since the Asia is urbanizing at a great pace with its concentration in developing countries. Malaysia is one of the countries facing extreme urbanization and its urban population is going rapidly. This paradigm of urbanization is prompting people to develop shelter units for themselves and to find job opportunities. All this ultimately sums into the more building units. This increasing figure of units in built environment is making energy sources limited and there is need to develop a sustainable policy for building residential and commercial development projects.

Green Building Index

For this reason, Malaysia has established  Green Building Index (GBI) to promote energy efficient buildings in terms of planning, construction and materials. Following stages are involved with GBI working frame:

STAGE 1
Application & Registration
STAGE 2
Design Assessment (DA)
STAGE 3
Completion & Verification Assessment (CVA)



According to GBI , A Green building focuses on increasing the efficiency of resource use – energy, water, and materials – while reducing building impact on human health and the environment during the building’s lifecycle, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal. Green Buildings should be designed and operated to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on its surroundings.


SunWay Resort City.... A step towards green urban development
Sunway resort is a sustainable township developed on Green Building Index principles achieveing 30 % of the green spaces within the project capacity which is double the requirement of green township around 15%. this ensures the value for natural resources and is an intiative towards healthy living of human beings.

SRC GREEN CITY APPROACH

Traffic Impact Assesment

Traffic Impact Assesment (TIA) is very important component in city and regional planning. Without giving consideration to TIA aspects, there will problems like road accidents and traffic congestion on the road. For this reason, now cities are planning their road network while giving special attention to TIA rules and regulations. Lets go into more detail by defining the term "Traffic Impact Assesment".

Definition

Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) is based on technical study of investigating the impact of traffic patterns for current and future road networks. The relevant government authorities work for TIA. The TIA reports are now being considered mandatory for any urban project and their validity has specific life. so for every new development in the city, there will be TIA report every time and it will get renewed after some specific time period based on developing and urbanizing city conditions.

Purpose of TIA 

TIA purpose as the name suggests is to assess and examine the impacts and aftereffects of traffic movement in the city. It portrays both the positive as well as the negative points. Based on the TIA reports, cities can manage their traffic regulations and transport movement in an effective way as before the real implementation of any future roundabout or building project, now TIA reports are virtually planned in computer software showing the impacts of traffic based on specific project. 

The reports of TIA contains the expected outcomes and better workable options are then proposed for effective traffic framework of the city as in return it will help securing time and lessening accidents of the passengers.

Importance of TIA in Urban Planning of Cities

• manages the motor vehicle use and pedestrian movement on roads
• reduces the travelling time in reaching destinations
• makes sure the safety and security of people as well as the vehicles
• controls road networks and makes it effective
• provides a sustainable perspective to building or urban project

City Development Strategies (CDS)

The concept of city development strategies (CDS) can be understand well if the concept of sustainable urban development is clear in the mind. Since there has been massive talks about sustainability and urban development. so now lets jump directly to City Development Strategies (CDS).

 The CDS concept was intiated by World Bank  in 1998 in East Asia in to order to develop sustainability framework in every walk of time and making cities capable to face increasing Urbanization challenges and Risks.

—The World Bank (2000) has described the process of sustainable development’s achievement in cities, indicating that cities must be livable, competitive, properly governed, and bankable.

      

The CDS intiatives were first implied to Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and China. Since then, many countries in the world are following this perspective of urban development on sustainability foundation. For instance, the South African Cities Network has inbuilt City Development Strategy (CDS), working since 2006 providing its members and coordinators a holistic model for promoting sustainable and equitable growing opportunities. The objective, in this context, is to make sure integrated approach and viewpoint for developing planning policies in South African Cities.

Framework of South African CDS

According to UN-Habitat 2002, the four focussed themes of CDS are mentioned below:

•    livability,

•    competitiveness,

•    good governance, 

•    bankability

Cities Alliance

The Cities Alliance is a global partnership for urban poverty reduction and the promotion of the role of cities in sustainable development. 

• Local authorities: United Cities and Local Governments and Metropolis 
• Governments: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Italy, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, South Africa,Sweden, and the United States of America 
• Non-governmental organisations: Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and Habitat for Humanity International
• Multi-lateral organisations: European Union,  UN-HABITAT and the World Bank
   (Cities Alliance Website : http://citiesalliance.org/about-cities-alliance)

Strategical Framework of Cities Alliance - Cities without Slums

As the name speaks that cities without slums, so the objectives of Cities Alliance is to encourage cities by supporting their local government through active citizenship and strong economic framework through public and private investment as this will help the cities to:

• develop national policies according to urban development needs
• develop and apply local plans
• provide basic services to urban poor
• activate citizen participation in city governance

USM International Cultural Week 2013... An awesome experience to represent my country Pakistan

Arabic people wearing traditional Pakistani cloths at our booth

our cultural booth

A Malaysian lady getting Mehndi design on her hand

waiting for our turn

and we started walking as re presenters of Pakistan on Gala Night

Shared Home ownership... A sustainable approach towards Home ownership

Home ownership is one of the major challenges in today’s world of globalization. The new remedy in this regard has been introduced by developed countries is the shared home equity. The increasing number of people in the city centers is making situation tense and difficult with each passing day under the clouds of globalization. The cities which have already become urbanized centers are also influencing the connecting areas to get this fever of urbanization. The consequences of which include shortage of houses and so is the home ownership is getting affected badly. The less the number of houses, the fewer will be the home owners.

Reducing opportunities for Home Ownership

The inflation of land prices and rising figure of population are reducing opportunities for gaining home ownership which leads to social and economic inequity. This inequity is, for sure, undesirable by any country. In developed countries like United Kingdom, according to National Housing Federation statistics (NHF) by 2020 year, the average price of a house will climb to £331,387 and the price will become even higher in premises of London city up to £650,000. In addition to this, the report reveals that with such predicted increase in house price, it is expected that future generations may not able to own houses and forced to live on rental housing.

 Shared Home Ownership

The favorable choice for housing services other than renting and full ownership is the shared home ownership. The foundation is to have mutual possession by purchasing particular percentage of home and then paying the balance amount in form of rent. This option is quite suitable for people with low income category, who wish to acquire their own home but cannot make it through traditional methods of house buying.

The idea of shared ownership in case of housing has become trendy because a considerable proportion of the population in many parts of world is unable to afford market housing. Shared ownership offers an occupancy that is affordable and reasonable, as compared to full ownership, for those who have low income earnings and still providing sole right of possession. 

Shared Home Equity

Shared Equity schemes are closely related with shared home ownership phenomenon. As equity means the justice so the general definition is to provide equal opportunities for home buying on shared basis. It doesn’t involve the ownership factor in it. It is all about having justified accessibility of all households to buy homes.It has been observed over period of time that home occupancy facilities have not been equally available to all income groups. The biased approach in selling and financing houses in private market and prejudiced regulations in most of local and federal home ownership programs kept away the low income groups of families from entering circle of purchasing homes. Such social inequity is undesirable for consistent urban growth of cities.

Shared Home ownership & Equity in United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US)

The policies of Shared Ownership (SO) and shared Equity (SE) have been consistent element of United Kingdom housing planning for the last three decades. The origin of these products dates back into 1970s to deal with affordability issues of housing when inflation became very fast and people who were formerly capable of purchasing home over their working life period excluded by high expenditure in early years of conventional mortgage. The distinguishing feature of low cost housing policy in the United States in the near past has been focused on endorsing home ownership as public entity and on enhancing the status of home holders in the midst of households with low income levels nationwide. This most probably based on the fresh boost in the pace of home ownership, reaching up to percentage of 69 in 2005 from 65 percent in 1995, which seems to difficult to maintain 

For this reason, a range of planning schemes and strategic framework has been proposed, which includes Capital Subsidies, down payments and closing cost assistance, and never ending collection of ingenious mortgage tools to offer amendable charges, minor down payments, long lasting tenures and others value- added methods for providing instant and speedy access to housing market at the stake of upcoming threat and uncertainty. Shared Equity Homeownership is generic term used in different states of America under label of limited equity housing, non-speculative homeownership, permanently affordable homeownership, third sector housing, Homes for Good (Massachusetts reasonably priced housing), Forever Housing (Connecticut) and perpetually affordable housing (Burling, VT Community land trust houses).

Seminar Paper Presentation on " Rapid Urbanization: Problems and challenges for Housing in Pakistan"

Urbanization is the modern trend of today’s globalized world which is making a very rapid progress with the support of everyday innovative technology. Since the technology and accessibility through globalization anywhere globally sitting in the corner of your room is making wonders remarkably. This new tradition of modernization is prompting people to leave their homes and to get exposure to the world. As everything comes naturally with positives and negatives, one wants to see how this big change is affecting our world. Asia is the most potential continent where we can see the peak of urbanization. This paper examines different aspects of urbanization which the industrial cities of Pakistan are adopting as fashion on competing basis.

Urban Population in Major Urban Cities of Pakistan

Over the last three decades a shift has been observed in demographic picture of most countries in Asia Region. Big industrial cities tend to figure the significant percentage of urban population of their respective country. For instance, more than one half of urban population lives in Bangkok in case of Thailand, for countries like Korea, Bangladesh & Philippines one third of urban population in their major cities. And this figure of urban population turns down to 20% of nation’s urban population in case of Jakarta, Istanbul, Karachi and Tehran.

     Why people choose to live in cities rather than staying in rural areas or suburbs? What is a city? City is place with all the ingredients needed for modern world. It has advanced transportation, high rise buildings, global exposure, business opportunities, best educational, health and recreational amenities which are enough to attract anyone who wants to improve living. City houses a variety of people with different social and personal profile. Some of them include like businessmen, employing people, school children, old people, house wives, disable persons, tourists (temporary users of the city) and all these profiles further classifies into rich and poor which ultimately forms up the need for shelter and housing. Unfortunately, the common trend to see in developing country is the excess of poverty and wealth both. A picture of economic inequality can be well captured in low-income or middle-income countries. The poor is so poor and rich is so rich. A tradition of extremes has always been a part of such states. Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad are the rapidly urbanizing cities of the country.

Housing Methods: Overview of Issues & Problems in Major Urban Cities of Pakistan

Of course the urbanization cannot be stopped because no country can afford to stop in the growth of economic development. The issues and problems of housing would continue to grow if they are not tackled properly on time. If the existing settlements of urban poor are addressed with proper planning and management, then the proper implementation of planning policies under the charge of good governance can make possible the dream of affordable or formal housing settlements for the urban poor.

Based on rough estimate, during the year 2004 Pakistan was experiencing a deficiency of six million housing settlements and this figure has been growing since then. According to World Bank Data, in 2009 this shortfall has become even larger up to 8 million housing units. Within the small time period of 5 years the gap became broader by addition of 2 million houses for urban poor. This major difference between requirement and delivering in large cities is making people to adapt to poor quality shelter settlements on the periphery of cities far away from the urban centers. According to estimates the annual incremental demand is 600,000 units, of which 50% is met by the private/public investment (Ahmad, 2012).

Urban poor left with no option other than poor means of living. It is only way out to most poor to live in inadequate housing settlements near the city centers to fulfill their need for accommodation and employment (Bunnarith, 2004). This gap is fulfilled by them through substandard living in form of slums, squatters, informal settlements and bulk living in inner cities.The government of Pakistan classifies informal settlements only in two forms which are: katchi abadis (squatter settlements) and slums.

Slums

Slum is usually used for informal settlements with poor living conditions and inadequate infrastructure            facilities. According to UN-HABITAT definition, slum refers to group of people living under one roof            in an urban setting which lack permanent housing, or enough live able space, or provision of drinking             water and proper sanitation system. Migrants adding up to the urban population in big cities left with             two options: the rich ones get the formal shelter in well infrastructure societies while the poor ones                  indulge in slums and peripheral sites of capital. Slums are being well occupied in large urbanized cities            of Pakistan. The mass volumes of such settlements can be observed easily after few kilometers.                    Slums can be further divided into two categories:

·         Traditional pre-independence settlements which got populated with time period and their existing infrastructure is not more fulfilling the present and future demands.

·         Old villages, transformed into informal densely populated working inner city area, presently contributing to urban collapse, within or near the city center which now transformed into formal settlement.

Prime locations of Slums are present near a lot of well developed housing societies such as DHA, Johar town, Cavalry ground as well as on the periphery of the Lahore City like Ravi Road, entry & exit routes.

Katchi Abadis (Squatter Settlements)

Globally speaking squatter settlement is the informal housing developed on ill legal land. Its an unlawful residency spot. In Pakistan, such type of settlements through squatting comes under the term ‘Katchi Abadis’ is being understood by everyone on national level. Katchi Abadis like slums at national level can be further subdivided into two types:

Authorized katchi abadis: such type of settlements are marked by government through 99-year rent and local government is responsible for infrastructure development

Unauthorized katchi abadis: Such settlements are not legalized as they are in demand for development by private or government sector.

Gap between demand and supply of Adequate Housing

• Planning Policies with limited perspective of demand
• Cost of land too expansive
• Lack of partnership among concerned domains
• Inadequate participation of communities
• Insecurity of Land tenure

 

Governance & Sustainability - Understanding the Bond

The connection between environment and development challenges are reinforced through social, economic and environmental processes across the world. These challenges are based on set of some potential drivers. these drivers included population figures, technological innovations, cultural, social, political,and economic transformations. Based on report of World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission), with passage of time these drivers have become dominant.

Every country in the world is planning for sustainable development policies for almost every sector including urban development, industrialization, food production, agricultural resources, waste management, building design etc. For successful and effective running of the today world, the governance of sustainable development policies is the limelight of implementation. what is governance and how it links with sustainability is very important to understand. 

On this topic, inspiring & Beautiful lecture was delivered by one of guest lecturers in RPK 538 class. The name of talented teacher is "Dr. Rahmat Azam Mustafa" who taught us the concept of sustainability and its relationship with governance so intelligently that i got an idea of these terms in its connection with real world. An overview of my learning from the lecture is shared here. hope the readers will learn something too from it.

Concept of Sustainability: Sustainability is a theory based on retaining the current resources and life opportunities for furture generation. according to UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) , the sustainability theory should have the four main focuses:

• Eliminating poverty
• Creating jobs and sustaining livelihoods
• Protecting and regenerating environment
• Promoting advancement of women

There are most probably three types of sustainability:

• Environmental sustainability (saving the environmental resources for future)
• Socio-political sustainability ( ensuring the security of life in friendly living)
• Economic sustainability        ( creating opportunities for employment & investment)

Although our world is progressing economically, but its automatic lead is not towards interest of sustainable development. to avoid economic progress making it a threat for human living, it should be integrated with five following aspects:

• empowerment (involving people in decision making)
• cooperation     ( enhancing the teamwork )
• equity                (equal access of resources for everyone)
• sustainability    (saving for future generation)
• security             (safe and sound living)

Concept of Governance:

The concept of governance is about promoting and supporting the human development with its special consideration for poorest and most marginal groups of people, based on exercising the economic, political and administrative authorities engaging in terms of mechanisms and institutions. with this approach, common citizens participate through expression of their interests, meeting of requirements and intervention of their differences.

›A good governance is about ensuring participation, transparency and accountability. it basically comprises of three legs:

›Economic-decision making processes in country's economic activities 

›Political-the process of decision-making to formulate policy

›Administrative-policy implementation

The 9 Aspects of Good Governance: A fair governance policy includes ›9 aspects which can be explained like this:  

        The concept of participation of all with rule of law in a transparent manner serving in terms of responding in favor of concensus (public interest) to provide equal opportunities efficiently with an accountable approach incorporating the Vision for future perspective.

Domains coming under Governance:

the main domains of concern regarding governance are:

• The state (Government or the leadership of country)

• The private sector ( The primary source of development & employment)

• The civil society     ( community of common people, citizens )

The State:

The state mainly involved in maintaining macroeconomic conditions, health sector standards, safe environment for all, mobilizing resources for necessary public demands and infrastructure, law & order and social harmony.

The Private Sector:

›The private sector is the most active domain playing important roles like to create job 

markets, to ensure poor and especially women having easy access to credit, to create 

investment opportunities, to provide incentives for human development,to protect the 

environment and natural resources.

The Civil Society:

The civil society being a group of all citizens is mainly engaged in protecting human rights, channeling people participation in economic and social activities, enhancing the social capital.›

Summary:

Sustainable development in any sector is always driven by a country/state that governs well, a private sector that creates job and investment, and the civil society that ensure the participation of common people in social, economic and political activities.

›

Social & Economic Dimensions of Development

Dimensions of Development:

Development is the term which everyone wants to define or talk about as its the most positive thing showing the progress in an optimistic way. Development refers to the potential growth of something. while talking about countries, a lot of aspects involved in the process of development. 
Following are the general concepts of development countrywise:

• Development in terms of change: it involves transformation in social, political or cultural situations
• Development in terms of Growth: it involves growing population tends to increase the Productivity and employment opportunities
• Development in terms of Human Welfare: it involves achieving of human prosperity
• Development in terms of improving equality: it involves equal distribution of wealth, assets & benefits to reduce economic gap in society
• Development in terms of Independence: it involves getting rid or reducing down levels of dependency on other countries and making self-sufficient on its own.

Now there is need to look at the measure of development; how one can measure the development of countries. Well the two most talked about perspectives of measurement in this regard are social and economic perspectives. following is the individual description for both aspects:

Global Picture of Economic Development

Economic development aims to eliminate the economic inequality and encourage the distribution of assests, wealth among all income groups. The term "Economic inequality "refers to the gap of wealth, income between different income groups among the population. it involves the income difference, disproportion of ownership of assets.

Differences in national income equality is measured by the national Gini coefficient. Gini coefficient is a number between 0 and 1, where 0 means perfect equality (everyone has same income) and 1means perfect inequality (one person has all income, and everyone else has zero income).

Over the centuries from 19th century to 20th century and from 20th to 21th century, the gini coefficient is fluctuating from o.43 to 0.68 and heading towards the 1 which is a clear indicator of perfect inequality in economical terms globally.

To control this shifting of gini coefficient and progressive economic development,  all national and international policies should be planned on the concept of sustainability as world can prosper equally from all ends only in this way. 

Global Picture of Social Development 

The term ‘social development’ describes company activities that provide the local community with opportunities to develop. While some activities may be part of the company’s core business, others may be additional activities that enhance the company’s reputation and its relationship with the community. (World Bank Forum Definition)

Globally speaking,more than 1 billion people are still living in extreme poverty, income inequality within and among many countries has been rising and, at the same time, unsustainable consumption levels and production patterns have resulted in huge economic and social costs and may endanger life on the planet.

Social development on equality basis ,hitting to all groups irrespective of their wealth, health or social status, is to be implemented to avoid the further gaps or indifferences among human beings living on earth planet. All people are meant to be taken care of and have right to live life with all adequate provisions of housing, food, transportation, and other infrastructure facilities.

The Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat is 
a vital interface between global policies in the economic, social and environmental 
spheres and national action. The Department works in three main interlinked areas: 
(i) it compiles, generates and analyses a wide range of economic, social and environmental 
data and information on which States Members of the United Nations draw to review 
common problems and to take stock of policy options; 

(ii) it facilitates the negotiations of Member States in many intergovernmental bodies on joint courses of action to address ongoing or emerging global challenges; and 

(iii) it advises interested Governments on the ways and means of translating policy frameworks developed in United Nations conferences and summits into programmes at the country level and, through technical  assistance, helps build national capacities.

Conclusion:
Sustainable development strategies need to be inclusive and take special care of the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable. Strategies need to be ambitious, action-oriented and collaborative. They will need to change consumption and production patterns systemically, which might entail, inter alia, significant price corrections; encourage the preservation of natural endowments; reduce inequality; and strengthen economic governance.

Building cities through new technology

Technology - permanent companion of life today !
A very interesting topic come along in RPK 538 Course during one of the week lectures and it was about how a city can be shaped using the new technology. 

Technological innovation—combined with scientific research—has always proven to be
a driving power of makeover in our societies. The technology has been the foremost factor for the paradigm of present day urbanization. In fact, its the technology which is the driving force of globalization. Information Technology, Media, Social networking has made world a global village where you can access to each and every detail, product, information. now making friends globally and keeping in touch with your loved ones, even if you are far apart from them, is one of the wonders of modern day technology. 
As the advancement in technology influencing our everyday life, our communication, our behavior, our perspective for social, personal , working life is now being controlled by technology. So is our dwellings on micro-scale and our cities on macro-scale are being altered through the new technology.
The new technological advancements include invention of cars, buses ; development in IT sector making communication easier via telephone, internet, computer; being part of the whole world by watching television, reading news paper, internet surfing. In short, technology has made us as their servants. although it has made our life comfortable but at the same time we have stopped using our minds and this stops the process of creativity and innovation.now everything is technology based we want to incorporate technology in architecture as well as in the planning of urban development. 

An overview of today and old city Development
Old cities have not been aware of rapid transit systems for transportation. the horizontal expansion for housing and commercial development was considered to be the only possible solution to cope with the increasing population and employment opportunities. But what we see today now the glass blocks of extreme heights talking to the skies and it seems like man has been living near to the moon in reality. 

Even on sky heights, the provision for electricity, gas, water, sanitation is just a click of modern day construction techniques and skilled labor. One can enjoy in extreme hot weather with air-conditioned surrounding inside the scenic natural beauty around and the same can be enjoyed in extreme winter too with heater around you indoor.

The transformation of cities through technology has been well describer by Robert D.Atkinson (Progressive Policy Institute) in his paper Technological Change and Cities as follows:

"Indeed, technology has always shaped U.S. cities. For example, in the first part of this

century the wave of new technologies included:

■ Transportation technologies of automobiles and airplanes.

■ Infrastructure technologies, including widespread diffusion of electricity,

highways, and water systems.

■ Mass production manufacturing technologies.

■ Agricultural mechanization"

Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research • Volume 3, Number 3 • 1998 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development • Office of Policy Development and Research

The way to Look for Ahead:

Without amendment or adjustment, buildings can be turn out to be underutilized , ultimately making land a vacant space. Institutions can become rigid and poorly suited to new challenges. Such type of attitude can drive urban political leaders to become unwilling to work for needed change, especially when it requires challenging entrenched special interests. Work-force skills and capacities can diverge from new workplace needs.

Moreover, for some segments of the population, especially lower income groups, adapting

to economic change is difficult, resulting in mismatches between skills, attitudes, and

opportunity. 

the time is demanding to take along both sides with equal pace. we need to develop cities accordingly to technological innovations but the strong focus should be the comfort and ease of the low income group especially, because these population groups are more heavily concentrated in certain regions and parts of metros, these places have felt the effects of urbanization more profoundly. sustainable policies should be implemented to achieve long lasting results in a positive way.

Sustainable Community Development

Sustainable Community:
Introduction:
The term sustainable community is a very strong word. to understand it as a whole term, there is need first to understand the terms sustainable and community separately  Sustainable means anything which has the capability to retain, to survive both in good and bad situations. Community is a group of people making up a neighborhood or society. So the sustainable community is a society where people are living together in maintaining and surviving conditions making a community keep going in favorable and non favorable conditions.

the term dates back in 2003 when its need has been experienced by deputy prime minister, John Prescott, in the plan for economic, social and environmental development: Sustainable communities: Building for the future.

The report came up with the argument that how the governmental policies should be planned to tackle with the issue and need for more afforable housing. as the urbanization is going to be in more speed with passing time. as more people keep on coming from rural to urban centres, there will be need for more and more housing. as more people more houses, more development, more industries, more global warming.

 "[This plan] will take us towards successful, thriving and inclusive communities, urban and rural, across England. Communities that will stand the test of time and in which people want to live," Mr Prescott wrote in the report.

Launching the plan, the government identified key requirements of a sustainable community, 

Later on definition established which states that: "Sustainable communities meet the diverse needs of existing and future residents, their children and other users, contribute to a high quality of life and provide opportunity and choice. They achieve this in ways that make effective use of natural resources, enhance the environment, promote social cohesion and inclusion and strengthen economic prosperity."

Delivering better communities requires not only the professional skills of planning, architecture and surveying, but also a broad range of "generic skills" - behavior and knowledge such as governance of communities, economic planning, communication, risk-taking, leadership and partnership working.

Sustainble community Development

People will be taking with them the positives and negatives but its the duty of planners, designers, economists, urban planners, architects, land developers to creatively use the capacity of urbanization and housing development so that the least of bad impact should be given back. as we look into the human history now more than half of the population live in urban environments and people are aiming to opt this migration more rapidly in the coming years.

Climate change, peaking oil supplies, increasing levels of pollution, scarcity of fresh water, 

biodiversity loss, toxic food scares etc all these are the gifts among the new technology, new urban developments, mega wonders of high rise construction, reaching heights in building technology. So this is affecting our every day living and each and every small thing we do is getting affecting badly by it. people don't have smile on their faces as always in rush to reach office on time, then to drop children to school on time. everything is in hustle  & bustle.

So now the world has got to know the need for sustainable communities. people are now aware that they have to do something on their own to make their living style better. one small deed from every house towards making better neighborhoods is yet going to make a very positive difference. People participation can improve the housing design and planning remarkably as no planner or developer is having any idea of needs more than the user itself of that particular space.

Organizations internationally and locally working on the principles and concepts of sustainable communities. awareness programs have been conducted to make general public to get alert for their rights and living. 

A new report from the Academy for Sustainable Communities (ASC), a national center of excellence for sustainable communities skills and knowledge, has identified a "significant shortage of qualified professionals with the necessary skills" to deliver sustainable communities between now and 2012. Communication and know-how is the basis to start work for sustainable communities. as such type of communities can only be better served by force of people living inside it. No other external authority or council is going to have impact but the internal association, internal council of the developed community has to take the charge.

Policy defines it as "a place where people want to live and work, now and in the future". 

Some of the general principles of sustainable communities are: Ecological Protection Density & Urban Design Urban Infill Village Centres Local Economy Sustainable Transport Affordable Housing Livable Community Sewage & Stormwater . Water . Energy Case Study:  Village Homes, Davis, California  When Village Homes was built in the 1970s, the local realtors refused to show anyone round the 70 acre, 240 home development because they didn’t think anyone would want to live there. There were no front roads, no storm drains, and the houses all faced the same way - for solar gain. Today, it is one of the most sought-after subdivisions in Davis, and Coldwell Banker Residential identified Village Homes as "Davis’s most desirable subdivision".  Design Features ·         ECOLOGICAL PROTECTION: 12 acres of greenbelt & open space; 12 acres of common agricultural land. ·         DENSITY & URBAN DESIGN: A whole-systems approach to design. The houses are clustered into groups of 8 and are surrounded by common space. The early residents were responsible for the landscaping and design of the green space in front of their housing clusters.  ·         LOCAL ECONOMY: 4000 square feet of commercial office space. Thanks to the agricultural space, by 1989, much of the Village Homes residents’ food was being grown in the neighbourhood.  ·         TRANSPORTATION: Vehicle access is by the back lanes only, with pedestrian lanes for walking and cycling. The "front streets" are designed by the residents as grassy areas, gardens with shrubs, etc. Pedestrian paths and traffic calming designs with narrow streets encourage a strong sense of community and high property values. ·         LIVABLE COMMUNITIES: The local Homeowners Association owns and manages the household commons, greenbelt commons, agricultural lands and the community center, and handles the revenues from office space and some rental units. There are frequent community events, and 80% of the residents participate in community activities. ·         SEWAGE & STORMWATER: The narrower streets produce less stormwater run-off, which is handled by simple infiltration swales and on-site detention basins instead of storm drains, saving nearly $200,000 (1980 dollars). These savings were invested into public parks, walkways, gardens and other amenities. ·         ENERGY: All the houses are passive solar designed, with natural cooling and solar hot water. The overall design, with reduced pavement and more space for trees, lowers ambient air temperature and reduces the need for air-conditioning. Annual household bills are 1/2 to 1/3rd less than those of surrounding neighbourhoods, because of the locally grown food and the energy savings.