Suchergebnisse

Public spaces go beyond the typical definition of being an open space. They reflect the diversity and vibrancy of the urban fabric and hold the power to create memories. Among all public spaces, streets emerge as the most public. Streets are engines of economic activities, social hubs, and platforms for civic engagement. They break socio-economic divides and foster social cohesion. Planning, designing, and managing better public spaces have become important global discussions. Sustainable Development Goals (8 and 11) and the New Urban Agenda emphasize the significance of inclusive and sustainable economy and safe, accessible and quality public spaces for all. The proposed article uses the case of street vending to understand the manifestation of these goals in an Indian context by assessing street vendors' role in Ahmedabad's urban fabric through extensive spatial analysis of 4,000 vendors at four different time points of the day, perception studies of their clientele disaggregated by gender, income and age, and their relationship with surrounding land-use and street hierarchy. It showcases how street vendors make the streets more vibrant by increasing activities, safer through ensuring inflow of people, and inclusive in its true sense by allowing people from different backgrounds to participate in the exchange of goods and services. It further argues that street vendors are vital elements of more equitable and exciting streets and public space.

The Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 11, as well as the New Urban Agenda, emphasize gender equity and safe, resilient, and inclusive cities. The 'safe cities' idea for women includes their equal right to the city and public places within it, which includes their right to be mobile in the city at any time of the day, as well as their right to loiter in public spaces without any threats of harassment or sexual violence. These issues have gained importance in urban planning and design in contemporary India. This article is an assessment of how safe Ahmedabad city's largest public space, the Sabarmati Riverfront, is for women. Ahmedabad, a city in western India, has long carried an image of a safe city for women. The Sabarmati Riverfront is over 22 km in length, 11 km on both sides of the river. This assessment is made through mapping of space use disaggregated by sex and age at four different time points throughout the day and of 100 women's accounts of the experience of harassment on using the space. The article concludes with specific recommendations on proposed activities and space design along the riverfront to make these spaces safe for women throughout the day.

All international agreements recognise that sustainable development, equity and poverty alleviation are preconditions for the substantial societal and technological transformations required to limit global warming to 1.5°C. A growing body of literature indicates that while climate change undermines the progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), climate actions also pose several trade-offs with them. Climate adaptation has a largely synergistic relationship with SDGs across various socio-economic contexts. However, climate mitigation's relationship with SDGs is far more complex. While the need to decarbonise is universal, the pathways to deliver deep decarbonisation vary across contexts and scales and are located within the local socio-economic realities besides local environmental factors. This paper argues that (1) climate mitigation measures in countries like India – with rising income inequality and high social diversity in caste, religion and region – need a tailored assessment approach, (2) carefully mediating climate mitigation measures – like deep decarbonisation – at the local level is crucial to enable transformative change required to meet the Paris Agreement and the UN Agenda 2030, (3) enabling 'just' deep decarbonisation or SDG-enabled decarbonisation at the local level requires addressing unmet needs of the vulnerable population even at the cost of increased emissions, and (4) sector-specific decarbonisation strategies at the national level must be translated into the local area's social, economic, environmental and institutional realities. This paper grounds this approach using the example of the transport sector and applies it in a mid-sized city of India, Udaipur, to illustrate the argument.