Environmentally Sustainable Smart Cities: Contriving Urbanization for Climate Change

Climate change has insisted on the development of urban infrastructure with the intent to accommodate population, environment friendliness, social inclusivity and resilience. India being an emerging economy is facing lot of challenges in managing Environmentally Sustainable Smart Cities. Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11) titled “Sustainable Cities and Communities,” aims to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. The rising problems such as pollution, toxic waste disposal, deterioration of water quality, dangerous air quality index, increasing carbon footprints, resource depletion, choked transport networks, endemic, and social inequality are putting enormous strain on the development of Environmentally Sustainable Smart Cities (ESSC). It is still a trial for the smart cities to configure themselves with environmentally sustainable policies and practices. The research objective of the study is to undertake the international indicator of sustainable cities and apply them for the Indian smart cities. An audit of these smart cities is conducted, to identify their balanced development to assess their resilience to climate change. The ESSC Audit protocol has been designed using 40 indicators to measure the success of the environmental projects on the six areas namely-Green Spaces, Energy Efficiency, Mobility, Water Quality, Air Quality and Waste Management System. The most significant outcome of study is established environmental sustainability which ensures balance in natural and built ecosystems for living. Such smart solutions in cities of tomorrow are anticipated to nullify the cohesive task of environment sustainability and climate change.