Compact City Concept: It's Relevance and Applicability for Planning of Indian Cities

Today the growing cities have an adverse impact over a larger area than they occupy and convenient transport facilities are promoting the urban sprawl to spread its tentacles over the vast hinterland. Reduction in agricultural land, destruction of biodiversity and ecosystems, more fuel consumption for transport, loss of community life and less social cohesion, etc. are some of the ill effects of the modernist planning and urban sprawl. One of the various sustainable urban development approaches to restrict the impact of urban sprawl on the environment is the 'Compact City' concept. This is a high-density, mixed-use city, with clear (i.e. non-sprawling) boundaries. A Compact City can facilitate: the sustainable transportation; sustainable use of land; social sustainability; and economical viability. Presently the idea of the contained and compact city form, reign in most of the planning and city design policies in developed countries. However, there are huge differences among the cities' characteristics (like density, spatial patterns and socio-economic) around the world. There is a need to study whether the compact urban form through urban intensification and higher densities are appropriate for cities in developing countries. This paper reviews the compact city concept and tries to explore its applicability in Indian context. Also the paper investigates the threshold of compactness (in terms of density) for its sustainable application.