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  • Essay / City Plan Assessment: Dhaka Structural Plan 2016-2035

    Introduction: Dhaka is known as the capital of Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated cities in the world and the largest city in South Asia -East (World Population Review 2017)5. Although Chittagong has been declared the commercial capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka is still considered an economic, political and cultural center of Bangladesh. Recently, livability has become a primary issue with Dhaka ranked as the second least livable city according to the Livability Index (The Financial Express, 2018). Additionally, rapid demographic changes have posed a huge challenge for the government to make the city livable. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) 2013 report, Dhaka has a population of 15 million. One of the main causes of Dhaka's rapid population growth is "internal migration" from rural to urban areas, which accounted for 60% of the city's growth between the 1960s and 1970s ( Population of Dhaka 2017). It was also claimed by Population of Dhaka 2017 that after the expansion of the city occurred in 1980, the population of Dhaka increased by one million, which could be another reason for these demographic changes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay. Moreover, a large number of Europeans, Chinese, Koreans, Indians, Pakistanis, Nepalese, Burmese and Sri Lankans are currently working in different multinational companies. Businesses in Dhaka and the number of international employees are increasing every year, which is considered another cause of population growth. In order to provide better service to all residents of Dhaka, the government decided to divide Dhaka into two parts: Dhaka City Corporation North and Dhaka City Corporation South (The Daily Star, 2011). The government is working towards making Dhaka livable, functional and resilient. In this process of moving towards sustainability, a comprehensive structural plan has been introduced. This plan was prepared under the Regional Development Planning (RDP) project under the City Region Development Project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), under the Ministry of Housing and Works, is the implementing agency on behalf of the Government of Bangladesh (Dhaka Structural Plan 2016-2035). One of the key elements of this structural plan is that it will provide a long-term strategy for the Dhaka Metropolitan Region for a duration of 20 years. Two of the main criteria of this plan are that it must be indicative in the long term and that it must have a sufficiently flexible strategy to guide the pattern or future direction of the city's development. It will also provide a framework for architects, engineers or other professionals responsible for the development of the city. Ultimately, it entails a set of visions and objectives aimed at accelerating the sustainability of the city, which are summarized below: - Promote a livable city in the Dhaka Metropolitan Region (DMR) Establish and operationalize zones and centers Repairing the economy in the Dhaka Metropolitan Region (DMR) Providing better Public amenities Preserving the natural environment Well-connected transportation network Affordable housing for urban dwellers Putting the plan into practice Therefore, this report identifies the direction of development as well as its scale so far, it presents some policies to achieve future goals and objectives, including supporting maps and scale composite maps. Criteria for a sustainable city: Recently,concepts of urban planning and sustainable development have undergone continuous transformation throughout the world. In fact, according to the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UNHSP 2009), definitions of urban planning should have fluctuated over time. In the past, urban planning was defined as a kind of physical design controlling land use. Later, the definition changed since it is a multidisciplinary and comprehensive framework which aims to stabilize regional development and the physical organization of space according to a set of strategies (He et al., 2011 ). Furthermore, the World Report (UN-HABITAT, 2009) argues that urban planning should take into account the factors that shape 21st century cities. Climate change, socio-spatial challenge, social inequality and economic challenges are the factors mentioned in UN-HABITAT 2009. UN-HABITAT 2009 determines eight trends in the incorporation of natural system and human system to establish a link between green and brown. agendas. On this note, the brown agenda relating to pro-poor urban development and the green agenda relating to ecological sustainability (Allen et al 2002). These eight trends from UN-HABITAT 2009 are presented below in Developing Renewable Energy. According to UN-HABITAT 2009, cities should move towards renewable energy and this will allow cities to reduce their ecological footprint. and it should be integrated into their land use and built form and constitute a significant and important part of the urban economy. Furthermore, cities should not be mere consumers of energy, but can also be catalysts for new sources of sustainable energy and could gradually become part of the Earth's stellar cycle (UN-HABITAT 2009, p. 116). Quest for carbon neutral cities UN-HABITAT 2009 states that the main objective of the trend towards "carbon neutral" cities is to confirm that every home, neighborhood and business should be carbon neutral. To achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, cities must reduce their ecological footprint through energy efficiency, replace fossil fuels and also create a counterbalance in the bioregion through ecological regeneration. Additionally, UN-HABITAT 2009 mentioned three steps to achieve carbon neutral cities: Minimize possible energy consumption, especially in sectors like construction and transportation. Opt for renewable energy whenever possible, but keep in mind that the production of renewable energy does not produce anything substantial in terms of greenhouse gases. Offset any CO2 emitted through carbon credits and tree planting. system. As this particular electricity and water distribution system will use an electronic control system which will make this system more efficient, especially through water-sensitive urban design, and in this way a city will be able to minimize its ecological footprint (UN-HABITAT 2009). Increasing photosynthetic space as part of green infrastructure Improving energy growth and the national supply of food and materials is part of urban infrastructure development. By replacing fossil fuels and focusing more on the natural system, cities can reduce their ecological footprint through the use of photosynthetic spaces. The concept of “green infrastructure” is based on photosynthetic processes. Basically, green infrastructure highlights green and ecological characteristics. The transformation of wetlands into urban forests will bring several benefits tocities, including clean water, rainwater collection and management, climate moderation and urban air purification (UN-HABITAT 2009). Improving eco-efficiency Eco-efficient cities reduce their ecological footprint by minimizing waste and resource requirements and can also integrate green agenda issues into the process. Improving eco-efficiency indicates a shift from a linear loop system to a circular loop system where a substantial amount of energy will be produced from the waste stream (UN-HABITAT 2009, p.121) . In other words, the more it will reduce its ecological footprint and guarantee the enhancement of its valuable ecological characteristics. Sustainable development is integrated into local economic development, including allowing people to move less as their work becomes local. Additionally, generating electricity from solar, wind or biomass in the locality or region leads to economic development which can also generate more local employment and income (UN-HABITAT 2009, p 123). Developing sustainable transport Cities that manage a sustainable transport system can reduce their ecological footprint while a city's density and private and public transport infrastructure are vital in this regard (UN-HABITAT 2009). Cities should also implement a transit-oriented transportation system and reduce urban sprawl. Developing “cities without slums” Cities without slums is one of the priority objectives of UN-HABITAT 2009 in terms of urban development in developing countries. Cities without slums will require innovative approaches through sustainability or brown and green agenda issues related to lack of access to clean water and sanitation, as well as degrading environmental conditions ((UN- HABITAT 2009, p.127). Assessment: Ten years ago, less than 50 percent of Bangladesh's population had access to electricity; today 78 percent have access, highlighting dramatic progress; achieved by the Bangladesh government in providing electricity to all residents (The Daily Star, 2016). The country relies heavily on natural gas, which accounts for 88% of total generation and 12% on coal and other sources. According to a World Bank report, Bangladesh has 20.5 TFC of recoverable natural gas reserves and 420 million tonnes of coal reserves of the total electricity generation is consumed by the capital, Dhaka. , electricity demand increases by 10% per year. In fact, Bangladesh has ample opportunities in the renewable energy sector and significant availability of biomass, solar energy, biogas, hydropower and electricity. Wind energy can provide opportunities for sustainable energy development (Chowdhury N, 2015). To move towards an efficient renewable energy project, the Dhaka Strategic Plan (Policy-Eng./1.2) focuses more on research and development initiatives. For a decade, universities and research institutes have not shown interest in researching this particular renewable energy sector due to lack of financial resources. Additionally, the lack of specialized knowledge poses a challenge for the promotion of renewable energy. As a result, this sector becomes less of a priority. To implement a more energy efficient project, it is necessary to allocate a budget for research and development. Secondly, solar powered vehicles should be introduced as Bangladesh is the most climate threatened country in the world (Barua D, 2017). Furthermore,..