Planning for a different future

Human activity, especially over the last 300 years, has caused a measurable increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, disrupting the climatic conditions of the Holocene epoch that has shaped every aspect of human civilisation. Even the most cautious forecast indicates drastic impacts on human settlements; rich or poor, urban or rural, coastal or inland. Any mitigation strategy will necessitate a complete rethink of human settlement planning, development and management. 

For Auroville, located in the tropical dry coastal zone, the climate output will include the increased frequency and force of cyclonic storms accompanied with storm surges, and longer durations of hot – dry weather with short periods of heavy rains accompanied by a sea level rise. This will impact our urban planning and development and require a framework that allows for an adaptive system of urban management.

This planning will necessarily need to consider the topography of the site to maximise our surface water holding capacity as our main source of potable water, and to improve our waste water recycling systems so they can be used for construction and manufacturing. Technologies that allow recycled waste water for toilet flushing may be expensive presently, but in the near future using recycled water for flushing will be a necessity. In fact, the very system of water diluted piped sanitation will become history. 

Urban land use planning that reduces if not eliminates all unnecessary movement of people, goods and services will be forced on us, as oil and electrical energy will be too precious to waste. Replacement of personalised petroleum vehicles with electric mass transport is just a convenient way to defer the problem to a technological fix. Food, waste, water and energy generation and recycling will need to be an essential component of urban land use planning.  The 20th Century urban planning model, dependent on cheap fuel and planned obsolescence, with large zones outside the urban perimeter supplying  resources and absorbing waste, will not be possible. Auroville’s urban management will need to be integrated within a regional socioeconomic plan to avoid becoming the soft target in the conflict over resources. 

The increasing frequency and scale of extreme weather will require context-specific solar passive urban planning and design, with built structures which are able to buffer the effects of cyclonic storms. Of course, decentralised energy generation, prevention of heat island effect and decentralised roof and surface water harvesting for supply of potable water needs will become non-negotiable.  

As the costs, both monetary and environmental, will only increase for high embodied energy building materials like steel, aluminium, cement, ceramics and various alloys, the only cost effective option will be  to reduce the building surface area for the built up space. This means basically fewer walls and more efficient circulation. Along with the multi-use of spaces this means that one is building less. Single-use designated spaces in residential and other buildings a recent phenomena fuelled by property developers to boost a consumption based economy cannot continue if we are to meet emission targets globally to stabilise at below a temperature rise of 2 degrees C. The green building regulations and designs which use  technological fixes to hermetically seal off buildings to conserve energy will not bring about the desired drop in emissions as long as  the urban environment continues to be hostile due to lack of synergy between land use and mobility planning.   

Some of the strategies adopted will be inspired from the pre-fossil fuel era to drastically reduce dependence on goods and services provisioned by the global supply chain. The segregation of work and life, a heritage of the industrial era, will be phased out. Instead of being isolated by distance, the communication and networking technology will allow for a wider exchange of innovations, ideas and collaboration. If we would allow ourselves to be bold and assimilative with our imagination, the potential for the Galaxy concept to be translated into a climate-resilient urban plan for Auroville is within our reach.