Urbanisation is an inevitable process of development that has the potential to provide privileged social and economic advantages, including better education, health, housing and employment opportunities. Though only half the world’s population lives in urban areas with the ability to generate 80% of the Global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), urbanisation has a good capacity and rich potential to improve well-being in societies. As the UN World Cities report highlights, we expect the present population of urban areas to increase from 55% to 68% by 2050. The urban population of Indian cities is projected to reach near 60% from 31% (2011) by 2050. By 2030, India will have seven megacities which will include Ahmedabad and Hyderabad apart from New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru.
Route to city resilience
Green spaces in cities and towns besides providing various ecosystem services and public health benefits also offer services of psychological relaxation, stress reduction, physical activities and reduction of climate-related vagaries such as pollution, heat waves, etc. One of the major reasons warranting the need for urban green spaces is the fact that apart from consuming a huge quantum of natural resources by our cities, almost 70% of all greenhouse emissions is generated from an urban built environment. The ever-increasing pace of urbanisation is going to make this condition worse in the years ahead. In a study by T. Endreny et. al (2017), trees in megacities may save nearly $500 million per year in services including environmental protection that make urban environments cleaner, more affordable and more pleasant places to live in. Urban green spaces have become essential for city planners and managers to mitigate negative environmental consequences and ensure a delicate balance between development and the environment.
