BASIC PRINCIPLES OF URBANIZATION
DEFINITION
PLANNING
Any type of design activities which include pre-thinking and pre-arrangement before any physical
developments take place needs to: a) analyze the requirement of good city or town and b) synthesize them
as a result to get planned city or town.
Planning is a systematic management overtime to make everything in order and easy to implement, which
should be durable, convenient, beautiful and efficient. Planning at urban scale includes the land zoning,
transportation, infrastructure and built environment. It combines design community, social economicaL
physical and political issues which effect and impact on human living environment built environment for
the present and future.
Planning is basically carried out so as to achieve and acquire better results in terms of health, convenience,
comfort and happiness of all living beings. From the effective planning the possible errors can be eliminated
in future.
Planning can be equally carried out in the new town and city on virgin land for the creation of the better
environment whereas the planning on existing towns, cities and the extensions can be planned for the
development and improvement for the betterment of the existing wwns. Hence, the practice of Urban
Planning has indeed the great demand for the betterment of the city. Most of the developed countries had
been following the method for the better environment by the effective planning.
URBAN ZONE AND URBANIZATION
Urban means area generated independently movement of the people from one place to the other which is
gradually reducing the rural character. Urbanization is focused on concentrated or denser setting of areas
for the varieties of activities, services, facilities etc. In other words, it is trade based economy where as rural
area signifies the primary production area and human activities.
REGIONAL PLANNING
It is an attempt to bring about balanced development of the region by promoting growth in the backward
region . Examples in Nepal are Eastern Development Region, Central Development Region etc. It includes
planning of land in general but extends to planning of government, economic activities, and socio-
economic activities in the context of socio-cultural practice.
URBAN PLANNING
It is the study and application of urban design and development with response to social aesthetic and
environmental issues, which has provision of required facilities to the people living in urban areas to
achieve the goals considering the socio-cultural values and physical structures of the surrounding from the
past experience, exercises and maintaining the future. E.g Kathmandu valley, Chandhigardh city etc.
Urban structure is composite of settlements, neighborhoods, community, different types of buildings,
landscape; open spaces, transport network, infrastructure services, and economic activities interlinked each
other. The urban form is the composition of size of the urban area, its geography and its land use.
CITY
The core space of the urban area is city. It is specialized in trading activities which is complex network of
interrelated elements. Population growth is main factor for the expansion of the city and people shift towards
the countrys ide due to environmental degradation. Examples in our case are Kathmandu metropolitan city,
Patan sub-metropo litan city, Bhaktapur sub-metropolitan city, Chitawan city etc.
TOWN
It is smaller area than city, more widely specialized centres for specific purpose that serves a particular area
and acts as a local centre. It includes the commerce, industry, culture, education, health, recreation,
administration etc. and are influenced from economic; social and political situation
RURAL PLANNING
It deals with the planning of any rural region, so as to get the better environment. Examples – arrangement
of crop fields, haat bazaar, health posts, community centre, security posts etc.
TOWN PLANNING
Urban environment deals with the environment in which the natural features dominates and replaced
by the man made physical structures. For example: building constructed as residence for living, office for
working likewise recreational centre for entertainment and refreshment. As per the data a place becomes
urban if it has more than 5000 population . Similarly. more than 75% of the total population should be
engaged in non-agricultural occupation and density more than 1000 persons per sq. km. however there can
be exceptions
Town planning is considered as an art of shaping, remodeling and guiding the physical growth of
the town. Planning also helps to prevent the haphazard growth creating livelihood of building environment
and other physical infrastructures to meet the various needs such as social cultural ,economical facilities to
provide the safe and healthy conditions for all type of people to live, work and play.
As Aristotle says, ‘A city should be build to give its inhabitants security and happiness’ while Plato
describes it as a place where man had a common life for noble end.
Urban planning is concerned with the ordering and design of settlements. from the smallest towns to
the world's largest cities. Urban, city, or town planning is the discipline of land use planning which
explores several aspects of the built and social environments of municipalities and communities. Other
professions deal in more detail with a smaller scale of development namely architecture, landscape
architecture and urban design. Regional planning deals with a still larger environment, at a less detailed
level.
Another key role of urban planning is urban renewal and re-generation of inner cities by adapting
urban planning methods to existing cities suffering from long-term infrastructura l decay.
