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ADVANCES IN URBAN PLANNING IN
DEVELOPING NATIONS
This book studies the increasing use of data analytics and technology in urban plan-
ning and development in developing nations. It examines the application of urban
science and engineering in different sectors of urban planning and looks at the chal-
lenges involved in planning 21st-century cities, especially in India.
The volume analyzes various key themes such as auditory/visual sensing, net-
work analysis and spatial planning, and decision-making and management in the
planning process. It also studies the application of big data, geographic informa-
tion systems, and information and communications technology in urban planning.
Finally, it provides data-driven approaches toward holistic and optimal urban solu-
tions for challenges in transportation planning, housing, and conservation of vulner-
able urban zones like coastal areas and open spaces.
Well supplemented with rigorous case studies, the book will be of interest to
scholars and researchers of architecture, architectural and urban planning, and urban
analytics. It will also be useful for professionals involved in smart city planning, plan-
ning authorities, urban scientists, and municipal and local bodies.
Arnab Jana is an assistant professor at the Centre for Urban Science and Engineering,
and associate faculty at the Centre for Policy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT) Bombay, India. He works in the field of urban infrastructure policy and plan-
ning, primarily focusing on public health policy, application of ICT in urban and
regional planning, sustainability, and environmental issues. He was visiting faculty at
Hiroshima University, Japan, in 2016. He has a Ph.D. in Urban Engineering from
the University of Tokyo, Japan. He was awarded the prestigious Monbukagakusho
Scholarship by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology
(MEXT), Government of Japan. He is also an alumnus of the Asian Program of
Incubation of Environmental Leadership (APIEL), University of Tokyo. He has a
Master’s in City Planning from IIT Kharagpur. He has guided several doctoral and
postgraduate students and has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles in jour-
nals, conferences, and books.
ADVANCES IN
URBAN PLANNING IN
DEVELOPING NATIONS
Data Analytics and Technology
Edited by Arnab Jana

First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Arnab Jana; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of Arnab Jana to be identified as the author of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jana, Arnab, editor.
Title: Advances in urban planning in developing nations : data analytics
and technology / edited by Arnab Jana.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Includes
bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020053706 (print)
| LCCN 2020053707 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367528669 (hardback) | ISBN
9780367549688 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003091370 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: City planning–Developing countries–Data processing. |
City planning–Technological innovations–Developing countries. |
Urbanization–Developing countries. | Quantitative research.
Classification: LCC HT169.5 .A38 2021 (print) | LCC HT169.5 (ebook) |
DDC
307.1/216091724–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020053706
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020053707
ISBN: 978-0-367-52866-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-54968-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-09137-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by SPi Global, India
CONTENTS
List of figures vii

List of tables x
List of contributors xii
Preface xiv
Acknowledgments xvii
List of abbreviations xviii
1 Urbanization and data analytics 1

Arnab Jana and Ahana Sarkar
2 Urban perception experiments: Transition from traditional

to advanced methods 18
Deepank Verma and Arnab Jana
3 Computation-driven design heuristic for environmentally

sustainable compact cities 50
Ahana Sarkar and Ronita Bardhan
4 Coverage or response time: A study of fire station

location-allocation models using network analysis 82
Vaibhav Kumar and Arnab Jana
5 Applicability of Big Data for transportation planning

and management 99
Deepank Verma,Varun Varghese, and Arnab Jana
vi Contents
6 Capturing multitasking and the role of travel time

in the digital era: Glimpses into the time-use data,
surveys, and applications 111
Varun Varghese and Arnab Jana
7 Assimilating geospatial and decision science: Application

to planning and management of urban coasts 140
Ravinder Dhiman, Pradip Kalbar, and Arun B. Inamdar
8 Connecting users with decision-makers: A case for

incorporating user perception for better management
of Public Open Spaces 160
Divya Subramanian and Arnab Jana
9 Analyzing the housing condition and ventilation performance

of low-income settlements: Comparing the rural–urban
divide among states of India 175
Ahana Sarkar and Ronita Bardhan
10 Utilizing Online Social Media for coordinating post-disaster

relief in Indian cities 199
Moumita Basu, Arnab Jana, and Saptarshi Ghosh
11 Solar PV-battery systems: The role of ICT, Big Data,

and deployment strategies for consumer-centric approaches
in Smart Cities 211
Kevin Joshi and Krithi Ramamritham
12 Access to public facilities in India: Descriptive analysis

of the public healthcare facilities in urban and rural context 240
Arnab Jana
Index 260
FIGURES
1.1 Urban population (% of total population) 2

1.2 Mobile cellular subscription per 100 people from 1980 to 2018 4
1.3 A taxonomy use of varying data analytics in smart city management and
urban planning 8
1.4 A taxonomy of privacy breaches 14
2.1 Assessment of human perception of common CBD scenes 20
2.2 An example of a sound walk 23
2.3 Flowchart demonstrating recent trends in perception studies 26
2.4 Circumplex model for auditory perception studies 40
3.1 Concept of natural ventilation 51
3.2 Three-stage procedure for optimizing ventilation-effective building design 53
3.3 Taxonomy of architectural parameters affecting natural ventilation within a
building 55
3.4 Three urban layouts with different airflow patterns: (A) air paths not reaching
the building facades, (B) and (C) higher site-based airflow 56
3.5 Various street canyons and air circulations vortexes 56
3.6 Courtyard types 57
3.7 (A) Building orientation and its relation with prevailing wind direction, (B)
Effects of boundary wall on site-based airflow characteristics 57
3.8 Window design typologies and airflow distribution 59
3.9 Typical SRA buildings of Mumbai 64
3.10 Poor outdoor environmental conditions in the SRAs of Mumbai 64
3.11 Methodology adopted for environment-sensitive built-environment design 66
3.12 Site-based airflow in typical slum rehabilitation colonies of Mumbai existing
cases (case study area: Lallubhai SRA compound) 68
3.13 Site-based airflow in an iterated scenario with varying building heights 69
3.14 Site-based airflow in an iterated scenario with integrated open spaces 69
3.15 Site-based airflow in an iterated scenario with higher inter-building gaps 70
viii Figures
3.16 Generation of iterated interior design scenarios with varying design

variables (here, partition wall, bed, and cook-stove location) (Case study area:
Typical tenement of Lallubhai SRA colonies) 71
4.1 Methodology of the research 88
4.2 Results for a) Case 1 and b) Case 2 comprising various response
time-based cases 91
4.3 Coverage difference for the models for Case 1 and Case 2 92
4.4 MCLP result for a) ri: 8 minutes, at 9:00 am and b) ri: 8 minutes at 5:00 pm 93
4.5 ARTM result for a) ri: 8 minutes, at 9:00 am and b) ri: 8 minutes at 5:00 pm 93
4.6 Optimal routes from fire stations to incident points 94
6.1 Activity diary in the Indian time-use survey 118
6.2 A slum settlement with adjacent shop in Phoolenagar slum, Powai 123
6.3 Chawls near Lower Parel, Mumbai 124
6.4 A snapshot of the travel diary 125
6.5 List of activities that can be performed while traveling 125
6.6 Distribution of samples across survey zones in Mumbai 127
7.1 Coastal boundary and environment of the study area at the coast of Mumbai 145
7.2 The comprehensive methodology for application of the GIS-MCDA in
planning of urban coasts 147
7.3 Utility scores for the subclasses of coastal elevation 151
7.4 Description of the calculation process for GIS-MCDA-based U-CAI 152
7.5 Environmental sensitivity based spatial distribution of distinct
classes of U-CAI 154
8.1 POS Data Portal for improved open space development and management 162
8.2 Legend of the identified POS evaluation criteria 164
8.3 POS Data Portal interface design: POS information 165
8.4 POS Data Portal interface design: POS feedback 166
8.5 Nirvana Park profile in the POS data portal 167
8.6 Nirvana Park and survey respondents’ residential locations 168
8.7 User perception rating of Nirvana Park per category (n = 9) 169
8.8 Open space evaluation framework using POS data portal 171
9.1 Poor sanitation, sewerage, drainage conditions in SRAs in Mumbai 178
9.2 Housing conditions in low-income settlements 180
9.3 Chronology of water-sanitation policies in Maharashtra and BIMARU states 181
9.4 Chronology of housing policies implemented in India 181
9.5 Variable description 183
9.6 Data description 184
10.1 Flowchart of the methodology for collecting and processing Twitter data
for coordinating post-disaster relief 201
10.2 Phase-wise count of resource-needs and resource-availabilities
corresponding to each resource class using Chennai floods 2015 dataset 207
10.3 Phase-wise count of resource-needs and resource-availabilities corresponding
to each resource class using Mumbai floods 2017 dataset 208
11.1 Distributed configuration: Solar PV and battery at a residence 214
11.2 Cyber-Physical-Social System: Moving from individual silos to Community
Energy System (CES) 214
11.3 Smart meters and data mining are used to collect electricity
consumption data 217
Figures ix
11.4 Seasonal electricity consumption of residences 219

11.5 Electricity consumption profile for a cluster of residences 220
11.6 Solar PV generation at a residence 221
11. 7 Methodology to evaluate solar PV-Battery deployment 222
11.8 Distributed Solar PV and Pooled Battery for a community of residences 226
11.9 Change in tariff resulting in the change in operation through CEMP 230
11.10 Self-consumption ratio in distributed and pooled battery deployment 231
11.11 Self-sufficiency ratio in distributed and pooled battery deployment 232
11.12 Battery SoC(%) in distributed and pooled battery deployment 233
11.13 Grid demand profile observed in different seasons for distributed and
pooled deployment 234
11.14 Energy contribution of each source to satisfy electricity consumption
demand at all residences 234
12.1 Road infrastructure and mobility 243
12.2 Location of the study area (cluster of rural settlements) 244
12.3 Catchment area of all the facility with respect to the travel time (30 and
60 minutes) 248
12.4 Maximum coverage from the PHC with respect to 30 and 60 minutes of
travel time 249
12.5 Catchment area of the healthcare facilities with the existing operation
time and medical personnel 250
12.6 Improvised service delivery options against the existing option 251
12.7 Location of listed healthcare facilities in the city of Kolkata
(Kolkata Municipal Area) 253
12.8 Service area of the healthcare facility in Kolkata city 254
12.9 Estimating the network distance of the nearest distance of the outpatient
healthcare facility with respect to the residential locations of the surveyed
population in Kolkata and Salt Lake city 254
12.10 Revealed destinations of the healthcare tours concerning the residential
locations of the health seekers 255
TABLES
1.1 Different types of urban data platforms 11

2.1 A list of 32 selected articles 28
3.1 Summary of features of different evaluation tools 62
3.2 Model classifications and boundary conditions for CFD simulations 67
3.3 Design constraints for NSGA II algorithm 73
3.4 NSGA II derives 10 Pareto-front-based optimized design solutions 73
4.1 List of tools/plugins/software for spatial analysis 86
4.2 The executed cases 90
6.1 Advantages and disadvantages of the survey method 126
6.2 Results of the MNL model 131
6.3 Results of the MDCEV model 134
6.4 Travel diary to capture travel-based multitasking 136
7.1 Dataset description for characterizing Physical
Coastal Variables 146
7.2 A typical response from an expert for AHP-based weight estimation 149
7.3 Normalized comparative matrix and calculation of eigenvector 150
7.4 Particulars of different sensitivity-based classes of U-CAI 153
8.1 Regression models of POS user & usage for identification
of significant indicators 163
9.1 Exploratory analysis of data 185
9.2 Binary Logit models estimation results 186
9.3 Multinomial Logit model estimation results 190
10.1 Examples of tweet excerpt containing resource-needs and resource-
availabilities posted during the 2015 Chennai floods 202
10.2 Examples of patterns from EMTerms that are related to the need/availability
of resources 203
10.3 Example of event-specific phrases related to Chennai Floods 2015 204
10.4 Example of event-specific phrases related to Mumbai Floods 2017 204
10.5 Examples of patterns related to five resource classes 205
10.6 Excerpt from tweets related to five resource classes 209
Tables xi
11.1 Challenges and Enablers of CES 217

11.2 Algorithm for missing data imputation 218
11.3 Data Specification 223
11.4 Control algorithm for distributed configuration 225
11.5 Comparison of algorithms to control pooled battery resource 228
11.6 Algorithm for control of energy sources in a CES 229
12.1 Census details of the selected rural area in West Bengal, India 242
12.2 Health Infrastructure in the district of West Midnapore, West Bengal, India 242
12.3 Segmentation based on modal combination 245
12.4 Choice exhibited by the respondents 246
12.5 Population coverage of the HFs 250
12.6 Cross-tabulation analysis of destination of health travel to choice of
healthcare facility 252
CONTRIBUTORS
Ronita Bardhan is university lecturer of Sustainability in Built Environment

at the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, UK, and leads the
Sustainable Design Group. She works on data-driven sustainable habitat design,
energy decisions, and gender equality in Global South.
Moumita Basu is an assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science,

UEM, Kolkata, India. She is pursuing PhD from IIEST Shibpur, India. Her research
interests include NLP and IR in the area of disaster management.
Ravinder Dhiman is assistant professor at School of Disaster Studies,Tata Institute

of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. He was awarded PhD in Urban Science and
Engineering from IIT Bombay, India. He works in science-policy instruments for
coastal development.
Saptarshi Ghosh is assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science

and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, India. His research interests include social media
analysis, legal analytics, and healthcare analytics.
Arun B. Inamdar is professor with Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering

and IDP in Climate Studies at IIT Bombay, India. His research interests are Integrated
Coastal Management, Remote Sensing, and Geospatial Science.
Kevin Joshi is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Urban Science and Engineering,
IIT Bombay, India. An engineer by training, his research is at the intersection of
energy management and policies for distributed generation and storage.
Contributors xiii
Pradip Kalbar is an assistant professor at the Centre for Urban Science and
Engineering at IIT Bombay, India. Prior to joining IIT Bombay as faculty, he
worked for two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Technical University of
Denmark (DTU). His area of research includes urban water and environmental
management.
Vaibhav Kumar is currently a postdoctoral fellow at IIT Kanpur. He received his

PhD from IIT Bombay. His research focuses on geoinformation intelligence while
combining the concepts from transportation, built-form planning, environment,
disasters, and health infrastructure management.
Krithi Ramamritham has spent almost equal lengths of time at the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, and at IIT Bombay as a chair professor in the Department
of Computer Science and Engineering. His current research involves applying
computational approaches to energy management, based on the SMART principle:
Sense Meaningfully, Analyze and Respond Timely. He is a Fellow of the IEEE,
ACM, Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India, and
the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He was honored with a Doctor of
Science (Honoris Causa) by the University of Sydney.
Ahana Sarkar is currently an assistant professor at Hiroshima University, Japan. She

received PhD from the Centre for Urban Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay,
India. She researches on urban planning, built-environment design, environmental
quality, and building performance. By architect as training, she holds a Master’s in
City Planning from IIT Kharagpur.
Divya Subramanian received her doctorate from CUSE, IIT Bombay, India, and
M.Arch from BAS, Norway. An academician, urbanist, and architect, she specializes
in urban amenities’ evaluation focusing on the marginalized section of society for
sustainable development in developing nations.
Varun Varghese is currently an assistant professor at Hiroshima University, Japan.

He received his PhD from IIT Bombay, India. His research interests include analysis
of activity-travel behavior, impacts of ICT on transportation, and application of
machine learning techniques for transportation planning.
Deepank Verma is currently postdoctoral researcher at Technische Universität

Braunschweig, Germany. He has a PhD in Urban Science and Engineering from
the IIT Bombay, India. He works on DL-based applications in computer vision,
audio analysis, and remote sensing.
PREFACE
21st-century urbanization has two unique features; firstly, the unparalleled and ines-
capable phenomenon of urbanization and secondly the role of data analytics in
solving complex urban challenges. While urbanization has imposed new threats of
livability, mechanization and the opportunity of computation and analytics to assess
the imposed pressures promote the capability to evaluate and undertake informed
decisions in advance that might improve the quality of life. This book analyzes the
phenomenon of urbanization in the developing nations focusing on India and dis-
cusses the opportunity of reshaping the field of urban planning with more accurate
and dynamic data.
Urban science and engineering with a multi-dimensional construct and being
a multidisciplinary field encourages application and engineering solutions to
overcome urban and related problems. In this book several approaches have been
discussed that intersect cross-sectional disciplines such as urban planning, civil engi-
neering, computer science, building sciences, urban geography, and many others.
This book borrows developed applications in several fields and illustrates through
examples of the approaches that would be helpful to solve urban problems.
This book is divided into three parts. Part I discusses sensing and computation
in urban planning. Part II covers applications involving network and spatial plan-
ning. Part III contains discussions on informed decision-making and management
in planning process. Each part comprises of several chapters elaborately discussing
an urban planning agenda together with the methodology to analyze the various
forms of data. Some of the chapters also discuss the methodology to collect primary
data both in the form of survey as well as data generated from various sensors and
their consequent drawbacks.
With the smart framework emerging as a new agenda of urban development,
urban sensing became means of data procurement. While on one hand, auditory
and visual sensing is recently a tool for urban perception, deep learning techniques
Preface xv
can be utilized to model and investigate the association of human perception with
mental health and well-being. Further, this has assisted urban managers and policy
makers in making informed decisions regarding urban aesthetics and site planning
by-laws. Sensing also has its direct and wider applications in the field of climate
and measuring environmental characteristics. These sensors-based data contribute
toward deriving at solutions for complex urban-ecology and designing climate-
sensitive and sustainable urban form. This book has looked into the cross-sectional
usability and applications of urban sensing, thereby elucidating its importance in
future city planning.
Another significant, concurrent pluri-disciplinary aspect of urban science and
engineering covered by this book is spatial planning, where the epistemology and
concepts of network analysis, spatial-temporal analysis are being executed to solve
complex urban problems including location-allocation of facilities, finding mini-
mum impedance routes, and optimizing service area of facilities. Furthermore,
with unprecedented urbanization coupled with the rapid growth of vehicular traf-
fic, environmental pollution, congestion on roads, and the deteriorating quality of
travel as experience are some of the urgent challenges faced by policymakers. The
design of sustainable transportation planning and management policies is highly
data-intensive. This book covers the networking and routing algorithms, big data as
well as occupant survey data to analyze the importance of ICT in urban and trans-
portation planning in the digital era.
Decision-making and management in urban planning has always remained cru-
cial in developing better cities. Among many, decision-making has its wide appli-
cation in the fields of spatial geoscience, urban forms and open spaces, integrated
coastal management, disaster management, healthcare delivery systems, and moni-
toring housing environment.The last part of this book further explores similar stud-
ies from across the world and discusses the policy implications of decision-making
and highlights the challenges and benefits of integrating varied management tech-
niques in urban planning. While geospatial and decision science algorithms have
been integrated to identify the stress and vulnerability of areas from technical, social,
and eco-environmental point of view, similar techniques using data platforms and
portals have been developed for better management of urban sectors including open
space, solid waste management, and infrastructure delivery system. On the other
hand, data-driven statistical analysis is also being used for identifying determinants
of public health condition, environmental aspects which can further pave toward
the formulation of forthcoming sustainable habitat, and urban planning guidelines.
Resource allocation during the aftermath of natural disasters is another problem
imposed over the authorities of developing nations due to a lack of real-time first-
hand information. This book covers the usage of Twitter and other online social
media data for finding different resource-needs and resource-availabilities during
such disaster events.
Overall this book comprises of several chapters discussing the premise of appli-
cations in different sectors of urban planning while introspecting the challenges
for planning the 21st-century cities of developing nations. The varying sections
xvi Preface
covering pertinent topics coupled with case-based illustrations and aggregated into
a form of single book aid urban researchers in bridging the knowledge of the appli-
cation of urban science and engineering in forthcoming urban planning.
Arnab Jana
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the grant titled Centre of Excellence in Urban
Science and Engineering for Training and Research in Frontier areas of Science and
Technology (FAST) funded by Ministry of Education Government of India [grant
numbers 10009280].
ABBREVIATIONS
ACH Air Changes Per Hour

AI Artificial Intelligence
AMI Advanced Metering Infrastructure
ANPR Automatic Number Plate Recognition
API Application Programming Interface
ARTM Average Response Time Model
BCI Brain–Computer Interface
BES Building Energy Simulation
BL Binary Logit
CAPI Computer Assisted Personal Interviews
CATI Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews
CBD Central Business District
CDR Call Detail Records
CEMP Community Energy Management Platforms
CES Community Energy System
CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics
CNN Convolutional Neural Network
CPCB Central Pollution Control Board
CRZ Coastal Regulation Zone
dB Decibel
DBN Deep Belief Networks
DG Distributed Generation
DL Deep Learning
DPM Discrete Phase Model
DSS Decision Support Systems
e-IEQ Experiential Indoor Environmental Quality
ERS Emergency Response Services
Abbreviations xix
ESA Existing Situation Analysis

EWS Economically Weaker Sections
FAR Floor Area Ratio
FCD Floating Car Data
fNIRS Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
GAN Generative Adversarial Networks
GDP Gross Domestic Product
Geo AI Geospatial Artificial Intelligence
GIS Geographic Information Systems
GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System
GPS Global Positioning System
GSI Geological Survey of India
GSV Google Street View
HETUS Harmonized European Time Use Surveys
HSR High-Speed Railway
HTL High Tide Line
IAQ Indoor Air Quality
ICM Integrated Coastal Management
ICT Information and Communications Technology
IEQ Indoor Environmental Quality
IIA Independence of Irrelevant Alternative
IMD Indian Meteorological Department
IoT Internet of Things
ITA Incremental Traffic Assignment
LDA Latent Dirichlet Allocation
LHS Latin Hypercube Sampling
LIG Low-Income Group
LMA Local Mean Age of Air
LoS Level of Service
LSTM Long Short-Term Memory
LTL Low Tide Line
MAA Mean Age of Air
MCDM Multi-Criteria Decision Making
MCGM Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai
MCLP Maximal Covering Location Problem
MDCEV Multiple Discrete-Continuous Extreme Value
MDG Millennium Development Goals
MERC Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission
MIG Middle Income Group
ML Machine Learning
MNL Multinomial Logit
MoEFCC Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of
India
MoHUA Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India
xx Abbreviations
MoSPI Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of

India
MoUD Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India
MPCE Monthly Per Capita Expenditure
MVDS Microwave Vehicle Detection System
NB Naïve Bayes
NDZ No Development Zone
NHTS Nationwide Household Travel Survey
NRPS National Rail Passenger Survey
NSGA Non-Dominated Genetic Algorithm
NSSO National Sample Survey Office
OGD Open Government Data
OSM Online Social Media
PCV Physical Coastal Variables
PHC Primary Health Centre
PII Personally Identifiable Information
PMAY Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana
POS Public Open Spaces
QoL Quality of Life
RANS Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes
RoI Return on Investment
RS Remote Sensing
SARS Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
SBS Sick Building Syndrome
SDG Sustainable Development Goals
SODM Single Objective Decision-Making
SRA Slum Rehabilitation Authority
TB Tuberculosis
T&D Transmission & Distribution
ULB Urban Local Body
UN United Nation
URDPFI Urban Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation
UT Union Territory
WHO World Health Organization
1
URBANIZATION AND DATA
ANALYTICS
Arnab Jana and Ahana Sarkar
1.1 Urbanization and its impacts

Urbanization is among many noteworthy drifts of the current era, promoting and
delivering the buttress and impetus for global change. The swing toward a progres-
sively urbanized world establishes a transformative dynamism that can be coupled
for a more sustainable development route, with cities leading toward addressing
many of the comprehensive challenges of the 21st century, including poverty,
inequality, unemployment, environmental degradation, and climate change. Over
the last two decades, cities have emerged as the world’s economic platforms for
production, innovation, and trade. Urbanization has helped millions escape poverty
through increased productivity, employment opportunities, improved quality of life,
and large-scale investment in infrastructure and services (World Cities Report 2016:
Urbanization and Development - Emerging Futures, 2016).This transformative power of
urbanization has been facilitated by the rapid deployment of ICT.
Post-industrial revolution and since the beginning of the 21st century, urbaniza-
tion rate has increased phenomenally. The global proportion of the urban popula-
tion has witnessed a spike from 13% in 1900 to 29% in 1950 and is further expected
to be around 70% by 2050 by following a similar trend. This would advertently
double the 3.5 billion urban dwellers worldwide in 2010 to 6.3 billion by 2050;
however, most of the growth is expected to occur in small- and medium-sized cities.
At the same time, overall levels of urban residents’ consumption are rising, placing a
greater strain on the resource base and increasing the imperative to allocate natural
assets fairly and equitably. While megacities are the focus of much attention, it is
the medium-sized cities (with populations of 1–5 million) that will experience the
fastest rates of urban growth, and most of the world’s urban population will live in
small cities of less than one million by 2050 (Elmqvist et al., 2013).
2 Arnab Jana and Ahana Sarkar
The scale of urbanization is unparalleled in terms of population size, urban

extent, and the sheer number of large urban areas (conurbations). In 1900, while
there were no cities with a population of ten million or more, today, there are nearly
400 cities with a population of more than ten million with the Tokyo-Yokohama
urban agglomeration having a population of nearly 40 million. Another important
characteristic of the century is the rate of urbanization. While it took all of history
until 1960 for the world population to reach one billion, an additional 26 years
doubled it to two billion and further escalating at a rate of one billion per decade
thus amounting to 7.59 billion. The last but not the least crucial statement is that
“the geography of urbanization is shifting”. The world’s 20 fastest-growing urban
regions are in Asia and Africa, not Europe or North America. The urban transition
in Europe and South America occurred in the 1950s through the 1970s. Urban
growth in the coming decades will take place primarily in Asia (China and India in
particular) (Elmqvist et al., 2013).
In India as well as in overall South Asia, the percentage of urban population has
been growing at a similar rate (see Figure 1.1). While cities have been the engine
of growth, economic prosperity, housed creativity, and nurtured entrepreneurs, cit-
ies played a major role in global problems such as climate change, while untamed
growth has led to the crisis in infrastructure availability, upsurge in energy demand,
deteriorated living conditions and consequently adverse health impacts. As cities and
the citizens are getting more digitally connected, the impact of ICT on automation
and streamlining to services are being conceived to improve transparency, reduc-
tion of information divide among the citizens. This calls for an agenda to study the
intermixing of all the dimensions and their interplay in modern-day cities (Batty,
2012), but the digital divide might remain a major drawback in developing nations.
While we attempt to study the impacts in silos, we often end up in non-deterministic
results. One of the fundamental causes as Jane Jacobs has pointed out is cities are
complex systems and their components are strongly interrelated (Jacobs, 1961).
Urban populaon (% of total populaon)

80.0 European Union, 75.7
70.0
60.0 China, 59.2
50.0
World, 55.3
In %
40.0
India, 34.0
30.0 South Asia, 34.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
1960
1962
1964
1966
1968
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
FIGURE 1.1 Urban population (% of total population)

Source: United Nations Population Division. World Urbanization Prospects: 2018 Revision;
https://data.worldbank.org/; accessed May 25, 2020
Urbanization and data analytics 3
While there is an argument that “doubling the population of any city requires only
about an 85% increase in infrastructure” (Bettencourt & West, 2010). Bettencourt
& West (2010) stated, “It is as yet unclear whether this is also true for cities undergo-
ing extremely rapid development, as in China or India, where data are poor or lacking”.
Accordingly, the authors pointed out the opportunity we hold to collect detailed data
to analyze and establish linkages between development and “undesirable consequence”.
1.2 Development, planning, and urbanization

The Current model of urbanization is unsustainable in many aspects: environ-
mentally, socially, and from an economic perspective (World Cities Report 2016:
Urbanization and Development - Emerging Futures, 2016).
• Unprecedented urban growth and city expansion has largely endangered low-
density suburbanization and has contributed precariously to climate change.
• Socially, it generates multiple forms of inequality, exclusion, and deprivation,
which also creates spatial inequalities and disparity, often characterized by slums
and informal habitations.
• From an economic perspective, the current model of urbanization, especially in
developing nations, is unsustainable due to widespread unemployment, unequal
access to basic services and amenities, poor management of labor, and deterio-
rated health and quality of life for many.
There is an urgent requirement of a new agenda that should be implementable,

universal, rights-based, multi-sectoral, and spatially integrative, inclusive, equitable,
people-centered, green, and measurable. The new urban agenda should promote
cities and human settlements that are environmentally sustainable, resilient, socially
inclusive, safe and violence-free, economically productive, better connected, and
contribute to transformation.
1.2.1 Role of ICT in urbanization

Cities signifying more than 70% of global energy demand, turns up as a protagonist
in steering the sustainable energy agenda forward. Sustainable and reliable urban
mobility, for example, offers well-organized access to goods, services, jobs, social
networks, and activities while limiting both short- and long-term adverse conse-
quences on social, economic, and environmental services and systems. Singapore,
Hong Kong, and Tokyo are examples of cities where the costs of car ownership
and use have been set high and planning strategies have emphasized mass transit,
walking, and cycling. Innovative mobility services such as e-hailing, autonomous
driving, in-vehicle connectivity, electrification, and car-sharing systems offer multi-
modal, on-demand transportation choices. More compacted, better-connected cit-
ies with low-carbon transport could help cities save as much as US$3 trillion in
infrastructure investments over the next decade (Better Growth, Better Climate: The
New Climate Economy Report, 2014).
Mobile cellular subscripons (per 100 people)

140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
World India South Asia (IDA & IBRD) China European Union
FIGURE 1.2 Mobile cellular subscription per 100 people from 1980 to 2018
Source: https://data.worldbank.org/; accessed May 25, 2020
Over the last era, urbanization has been simplified by the fast utilization of ICTs,
and the employment of city data to make informed decision-making and propel
a global movement toward efficient cities. The internet has advanced fast since its
commencement, stimulating vast innovation, miscellaneous network enlargement,
and augmented user engagement in a virtuous circle of progress. Internet users
reached over 4.4 billion in 2019. The total number of mobile cellular subscrip-
tions across the globe has reached 7.86 billion as of 20181, 1.17 billion of which
is from India. Moreover, there are about 86.9 mobile cellular subscriptions per
100 people (see Figure 1.2). For the vast majority of urban dwellers in developing
nations, mobile telephony is probably the only tool that guarantees connectivity.
The deployment of ICTs in cities supports innovation and promotes efficiencies in
urban infrastructure leading to lower-cost city services. Cities like Hong Kong and
Singapore are distinguished instances of economies that were able to make this dive
by digitizing their infrastructure.
UN-Habitat has enlisted the following key facts to be noted while developing
sustainable cities and communities:
• When well planned and managed, urbanization can expressively improve the
economic scenarios and quality of life for the common, initiate and steer inno-
vation and productivity, add to national and regional development, eradicate
poverty, and move toward social inclusion.
• Understanding the potential gains of urbanization is not automatic.
• Urban space can be a planned entry point for cities in motivating sustainable
development.
• There is an urgent demand for more cohesive development, strong financial
planning, service delivery, and strategic policy choices.
• Supportable, strong, and comprehensive cities are often the outcome of good
governance that includes operative management; land-use planning; juris-
dictional organization; all-encompassing citizen contribution; and effective
financing.
• Technology solutions and the active use of data are providing city leadership
with novel tools and openings for effective change.
1.2.2 Habitat planning and urbanization

Upcoming approaches to housing should be essentially considered while looking
into the sustainable future of cities and the benefits of urbanization. Housing com-
prising approximately 70% of land use in urban cores is a major determinant of
urban form and densities. Housing also provides employment and contributes to
inclusive development. Nonetheless, over the last 20 years, lack of housing being
central to national and international development agendas is the major blind-spot
and is consequently rising toward the disordered and dysfunctional spread of many
cities and towns. Additionally, the housing shortage imposes a challenge over gov-
ernment housing authorities and is difficult to quantify. In 2010, as many as 980 mil-
lion urban households lacked decent housing, as will another 600 million between
2010 and 2030. One billion new homes are needed worldwide by 2025, costing an
estimated $650 billion per year, or US$9-11 trillion overall. Besides, shortages in
qualitative deficiency are much superior to those in quantity and are largely ignored.
Aligning with SDG2 11.1: by 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe, and afford-
able housing and basic services and upgrade slums, UN-Habitat has pointed out the need
for a novel approach that keeps housing at the center of urban policies. The goal
should be to integrate housing into national urban policies and UN-Habitat’s stra-
tegic thinking on planned urbanization.
1.3 Predictability of urban future

Despite uncertainties linked to the increasing speed of technological and societal
evolution, important features of future urbanism can be predicted at the regional
and global levels and even sometimes for local situations. Comparative urban studies
have brought results about universal processes and typical trajectories in the history
of urban systems. There is a need for analytic description that provides the basis for
designing robust dynamic models as well as realistic scenarios for exploring a diver-
sity of possible urban futures.
Quantitative approaches to understanding the growth and emergence of cities
together have its ability to sustain economic activities and have been attempted by
several researchers. Scalability and biological metaphors of cities such as “living sys-
tem”, “organism”, “urban metabolism”, and so on have been the notion to under-
stand the structure and dynamics of human socialization. Bettencourt et al. (2007)
argued that irrespective of complexity, diversity, and geographic variability, “cities
belonging to the same urban system obey pervasive scaling relations with population size”.
Attempts to study typical trajectories of the city’s evolutions highlighting history of

urban systems to generalize into a universal process while simulating possible future
are noted in recent researches (Pumain & Reuillon, 2017).
1.4 Urban science/informatics
Recent metropolises, as machines of the new data economy, have observed the
revolution or replacement of city services from legacy infrastructures and service
delivery models in the 20th century to on-demand transport, intelligent water sys-
tems, responsive lighting, and distributed energy resources. Consequently, the mil-
lions of connections and communications taking place in cities on a given day, for
example, volume of energy used, transport flows, movement of people, traffic, water
and waste, transactions, social media interactions are leading to a huge repository
of “data exhaust”. This data exhaust of the cities, similarly growing at an unprece-
dented rate, adds value to government and researchers to apply data-driven method-
ologies to improve the quality and efficiency of city services and life (Barns, 2018).
For the cities of South Asia, which has predominantly emerged organically, it is
hard to derive the quantitative construct of city form and function given the het-
erogeneity of economic status, diversity of religious and cultural practices. While
the concept of “science of cities” (Batty, 2013) orients toward a more formalized
approach of city planning, the definition of “urban science” by (Kontokosta, 2018)
seemed to be more appropriate for the context of cities in the global South.
Kontokosta, 2018 defined Urban Science as “scientific study of cities through experi-
mentation and interdisciplinary research. It can be defined by its objective to understand urban
dynamics using observational or measured data and scientific methods from physical, natural,
and social sciences”. The term Urban Science refers to “a computational modeling and
simulation approach to understanding, explaining and predicting city processes”, while Urban
Informatics is explained as “an informational and human-computer interaction approach
to examining and communicating urban processes”. Indeed, there is a strong and recur-
sive relationship between data-driven urbanism and urban science/informatics, with
the former providing the raw material and applied domain and the latter providing
fundamental ideas and the key tools to enact city analytics and data-driven decision-
making. Thus, urban science coupled with urban informatics paves a way toward
the computational understanding of city systems. However, concerning the former,
higher priority has been provided on the development of innovative data analytics
that utilize machine learning techniques, visual analytics, computational simulations,
statistical analytics and prediction, and optimization modeling on one hand and geog-
raphy and urban modeling, climate modeling, digital mapping on the other hand.
1.4.1 Urban sensing
With the smart framework emerging as a new agenda of urban development, urban
sensing became means of data procurement. Privacy of the users, especially the iden-
tification of personal information still remains a major concern for the deployment
of big data in mainstream policymaking. Therefore, governance of individual data,

policy of the usage of data for identified purposes, and data security have been key
issues. Zheng et al. (2014) categorized urban sensing into three typologies, namely,
i) traditional sensing and measurement – installation of sensors to collect a typol-

ogy of data,
ii) passive crowdsensing – when the collected data can be used for other purposes, and
iii) participatory sensing – when users share their data and information.
1.4.2 Urban data analytics

Software-driven technologies and urban big data have become integrally crucial for
sustainable development and appropriate functioning of cities consequently turn-
ing data-driven urbanism to be the key mode of production for future cities. The
essence of data-driven urbanism lies in the holistic and computational understand-
ing of city systems that transforms and reduces the urban life complexity to a set
of logic and rules, underpinned by rationality and realistic epistemology. Figure 1.3
demonstrates a taxonomy of varying data analytics in smart city management and
urban planning.
The result is a vast deluge of real-time, fine-grained, contextual and actionable
data, which are routinely generated about the cities and their citizens by a range of
public and private organizations, including (Kitchin, 2016):
• utility companies (use of electricity, gas, and water);

• transport providers (location/movement, travel flow);
• mobile phone operators (location/movement, app use, and behavior);
• travel and accommodation websites (reviews, location/movement, and
consumption);
• social media sites (opinions, photos, personal information, and location/move-
ment); crowdsourcing and citizen science (maps, e.g. OpenStreetMap; local
knowledge, e.g. Wikipedia; weather, e.g. underground);
• government bodies and public administration (services, performance, and
surveys);
• financial institutions and retail chains (consumption and location);
• private surveillance and security firms (location and behavior);
• emergency services (security, crime, policing, and response); and
• home appliances and entertainment systems (behavior and consumption).
These urban big data, it is contended, produce a highly granular, longitudinal,

whole understanding of a city system or service and enable city systems to be man-
aged in real-time. While some of these data are generated by local authorities and
state agencies, much of the data are considered a private asset. The latter are gener-
ally closed in nature, though they might be shared with third-party vendors (such
as city authorities, often for a fee) or researchers (using a license). In some cases,
Urban Transportation People and community Urban networks
Travel diary Parking Liveability Privacy Ease of connectivity Telecommunication Distance

Model choiceMulti-tasking Well-being Safety Occupant behaviour Location allocation Area
Travel demand forecasting coverage
Comfort Satisfaction Social exclusion Infrastructure network
Role of ICT
Wind speed Health Diary

Wind direction Health care facility
Weather Precipitation and Humidity Telemedicine Public
and climate Temperature Satisfaction of health
Carbon-monoxide health episode
Particulate matter Health delivery system
Waste management Smart City and Urban

Housing Sanitation and Drainage Planning Real time
and Electricity Roads connectivity monitoring data
Urban disaster
built- Drinking water quality Social media data
management
Structural condition
environ Outdoor condition
Disaster severity
ment Building design

Evacuation management
Attractiveness Greenery
Elevation, slope & geology
Attractiveness Amenities Amenities
Design Noise Accessibility Safety Accessibility Regulations Utility Sensitivity
Housing location Vulnerability measurement
Open space Green and

Urban
and parklands blue corridors
Neighbourhood
FIGURE 1.3 A taxonomy use of varying data analytics in smart city management and urban planning.
Source: Author’s compilation
they are open, often on a limited basis (through data infrastructures or application
programming interface (APIs).
The multidimensional construct of urban data analytics being an interdisciplin-
ary concept encompasses cognate notions coupled with several computational tech-
niques such as machine learning and deep learning methods together with the
application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) coupled with statistical models, simula-
tion, and optimization in varying sectors like transportation, water, housing, real
estate, and so on; involving urban planning (such as land use prediction models,
travel demand forecasting) and urban engineering (such as building simulations,
experimental and sensor-based techniques, Internet of Things (IoTs) together with
geoinformatics (spatial-temporal data).
To integrate the processing from data collection to interpretation, several archi-
tectures have been proposed. For example, Rathore et al. (2016) proposed four-tier
architecture consisting of functionalities such as collection, aggregation, commu-
nication, processing, and interpretation using Hadoop technologies with Spark to
achieve real-time processing.
Moreover, with the availability of social media data and crowdsourced data, the
notion of emotion extraction and the role of human sensors have become pre-
dominant in the field of urban planning. The tassel between the measured and the
extracted emotions have often been questioned and researchers have attempted to
measure the correlation among them (Resch et al., 2015).
In the last few decades, with the increased computational power, analytical meth-
ods have become increasingly popular among urban researchers and practitioners.
Needless to mention, an innovative avenue of data collection methods and novel
typology of data has been made available for the urban planning researchers. The
computation of the data again can be of two types real-time as well as analysis
of offline historical data. According to Thakuriah et al. (2017) some of the major
potential of Urban Informatics are in developing improved strategies to (1) dynamic
urban resource management and allocations – especially during disaster, (2) under-
standing of urban patterns and processes, (3) urban engagement and bottom-up
participation, and (4) incite innovations in urban management. Further, this could
lead to the emergence of a new group of entrepreneurs to mobilize digital platforms
to commoners to reduce the digital divide.
1.4.2.1 Urban data platforms

Urban data platforms informed by a clear open data strategy are designed to make
underlying data available to their users, emphasizing on making fundamental data
assets obtainable as part of a wider “ecosystem” of data assets. More lately, the proc-
lamation of government data in open data formats has led to greater investments
in “data marketplaces” or “datastores”. These are distinct from “Data Showcases”
where they prioritize access to government data as an asset or input into wider
services innovation. Data Services Dashboards are, on balance, less focused on per-
formance management or real-time data and instead provide access to raw data
sources in open publishing formats as the basis for deeper external engagement
(See Table 1.1). These services are deliberately aligned with the “Government as
a Platform” digital strategy and deliver machine-readable data or APIs. They tend
to be built using an open-source framework, or use a proprietary cloud hosting
service (Barns, 2018).
In the context of developing nations, both structured and unstructured data
are being made available in the open data domain. For example, in India, data of
different sectors are made available through “Open Government Data” (OGD)
Platform India. While digital governance has been a key priority across the globe
(Falco & Kleinhans, 2018), it has also highlighted challenges such as internet
accessibility, digital illiteracy, and the digital divide, dearth of institutional frame-
work, technological advancements and data mismanagement, process-related
challenges, intra-organizational culture, and unavailability of skilled human
resources. A study assessing 903 municipal websites across Brazil reported that
the majority of the eGov platforms have low levels of digital commons maturity
(Rotta et al., 2019).
In cities of developing nations, there are opportunities to improve the decision-
making process by practicing an evidence-based planning approach, which would
inherit transparency. For example, the city administration often collects a varied
myriad of data from different sources. If these data are correlated with crowd-
sourced perception of the citizen, better service delivery could be envisaged. Several
municipal corporations in India have developed digital platforms to provide ser-
vices, information, details about new schemes to their citizens. For instance, the @
myBMC, established within the City of Mumbai, has extended the model of the
urban data platform as a service. The role of other similar platforms at the national
level like the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) or the city level like Indian
Meteorological Department, Mumbai, is to provide a service for the sale, purchase,
and sharing of a wide variety of data from multiple sources between all types of
users in a city – citizens, city government, businesses. Its key audiences are large
established companies, small–medium enterprises, start-up companies, as well as
academia, and the public sector.
While the marketplace encourages users to focus on integrating multiple sources
of information to meet the challenges of sustainability and quality of life, there is
limited performance monitoring captured in the marketplace itself. The function is
much more closely aligned to surfacing the (usable) data assets of the city, via the
number of datasets “traded” in the marketplace, rather than visualizing the data per
se (Barns, 2018).
Several urban data platforms are much more geared toward monitoring progress
or performance against agreed indicators. Created by city governments, often within
a wider strategy of data-driven services, these platforms are focused on improving
the granularity and responsiveness of government reporting, rather than the acces-
sibility of underlying data itself. They serve to monitor performance against targets,
not facilitate wider access to city data or data-driven services (Barns, 2018).
TABLE 1.1 Different types of urban data platforms
Data Repositories Data Showcase City Scores Data Marketplace

Open Data Portals City Dashboards Score Cards Datastores
• Provide access to • Promote • Integrate • Provide access
government data in access to data a range of to data in
machine-readable visualizations dataset to machine-
formats aligned to support readable
• Created by City urban policy performance formats.
governments or priorities monitoring • Data access
authorized organizations. • Underlying against set and reuse
data always targets by external
not available • Underlying parties are
to public data not promoted and
• Created available encouraged.
by the city • Created • Performance
government. by city monitoring
governments one among
a number
of city
governments
or private
sector.
Objective Objective Objective Objective
• Data services innovation • Data visibility • Performance • Data services
• Transparency • Transparency monitoring innovation
Examples Examples Examples Examples
• National Data bank • Mobile • Air Quality • NSSO
under Ministry of applications Monitors
Statistics and Programme such as (https://
Implementation, @myBMC www.aqi.in/
Government of India dashboard/
(http://www.mospi.gov. india/
in/national-data-bank) maharashtra/
• MSME Data bank under mumbai)
Ministry of Micro,
Small and Medium
Enterprises, Government
of India (http://www.
msmedatabank.in/)
• DataBank, World Bank
(https://databank.
worldbank.org/home.
aspx)
(Source: Adapted from Barns, 2018).

1.5 Need for a data-driven solution

As a solution to the unavoidable consequences of unprecedented urbanization,
United Nations Habitat has proposed the notion of SDGs, thereby focusing on
development of liveable urban systems and communities. An evidence-based strong
relationship has been established between SDG 3, which aims toward promoting
good health and well-being, and SDG 11, which fosters the notion of sustainable
cities and communities. Investigating into multidimensional data-driven heuristics
and technocratic solutions in different sectors starting from urban neighborhood
design, urban networks, and transportation, housing and built-environment, urban
corridors to pertinent aspects of disaster management and public health to attain
improved health and well-being is the major focus of the book. There is an urgent
need to look at holistic as well as piece-meal meta-to-micro level solutions of each
sector for sustainable and liveable growth of cities.
As a consequence of climate change leading to global warming, temperature rise,
extreme humidity, urban heat islands being the fall-outs of unprecedented urban-
ization, there becomes an urgent need for investigating a solution to mitigate the
adverse climate effects. While IoT devices and sensor-based modeling approaches
can predict climate risk maps and can also test the forthcoming vulnerability, micro-
level sensor-based studies coupled with computational modeling and environmen-
tal simulations aids in deriving at environment-sensitive urban neighborhood and
building design (Chapter 4). Computational simulations of ventilation and air qual-
ity at urban neighborhood and building level have the opportunity to formulate
aerodynamically efficient city design parameters for forthcoming sustainable living.
This calls for a design agenda for climate sensing at a regional scale as well as build-
ing level on one hand and delivering preventive design-driven solutions both from
the source and receiver’s end.
With the advent of urbanization and incessant urban growth, there comes a need
for solutions to associated problems like poor urban aesthetics, traffic congestion,
environmental pollution, etc. In a response to this, traditional network and activity-
travel data, as well as big data like GPS tracking, transport sensors, on-board vehicle
sensors, network theory and computer-based algorithms are recently being widely
employed to derive at informed decisions and policy variables regarding urban aes-
thetics and sustainable urban planning (Chapter 5 and Chapter 6).
A major field of research which is gaining wide interest and attention is how
people use their time while traveling. With the advent of ICT, people can indulge
in a variety of activities during travel. Being able to do something worthwhile dur-
ing travel can have many impacts. First, it might reduce the value people attach to
travel time savings, having a direct impact on transport policy decisions. Second, it
might make travel itself more satisfying, thereby having an impact on the person’s
well-being. Finally, it might help people to fulfill their unmet needs by performing
activities they could not have, due to different constraints.This calls for an agenda to
look at how multitasking information could be collected and analyzed within the
larger framework of time-use surveys (Chapter 7).
Given the stress concerning limited resources allotted for leisure, the recreational
amenities fall prey to poor planning, design, and management leading to their dete-
rioration and encroachment, especially in the dense urban context of developing
nations. To preserve and improve the usability of these recreational open spaces,
often the user experiences and quality feedback within the open space management
framework turns crucial.The current open space management in the Indian scenario
fails to identify and incorporate the user needs regarding open space design, ameni-
ties provision, and management. In this milieu, ICT-driven data portals designed to
facilitate information dissemination among users of open spaces can be utilized for
better urban management (Chapter 9).
Another major sector is the people and community where social well-being
and livability aspects like privacy, safety, social cohesion, and community interac-
tion, sense of belongingness, ease of connectivity, and physical livability parameters
like public health status need to be investigated (Chapter 10). Occupant survey
data coupled with statistical analysis reckoning their perception and health status-
related information, lifestyle diseases aid in investigating the underlying association.
Literature has well established the strong and reliable interlinkage between built-
environment condition and health, thereby indicating the importance of interdis-
ciplinary data-driven research. Applications of sensors and computation to simulate
parameters that affect health, living conditions and select alternatives that best fit
local climatic conditions and geography while merging with the occupation pat-
terns of the citizens have turned integrally crucial.
Geospatial and data analytics help better identify potential gaps that we need to
address as well as opportunities available to us.This helps us get a better sense of future
needs for infrastructure and amenities, so we can then optimally allocate resources
over different periods. For example, with a better understanding of town demographic
changes, planners can factor in the required social facilities and amenities to support
residents at a more localized level.Though they may seem odd associates, the paths of
medicine and geospatial technology have long converged. One of the most popular
examples used to explain the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is one in
which geospatial analysis helps to solve a medical mystery. In the mid-1800s, English
physician John Snow was certain that contaminated water systems were responsible
for the spread of cholera. An 1854 London outbreak of the disease provided Snow the
opportunity to use real data to illustrate his theory. The map he produced combined
data about cholera cases and water pumps, revealing the pattern between clusters of
the disease and water sources. Today, the two disciplines continue to interact in novel
and exciting ways. The arrival of machine learning has expanded the possibilities –
AI can process far more data far more rapidly than any human. Geospatial Artificial
Intelligence (or Geo AI) combines the practices of GIS and AI. Geo AI is enriching
the practice of medicine by providing researchers and practitioners with increasingly
granular health intelligence upon which to make decisions. From predicting out-
breaks of infectious disease to predicting the likelihood of an asthma attack, machine
learning on geospatial data is reshaping the field of medicine. The transformation
promises advances in the practice of both public and private health (Chapter 13).
1.6 Urban data and ethics

The unfolding deluge of exhaustive urban data coupled with its huge applicability
through data analytics in various fields, however, faces numerous ethical issues con-
cerning privacy, datafication, dataveillance, and geo-surveillance, and data uses such as
social sorting and anticipatory governance (Kitchin, 2016). Smart city technologies,
data-driven urbanism, and urban science often create several privacy harms regard-
ing identity privacy, bodily privacy, territorial privacy, locational privacy, communi-
cation privacy, and transaction privacy, each of which raises significant challenges to
existing approaches to protecting privacy (privacy laws and fair information practice
principles) (Martinez-Balleste et al., 2013; Solove, 2013). Additionally, the perva-
siveness of personally identifiable information (PII) to access services (credit card
numbers, phone details, usernames, passwords, emails, phone details) escalates the
impossibility of leading lives without a digital footprint. However, this advertently
deepens dataveillance as well as geo-surveillance (monitoring interactions across
space) (Raley, 2013). Also, nowadays cities are saturated with remote controllable
digital CCTV camera networks for tracking detailed movements of pedestrians and
residents. Additionally, urban cores are equipped with toll cameras, traffic cameras
to track vehicular movement. Consequently, individuals are no longer lost in the
crowd, but rather they are being tracked and traced at different scales of spatial and
temporal resolution and are increasingly becoming open to geo-targeted profiling
and social sorting. Figure 1.4 showcases a number of privacy breaches and harms
currently practiced in urban science. Predictive modeling using urban big data can
generate inferences about an individual that are indirectly encoded in a data and may
constitute matter concerning PII which may produce “predictive privacy harms”.
• In this context, a vital approach to ensure individual privacy is anonymization

and re-identification, through the use of pseudonyms, a unique tag to identify
a person.
• Notice and consent, reflected as the foundation of data and confidentiality
shield are deteriorated within smart city technologies and in data/urban sci-
ence and should be considered mandatory while collecting data (Solove, 2013).
Domain
Information Information Information

Invasion
collection processing dissemination
• Breach of
confidentiality
Privacy Breach
• Aggregation • Disclosure
• Identification • Exposure • Intrusion
• Surveillance
• Insecurity • Blackmail • Decisional
• Interrogation
• Secondary use • Increased interference
• Exclusion accessibility
• Distortion
• Appropriation
FIGURE 1.4 A taxonomy of privacy breaches.

Source: Adapted from Kitchin, 2016
• Another key feature of the data revolution is the wholesale destruction of data
minimization principles; that is, the undermining of purpose specification and
use limitation values that mean that data should only be produced to accom-
plish a precise job, are only restored as long as they are required for the task and
are used for a specific task only (Solove, 2007; Tene & Polonetsky, 2013).
Kitchin (2016), while discussing methods, practices, and integrities of urban sci-
ence, focuses on active judiciousness and pragmatist epistemology; privacy, datafi-
cation, dataveillance, and geo-surveillance; and data use, such as social sorting and
anticipatory governance. It further claims that urban science needs to be remodeled
in three methods:
• A re-orientation is required concerning how the city is conceived. Rather than

being considered as bounded, knowable, and manageable systems that can be
directed and controlled in mechanical, linear ways, cities need to be framed as
fluid, open, complex, multi-level, contingent, and relational systems that are full
of culture, politics, competing interests, and wicked problems and often unfold
in unpredictable ways. In the context of developing nations, like India where
diversity in religion, sociocultural practices, economic variation are distinctly
high, the re-orientation of cities by comprehensively capturing these differ-
ences turns integrally crucial.
• Second, the epistemology of urban science needs to be revised. This revision
includes recognizing the flaws coupled with realistic genuine assumptions
while designing a city. Accessibility, affordability are some of the major aspects
to be looked into while planning cities of developing nations.
• The ethical constructs of urban science and urban analytics are required to be
much more methodically charted and addressed. Researchers need to consider
the ethical implications of their work concerning privacy harms, notice and
consent, and the uses to which their research is being deployed. Apart from
abiding by the pertinent regulations and recognized investigation panel neces-
sities, experts have a responsibility of up keeping their fellow citizens while not
exposing them toward harm through their study.
1.7 Way forward
This chapter elaborately looked into the opportunities of data analytics in bringing
transformational changes in the planning process, transparency, and participatory
practices. While several thoughts and ideas have been discussed briefly that stress
on the possibility of reduction of inequity and create access to all, there are several
challenges as well. The problems of data ethics remain a key concern.
In the subsequent chapters, various advances in the methods of data analytics
that might be applicable in transportation planning, self-sufficient energy planning,
housing quality, recreational open spaces, monitoring urban climate, application
of deep learning techniques to assess urban spaces, building sciences, and indoor
livability and use of multi-criteria decision-making using remote sensing are elabo-
rated. Therefore, being multidimensional, the book is divided into three sections
highlighting a) sensing and computation in planning, b) network and spatial plan-
ning, and c) decision-making and management in the planning process. These sec-
tions comprise several chapters discussing the premise of applications in different
sectors of urban planning while introspecting the challenges for planning the 21st-
century cities of developing nations.
Notes
1 As per World Bank data (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.CEL.SETS; accessed
May 22, 2020).
2 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development
adopted in 2015 (For details (Source: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/; accessed
May 26, 2020).
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2
URBAN PERCEPTION EXPERIMENTS
Transition from traditional to advanced methods
Deepank Verma and Arnab Jana
2.1 Introduction
The study of human perception of urban surroundings is crucial to understand the
impact of environmental features in stimulating individuals’ thoughts and emotions
(Harvey et al., 2015). Even with our vast experience to plan and develop cities, the
utilization of human perceptual inputs in planning processes has not been fully real-
ized. The widely practiced top-down approaches in urban planning has consistently
overlooked the design and planning interests of the local community while relying
on the wisdom of a few decision-makers. Perception studies focus on integrating
the reactions and sentiments of people regarding their immediate urban surround-
ings, which can prove beneficial in urban design and planning. In other words, these
studies aim to understand the choices and behavior of a person in different environ-
mental settings. Studying such behavior provides crucial feedback on the qualities of
the surroundings. These responses can be further investigated concerning overlying
land use, population density, and to frame urban planning and design guidelines.
Individual perceptions are mentally derived and socially induced constructs that
are subjective and, therefore, difficult to quantify. The sensory organs gather essen-
tial details while interacting with the environment; however, most of the process
of information gathering and judgment is automatic and inattentive, which poses
survey design and analysis challenges. While the survey methods are still an active
area of research, the studies have widely established the correlation between the
presence of sensory cues such as greenery, open sky, people, and sounds of birds and
perceptual attributes such as safety, liveliness, calmness, and annoyingness.
The initial studies provided a theoretical foundation detailing the extent of visual
perception in evaluating landscapes. However, the experiential factors were consis-
tently overlooked by urban planners and managers due to the difficulty posed by the
Urban perception experiments 19
unreliable methods to capture individuals’ perceptions. Over time, such studies were
transformed to explore and verify observational aspects in this domain.
2.1.1 Studies in urban perception

One of the significant contributions in mapping the cognitive inputs has been
through the work on the imageability of the city by Kevin Lynch. He discussed how
people create mental maps of their surroundings with mainly five elements, such as
landmarks, paths, edges, districts, and nodes (Lynch, 1960). He based his discussion
on how people orient themselves and find their way in the cities. The imageability
of streets was further discussed in “The view from the road”, which focuses on the
perception of the urban form for tourists and commuters. Apart from the urban
landscape, Appleyard (Appleyard, 1969) focused on three factors, such as form, vis-
ibility, and use, which can be associated with the way the common buildings can be
recalled by the people. He argued that the common vocabulary used by the general
population differs from urban designers and architects, which poses difficulty in
understanding the perceived thoughts of people.
Further research focused on defining perceptual attributes with which the proper
judgment of a particular scene can be done. Some of the attributes and their defini-
tions are provided in Appendix 1. Literature gives an account of empirical experi-
ments that offer detailed insights into collecting quantified inferences on individuals’
perceptions. Kaplan (Kaplan, Kaplan, and Wendt, 1972) studied the preference and
complexity in urban and natural scenes with the help of 88 participants. A total of
56 photographs as the visual stimulus were utilized for which the perceptual ratings
were gathered. Similarly, another such survey included 60 Central Business Districts
(CBD), residential, and commercial areas in which the evaluation of the emotional
quality scenes (Figure 2.1) was conducted with the help of passersby (Nasar, 1987).
Herzog (Herzog, 1989) explored the practical and theoretical implications of per-
ceptual responses of 354 participants regarding 70 photographs depicting urban and
natural scenes. The study utilized a variety of perceptual attributes such as com-
plexity, refuge, and mystery (discussed in Appendix 1). Herzog further studied the
preferences of familiar (Herzog, Kaplan and Kaplan, 1976) and unfamiliar (Herzog,
Kaplan and Kaplan, 1982) urban environments such as apartments, alleys, factories,
parks, restaurants, and civic buildings with the help of perceptual attributes such as
complexity and mystery. In general, these studies concluded natural areas as more
pleasing and inviting than urban counterparts. For example, alleys and factories, in
general, were disliked, while identifiable built structures were preferred.
The survey design methodology followed in such studies can be summarized
into a six-step process (Verma, Jana, and Ramamritham, 2019):
1. Identification of survey locations, which included the selection of locations

present in the city, forest trails, and parks.
2. Collection of sensory datasets, such as photographs.
20 Deepank Verma and Arnab Jana
FIGURE 2.1 Assessment of human perception of common CBD scenes.

Source: Nasar, 1987
3. Selection of environmental attributes, such as variables like complexity, refuge,

and mystery and features like the presence of people, greenery, and buildings.
4. Selection of survey participants, such as control groups or random population
samples.
5. Perception-based ratings (Likert scale or pairwise comparison) were provided
to the collected datasets by the survey participants in situ, where the survey
participants rated the surroundings by visiting the selected locations and ex situ,
where the photographs are reproduced in an artificial setting.
6. Studying the relationship between perceptions and environmental attributes.
The scores are then analyzed concerning the characteristics of the visual or
auditory data.
While these studies have provided enough evidence regarding the existence of
specific qualities of the environment and the perception in individuals, the key
limitations have been the generalizability and scalability of the experiments (Verma,
Jana, and Ramamritham, 2019). Firstly, most such studies have utilized a few loca-
tions and datasets to capture human judgments regarding various perceptual attri-
butes. As a result, the conclusions derived from these individual studies are relevant
to the research area itself and lose generalizability and applicability, if scaled to large
spatial extents. Secondly, human perception is a multisensory response, in which
other sensory channels are required to accurately gauge the preferences of the indi-
vidual regarding the surroundings (Hall, 1966). It is, therefore, vital to study the
combined sensory visual, auditory, and olfactory channels to properly investigate the
human perception of surroundings.
2.2 Other sensory dimensions

Unlike the role of sense of vision in shaping current perception studies, the contri-
bution of studies in auditory and olfactory senses has been minimal. It has long been
debated that although visual cues are responsible for 80% of the cognitive load, it is
the smells and sounds which create lasting memories of the places. However, senses
of smell and hearing are difficult to perceive and differ depending upon the listener.
On the other hand, visual scenes are easy to interpret, remember, and describe,
hence simpler to document and conduct perception surveys. In recent years, the
focus has been given to understanding the characteristics of the auditory and olfac-
tory senses in capturing notions regarding the environment.
2.2.1 Auditory realm
Sound is a continuous and dynamic attribute of all landscapes (Pijanowski et al.,
2011). The measurement and assessment of sound have been a primary focus of
research in architecture and urban planning (Hong, Lee, and Jeon, 2010; Brown,
Kang, and Gjestland, 2011; Oldoni et al., 2015), environmental monitoring (Pieretti,
Farina, and Morri, 2011; Pijanowski et al., 2011; Phillips, Towsey, and Roe, 2018),
biodiversity mapping and eco-acoustics (Sueur et al., 2008; Zhang et al., 2016).
Recent years have seen a rapid pace of urbanization and growing concerns regard-
ing the effects of sounds in human health and overall well-being, which has provided
much-needed momentum in the assessment of acoustic landscapes (soundscapes)
(Kang et al., 2016; Aletta and Xiao, 2018; Kang and Aletta, 2018).
Over the years, measurement of noise as Sound Pressure Levels (in dB) has been
primarily considered to be an effective tool to estimate and report the quality of
surroundings. Various national and international policies have been framed, which
allow local governments to conduct extensive noise measurements to create elabo-
rate noise maps (Commission, 2002). These maps help identify hotspots of the areas
with high intensity of sounds and frame measures to curb noise pollution. Several
studies have found noise exposure as a significant factor in several physical and
mental illnesses, such as hypertension (Jarup et al., 2008), cognitive deficit, sleep
disturbances, and psychological stress (Gidlöf-Gunnarsson and Öhrström, 2007).
However, as simple, the measurement of the noise is equally tricky is to gauge indi-
vidual perception regarding the particular sound. The common notion of all high-
intensity sounds are noises does not find relevance in all contexts, especially, while
dealing with various urban and natural landscapes present in the city. For instance,
similar intensities of sounds of chirping birds and vehicles may stimulate different
feelings in the listener. As Aletta argues (Aletta, Oberman, and Kang, 2018), reducing
noises did not always lead to better well-being and quality of life. The source of
sounds plays an important role, where common sounds such as crowds, vehicles,
and birds may be categorized as positive and negative sounds (Aletta, Kang, and
Axelsson, 2016), and the preferences for such sounds may differ among the listeners.
Such notions regarding the characteristics of sound sources and their perceptions
are widely studied in the research related to soundscapes.
Schafer (1977) popularized the term “soundscape” as an alternate viewpoint
on the evaluation of the auditory landscape. According to him, the soundscape is
“the study of the effects of the acoustic environment on the physical responses
or behavioral characteristics of creatures living within it”. As the field progressed
and evolved around various disciplines and across multiple regions, the ISO (ISO,
2014) standardized the definition as “acoustic environment as perceived or expe-
rienced and/or understood by a person or people, in context”. In simple terms,
soundscape studies explore the relationship between human perception and char-
acteristics of sounds and its effects in demography, psychology, and sociology (Yang
and Kang, 2013).
The standard methodology to conduct soundscape surveys fits well with the
step-by-step methods adopted in conducting visual perception surveys (Sec.1.1).
Researchers have (a) utilized sound-walks (Figure 2.2), where participants are asked
to visit particular locations and rate the sonic environment with the help of per-
ceptual attributes such as calm, annoying, pleasant, etc. (b) the sound clips have been
captured with the help of binaural microphones and recorder, which are utilized for
ex situ perception surveys. Over the years, researchers have used these methods to
build narratives in an explanation of the auditory realm.
2.2.2 Olfactory realm
Unlike visual and olfactory realms, which offer a continuous stream of sensory
experiences, smell is indeterminate, discontinuous, and episodic (Porteous in
Drobnick, 2002). Smell is “spatially ordered and place related” (Porteous, 1985).
According to Tuan (1990) “Odors lend character to objects and places, making
them distinctive, easier to identify, and remember”. Smells stimulate basic emotional
arousing sense, which is different from cognitive abilities provided by vision and
sound (Porteous, 1985; Glass, Lingg and Heuberger, 2014). Although the human
olfactory system outperforms other sensory methods in differentiating between the
numbers of physically different stimuli (smells) (Bushdid et al., 2014), the terms
associated with different scents are not common in everyday expressions. The clas-
sification of available vocabulary in the English language is present in the various
works (Belgiorno, Naddeo, and Zarra, 2012; Curren, 2012; Henshaw, 2013; Aiello
et al., 2016). However, different geographical regions have a unique sense of smell
due to diversities in culture, experiences, and language (Majid, 2015).Therefore, it is
FIGURE 2.2 An example of a sound walk.

Source: Kang et al. (2016)
difficult to determine the awareness of the terms and the corresponding smells with
any individual. It has also been observed that non-familiarity of any fragrance is
considered as a harmful smell (Porteous, 1985) where only one-fifth of the known
scents are regarded as positive (Hamanzu in Porteous, 1985).
The smell-scapes are olfactory landscapes created by the presence of a variety of
smells. According to Drobnick (2002), Smell-scape is “the spatial location of odors
and their relation to particular notions of place”. Smells are characterized into three
types of notes (Henshaw, 2013): (a) Base notes, which are the smells native to a
specific place. Porteous (1985) described a “concept of habituation”, where people
are habituated with the existence of native scents around their active regions. An
outsider may be able to experience different smells than the insider. However, the
perceived intensity of scent swiftly declines after one has been exposed to it for
some time. (b) Mid-level notes are the dominant smell character of different regions
within a medium-sized area such as bazaars, weekly markets, gardens, shopping
plaza, railway stations, and (c) High notes are very localized and temporal. They
are present in sweet shops, stationery, restaurants, and wine shops (Quercia et al.,
2015; Henshaw et al., 2016). The presence of different smell-scapes is the result of
human activity such as cooking, sanitation practices, weather, the presence of flora
and fauna, seasonal growing patterns, diverse geography such as forests, lakes, desert,
rural/urban areas (Drobnick, 2002; McLean, 2015). Literature gives an account of
studies where rural and urban areas are compared according to the different smells
(Dann and Steen Jacobsen, 2003). Smells are more prominent in urban areas than
rural due to the higher population density and a significant number of sources.
Further, due to relatively closed spaces than rural counterparts, smells sustain for
more extended periods. There is a brief account of cities being recognized by their
collective smells observed by the philosophers, travelers, and journalists. For exam-
ple, Lagos (Nigeria) is portrayed as “reeking of gas fumes” (Marnham in Dann and
Steen Jacobsen, 2003).
Apart from treating unfavorable smells of waste and filthiness, civil authorities
have not put much effort into looking to preserve or sustain other favorable scents
(Quercia et al., 2015). Henshaw et al. (2016) gives an account of different businesses
and how smell affects them. She also related the smells to be a major proponent in
the creation of urban identity and perceived emotions. Smells may not be favored
in preference-based studies due to difficulty in the collection of meaning responses
and insights from the observers. However, smells are the critical components in the
perception of urban landscapes which stimulates transient emotional and sensual
feelings in the observer.
Porteous (1985) believed that to understand the sociocultural relationship
between smells and places three methods can be employed such as (a) walking
the city, (b) employing surveys, and (c) content analysis through literature to get
the hint of representation of the smells over the years (Low, 2015). Along simi-
lar lines, Quercia et al. (2015) listed the three approaches by which odors can be
collected from the environments: (a) with the help of devices such as odor bags,
electronic nose, noise trumpets, and smell cameras (Belgiorno, Naddeo, and Zarra,
Another random document with
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–Josafat tens qu'estimar-me, sents? ¿Per qué estás ofés? ¿Qué t'he
fet? ¿Quí t'ha parlat mal de mí? Vols que m quedi am tú, aquí, per
sempre?
–Vull que marxis lluny, que no t'acostis, vetho-aqui.
–Josafat!…
–Aparta-t.
–No puc, et desitjo am tota l'ánima…
–Mai més, encara que t morissis.
–Josafat…
–Véste-ten dic.
La Fineta allargá ses mans i moxicosa, dolça, acentuant més son ronc
apassionat, intentá repenjar-se amb el campaner, i passar-li sos dits
pel crani punxagut pera estarrufar-li el cabell.
Josafat llençá un crit enfollit, negre, fatídic. –Llamp t'esquerdi– i son

colze s'enfonsá am violencia en la massa flonja del si de la bagassa.
Aprés, am la mateixa facilitat que engrapava els llivants de les

campanes, engrapá els braçets de la Fineta per llençar-la al carrer,
pro al tocar-la, al sentir la pell lliscar dins el satí, s'esborroná i desfé
aquell contacte que li rebifava masses recorts; tingué por d'aquella
suavitat tan admirada i tan voluptuosament fruída.
Un cop lliure, ella s'encongí i, am l'intencionat espurneig de ses nines
verdes, mossegava una arteria que glatía en l'ampla gorja del
campaner.
–Troçeje-m pro no lograrás allunyar-me de tu; no m'en aniré; aquí m

tindrás sempre desitjan-te, comprometen-te, fins que m'estimis com
abans. Aixó digué la mossa i al notar un moviment agressiu den
Josafat, afegí: –Arrossega-m, au, prov-ho, xisclaré, tothom me
sentirá, si ve gent m'arraparé a tu i provaré de petonejar-te perque
ho vegin.
Aná a seure-s en l'escambell den Josafat.
–Mira ja estic aposentada, nit i die esperaré que torni ton amor.
En la brega s'eren afluixades ses robes i esbullats sos cabells. Son

esguard maligne passava a través de les rosses madeixes despreses
dels bandós, am un brill hipnótic, provocador, insufrible, mentres de
sa boca irónica n'eixíen paraules que esqueixaven la pell com fiblades
de tralla.
–Cobart, hipócrita, qui t'aconcellat, qui t'ho ha manat que m

traguessis– i motejá als protectors den Josafat d'una manera
orripilant. –Dejuna tú que ells ja s'afarten.– En sabía moltes
histories dels ensotanats; varies vegades s'havía deixat esclafar per
ells. –Pesen, pesen, son del teu tremp, Josafat, pro fas bé de no fiar-
ten, a na tu te n treurien del campanar, pero a na mi em ficaríen de
bona gana en el seu llit. Creu-los, Josafat, creu-los, sigues bon home.
Dejuna que ells ja s'afarten. I esclatá en una rialla aspre, discordant,
endemoniada, i llençá més verí, més odi, desfogant son despit am
paraules cíniques i gestes indecents.
El campaner mirava a l'entorn cercant una eina forta i dura que anés
be per esclafar d'un sol cop aquell cap d'escorçó que l'enartava
llençant-li per les dilatades pupiles tota la força nerviosa de son cos
d'histérica vibrant d'ira, ple d'esgarrifoses estridencies.
La Fineta degué compendre les intencions del campaner perque es

redressá d'un bot epiléptic.
–Jo soc vinguda am les entranyes enceses per tú; mata-m, pro morta
i freda encara seguiré desitjan-te. En Josafat am tota sa grandaria i
am tot son coratge s'estamordí; tan espantable i resolta estava la
Fineta. La bagassa no surtiría, era inútil. Li agafá un pànic
indescriptible; corría alocat per les estretors d'aquella cambra.
Impensadament la Fineta sanglotá: demanava una almoina d'amor,

s'arrossegava humil i afligida, aprofitant la llum grisa complascent i
temptadora del díe agónic. Cridava al campaner am mots dels qu'ella
inventava en els grans éxtasis erótics, en els grans esvaïments del
plaer, i cercant-lo el perseguía com una ombra luxuriosa, com un
fantasma infernalment apassionat. I com el jorn de sa primera
victoria, aprop del cilindre de la tenebrosa escala, al mig d'un dels
estiraments que precedíen sempre a tots sos esclats d'amor mes
terribles. –Vina, vina, cridá, am veu de gorja ronca i enfarfegada, –
tanca i vina. No podia acabar pas aixís nostre gran amor; tú ja ho
veus… tanca i vina.
En Josafat corrents aná a la porta pro, en lloc de tancar-la, surtí a
fora i pegá una ullada de cap a cap del temple. Allá baix, junt als
pilans del absis, es movía una silueta alta i severa; avançava am
magestuosa pausa, i tenía la venerable esbeltesa del bondadós padre.
El campaner reculá, esverat, am pas oscilant, la cara trágica i suada.

Fermá la porta. La bagassa en son lloc l'esperava; son dors despullat
resplandía, una blancor de brumera enrondava sa cintura i, fins els
peus, encara el negre fai la tapava.
–Per fí, saïná, i triomfanta, feu esmunyir ses robes.
La grapa orripilant den Josafat es clavá en la nuesa de la dòna

temeraria; am sa força colosal la rebotí contra els primers graons de
l'elix fatídica; el crani de la Fineta colpejá en la pedra dura i una
violenta estremitut la deixà enrampada.
En Josafat, amatent, va apilonar la roba tebia, flairosa sobre la

avergonyidora carn de la Fineta, passá el forrallat i, deixant-la
enclosa en la foscor de la caixa, s'allunyá rápidament d'aquell lloc
sinistre.
VIII
I no vingué l'ombra alta i severa.
“Vetllaré per vos; el pecat que contamina vostra ánima es d'aquells

que solen perdurar en els homens; vostre ser está saturat de
concupiscencia i facilment tornariau a caure.” Aixís li parlá el
confessor en l'hora solemnial de la absolució, i aixó recordava en
Josafat, i aixó determiná aquella violencia.
Anava revenint-se.
Que havía passat, que havía fet, que succeiría? Sos ulls jaspiats
registraven els recons més foscos de la gran nau. L'instint li aconcellà
barrar tota l'esglesia. Silenciosament, precavut i desconfiat, feu sa
ronda esbrinant capella per capella fins tenir el convenciment de que
l temple estava desert. Aprés el sorollà am l'espatéc de les reixes,
amb els grinyols dels panys i forrallats, i quan fou a la porta forana
tragué l cap per la portella del cancell.
En la deserta placeta les lloses de les tombes reflecsaven la llum

crepuscular grisa, i esblaimada; l'herba que dibuixava les juntures
era tendra humida, hermosament verda i les fatxades de les cases
properes semblaven fesomies condormides. Una pobre vella eixía
tremolosa d'una gran portalada i s'allunyava ranquejant, fent petar
contra l'empedrat la ferrada virolla de son gaiato.
En Josafat barrá també la portella, i aná a veure lo que havía succeit
en la caixa de la escala.
Pel camí, recordá que havía ovirat els ulls de la bagassa girant
desesperadament dintre la fosca de ses conques, com despedint-se
de la vida. Una corrent freda serpejá per ses cames débils i trémoles,
son cor semblà enfeblir-se i morir am rápids i menuts esbatecs, i l
pressentiment de que sa tranquilitat estava perduda per sempre, li
atenellá l'esperit.
Era fosc i encengué la llumanera. Obri. La Fineta en actitut desonesta

fitava en ell un mirar enterbolit de pasme i terror; de sos llavis
morats surtía quelcom repugnant que brillava a l'inquiet parpelleig
de la petita flama; tenía el cap apretat per la contrapetja del tercer
graó, la barba enfonsada en el pit, i els bandós esbullats se li
enganxaven pel front lluent; una lluissor llefiscosa que feia ressaltar
més la espaventable palidesa.
En Josafat en aitals moments anyorá totes les passades benauranses

de sa vida, tingué present un per un tots els favors rebuts, tots els
somriures bondadosos, totes les esquenades amígables.
Volgué tocar a la Fineta i sa nuesa l'acobardí, encara li despertava

luxuríoses idees.
–Dèu ser freda, pensava, freda com gebre, “He vingut am les
entranyes enceses per tu, morta i tot seguiré desitjan-te,” i era cert,
allí en son ventre una inperceptible onada pareixía iniciar el
moviment luxuriós.
Dalt de l'escala colpejava el rellotje. En Josafat reculá i començá a
contar aquells sotracs del temps: una… dues… tres… set hores. Tenía
tota la nit per meditar. Una serenitat pasmosa gurí son esperit,
empró, ses carns tremolaven encara.
Feu l'últim toc de la tarda: era fácil, no més calía ventar una
estravada al llivantó que movía el batall de la María, reposar mig
minut, i tornar-hi… Ell mateix s'estranyá de lo bé que complía sa
tasca, tan a frec d'un cadávre.
La llumanera deixada al sòl projectava l'ombra den Josafat dalt de la

volta, i aquella silueta colosal am son cap enorme, ses cames
infinides i sos braços enlairats moguent-se calmosos, semblava
gratar serenament els carreus desjuntats, per obrir-hi una fosa.
I l'ombra li sugeri una idea: un home com ell no debía espaordir-se

per amagar el cos d'una mala dòna, allí ont hi havía tants espais,
tantes buidors, tantes tenebres, tants llocs ignorats de la gent. Oh, no
perdería ni un dels bons amics, ni una boca deixaría de somriure-li,
ni una mà de trucar-li la espatlla.
Pensá en un sac que hi havía en sa cambra i volgué pujar-hi per

cercar el sac, pro l tenir que destrompassar a la Fineta li repugnava.
Feu una llarga marrada per la sagrestía on desembocava la escala de

la torre románica. Tingué que desfermar dos o tres portes, i posá
gran mirament en no fer soroll. En sa cambra vegé el catre esbullat i
pensá que aquella nit no podría reposar-hi, que una feina llarga i
penosa l'esperava. Retorná allá ont era la Fineta amb el sac al braç, i
al posar-li les mans a sobre no la trobá pas freda. Allavores li agafá
un esverament d'idiota. Corregué per tota l'esglesia, afollat i suspirós.
Aprés s'arraulí al cap-de-vall del absís, lo més lluny possible d'aquell
dimoni que ressucitava.
D'un moment a l'altre li semblava que tota la nau ombrívola i

silenciosa tenía que ser pertorbada per l'aparició de la bagassa. Per
primera volta en sa vida mirá am recel el fons de les capelles, allí ont
els vesllums de les llanties acaronaven incerts retaules i sepulcres.
I altrament cregué ovirar-la eixint de la capella baptismal, caminant

tota núa, blanca com la cera, pausada com la fatalitat, els ulls girats,
els cabells flamejants, els braços oberts, cercant-lo. –Vina… vina…
Josafat cambiá de lloc. Posternat enfront del sagrari s'arrapá

neguitosament a la gran reixa, vora la llantia.
La flama diminuta i oscilanta escampava sa llum bondadosa per la

testa del campaner acotada i meditabonda. Els fantasmes, els
misteris, les paüres de la nit semblaven finir, esvair-se en el cercle de
llum esgrogueída. Allí una santa pau, una magestuosa serenitat, una
grandiosa calma aconortaven al campaner. Car res temía en Josafat
baix l'amparo del Santissim.
En la bonança d'aquell redós sentí passar les hores, correr la nit i

naixre una vaga esperança de que lo mediat, entre ell i la Fineta, era
un pesat ensomni… Quan l'hermosa llum del día aclarís el vitratjes,
quan el sol anés clapejant de vius colors pilans i capitells, sepulcres i
retaules, quan l'or enlluernés en els altars i somriguessin les
irisacions en la faç dels sants, estaría lliure per sempre de la bagassa;
ella hauría desaparegut escarmentada. I la veia dreta am sos dits
plens d'anells, els anells qu'ell tan admirava, arreglant-se els rinxos
esbullats, les arrugues del vestit, mentres am sos peuets llençava
despreciativa el sac que tenía que servir-li de mortalla.
¡El sac! ¡El sac!… perque am tanta llestesa aná a cercar-lo? La

meditació sobre aqueix perque fou llarga i penosa.
Entretant la grossa campana del rellotge medía conciensudament el

temps; ses onades ressonantes sosmovíen les tenebres, i feien
parpallejar la llumaneta del Santíssim.
I fou allá, a les dotze, que un xiscle llastimós vingut del campanar
esqueixá l pregon silenci de l'esglesia. La nau majestuosa repetí
l'esfereïdora estridencia, allargant-la, rebotint-la d'assí i d'allá, fins
deixatar-la en la sobirana calma de la mitja nit.
El xiscle era tan penetrant, tan agút, tan ferm que en Josafat el
cregué resseguint els ambits del mon, desvetllant a la ciutat
esglaiada, revelant als homens l'existencia de la bagassa agonitsanta,
núa, impùdica i blasfema dins la torre sinistre.
Vindrien jutges i butxins; la gent s'escruixiría; els bons clergues

tindrien remordiments d'haver-li confiat les campanes, les imatjes,
les coses santes; l'esglesia bruta de sang profanadora tindría que
esser purificada pera hostatjar altra volta a Deu sagramentat, i quant
ell espiés son crim sobre el desonrós cadafalc, els pares li aproparíen
llurs infants per hauren esmena.
La paüra corría per entre la pell i l'os de son crani deprimit, riçant-li
les arrels de l'aspre cabellera.
No podía deixar que s repetís el crit aixordador, i, amatent i
esgarrifat, s'endinzá en l'esbiaixada porta.
Trobá a la Fineta revolcant-se pels graons, rebotía son cos per les
pedres, grans gemecs s'escapaven de sa boca, bleixava fort i seguit,
mentres obría i tancava els braços com estrenyent un aimant
invisible.
El campaner pensá en atüir a la bagassa i cercant el medi, enlairá son

esguard plé d'ánsia. Penjades de la volta les pedres enrodonides, a la
meitat de sa ruta, seguíen baixant, lentes, fatals, inconscients i dòcils,
vers la terra. Teníen la duresa i crudeltat que an ell li mancava pera
finir la agonía exasperant, i llur pesantor tremenda sabría ofegar els
cruximents satánics, les discordancies de perdició que exalava el cos
morent de la Fineta.
Arrocegant-la, la colocà sota la vertical dels contrapesos.
Començá una espera llarga, enguniosa, en la qual contava ls sotracs

del pèndul, el colpejar de son cor, aquell cabar fatídic de trapense,
aquell retruny isòcron que sonava en la tenebrosa escala.
I la gorja de la Fineta s'inflava atapaida de nous xiscles, de nous

gemecs estridents, de nous crits de suprema angoixa, i l campaner,
en un esclat d'impaciencia, feu ell lo que havía encomenat a les lleis
de la materia, a la inércia de les coses.
D'un sol braçat recullí la morta am ses robes, i rebregant-ho tot,

apilant-ho tot, ho enquiví dins la caixa del banc d'esglesia.
El cap se li esbaía, els jonolls se li flectaven i, am grans esforços pujá
a sa cambra.
Allí engolí un bon troç de pà, begué d'un sol trago una citra de vi
negre i agessant-se en son catre, clogué les parpelles en un desmai de
tot son esser.
IX
Aprés del toc d'oració en Josafat obrí l temple. L'empenta del cancell
sorollá tota la nau, i una glopada d'auba entrá suptil i flairosa. Més
tart els vitratjes dels finestrals i rosons s'aclaraven, i les llanties, amb
extremituts agóniques, reduint el cercle de sa llum s'esmortuiren.
Escolanets plens d'irreverenta joia trescaven per les capelles; en la

sagrestía els clergues am plácida serietat es revestíen; jovenetes de
galtes rosades, que la negra mantellina pessigollejava, preníen aigua
beneita i esparramant-se per l'esglesia cercaven llur confés; vellets de
fronts espaiosos i mans tremoloses oíen missa am gran devoció; aquí
i allí repicaven campanetes, i resos fervents am sòpit mormuri,
brollaven arreu.
En Josafat veia en els rostres, en les actituts, en els esguards, en les

genufleccions, en el petjar silenciós i reverent, en les mans conmoses
dels fidels que s signaven, una pau santa i una tranquilitat de
conciencia qu'envejava com un dó impossible de conseguir. S'adoná
també de que a fora els pardals xerrotejaven en els modelats dels
finestrals, de que el sol acalentava rioler els vidres de colors, de que
la brisa matinal filtrant-se per les escletxes de les portes duia
perfums i enjogassades remors, i son esperit, malmés per l'horror del
crim, medí per primera volta lo bo i agradós d'aquelles coses.
An ell sols li restava vetllar, vetllar sempre; per que ningú descobrís
aquell cadávre que planant sobre sa vida, com un pellingo endolat,
l'ombrejava tota.
Ferm i en guarda, en la entrada del campanar, esbrinant la

proximitat dels escolanets portadors de comandes, no s'allunyava
mai del banc d'esglesia, l'orella atenta, la boca grunyidora, la vista
fulgoranta.
A voltes creia percebre un panteig pregon dins el banc, obría am gran

precaució la caixa i a la llum freda i morta que atrevassava el mur,
ovirava envolcallades de penombra clapes informes de nuesa
esgrogeida entre rebrecs de fai bruts i polsosos.
Una alenada pudenta de suor i malaltía muntava del fons de

l'improvisat ataut, i el mateix recargolament de cabells de la nit,
resseguí el crani den Josafat.
Finides les rel·ligioses ceremonies del matí; deserta l'esglesia i éll

lliure d'obligacions, sentí necesitat d'alleugerir son ánima,
d'allunyar-se de la morta, i pujá a les golfes de la nau. Allí mirá al
lluny, vers les blavoses montanyes, vers son poblet, vers el païs
assoleiat de fresques ubagues i prads hermosos on la pastora s'hi
enjogassava temptant sa honesta adolescencia i ont ell fugía del
pecat, fortalescut per les contínues prédiques del sant rector. Volgué
haver-ne conçol d'aquelles llunyaníes, d'aquell passat, d'aquells
records agradosos, pro el cos értic i pudent de la Fineta s'interposava
i era més gran, més dominador que l sol, que l'espai atzurat, que
l'Univers, resplandent de llum joiosa.
I l sobtá, a l'impensada, una greu angoixa, una inquietut tremenda.
Havía fet mal fet de desamparar a la morta; calía vigilar ferm, no
tenir ni un descuit ni una imprevisió, cap porta era prou segura, cap
lloc prou amagat, sempre hi havía un rastre per descubrir els crims,
mai mancava una escletxa per ovirar les malifetes. Descendí, barroer,
neguitós, afollat. Depressa, abaix, pod-ser a l'entorn del banc hi
trovaría a la justicia!
Hi trobá l silenci, el maligne silenci de sempre, el que feia mesos

xiulava en ses orelles, el que de tant temps era son negre conceller, el
que havía revifat ses passions, encés son cor de liviandat i d'ira.
Respirà fressosament: ara calía no rendir-se fins que les humanes

despulles es cobrissin de verms, es tornessin pols, vent empudegant,
resquicia inapreciable.
El die com pesanta cadena s'arrocegava lent i pérfit. En Josafat, en sa

espera macábrica, esperonava son magí amb una toçuderia crudel,
insana. Les idees trotaven per un cercle reduit desenfrenades i
confoses, inventant plans deslliuradors, medis per despendre-s de
l'embalúm fastigós que comensava a pudrir-se en la caixa del banc, i
que creixía amenaçador, es feia enorme, acaparant l'espai, l'aire, la
llum de sos dominis. I pensava en Josafat en un ganivet de tall suptil
capáç de trocejar la carn de la Fineta en llengues primes que l vent
pogués endur-sen; pensava en una flama devoradora que consumís
sense fumera ni fator; en un líquit corrossiu, un vidriol, una aiga-fort
que digerís fins els ossos; en un oratje de monstruosa força que fés
voleiar les coses mes pesantes; en una torrentera térbola i profonda
que s'allunyés dissimulada sense fressa ni recança; i en una munió de
besties carniceres que vinguessin a omplenar llurs ventres famolencs
i descomunals.
Cap a la tarda li entrá un desfici martiritzador; una desconfiança

suprema. Es malfiá de la proximitat de l'esglesia; pensá en lo
impensat. Obrí de nou la tapa del banc i, sense llei de repugnancia,
ensacá el rígit cadavre. Abans de lligar el trist envalatje, serenament,
registrá el fons de la caixa per no deixar-hi cap rastre femení. Trobá
una pinteta, dues agulles de ganxo despreses de la cabellera de la
morta que, desplegada completament, s'enredava en les suades
manaces del campaner, resistint-se a ser ficada dins la saca.
Llesta la funeraria tasca, restá un moment indecís determinant on

portaría aquell fato amoïnador. El portá al primer estatje del
campanar deixant-lo sobre un pilot de runa, cobert amb una estora
vella.
Justament quan hagué retornat trucaren a la porta; darrera, en la

capella baptismal sonava una veu que l'anomenava. El campaner
empedreida la ganyota trágica en sa boca innoble, mostrá ses genives
grogues d'espant on s'encastaven unes dents blanques fortes i
apretades, entre les quines passava un bleix sorollós, esgarrifador
com un grinyol de llima que mossega ferro.
Es resistía a obrir i ls cops seguien més violents, i la veu cridava més

clara i més potenta.
Allavors entengué.
Ja fosc, surtía acompanyant al viátic, amoinat per lo sovint que calía
cumplir aital obligació.
De tornada sentí, per sobre l'esglesia enmantellada per un cel negre i

brufol, un refrec estrany com el batre d'unes ales monstruoses.
La petita flama de la llanterna se li apagá, i el campaner esporuguit,

apres de maldar una bella estona per fer girar la clau, restá amb el
puny tremolós sobre la freda tola que folrava la clavatejada i
revinguda porta forana, sens gosar-la empenyer.
–I ara Josafat qu'esperes? digué una veu pausada i serena.
Havía oblidat al sacerdot, al escolanet i als acompanyants que les

ratxes de la xardorosa ponentada rebregaven.
Entraren al temple i, un cop el pany gemegá radera els que surtíen, el

campaner tot sol romangué estamordit aprop del cancell.
El ponent mujía com una fera irada i venjadora; tota l'esglesia

ressentint-se de l'empenta enorme, llençava melangioses queixes,
llastimosos sospirs, que passaven de llarc a llarc de les tenebres;
creixent i apaibagant-se. Era un seguit de notes planyideres, un
concert anguniós i fùnebre que sugestionava an en Josafat,
inmovilisant-lo.
Al fí, resignat per endevant a sa llarga i penosa vetlla, aná a arraulir-

se vora la llantia del Santíssim.
Com la nit passada els ulls del campaner, inexpressius, lluents de

bojería, esbrinaren els indrets de la capella baptismal, aprés,
tombant la testa sópita, conduí aquella mirada trista i anguniosa pels
ambits de la nau, en espera de quelcom imposant que sens dupte
anava a sorgir-hi.
A cada segón remors desconeguts, fresses noves, agitaven el glatir de

son cor aniquilat: ja era l cruiximent de la fusta dels altars; ja l soroll
d'una pedreta arrocegada per les golfes, que la força del vent
estimbava pels forats dels ganfanons; ja un trontoll dels vitratjes o be
l miolar tristíssim i llunyà d'un gat perdut en les laberíntiques
buidors, en els innombrables espais enclosos dins les gruixaries dels
murs ciclòpics. I tot alló l'eco de la nau inmensa ho engrandía, i fins
l'orga semblava respondre el nocturn esglaiador. Dels llarcs canons
n'eixíen sonoritats estranyes, lleus, imperceptibles, que escampaven
arreu una harmonía misteriosa, incerta, de febròs deliri, d'ensomni
tràgic.
La testa den Josafat seguía rodant am pausat moviment de máquina.

Estava convençut de que l'espectre de la bagassa vindría convidant-lo
a palpar son ventre, l'ona fogosa que sosmovía les mortes entranyes,
lascives encara.
Al apropar-se l'auba, al pensar que l'esglesia seria oberta, invadida

per la gent, l'escometé aquell mateix desfici iniciat a última hora de
la tarda. En la inmensa pertorbació de son magí, sola, única; violenta
i dominadora, restá una idea: amagar més bé el cadávre de la Fineta.
Pujá doncs al compartiment del campanar. Els carreus de la reclosa

cambra reflectían la llum roja i fantàstica del troç d'atxa.
Un gat negre que ajaçat sobre l'estora dormía, fugí am les nines
plenes de fosforecencies verdoses. En Josafat prengué son bagatje i
desde allavors començà un tragí horrible que durá dos díes. Aposentá
el sac en tots els amagatalls, l'enquiví en totes les estretors, el deixà
en totes les tenebres. Una nit entera estigué arrocegant-lo pel llarc
trifori perduda l'esma, volguent amagar-lo en el ninxo inmond, el
mateix on ja en vida intentá sepultar-hi a la Fineta.
Al fí ensopegá am la porta de la torra románica i, devallant pels

graons de la petita escala, sotraquejá el cadávre estovaint-lo, fent-li
llençar bravades pestilentes.
Quan tingué tapada aquella mena de tomba oberta en el gruix de la

adjuva, semblá asserenarse un xic i, capolat del esforç, es condormí
una mitja hora durant la qual va somniar.
La Fineta esternallada al seu costat, inmensament freda, li

esgarrapava el pit am ses ungles verinoses; li obría un esboranc, hi
passava les mans, li espremía el cor i, amorrant-se a la nafra, xuglava
la sang fins escolar-lo. I sentía el campaner una suor gebrada que l
cubría, i dintre l pit un suprem defalliment, una angoixa de mort.
Aprés els dos se reviscolaven i la bagassa, inflada com una bomba de

gas, volava lluny, molt lluny, i desde allá d'allá li signava adeu
cloguent i descloguent sos dits enjoiats; i ell alegre, lliure de noses,
corría a cercar son fluviol pera tocar la bona tonada de ritme
plascévol i pastoril cadencia.
En Josafat durant el díe, en les hores que tenía obligació es

comportava com si tal cosa: no més s'haurien pogut notar matiços de
desconfiança en el jaspi de sos ulls, i lleus estremituts en sa còrpora
que traduíen esgarrifances de l'ánima.
En les estones de lléura de la tarda que l'esglesia s'aquietava,

reapareixía son desfici; una força estranya a n-ell l'impulsava a vagar
amb el fato macàbric.
Ultimament rendit i demacrat per vetlles i dejunis, amb un esforç

titànic, muntà a les golfes de la gran volta i en la runa que omplenava
els espais de les arcades, començá a cavar-hi una fossa. La ponentada
seguía llepant am sa llengua folla la grandiosa esglesia; regolfades
vertiginoses aixecaven pols i bilorda que cegaven al campaner; els
asperons dels contraforts, tallant la massa fluída, la desviaven, la
dividíen, arrancant-li xiulets i udols de monstre prehistòric.
El refrec metálic de l'ampla fulla del cávec am la runa de la volta,

restava ofegat per l'atraút aixordador de l'ardida lluita.
I l campaner enfondía el clot am tota la pressa que li permetíen sos

muscles laçats i fluixos.
El sobtà la nit. El ponent moría, passaven débils ratxes i, molt llunyá,

sonava un remúc d'apaibagament i d'impotencia.
En Josafat trevallava sense llum, refiant-se no més de la

entrenyinada celestía que passava per les obertures dels ventiladors.
Tenía el sac aprop. Havía volgut cremar el cos pudent de la bagassa i
ara, pel forát socarrimat, surtía un membre que de tant arrocegar-se
pel sòl s'havía nafrat i no sagnava. El campaner, ficat com un taup
dins la fosa, per no fer soroll, am les mans esgratinyava la runa. Oí
perfectament com un inmens sanglót de la naturalesa i l caure seguit
d'una pluja espessa.
Sospengué la tasca i escoltá complascút una fressa de brollador que

comensava a sentir-se. El rajar de les canals, el glu, glu de les
gárgoles i el murmuri de riuada que pujava de la ciutat, l'alegraren.
Sortí de les golfes i per la teulada de l'absis sempre amb el sac a coll,
començá a passejar-se sense verdadera intenció de res. Sols una vaga
idea de que l'aigua ho purifica tot, de que l sac se rentava, de que
podser la farúm empudeganta s'en aniría, de que ls ruixats
refrescaríen son front cremós i enboirat, li daven conort.
En Josafat rigué al mig de la nit plorosa.
Per la pendent de les teules molles feia de mal caminar-hi, els peus li
relliscaven i el sac, que aixopat pesava més, l'empenyía avall, com si
en el cadavre es despertés una voluntat misteriosa.
El campaner seguí aquell impuls fins al caire del precipici. Sota séu,
s'endinzava en la foscor l'esperó de l'adjuva. Encara era oviradora la
taca negra de molsa i liquens arrelats en el junt de la cornisa, on finía
la corva i comensava la plomada altíssima i perfecta.
En Josafat i son bagatje, reposant en el gruix de l'ample mur, anaven

amarant-se.
Nuvolades espesses corríen sobre d'ells enfosquint la poca

transparencia de les estrelles. Els xafecs refermaren i abaix, en l'abim
enigmátic, l'aigua acarrerada entre l'esglesia i una paret del antic
cementiri dels canonges, bramulava.

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Advances in Urban Planning in

Developing Nations 1st Edition Arnab

Advances in Architecture, Engineering and Technology:

Emerging Debates in the Construction Industry: The

Advances in Water Resource Planning and Sustainability

Urban Geopolitics Rethinking Planning in Contested

Urban Planning for Transitions 1st Edition Nicolas

Artificial Intelligence in Urban Planning and Design:

Teacher Leadership in Professional Development Schools

Community Participation in Decision Making Processes in

Edited by Arnab Jana

List of figures vii

1 Urbanization and data analytics 1

2 Urban perception experiments: Transition from traditional

3 Computation-driven design heuristic for environmentally

4 Coverage or response time: A study of fire station

5 Applicability of Big Data for transportation planning

6 Capturing multitasking and the role of travel time

7 Assimilating geospatial and decision science: Application

8 Connecting users with decision-makers: A case for

9 Analyzing the housing condition and ventilation performance

10 Utilizing Online Social Media for coordinating post-disaster

11 Solar PV-battery systems: The role of ICT, Big Data,

12 Access to public facilities in India: Descriptive analysis

1.1 Urban population (% of total population) 2

3.16 Generation of iterated interior design scenarios with varying design

11.4 Seasonal electricity consumption of residences 219

1.1 Different types of urban data platforms 11

11.1 Challenges and Enablers of CES 217

Ronita Bardhan is university lecturer of Sustainability in Built Environment

Moumita Basu is an assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science,

Ravinder Dhiman is assistant professor at School of Disaster Studies,Tata Institute

Saptarshi Ghosh is assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science

Arun B. Inamdar is professor with Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering

Vaibhav Kumar is currently a postdoctoral fellow at IIT Kanpur. He received his

Ahana Sarkar is currently an assistant professor at Hiroshima University, Japan. She

Varun Varghese is currently an assistant professor at Hiroshima University, Japan.

Deepank Verma is currently postdoctoral researcher at Technische Universität

ACH Air Changes Per Hour

ESA Existing Situation Analysis

MoSPI Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of

1.1 Urbanization and its impacts

The scale of urbanization is unparalleled in terms of population size, urban

Urban populaon (% of total populaon)

60.0 China, 59.2

FIGURE 1.1 Urban population (% of total population)

1.2 Development, planning, and urbanization

There is an urgent requirement of a new agenda that should be implementable,

1.2.1 Role of ICT in urbanization

Mobile cellular subscripons (per 100 people)

1.2.2 Habitat planning and urbanization

1.3 Predictability of urban future

Attempts to study typical trajectories of the city’s evolutions highlighting history of

of big data in mainstream policymaking. Therefore, governance of individual data,

i) traditional sensing and measurement – installation of sensors to collect a typol-

1.4.2 Urban data analytics

• utility companies (use of electricity, gas, and water);

These urban big data, it is contended, produce a highly granular, longitudinal,

1.1 Urbanization and its impacts

Urban populaon (% of total populaon)

1.2 Development, planning, and urbanization

1.2.1 Role of ICT in urbanization

Mobile cellular subscripons (per 100 people)

1.2.2 Habitat planning and urbanization

1.3 Predictability of urban future

1.4.2 Urban data analytics

1.4.2.1 Urban data platforms

1.5 Need for a data-driven solution

1.6 Urban data and ethics

2.1.1 Studies in urban perception

2.2 Other sensory dimensions