Sahu and Saizen City Territ Archit (2018) 5:5 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40410-018-0082-8 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Development of planning index for evaluating climate change protocols: analysis of Mumbai Metropolitan Region’s Regional Plan 1996–2011 Sonam Sahu* and Izuru Saizen Abstract Conserving resources, harmonizing living standards, and employing energy efcient methods are potential solutions to climate change, which can be positively accomplished through development and planning. However, today, as the frst world countries advance towards “positive development”, some third world countries are developing in an “unwanted pattern”. The metropolitan cities of developing countries attract most of the country’s population, conse‑ quently becoming the worst suferers of the situation. They grow faster than their capacity allows, and then due to the lack of strategy, poor governance, and weak policies; face overwhelming pressure on land and natural resources. Documenting this situation using the case of a metropolitan city in India, the present paper aims to identify the problems faced by a metropolitan city in a developing country. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region’s Regional Plan 1996–2011 was analyzed to determine the response to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Furthermore, a new diagnostic tool, namely the “Climate Change Planning Index”, which can deliver valuable information at a glance, was developed. The paper concludes with a summary of the climate change crisis and the necessity of development in a developing metropolitan city. Keywords: Regional Planning, Urbanization, Climate Change Planning Index, Plan analysis Introduction climate priorities in the planning of a city and are sup- Climate change planning, also known as Planning for porting local governments in this direction. However, Climate Change has emerged as a new mandate after planning codes and procedures difer depending on the witnessing and predicting the consequences of cli- regional contexts. Terefore, it is impossible for clima- mate change in the Earth’s atmosphere (Davoudi et al. tologists and planners to reach one global solution to 2009, 2012; Füssel 2007; Measham et al. 2011; UN Habi- climate change crisis favorable to local governments of tat 2014). While there is a lot of agitation in the scien- diferent regions (EPA 2016). Te situation is worse for tifc community about climate change as a challenge, less developed countries, because the code and conduct the research database of region specifc climate change of planning is liquidated by several factors such as pov- planning is still not strong enough. Many national and erty, dependence on climate-based resources, and low international organizations such as ICLEI’s (Local Gov- adaptive capacity (Parliamentary Ofce of Science and ernment for Sustainability), Energy Cities, C40 and Technology: UK 2006). Tis can mostly be drawn from many NGOs are currently promoting the introduction of the fact that most of the countries which have a stringent planning system and lawful implementation of the plan- ning policies have performed better in Greenhouse Gas *Correspondence: [email protected] (GHG) reduction goals; and these mostly happen to be Laboratory of Regional Planning, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, 2nd Floor, Research Building No. the industrialized countries of the world. For example, 5, Yoshida‑honmachi, Sakyo‑ku, Kyoto 6068501, Japan London’ has achieved a huge reduction in the emission © The Author(s) 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creat​iveco​mmons​.org/licen​ses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Sahu and Saizen City Territ Archit (2018) 5:5 Page 2 of 17 levels, currently approximating to the 1990 level (Te that fts all contexts has not been discovered. Tere is World Bank 2010); (Greater London Authority 2011); need of an application index that provides policy mak- New York is seeing a signifcant drop in GHG emissions ers with a quick overview of region-specifc sophisticated (York 2017); London, Ontario (City of London 2017) has information in a précised form. Summarizing this situa- achieved a reduction as low as 8% below the 1990 level tion, the paper aims to analyze the planning strategies of while, Hoornweg et al. (2011) demonstrated graphically an urbanizing metropolitan city in a developing country how Sweden and Germany have lowered down their per and determine its response to climate change protocols. capita GHG emissions with policy changes. Te World As such, the present paper attempts to study and discuss Bank (2011) recognises the impact that local planning the following string of thoughts; how does a city vulner- governments have on emissions from the diferent plan- able to climate change plans to cope with this challenge; ning sectors like land use planning, transportation etc. how well the planning objectives of a city in a develop- For cities and towns in developed countries, adapta- ing country are aligned with climate protocols; and with tion is easier, because of the availability of fnances and the growing need of economic development, how is the better technology. However, cities in less developed city balancing its climate related priorities. Te Mum- countries face multiple challenges (UN-Habitat 2014; bai Metropolitan Region (MMR) in India is selected for World Bank 2010) and hence lie far behind in the March. the study. Te paper evaluates the planning strategies by Moreover, urbanization, which is being seen as catalyst analyzing MMR’s Regional Plan 1996–2016. A new tool, for the climate related problems in the world is increas- namely the Climate Change Planning Index, is developed ing exponentially in the developing counties. United to evaluate planning for mitigation and adaptation proto- Nations (2016) alleges that world’s most populated urban cols. Te results are expressed as sunburst graphs, which cities are located in less developed countries, mostly in statistically demonstrate the potential of climate change the global south and India is projected to add 404 mil- mitigation and adaptation strategy present in the textual lion urban dwellers by 2050 to the world urban popula- documents. Te results of this study are important to the tion (United Nations 2015a, b). United Nations (2016) planners, climatologists and researchers as these provide introduced a list of megacities1 located in Global South, a quick insight to the measure of strength and weakness according to which, Delhi and Mumbai, two Indian cities of the planning system of MMR at a glance. In addition to lie on the second and forth platform in 2016 respectively this, the results show outright that which component of while there are four more in the most populated 30 meg- planning needs more eforts and has more scope of work. acities. World Bank (2010) alleges that metropolitan cit- Te study enhances the local knowledge of climate plan- ies, especially the coastal cities of the world, will be the ning and can be a strong pillar for the future planning in most afected by climate change. Tis calls for a need to MMR. It establishes the actual linkage between climate apply climate change protocols to the planning aspects of change protocols and planning policies of MMR and metropolitan cities of India at an urgent basis. therefore can ensure the adherence of climate priorities While planning is acknowledged as a solution to in the planning process right at the beginning. uncontrolled urbanization (Wahlgren et al. 2010; Tay- It is notable that, the new tool ‘Climate Change Plan- lor 2012); studies confrm the signifcant role of spatial ning Index’ is a fexible design which takes into account planning in shaping the strengths and weaknesses of a the planning textbooks of the city/region itself. Hence, region’s future with respect to climate change (Antonson by modifying the decision parameters as per the con- et al. 2016; Baettig et al. 2007; Biesbroek et al. 2009, 2010; text, this tools can be applied to any region which has an Davoudi et al. 2009; Hamin and Gurran 2009; Wilson and established planning system. Piper 2010). Roggema (2016) talked about the issues of For the context of this paper, the word planning implies urban regions due to climate uncertainties. Chang et al. ‘spatial planning’ and since the study area is a metropoli- (2014) proposed a Climate Change Index which indi- tan region, which comprises of many districts and towns; cated the degree of susceptibility of a region to climatic spatial planning specifcally refers to spatial planning of a extremes. Boswell et al. (2012) have established in their regional i.e. regional planning. book how embedding climate action plans in local plans has proven to be benefcial in US. In many researches, cli- Methods and materials mate change planning has received attention (Baynham Te study employed a rigorous methodology and exhaus- and Stevans 2012; Hurlimann and March 2012; Kamal- tive process of analysis described as follows: Chaoui and Robert 2009) but even then, a universal tool 1. Multiple feld surveys were conducted in the MMR to understand the factors afecting the climate and 1 Megacity: City with a population of more than 10 million people. discuss the land cover changes in the past. Sahu and Saizen City Territ Archit (2018) 5:5 Page 3 of 17 Fig. 1 Map of India showing the location of Maharashtra and Mumbai (left) and the districts of MMR (right) 2. Planning authorities were interviewed to under- Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) stand their views on the climate change strategy in MMR is a metropolitan region with an area 4311.75 the region and to collect documents related to the sq.km built around Mumbai city at the core and is one regional plans.