Benchmarking urban sustainability -A Composite Index for Mumbai and Bangalore

Abstract

The study investigates whether the present pattern of urban development in India in the creation of mega cities is sustainable and what it can learn from the global mega cities. This has been done by comparing the two Indian cities Mumbai and Bangalore with selected mega cities of the worlds representing different stages of development (Shanghai, London, and Singapore) using an indicator-based approach under a sustainability framework. The prioritised indicators under the three dimensions of sustainability - economic, social and environmental - are included for the comparison. The approach is used for developing dimension-wise sustainability indices as well as composite urban sustainability indices (USIs) for all the chosen cities. In the next step, these index values are compared with the hypothetical benchmark urban sustainability index values and sustainability gaps are identified. These gaps essentially represent the targets for achieving sustainable urbanization. The results indicate that compared to benchmark index values, both Mumbai and Bangalore have large gaps to bridge with respect to economic sustainability where as they relatively better placed with respect to social and environmental sustainability. Among the five cities, Singapore emerges at the top with a high USI value and Bangalore and Mumbai occupy the last two positions respectively. We believe that the indicator-based approach represent a primary tool to provide guidance for policy makers and to potentially assist in decision-making and monitoring local strategies/plans. The outcome of the study will contribute to the design of policies, tools, and approaches essential for planning to attain the goal of sustainable development and the social cohesion of metropolitan regions.