Land Utilization in Indian Cities and The Role of Development Control Regulation: A Case Study of Ahmedabad


 India’s urban population is expected to grow from 410 million in 2014 to 814 million by 2050, as per the TERI document. If urban growth continues to grow at this rate, to accommodate new urban population, large amount of urban land will be required. With the fact that, the land is an important and limited resource, the need to ﬁnd the way to use it efﬁciently and smartly is essential. For that, ﬁrst step is to understand the existing urban morphology and its impact on land utilization in the current scenario. This will help to understand how efﬁciently is the urban land utilized in Indian cities, if we compare the study with other world cities. The main concern of the research is – 1. How efﬁciently is the urban land utilized in India’s cities? 2. What is the role of Development Control Regulations (DCRs) in the efﬁciency of land utilization? 3. How utilization of urban land can be improved with respect to DCRs? For the study, urban land is classiﬁed in three parts public realm, building footprints and private open space. To understand the existing urban land, quantitative and qualitative study of it has been taken out for the thirteen squares in Ahmedabad city. From the study it has been found that the majority of land area in our cities falls under the category of private open space, which is primarily divided in small pieces. A further study of private open spaces reveals the existing condition of it utilized or under-utilized. The study questions, why do we need private open spaces in such large amount around the buildings? To understand the argument, a similar study has been under taken to understand how urban land is used in other world cities. Following this, the study takes a new turn to ﬁnd why we need private open space around the buildings in Indian cities? Is it out of people’s choice or they are forced to do so? Does, the development control regulations play an important role in making large amount of private open space? The research elaborates all the arguments with the existing scenario of Indian city (Ahmedabad as a case) and suggests how we can improve the land utilization through some changes in development control regulations.

India's urban population is expected to grow from 410 million in 2014 to 814 million by 2050, as per the TERI document. There will be a need of more people to accommodate in our cities. On the other side, serviced urban land is becoming increasingly scarce in our cities. Therefore, it is very important to find ways of efficiently using it to accommodate the growing urban population, without reducing the quality of the urban environment (Rosanna & Chapin, 1957). More efficient use of land would reduce not only the direct cost of land in projects but also the cost of providing and maintaining urban infrastructure (Bertaud et al., 1988).

Need of the Study:
Different urban patterns and urban forms utilize land, as a resource differently (Anguluri & Narayanan, 2017). These patterns and forms have different types of impacts on its use of land, amount of floor space generated, number of people accommodated (people density), how well organized it feels on ground, etc. Generally, these development patterns and urban forms are direct result of the development control regulations (DCRs) of the city (Adhvaryu, 2011;Thomas et al., 2014). Failure to efficiently use land for the growing population results in high housing prices, exacerbates the creation of high-density slums, and generally lowers urban productivity (Bertaud, 2010). Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand the existing urban morphology and its impact on the land utilization.

Aim and Research Questions:
The aim of this research is to analyze alternative urban dynamics and morphologies of Indian cities and to assess their efficiencies and inefficiencies in the way they utilize their urban land. Also, understanding the impact of regulation on the land utilization and how can we improve it. The aim leads to research questions -1. How efficiently is the urban land utilized in India's cities? 2. What is the role of Development Control Regulations (DCRs) in the efficiency of Land Utilization? 3. How utilization of urban land can be improved with respect to DCRs?

LAND UTILIZATION IN INDIAN CITIES:
Land is one of the most important and limited resource, on which all the human's activities are depend upon. The study of land utilization has become crucial in present days, as it helps to find the non-used or miss-used land and also helps to find solutions to reuse that part of land. To study Land Utilization, one needs to classify it as per the study requirement.

Classification of Urban Land:
The classification of urban land is important to understand the complex character of the city structure. For the study purpose, the urban land is divided into three parts Public Realm (public streets and public open space), Building Footprint, and Private Open Space.

Site Selection:
Ahmedabad city has been selected as a case for the land utilization study due to its easy accessibility to the sites. To carry out a detailed studya. A sample size of Squares having an area of 25 ha (500m x 500m) has been selected in a different part of the city. Some of the sites are developed at different times and lies in different planning zones, according to Ahmedabad Master Plan 2021. b. The study area could be selected as per the Transect lines, but transect lines vary from area to area and city to city. Therefore, the land utilization through the transect line would be misleading, as there would be no common factor to relate or compare different sites in the city. Hence, a sample size of the square has been set as a fixed parameter for the study. c. Square of fixed shape and size (500m x 500m), has been selected as bigger than the selected dimension would have been difficult to manage and finish within the research time limit, and a sample size lesser than the selected dimension would have been too small to get any solid numbers for thorough study.
Thirteen squares have been selected according to their different urban patterns and along the city's transect lines, i.e., from the oldest core city to the newest peri-urban area, which can be seen in Figure. 1.

Study Process of Sample Squares:
After the site selection, each site has been digitized using aerial imagery extracted from Google Earth Pro, Figure. 2(i). Google Earth Pro has been chosen for aerial image extraction, as it is easily available, it provides high-resolution images, and it offers worldwide imagery with proper scales. The digitization of each square has been done layerwise, as per the classification of urban land for the land utilization study-  Then, the area of each layer has been calculated and recorded in the form of a

Use of Private Open Space in Indian Context (Ahmedabad as a Case)
To understand the existing situation of private open space, a primary study has been done on the selected squares. From the study, it can be seen that most of the marginal space are underutilized; some places they have been encroached; Common Plots that are designed for community activities and children to play, are used for parking ( Figure. 4). To understand, what forces them to provide so much space around the buildings? The study begins with the evaluation of Development Control Regulations, as DCRs controls and regulates the physical growth of towns and cities (Patel et al., 2018).

Development Control Regulations:
"As per the D. Thomas, the main aim of the Development Control Regulations is to ensure that land is developed in an organized and reasonable manner in order to create sustainable human settlements that can accommodate a range of land use type to meet the needs of the people who live there." (Thomas et al., 2014). Many experts have mentioned that the urban form is shaped by the enforcement of the development control regulations. To check how DCRs effects land utilization, the study has been done specifically to those regulations which have been listed in the Development of Land (AUDA, 2013; Ahmedabad GDCR -2021 p. g. 86-111) and those are Margins, Common Plots, Thick Plantation, Margin between Building, Internal Road and Parking. To study the impact of government regulation on land utilization, there is an immense need to check how it works on the plot level.

How do the regulations play out on a plot?
To check the impact of regulation on the plot, the study has been proceeded by analyzing the approval plans of the building in the city (Ahmedabad as a case), Figure. 6. Three approval plans have been selected on the basis of availability and having different areas, as regulation varies with respect to the plot size.

Why is so much open space demanded in a Plot, as per the Regulations?
There are certain underlying assumptions, which are never made explicit or recorded; nor they are based on any empirical studies. But they are always assumed while framing Development Control Regulations. These are: Assumption 1: Margins are required for fire safety. Assumption 2: Margins results in addition of green spaces.
Assumption 3: Margins and ground coverage are must for air and ventilation. Assumption 4: Margins are required for parking. Assumption 5: Common places are essential for community gathering spaces and play area.
To check these assumptions really exists in the real world, observational study has been done with respect to the existing scenarios.

Assumption 1: Margins are required for fire safety.
Generally, regulation makers (planners or designers) argued that in Indian cities margins are required for fire safety. However, in reality it is impossible for fire safety vehicles to enter margins due to various reasons, Figure. 7(i).

Assumption 2: Margins result in addition of green spaces.
Regulation makers (planners or designers) also argued that in Indian cities margins result in addition of green spaces. However, in reality majority of margin space are left vacant and only few results in green space, which can be seen in Figure. 8(i).

Figure. 8(i). Margins are lef vacant or used as a passage. (Source: Author)
Contrary to this, if these margin spaces are combined into one single common space, it would result in larger, easily accessible and more usable green spaces, Figure. 8(ii).

Assumption 4: Margins are required for parking
Regulation makers (planners or designers) argued that in Indian cities margins are required for parking. However, in existing scenario space remains vacant, inaccessible for vehicles, and underutilized in most of the cases and roads are encroached by vehicle, Figure. 10. Regulation makers also argued that common plots are required for community activities and children to play. But DCRs allows 50% of the common plot can be used as a Parking Space in case of Residential Use. In result of it, most of the common plot area used as a parking space in existing scenario, which can be seen through given examples, Figure. 11.

Inference -
The observations reveal that these underlying assumptions are incorrect. It is also clear that the Development Control Regulations may not serve the purpose for which they are framed. So how should they be framed/improved?

RETHINKING REGULATIONS:
This research has been able to bring out that Development Control Regulations play an important role in shaping a city and in land utilization. From the above discussion, it is clear that the existing DCRs in India (Ahmedabad as a case) are forcing people to make more Private Open Space in their building units and there is no proper justification for these regulations. The creation of these regulations is much more depends on the certain underlying assumption, which is also been proved by the observational study-that those are incorrect, there are other world cities functioning without the assumed requirement.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to rethink the Development Control Regulations, as the urban land is limited and population in the cities is increasing in high pace which will lead to the horizontal expansion of the city. To accommodate future requirement, land has to be efficiently used.
From the above learnings, some recommendation in the DCRs has been suggested in this research, which will impact on the urban land by increasing land in the Permissible Building Footprint or in the Public Realm. These are:

Roadside Margin are not Required.
Roadside margins are generally useable for places where -street has to be expanded in the future or to provide privacy to people residing in the building from the street traffic. Street expansion depends on the city requirement and the privacy depends on the people who will reside or use the building. To improve the land utilization, if we remove the roadside margin compulsion and state that the Roadside Margin are not Required (if there is no need of street expansion), then it will provide flexibility to people to build as per their need whether it can be maximizing the use of land or their privacy, Figure. 12(i). In most of the cases people will tend to make built-to-line buildings, as land is limited, which will not only improve the efficiency of land utilization but also give definition to the street and enhances the walking experience. In case of mixed use or commercial edge, Built-to-line (No Roadside Margin) can be required, which will provide better access, improve shopping experience and convenience for loading and unloading in shops.
1. Roadside Margins are not Required.

No Common Plot Required in Commercial
Development.

Common Plot Required for the Residential
Development, but doesn't have to be at Ground Level. 4. No compound walls between plots to allow shared parking between plots.

No Common Plot Required in Commercial Development
Common plots are generally designed for community gathering and play area for children.
In case of commercial building unit, common plot is not needed for both the scenarios, as for any kind of interaction there is maximum possibility of people to use public street and there is no such requirement for children's play area. In existing scenario, common plot in commercial area are generally occupied for parking, because DCRs (Ahmedabad) has a regulation, according to which complete area of common plot can be used as parking space (Byahut et al., 2020). As Common plot of commercial land only used for parking, if 'No Common Plot required in Commercial Development' regulation can be applied then the parking requirement can be managed in the basement or in the Public Street and land will be used in permissible building footprint, Figure. 12(ii).

Common Plot Required for the Residential Development but doesn't have to be at Ground Level
Common plot for residential is essential for community gathering and children to play. But is it necessary to keep common plot on ground floor? As in other cities like Mumbai, Malaysia, etc. there are many building units which have common plots above the ground level, Figure. 12(iii).

Compound Walls -No compound walls between plots to allow shared parking between plots.
In Indian Cities (Ahmedabad as a case), there is a high demand of the parking, it can be seen through the existing condition of common plots as they are designed for gathering space but used as a parking space. There is a need of a regulation through which shared parking can happen. For that compound wall between adjacent plots can be removed to allow shared parking, Figure. 12(iv). In future, urban population will increase as per (TERI, 2016) document. There will be requirement of more public space, without compromising the building footprint area. To achieve that if the existing roadside margin has been taken as a part of public realm and following above recommended regulations of common plot -no common plot for commercial and common plot required for residential but doesn't have to be on ground floor (TERI, 2016). Then the public realm area will increase but permissible building footprint area will remain same, Figure. 12(v).

Conclusion
The quantitative and qualitative understanding of selected squares in Ahmedabad city brings out that the higher percentage of urban land is in Private Open Space which is underutilized in existing condition, while other world cities do not require such a large chunk of land in private open space but still they utilize their urban land efficiently, without compromising the basic functionality of circulation and access in the city. In the course of researching, it also became clear that the most pressing unresolved issue of land utilization are so much to do with the Development Control Regulations of the city. As per the current regulation more than 50% of land are forced to go in Private Open Space. It highlights the crucial role of DCRs on the efficiency of urban land utilization, it also highlights how regulation makers (planners and designers) are following the underlying assumption while framing regulation without analyzing it with the existing scenarios.
In future, to use urban land efficiently, regulations need to be rethought without compromising with the circulation and accessibility in the city. Once Jan Gehl has said, "Something happens because something happens because somethings happens". Following his quote, we really need to improve our development control regulation to get efficient use of urban land for future generations. As improved regulation would lead to efficient Land Utilization.