Urbanization and environment: lessons from theory and practice for urban policy

Cities are complex. They create agglomeration and scale economies and are termed ‘engines’. of growth. Cities also continuously face new challenges every day, exacerbated by unchecked urbanization and growing population, an increasing cause of concern for the environment. Underlying the problems of urbanization are the unplanned expansion of city areas, lack of congestion and pollution fighting measures, and feeble pace of progress and seriousness towards sustainable goals. Focusing on the urban environmental problems, this paper offers insights into the challenges associated with overcoming the problems as well as the investment requirements for providing basic infrastructure and services to the urban population. Theadoption of abottom-up approach and removal of thegovernance bottlenecks of ULBs is the best approach to achieve urban sustainability. Furthermore, implementing policies relating to green tax, congestion pricing, transit-oriented development (TOD), inclusionary zoning as well as promotion of solar energy are also desirable. The purpose of this paper is to identify and investigate the environmental impacts of rapid urbanization and develop preventative policy measures from theory and practice using a conceptual framework. The policy measures suggested in this paper are constructed against the backdrop of ‘sustainable development goals’. formulated by United Nations.