Midweek Musings 7 21.01.2026 Landscape management.

 By Malini Shankar

 Digital Discourse Foundation

At the core of land use policy (for Smart city governance) or any other public policy related to landscape management is the priorities apportioned to prioritized land use. That asks for verticals of the urban economy to integrate with biodiverse ecosystems for a holistic natural resource management based Climate friendly sustainable economy. For example Climate adapted urban architecture utilizes the natural ecosystem by sequestering Carbon, and auxilerating the green belt sustainably. That means public policy has to clearly define land use priorities:

1.       Central Business District.

2.       Commercial and trade establishments.

3.       Agricultural land / food supply land / water and resources; grazing pens, veterinary hospitals, for livestock, grazing lands, all this must be planned for agricultural band.

4.       Agricultural produce markets.

5.       Supply Chain and Logistics (planning)

6.       Common Property Resources (like health care infrastructure, educational infrastructure / institutions / research institutions, research labs etc.)

7.       Multiple modes of Public Transport with dedicated transport lanes.

8.       Protected Water Bodies,

9.       Parks, Green Belt and Green Cover,

10.   Highways, Arterial roads, Main Roads, Cross roads, lanes, etc.

11.   Other landscapes like rocks, valleys, and wilderness areas have to be protected and conserved per policy - as it is - on a per capita basis.

12.   Wilderness areas even inside urban areas help in protection of urban wildlife (like reptiles, birds, tree dwellers like nocturnal mammals, rodents etc.) They are invalidated because of habitat loss and threat of extinction because of habitat loss.

13.   Agriculture and food supply is the one sector that needs landscape planning and management the most. Given that agriculture and food supply needs fertile land and fresh water supply systems, land use planning for cultivation, water bodies, livestock penning, supply and logistics grazing lands, needs critical attention. The urban population’s demands must be directly proportional to the supply and demand. Imagine if there is enough agricultural land to serve the food supply needs of people and animals from within the district. Grow local, and buy local is quite literally the scene. Ofcourse one cannot expect to grow millet in areas where rice or water hungry crops can be grown. So that needs planning too. But a band of fertile land with rich underground water sources (which is incidentally already there in all of India) has only to be earmarked and banded in such a way that the population settlements should be calibrated according to HDI in that district. Irrigation systems too have to be small and sustainable, obviously.

14.   Sanitation infrastructure and logistics, catchment area and drainage areas have to be planned and protected.

15.   Orphanages, sanatoria, cemeteries / crematoria – to be planned on a per capita basis, must be located at the far end of the district bands. Cemeteries need thick tree cover. Tree lined cemeteries can be part of Green Belt.

16.   Disaster relief, policing and fire services to be calibrated per HDI on a per capita basis.

You see the dire need for census results?