Waste free cities: pathways to future smart cities in India

Rapid urbanisation worldwide has led to unplanned increases in the population of some cities. This has resulted in a number of social and environmental problems such as space, traffic congestion, housing, and increased waste volumes. Various concepts of sustainable and smart cities have been developing as platforms of solutions to these issues, including urban waste management problems. The ‘green and sustainable’ cities concept focuses on environmental perspectives and the ‘smart’ cities concept focuses towards technological solutions. For a variety of reasons, application of these solutions to developing countries is very restricted. Moreover, issues such as waste management have so far been given less consideration although they can significantly contribute towards smart urban objectives. As a response, this research project engaged in further developing the concept of waste free cities as an integrated framework that links waste management with smart cities’ objectives. The research utilised the case study method by considering three cities in India. The key stakeholders in the cities’ waste management operations were identified and primary data were collected through citizen surveys as well as structured interviews with the local authorities, NGOs, private entrepreneurs, and the wider informal sector. The waste free cities concept was developed by following a holistic approach and considered various aspects such as environmental protection, healthy living, governance, stakeholders, awareness, among other criteria. The research identified the contribution of waste management towards the smart and sustainable resource utilisation. During the transformation of waste to a resource, the value adding activities associated with it are identified by mapping the waste value chains. The major finding shows that the city having highest level of stakeholder interaction and greater degree of collaborations resulted in higher value addition to waste and showed a positive effect towards the smart transformation when waste free cities framework was applied. The findings also pointed towards the significant contribution of the informal sector in helping these three cities meet smart objectives besides contributing in effectively managing waste volumes. The research contributes to the theories for waste free cities and provides strategic, operational and tactical recommendations that can have an impact in the formation of smarter and cleaner cities in developing countries.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Greenwich

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Pappu, Anusha

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Ieromonachou, Petros
• Zhou, Li

• HD Industries. Land use. Labor

Language dc:language

en