M.Planning(Urban) thesis for Guru Ramdas School of Planning-Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar
The world is urbanizing at a very high pace, with more than half of the global population now living in urban areas. Improving urban environments for the well-being of the increasing urban population is becoming one of the most important challenges. While city planners customarily have visions of a ‘‘healthy, liveable and sustainable urban environment,’’ those visions are usually limited to visual aesthetics. The acoustic environment needs to be given attention as, in contrast to lots of other environmental issues such as noise pollution which is growing rapidly in Indian cities. The qualitative outlook of sound, which includes aural diversity and acoustic ecology, is an ignored area of urban planning. This thesis suggests an approach for including the urban soundscape in the Urban planning process for one of the noisiest squares in Ludhiana City.
