May/June 2016

MAY/JUNE 2016 Rs. 20

Smart Urban Planning

Envisioning a

Photographs by RAKESH MALHOTRA

TB-Free India

O Above: Ambassador Richard R. Verma (left) interacts with Amitabh Bachchan at Roosevelt House.

Below: Bachchan (center) and Ambassador Verma (center left) with guests at the reception.

n March 7, Ambassador Richard R. Verma was joined by Amitabh Bachchan, the Government of India’s brand ambassador for the “Call to Action for a TB-Free India,” civil society members, health workers, patient advocates and corporate representatives for a reception in anticipation of World Tuberculosis Day on March 24.

Held at Roosevelt House, the residence of the ambassador, the reception was aimed at keeping up the momentum behind collaborative tuberculosis (TB) eradication efforts. The program featured

insights from TB survivors, including Bachchan, to highlight the urgency behind the fight to end the disease in India.

“Working with the Government of India and Indian partners, the U.S. government has invested close to $100 million to prevent and control TB in India, and has helped to treat over 15 million people in the last 18 years. ... Each of us has an important role in this fight to end TB under the leadership of the Government of India. Working together and leveraging our combined capacities, we can win this fight,” Ambassador

Verma said at the event.

Ambassador Verma, while introducing Bachchan to the audience, spoke about his connection with the legendary actor.

“When we immigrated to Pennsylvania as really one of the first Indian families in our community, it was Mr. Bachchan’s movies that would be up on screen bringing the few Indian families together in our local community center,” he said.

“The families there had these incredible memories and connections back to the place that they [had] left and I think about what your movies did to pull that community together to inspire people.

And now, to be able to be with you in this capacity is really a great honor.”

Thanking the Ambassador for sharing this anecdote, Bachchan then shared his perspective on the challenges faced by many TB patients. “Stigma and discrimination against people with TB can occur anywhere—in the workplace, health care facilities, within the community and even in their own homes.

The fear of discrimination prevents people from seeking timely help, making the disease harder to treat,” he said.

“Being a TB survivor myself, I have a deep and more direct connect to the campaign. I hope I can help to spread awareness, and reduce the stigma associated with TB.”

May/June 2016

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V O LU M E LV I I N U M B E R 3

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Reviving Our Waters

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Cultural Heritage in Smart Cities

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Smart Mobility

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Finding Solutions to India’s Waste Problem

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Sustainable Designs

Sustainable Cities for the 21st Century

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50 Shades of Green

Open Innovation for Smart Development

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Weathering the Storm

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Urban Learning

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Coastal Cities

Courtesy Solomon Darwin

Open Innovation

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Smart Urban Planning

Editor in Chief Traci L. Mell Printed and published by Craig L. Dicker on behalf of the Government of the United States of America and printed at Thomson Press India Ltd., 18/35 Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad, Haryana 121007 and published at the Public Affairs Section, American Embassy, American Center, 24 K.G. Marg, New Delhi 110001. Opinions expressed in this 44-page magazine do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Government.  Articles with a star may be reprinted with permission.

Those without a star are copyrighted and may not be reprinted.

Contact SPAN at 011-23472135 or editorspan@state.gov

Transportation

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The End of Garbage? Join the Next Wave of Waste Management

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From Science to Arts: Crossing Over in Higher Education Mall Vacation

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Courtesy Cooper Robertson

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HEMANT BHATNAGAR

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Courtesy Nickelodeon Universe

Smart Development

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Reviewing Editor Branden L. Young

Editor Deepanjali Kakati Associate Editor Suparna Mukherji Hindi Editor Giriraj Agarwal Urdu Editor Syed Sulaiman Akhtar Copy Editors Bhawya Joshi, Shah Md. Tahsin Usmani Editorial Assistant Yugesh Mathur

Art Director Hemant Bhatnagar Deputy Art Directors Qasim Raza, Shah Faisal Khan Production/Circulation Manager Alok Kaushik Printing Assistant Manish Gandhi

Front cover: Collage by Hemant Bhatnagar.

Photographs © Thinkstock.

Research Services: Bureau of International Information Programs, The American Library

Exploring the different development and conservation strategies for smart growth.

Interstate Highway System

www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/history.cfm

Jane Jacobs

www.pps.org/reference/jjacobs-2

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

www.epa.gov

www.planning.org

Minimum Grid: Maximum Impact

WILLIAM87/iStock/Thinkstock

http://knightfoundation.org/grants/201550698/

EPA’s National Award for Smart Growth Achievement 2015 Winners http://goo.gl/Diwsjk

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Go Online

American Planning Association

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PONSUWAN/iStock/Thinkstock

Smart Urban Planning n the mid-1950’s, the United States, with its economy prospering, embarked on a massive highway construction project, supported by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The project, which was supposed to have 66,000 kilometers of new roads, now spans over 74,000 kilometers.

Eisenhower, who was impressed by Germany’s Autobahn highway network while serving as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II, saw the system as not only a way of connecting the different regions of the far-flung nation but also as a defense asset that could facilitate the movement of military supplies and troops in case of a domestic emergency or foreign invasion.

Plans for the system were drawn up primarily at the national level. But, unfortunately, as construction proceeded, people around the country began to rebel when they realized that many of the new roads would require demolishing local neighborhoods. In the 1960’s, the so-called “freeway revolts” in states like California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Ohio led to the cancellation of many proposed highways and prompted a re-evaluation of how and why roads were being built and which cities they connected.

Opponents rallied around the writing of Jane Jacobs, an influential journalist and author who criticized top-down urban planning, saying, “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”

“The smart growth movement came out of

several trends—you can date it to Jane Jacobs and you can date it to the freeway revolts,” says Marlon Boarnet, chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Spatial Analysis at the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy.

“People were saying, ‘We are losing sight of how transportation networks fit into the totality of neighborhoods,’ ” he adds. “Their argument was, ‘If you can connect land use planning to transportation infrastructure planning on a more thoughtful level, you might be able to build better cities.’ Today, smart growth has really evolved to be another way of describing good urban planning—planning that is holistically comprehensive and long-term, meaning decades, in its approach.”

As the American environmental movement gathered strength in the 1970’s, smart growth became part of its mission and is now defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the following manner: “Growth is ‘smart’ when it gives us great communities, with more choices and personal freedom, good return on public investment, greater opportunity across the community, a thriving natural environment and a legacy we can be proud to leave our children and grandchildren.”

Achieving these goals, the U.S. EPA says, involves “a range of development and conservation strategies that help protect our health and natural environment, and make our communities more attractive, economically stronger and more socially diverse.” These strategies include the following.

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SMART DEVELOPMENT

By STEVE FOX

Transit-Oriented Development

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mart growth calls for integrating land use and transportation planning to accommodate not just cars but also other options like mass transit, bicycling and walking. The goal is to maximize the use and value of urban centers by making them more accessible and attractive to a wide range of people.

“Transportation planning is a key component of smart growth, which itself is essentially recognizing that growth is going to happen and planning for it in the most responsible way,” says Jennifer Henaghan, deputy research director and Green Communities Center manager at the American Planning Association (APA), a not-for-profit educational organization with about 40,000 members in nearly 100 countries.

One example is the “Minimum Grid: Maximum Impact” project of Midtown, Inc., a nonprofit community revitalization group, in Columbus, Georgia. In 2015, it won a grant from the Knight Foundation’s cities challenge, which promotes “civic innovation at the city, neighborhood and block levels, and all sizes in between.”

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Columbus, founded in 1828 and now Georgia’s second largest city, “is a great model for what a midsize city can be and a great place to test out innovation,” says Anne R. King, executive director of Midtown, Inc. The project, which involves strategic updates to Columbus’ existing infrastructure, is intended to result in “a city that attracts people whether they’re on foot or riding a bicycle or bus, and that emphasizes our public spaces,” she explains.

Transit-oriented development will become more important to cities as the global economy becomes increasingly connected, notes University of Southern California’s Marlon Boarnet.

“Cities develop, in part, because many types of firms operate better in large urban areas, where people are more productive,” he says. “As we move toward a more knowledge-based economy, the productivity benefits of people living in cities are becoming more powerful.” If viewed in combination with the trend of shared mobility, it’s clear that planners will have to learn how to deal with density in innovative ways.

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The goal is to maximize the use and value of urban centers by making them more accessible and attractive to a wide range of people.

Compact Neighborhoods and Accessible Public Spaces

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visual appeal and compatibility among uses and users.”

The desire to live, work and play in close proximity arose, in part, as a backlash against the rise of suburbs that necessitated long commutes to jobs in city centers, says Gregory Pierce, senior researcher at the Luskin Center for Innovation at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“We used available spaces for a long time without thinking about the impact of that,” says Pierce. “People have become much more aware of that impact in the last 10 years and want land to be used more rationally.”

Compact neighborhoods are also a goal of the U.S. EPA. In 2009, it collaborated with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Transportation to form the multi-agency partnership for Sustainable Communities. The partnership “works to coordinate federal housing, transportation, water, and other infrastructure investments to make neighborhoods more prosperous, allow people to live closer to jobs, save households time and money, and reduce pollution.”

NOEL HENDRICKSON /Photodisc/Thinkstock

mong the core principles set forth by the APA in its Policy Guide on Smart Growth is, “Neighborhoods and communities focused around human-scale, mixed-use centers and well-defined community edges, such as agricultural greenbelts, wildlife corridors or greenways permanently preserved as farmland or open space.”

According to APA’s Jennifer Henaghan, achieving this requires “recognizing the problems that come from urban sprawl, drawing hard limits on physical growth and working within those limits,” combined with “a comprehensive planning process and decision making at the local level focused on what residents want their community to look like in the future.”

With smart growth, compact neighborhoods are intended to include “quality housing, varied by type and price, integrated with shopping, schools, community facilities and jobs,” notes the APA. “Human-scale design in harmony with the existing urban form and quality construction contribute to successful compact, mixed-use development and also promote privacy, safety,

Smart Growth Principles The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set forth 10 principles for smart growth.

They are: 1. Mix land uses.

2. Take advantage of compact building design.

3. Create a range of housing opportunities and choices.

4. Create walkable neighborhoods.

5. Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place.

6. Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty and critical environmental areas.

7. Strengthen and direct development toward existing communities.

8. Provide a variety of transportation choices.

9. Make development decisions predictable, fair and cost-effective.

10. Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions.

—S.F.

Compact neighborhoods are intended to include “quality housing, varied by type and price, integrated with shopping, schools, community facilities and jobs.”

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Water Management

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Technological advances, including better metering of water use, will help smart growth in the future.

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have a very disjointed patchwork of policies and that can constrain the concept of smart growth. All of our resources need to be managed holistically. For example, before we build a power plant, we should think about the effect on water resources. We’re starting to make linkages between all these things.”

Conservation and reuse are important elements of smart water management, notes the APA, urging water resources and supply plans be developed with, at least, a 20-year horizon.

Sanders thinks that technological advances, including better metering of water use, will help smart growth in the future.

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Historically, water has been very loosely measured—the meter man comes around once a month and, even in California, there are areas where water isn’t metered at all,” she adds. “That’s changing— we’re going to see better measurement of water use.”

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mart growth calls for water to be regarded as a collective public resource and managed in a sustainable manner, meaning that an individual’s right to water is always subjected to governmental oversight to protect the welfare of the community as a whole. According to the APA, water resources should be managed in ways that do not impair their present and future values, with policies that address both the current and long-term needs of humans and the environment.

Upholding this principle can be challenging because of the jurisdictional complexity surrounding water resources, points out Kelly T. Sanders, assistant professor at the University of Southern California’s Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

“Water is managed very locally and that gets very complex very quickly, because hundreds of entities have their hands on water and, for example, the ones responsible for doling out water often aren’t the ones responsible for quality,” says Sanders. “We

Energy Management

Waste Management

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aste originates locally— with consumers, businesses and other organizations— but is often transported to other locations like sorting facilities, landfills and incinerators. Thus, smart growth planners have set forth a hierarchy of techniques for dealing with it. These include the following.

Pollution prevention calls for a comprehensive planning process regarding the location of waste management facilities, which would

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ike other elements of smart growth, energy management requires working with the existing urban infrastructure while simultaneously planning for future technological innovations. For example, organizations like the APA advocate for upgrading and retrofitting existing structures to improve their energy efficiency, as well as research that advances and facilitates construction of low- or “zero-” energy buildings. Planners and local decision makers are also urged to factor in an area’s current and future energy sources and make conservation and efficiency major considerations when creating and evaluating proposed developments.

Smart growth advocates recognize current policy initiatives and incentives will play a crucial role in determining what energy options are available to consumers in the years to come. However, they also see the need for flexibility in terms of technology. For example, the APA notes that vehicles fueled by natural gas are currently competing with plug-in electric hybrids to become the dominant transportation technology of the future. Since each of these competing technologies depends on different infrastructure systems—pumps versus electrical outlets— planners and city officials are urged to consider a variety of possible transportation energy scenarios rather than assuming one technology will win out.

While renewable energy sources like biomass, solar and wind are a focus of smart energy management, they currently supply only about seven percent of America’s electricity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) 2014 data. About two-thirds come from fossil fuels and another 25 percent from nuclear and hydropower. However, when combined with advances in metering technology that can help consumers make better choices about their electricity usage, renewable sources are likely to play an increasingly important role in energy management.

The future of smart energy management will depend on a combination of advances in generation, conservation and efficiency, says University of Southern California’s Kelly T. Sanders, noting that energy and water management are inextricably connected.

point of production,” says University of Southern California’s Kelly T. Sanders. “How do we make things so they are easier to use and to recycle?”

Resource recovery supports programs that produce soil additives, mulch or compost from yard debris and organic waste as a way of reducing the amount of solid waste going into landfills. Materials like asphalt, brick, mortar and concrete should be ground up and used as

“Smart waste management begins at the point of production. How do we make things so they are easier to use and to recycle?” include meaningful public participation and consensus. Medical and nuclear wastes should be handled in ways that do not jeopardize human or ecosystem health.

Waste minimization calls for laws supporting the use of biodegradable products and packaging, incentives for the use of reusable products and refillable packaging, and the banning of non-recyclable products and packaging.

Reuse and recycle requires laws that mandate recycling and reuse of materials in the waste stream through collection and separation programs that include removal of common hazardous wastes. Product redesign is also important. “Smart waste management begins at the

aggregate in construction.

Waste to energy supports the sorting and separation of collected materials into those that must go into landfills and those that can be safely incinerated, with the resulting heat being used to generate electricity or to warm buildings.

Coordination and cooperation is encouraged at the local, state and regional levels in the planning and approval of new landfills and in the expansion of existing ones. Planning and regulatory processes should ensure that lower socioeconomic neighborhoods are not disproportionately burdened by environmental hazards associated with landfills and other waste management facilities.

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J. STEPHEN CONN/Courtesy Flickr

J. STEPHEN CONN/Courtesy Flickr

“Most of us are going to live in cities in the future, and it’s up to us to make them the kind of cities we want.”

says Liz Hayden, business development specialist with the City of Hamilton.

“Rehabbing our existing urban stock makes it easier for people not to have a car, and the benefits are far more widespread than if someone was doing a suburban development out on our fringe. People are so excited. It’s been really important to the psychology of the community—for 20 years, nothing was going on in downtown and now people are walking around and seeing buildings being transformed. There’s a lot of pride in what’s going on.”

Smart growth is inherently easier when new communities are being planned, says University of Southern California’s Kelly T. Sanders, but it must also be a priority for existing cities.

“There are a lot of opportunities for smart growth in the developing world with new cities, because you’re essentially starting with nothing and moving toward something that has been agreed upon. With legacy infrastructure, you have to pick a start date and everything has to be retrofitted at the same time, which obviously is harder,” she says. “But ultimately, the biggest thing is realizing that we have to work holistically and we all have to work together. Most of us are going to live in cities in the future, and it’s up to us to make them the kind of cities we want.”

Steve Fox is a freelance writer, former newspaper publisher and reporter based in Ventura, California.

THE.URBANOPHILE/Courtesy Flickr

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Preservation of Natural and Cultural Resources

mart growth can re-energize cities by saving and showcasing their cultural resources. Hamilton, Ohio, for instance, proved this with a project that won a National Award for Smart Growth Achievement from the U.S. EPA in 2015.

The project was described this way: “After years of disinvestment, the Rust Belt city of Hamilton, Ohio, has become an emerging hub of innovation and revitalization. With creative vision, strategic planning and community engagement, the city and Historic Developers, LLC, completed three catalytic, mixed-use projects that reinvigorated the city’s central business district and set the stage for new economic development. The projects helped create a walkable downtown with new amenities, jobs and housing options, and spurred the creation of a formal partnership to buy and redevelop downtown properties.”

The project began with the city’s purchase of a historic building complex in the heart of downtown, which was in severe disrepair and had been slated for demolition. Development partners from the private and nonprofit sectors agreed to help renovate the complex.

Later on, other culturally significant buildings in the downtown area were also renovated through arrangements that met the U.S. EPA’s criteria of “generating partnerships among public, private and nonprofit stakeholders; and serving as national models.”

“We believe that a healthy urban core is critical to the health of the whole community,”

Photographs © Thinkstock

Sustainable Cities for the

21st Century

By MICHAEL GALLANT

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s a child, Rohit T. Aggarwala found himself fascinated by cities like Delhi and London during his visits.

Decades later, Aggarwala’s magnetic attraction to urban areas evolved into a rich and influential career, one that includes teaching at a world class university, crafting groundbreaking policies for sustainable cities and lending expert advice to leaders in the United States and India.

“A smart city is a city that uses technology to make living better,” says Aggarwala, chief policy officer at the New York-based urban innovation firm Sidewalk Labs. He is also an adjunct professor at Columbia

“

A smart city is a city that uses technology to make living better.

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SMART CITIES MISSION

Courtesy Rohit T. Aggarwala

City expert Rohit T. Aggarwala discusses India’s Smart Cities Mission and the local and international efforts toward making that dream a reality.

“ ”

The real challenge of the Smart Cities Mission is to figure out what the true are and how to make each city a smart, sustainable community in a way that truly serves the people of that city.

Above: Rohit T. Aggarwala (right) moderates a panel discussion of mayors in South Africa in 2014.

Right: From 2006 to 2010, Aggarwala (at the podium) served as New York City’s director of long-term planning and sustainability under then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg (left).

Photographs courtesy Rohit T. Aggarwala

local priorities

University’s School of International and Public Affairs. In 2015, as a member of Bloomberg Philanthropies, Aggarwala advised Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Smart Cities Mission, an ambitious plan to develop 100 smart cities across India.

Smart city initiatives can range from improving public transit and traffic signal efficiency to establishing walkable public spaces. But Aggarwala is quick to point out that every city, in India and beyond, needs to find customized solutions to address its individual challenges.

“There’s no cookie-cutter approach,” he says.

“What might work very well in New York could 12 MAY/JUNE 2016

make no sense in cities in India, and vice versa.

The idea is, instead, to take inspiration from successful smart city programs and figure out what will work in your own city’s context.”

Aggarwala has had plenty of practice. From 2006 to 2010, he served as New York City’s director of long-term planning and sustainability under then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, learning to create change amid the challenging politics and hard realities of a complex city. One of Aggarwala’s biggest and most innovative initiatives during his tenure was PlaNYC. “It was New York’s first comprehensive sustainability plan and it came out in 2007,” says

Courtesy Rohit T. Aggarwala

Rohit T. Aggarwala https://goo.gl/cBJ1oD

Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs https://sipa.columbia.edu/

Go Online

Bloomberg Philanthropies www.bloomberg.org

PlaNYC

http://goo.gl/yctzkh

Smart Cities Mission http://smartcities.gov.in/ Above: As a member of Bloomberg Philanthropies, Rohit T. Aggarwala advised Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Smart Cities Mission.

Aggarwala. “The plan included 127 initiatives that ranged from using hybrid gas and electric taxis to help clean the air to making buildings more energy efficient. It really was the first time that there had been any planning to address climate change that affected all of New York City.”

Aggarwala’s PlaNYC initiative also included massively increasing the number of bike lanes in the city and creating pedestrian plazas in locations like Times Square. “It happens so rarely that one document like PlaNYC can develop and advance all of these ideas,” Aggarwala continues. “It was great that we were able to put them all together.”

It was through Aggarwala’s subsequent work with Bloomberg Philanthropies that he and colleague James Anderson participated in meetings with Prime Minister Modi, officials of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Ministry of Urban Development to help shape the Smart Cities Mission and its partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Aggarwala advised Prime Minister Modi to reinvent the Smart Cities Mission as a nationwide competition, later named the “City Challenge.”

Hundred specially nominated cities submitted plans for evaluation. The first batch of 20, selected to receive funding to make their plans a reality, was announced in January 2016. Aggarwala says he is thrilled and inspired by the winners, and the outcome of their initiatives.

India’s overall path to smart city success will be a multifaceted one. “One of the things that India will need to wrestle with as it develops smart cities is the extent to which most city governments lack the authority to act on their own,” says Aggarwala.

“One thing that made efforts here in New York so successful was the fact that the city government is very powerful, democratic, transparent and robust.

The city has a great deal of control over zoning, transportation and land use. That enables decisions to be made at the city level, even if state governments might not have any interest.”

Aggarwala cites China as another prime example, explaining how the Chinese government gave significantly enhanced powers to its large cities, allowing each city government to focus on the needs of its community. “The power of the individual city is one of India’s challenges,” he says.

Aggarwala further advises smart city advocates in India to not listen to the siren song of the latest and greatest innovations. “It can be difficult to not get distracted by the bells and whistles that technology can provide,” he says. “The real challenge of the Smart Cities Mission is to figure out what the true local priorities are and how to make each city a smart, sustainable community in a way that truly serves the people of that city.”

Michael Gallant is the founder and chief executive officer of Gallant Music. He lives in New York City.

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Courtesy Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation

Open Innovation for Smart Development

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By CANDICE YACONO

Solomon Darwin

talks about the partnerships between the University of California, Berkeley, and India to advance the development of smart cities in India.

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magine living in a city whose infrastructure, hospitals and other community services are all connected to improve your quality of life.

Technology is used to foresee and fix problems in real time, thereby reducing inefficiency. Communication flows in multiple directions and citizens have more say in everyday city operations.

What sounds like science fiction is closer to reality than many people realize, thanks to the smart cities being created all over the world.

In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a plan to build 100 smart cities by 2020. And, one of the people involved in this effort is Solomon Darwin, executive director of the Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

In fall 2015, Darwin taught 33 students from the Haas school and Berkeley’s engineering program in a project course he called Building Smart Cities, Leveraging Open Innovation.

The students focused on six modules which, Darwin says, touched on all areas needed to make a city work: energy; communication; food and water; housing and transportation; safety and security; and education and environment.

“The need and demand for [smart] cities is growing, as they allow for effective and efficient use of Earth’s finite resources through pooling—economies of scope and scale,” says Darwin. “Here technology can be a real help.”

The city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh was selected for the course case study

because both the Modi and Obama administrations chose it as a prototype for future smart cities in India.

In January 2016, the Berkeley students visited Andhra University to meet counterparts from India’s top universities. More than 200 Indian students, divided into 38 teams, participated in the Open Innovation, Smart Cities Challenge, organized by the Garwood Center and Andhra University. Each team presented a technological solution and a business model that could help improve a particular sector within the city.

Later that month, the Berkeley students presented their revised models and findings to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his Cabinet.

“Our students signed a Memorandum of Understanding with civic leaders to improve the technologies further,” says Darwin, adding that he will continue to work on smart cities.

But this year, as commissioned by Chief Minister Naidu, he is focusing on developing prototypes for smart villages. According to the 2011 census, 70 percent of Indians live in villages.

This fall’s project course is called Building Smart Villages, Leveraging Open Innovation.

Berkeley-Haas has developed strong ties with India. In December 2015, Darwin, on behalf of the Garwood Center, honored President Pranab Mukherjee as an “outstanding global leader” in open innovation. California Governor Jerry Brown also signed a legislative proclamation acknowledging President

Photographs courtesy Solomon Darwin

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Mukherjee’s open innovation efforts.

Darwin defines smart cities as those with a sustainable business model that delivers a triple bottom line, related to people, profit and planet. The first “generates value for its citizens by providing affordable housing, time savings, cost savings and happiness,” he says.

Profit “generates enough economic bottom line to accommodate organic growth and sustain itself for the long term.” While planet “engages in activities that are not harmful to the planet.” To explain further, Darwin cites an adage: “Scalability should not be the enemy of sustainability.”

The existence of a smart city is dependent on more than its own systems, he says.

“A smart city cannot survive in isolation. It will need to build health and sustainable alliances with surrounding rural areas and populations. Smart cities will continue to depend on rural areas for food, water and mineral resources, as well as cultural enrichment for their happiness, as urban populations have their original roots in the rural.”

Darwin also suggests a few practices which, he believes, are essential to the creation and operation of smart cities.

“The cities should leverage technologies

Solomon Darwin http://goo.gl/DvVCu2

Building Smart Cities Leveraging Open Innovation http://goo.gl/vtzhPd

Haas School of Business

www.haas.berkeley.edu

Visakhapatnam http://goo.gl/sEVuYt

that are cost effective and frugal to save and eliminate costs. Technology should be used as a tool, not to shift costs from one place to another, but to totally eliminate them from the ecosystem,” he says.

“Open innovation strategies should be employed in managing cities by utilizing the knowledge flows generated from around the world to govern and maintain the city.”

Candice Yacono is a magazine and newspaper writer based in southern California.

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov MAY/JUNE 2016 15

OPEN INNOVATION

Above: Solomon Darwin (front left) and students of the University of California, Berkeley, attend the Open Innovation, Smart Cities Challenge at Andhra University in Visakhapatnam.

Right: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu lays the foundation stone for the construction of the Open Innovation Center at Andhra University.

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Sustainable

Fulbright Fellow

Rohit Vijay Tak discusses the urgent need for smart urban planning in Indian cities.

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In the study objectives of your fellowship, you speak about the challenges Indian cities face because of rapid urbanization. What kind of growth strategies did you learn at the University of California, Berkeley, that you’d like to implement in India?

The population of India is skyrocketing, and it’s flowing unidirectional toward the urban areas.

Cities like Delhi and Mumbai have been facing problems, including resource management, urban poverty, lack of basic infrastructure, pollution and loss of public life.

Under the mentorship of Christopher Benninger in India and the guidance of Professor Peter Bosselmann, Professor Margaret Crawford and Associate Professor Elizabeth Macdonald in the U.S., I was introduced to smart ways of dealing with rapid and unplanned urbanization. At the policy level, strategies such as inclusive community planning, density management around transit nodes, strengthening public transit, providing rural areas with infrastructure and opportunities, and inserting public life at all scales and levels of urban form will be a few ways to make an Indian city a livable one.

What was the most interesting thing you learned about smart urban design in U.S. cities that can be directly applied in India?

One thing I would like to mention here is the inclusive design of public spaces and infrastructure. Whether it’s a street or a plaza or a public restroom, a wheelchair user or visually challenged person is considered at every design level. Their policies have given a much-required

attention to the needs of the physically challenged to avoid their exclusion from the city and society in general. This, I think, should be the first thing Indian cities can directly learn from the United States.

What lessons can India learn from the United States with regard to sustainable urban design and growth strategies?

The strip development along the arteries in India is following a pattern seen in the U.S. 50 years ago. Cities like Portland, Oregon, and others, responded through transport-oriented development.

After independence, India turned its back on the traditional Indian city with shared walls, pedestrian lanes and high densities. To implement sustainable growth strategies, both India and the U.S. need to look back and study that fabric to find answers for the future.

EFKS/iStock/Thinkstock

CHRISTIAN JUICA

ithout urban designers, buildings, roads, public spaces and landscape patterns wouldn’t exist. But in today’s complex world, it takes a lot more than a basic city to ensure a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable future. That’s why there is a growing need for smart urban planners like Rohit Vijay Tak. A Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellow, Tak pursued a Masters degree in urban design at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2014-15. Currently, he is an urban designer at the San Francisco-based firm, Wallace Roberts and Todd.

Excerpts from an interview.

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http://goo.gl/Mb4B1c

University of California, Berkeley

By KIMBERLY GYATSO

www.berkeley.edu

Kimberly Gyatso is a freelance writer based in San Francisco.

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URBAN DESIGN

What elements do you take into consideration in order to achieve environmental sustainability?

To make the future sustainable, one needs to consider the environment at every planning stage. At the macro level, facets like natural terrain, watercourses, zoning, infrastructure planning and density around transit nodes should be considered. And at the micro level, plot sizes, shared walls, pedestrian lanes, walkable neighborhoods and connectivity to public transit should be taken into consideration.

What is the most important factor of urban planning you’d like to see implemented in every Indian city? How would this improve the living condition of citizens?

Considering the changing climate and frequency of natural calamities, every Indian city should start adapting to climatic changes, especially the river cities. India needs to learn from Europe and develop their riverfronts to adapt to floods, yet create a rich public realm.

Indian culture binds rivers and people together, developing reciprocity between them.

Having river cities with developed and welldesigned riverfronts will, for sure, improve the condition of living for citizens.

If you could design an Indian city, what are the top five components you would include in your plan?

Indian cities have layers of complexities, yet they show a search for discipline. In a nutshell, it’s an organized chaos that makes them unique cases. If I were to design an Indian city, the top components will be: 1. Strategies to adapt to natural calamities.

2. Creation of inclusive and socially just communities.

3. Walkable and transit-oriented planning with mixed land use.

4. Bringing together the diverse publics in the Indian context.

5. Maintaining the city’s unique identity and contextual needs.

MONICAODO/iStock/Thinkstock

Designs

Rohit Vijay Tak

Courtesy Roshni Udyavar Yehuda

50 Shades of Green

IVLP participant

Roshni Udyavar Yehuda

By NATASA MILAS

Photographs by Destination8infinity/Courtesy Wikipedia

GREEN BUILDINGS

shares her thoughts on India’s transition to sustainable buildings and ecofriendly construction.

18 MAY/JUNE 2016

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RRJANBIAH/Courtesy Wikipedia

Courtesy Roshni Udyavar Yehuda

he concept of “green building,” as an element of smart urban planning, involves ecofriendly construction that is self-sustainable, energy-efficient, and minimizes waste.

Beyond these practical measures, green buildings also represent a philosophy, where architecture and nature are seen as working in tandem.

Roshni Udyavar Yehuda understands this concept. As the head of Rachana Sansad’s Institute of Environmental

Views of DakshinaChitra, a museum in Tamil Nadu dedicated to South Indian heritage and culture. The Chikmagalur House, built in 1914, represents the history of the Chikmagalur district and the Muslim heritage of Karnataka (top); terracotta sculptures and pots placed inside the museum (above center); the Tamil Nadu Merchant House from Kandanur Village is representative of the ancestral homes of the Nattukottai Chettiars, a merchant community (above); and a Brahmin house from Ambur village (left).

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Green buildings

in India need to be suitable to the context.

Above: Brunton Boatyard hotel in Fort Kochi employs various sustainable practices like rainwater harvesting and waste water recycling.

Right and far right: Cement House, the corporate headquarters of ACC Ltd. in Mumbai, has received a Gold Shield from the Indian Green Building Council for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design under the New Construction and Major Renovation category as well as a five-star rating from the Bureau of Energy Efficiency.

20 MAY/JUNE 2016

www.usaid.gov/india

Architecture in Mumbai, she has extensive experience in the field of environmental research. An architect by profession, she has worked at the Mumbai-based International Institute for Sustainable Future as the head of a sustainable development program. Yehuda has helped develop the Eco-housing Assessment Criteria and Rating System for Pune and Mumbai in collaboration with Science and Technology Park, Pune; International Institute for Energy Conservation; United States-Asia Environmental Partnership; United States Agency for International Development (USAID); The Energy and Resources Institute and Rachana Sansad. Yehuda also participated in the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program on environmental protection in 2009.

Excerpts from an interview.

Photographs courtesy Roshni Udyavar Yehuda

NIRAKSHARAN /Courtesy Wikipedia

http://goo.gl/Ey1YyR

U.S. Agency for International Development

U.S. Green Building Council www.usgbc.org

Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment http://grihaindia.org

Can you tell us about the practical implications of green buildings and the ways in which the overall philosophy of architectural design working together with nature has been successfully manifested as workable project designs?

The modern concept of “green building” focuses on resource efficiency. More advanced rating systems have benchmarks for building performance. However, I think that green building is fundamentally about reducing and managing our resource consumption. This includes human behavior toward a sustainable lifestyle and community coherence. Green buildings cannot just be a numbers game and complicated simulation models. They have to be grounded in reality and in context of a place and its people.

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Roshni Udyavar Yehuda

Below: Eco-houses near the University of California, Davis, with fruit trees and compost facilities.

Bottom: IGP Office Complex in Gulbarga, Karnataka, effectively uses existing landscapes, recycled building materials, renewable sources of energy and water conservation techniques.

You were part of the USAID-sponsored Indian delegation to study green buildings in the United States in 2004. What were some of your most interesting findings? Are there particular green buildings in the United States that you really liked?

What I recall with distinction are a few projects like the community with interesting eco-houses near the University of California, Davis. Each house has a yard full of fruit trees, compost and no border fences. Another was the straw bale-constructed Shorebird Park Nature Center in Berkeley, California. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) building in California was also remarkable.

In all these buildings, what interested me is the effort by occupants, developers or users to make the change toward sustainability.

Aesthetics and technology were secondary.

In comparison to the United States and other countries that implement the concept of green buildings in their city planning, where does India stand today?

If green building is about resource efficiency, then I would say that India has a greener footprint as compared to the U.S. or many other western countries. This is because nearly 70 percent of the population of the country is residing in villages with minimal footprint. In contrast, the educated urban dwellers, particularly in the information technology and other service sectors, are increasing their consumption to equal or even surpass the per capita consumption of the western world. It is in this category that we have seen a huge mushrooming of the concept of “green building.”

Green building rating agencies, such as the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), which has been around for more than a decade, as well as others like Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA), boast of several million square feet of green building. Still, there is a long way to go.

Which are some of the most successful green buildings in India?

Specific green buildings that I favor are:

Photographs courtesy Roshni Udyavar Yehuda

Did you find any particular examples of green buildings or technologies that you thought would work well in Indian cities?

Technologies could be applied anywhere, but the Indian context is different. The culture, scale, consumption patterns and lifestyle have very few parallels. Green buildings in India need to be suitable to the context.

BCIL (Biodiversity Conservation India Ltd) T-Zed buildings in Bengaluru; Torrent R&D Centre, Ahmedabad; IGP (Inspector General of Police) Office Complex in Gulbarga, Karnataka, which is India’s first government building to achieve a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold rating; Cement House in Mumbai, a LEED Gold-rated and BEE (Bureau of Energy Efficiency) five-star-rated building; Brunton Boatyard hotel in Fort Kochi, Kerala, which has all the green features like rainwater harvesting, waste water recycling, but is not rated; and DakshinaChitra in Chennai—a complex designed by Laurie Baker to showcase South Indian architecture.

Natasa Milas is a freelance writer based in New York City.

MAY/JUNE 2016

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Resilient design is key to protecting vulnerable coastal cities.

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Weathering

By CARRIE LOEWENTHAL MASSEY

he research is conclusive: sea levels are rising faster than they have in 28 centuries. And, without drastic cuts in carbon emissions, they will keep rising.

Higher sea levels cause destruction in coastal cities around the globe. In the United States, places like Miami Beach, Florida; Charleston, South Carolina; and Norfolk, Virginia, already see routine tidal flooding—a foot or two of standing water—that lead to damage, pollution and roadblocks, according to The New York Times. In India, cities like Mumbai and Chennai are especially vulnerable to damage from rising waters.

The link between rising sea levels and stronger hurricanes, cyclones and other natural disasters is not fully understood yet, but one thing is for certain: the higher the seas get, the more water there is to strengthen

storm surges and inflict severe damage.

While reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the only way to slow down the oceans’ encroachment on the coasts, coastal cities must design solutions to protect themselves.

To minimize destruction from storms and floods, U.S. coastal cities have implemented a variety of designs. For instance, sea walls in places like Galveston, Texas, and Providence, Rhode Island, have been protecting low-lying areas since the early 1900’s and 1960’s, respectively.

New Orleans, hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and New York City, where Hurricane Sandy struck in 2012, have also developed comprehensive design plans to boost their resiliency while strengthening communities.

New Orleans is designing its first Resilience District in Gentilly. Integrated initiatives on

Artist’s impression of a landfill neighborhood called Seaport City (left) in the East Side of Lower Manhattan. It was proposed by the New York City’s Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency (SIRR) to protect the area, which was hit hard during Hurricane Sandy, from storm surges.

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COASTAL CITIES

Storm

Courtesy Economic Development Corporation of the City of New York

T the

Photographs courtesy Cooper Robertson

Right and below right: Artist’s impressions of a resilient Maker’s District in Red Hook, Brooklyn (right) and a resilient broadwalk at Asbury Park, New Jersey (below right). They were proposed by Cooper Robertson and HR&A Advisors as finalists in the U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s Rebuild

By Design competition.

Bottom right: Artist’s impression of a protective broadwalk in South Beach, Staten Island, proposed by SIRR.

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”

24 MAY/JUNE 2016

Courtesy Economic Development Corporation of the City of New York

They must be built with the uniqueness of the place in mind, incorporate the concerns of the inhabitants who must live with the results and have a sensitivity to culture and ecology, which can also add to economic value.

Go Online Temperature-driven global sea-level variability in the Common Era http://goo.gl/WQtN6L

Sea-level changes along the Indian coast http://goo.gl/8rmwcE

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Resilient New Orleans http://goo.gl/98fwKj

coastal restoration, workforce development and construction of parks and green streets are being implemented in an attempt to retrofit the area equitably and safely. In New York City, authorities are planning to enhance connections between neighborhoods, add green spaces and retail, and protect public housing projects. In 2011, the Department of City Planning of New York City released a 10-year vision plan for the city’s shoreline, “Vision 2020: New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan.”

These cities provide models for other cities to become stronger in the face of storms. But, there’s a catch.

“Solutions cannot just be copied from other parts of the world. They must be built with the uniqueness of the place in mind, incorporate the concerns of the inhabitants who must live with the results and have a sensitivity to culture and ecology, which can also add to economic value,” says William Kenworthey, partner at Cooper Robertson, an architecture and urban design firm in New York City. Cooper Robertson coordinated a 10-firm consulting team for New York’s resiliency and recovery project for the five communities most affected by Hurricane Sandy.

The firm continues to work on this project.

The design challenges Kenworthey and his colleagues faced while formulating plans to fortify New York City against storm surges are

complex. Kenworthey says resilient design needs to pay attention to “the significant capital required to build waterfront infrastructure; retrofitting the existing city fabric, which is usually at a much lower elevation than the necessary design flood elevations; the legal constraints of developing protections that are in water; and having clients that are aware and educated about resiliency issues.”

To navigate this potentially rocky path to create resilient design solutions, Kenworthey and his team follow a process they’ve developed based on the lessons learned from their past efforts. It begins by identifying vulnerable neighborhoods, populations and assets, and subsequently, engaging affected people and government agencies to inspire participation and leadership.

Then, Cooper Robertson identifies potential threats, assesses the buildings and infrastructure susceptible to these threats and evaluates the potential financial and physical impacts of damage. Based on this, the team “develops clear design principles to guide efforts to measure success in terms of outcomes and timeframe,” says Kenworthey.

With these principles in place, the design team can explore partnership and funding opportunities and attend to regulatory constraints.

Next, they prepare a resiliency strategy that supports social, environmental and economic sustainability, while articulating “a unique and memorable vision that is the extension of a place,” says Kenworthey.

Finally, it’s time for implementation. This is done in defined phases based on funding capacity, while considering “the uncertainty of climate change outcomes for near-term protection and long-term flexibility for implementation should the worst case scenarios emerge,” he says.

The process outlined by Kenworthey needs intensive assessment and community involvement because awareness is the key to protecting the livability of coastal cities, including their surrounding environments.

“Education of the public and of design professionals on these matters,” says Kenworthey, “is paramount to building political momentum for the necessary investment, programs and projects to achieve genuinely sustainable cities.”

Carrie Loewenthal Massey is a New York Citybased freelance writer.

MAY/JUNE 2016

25

Fulbright Fellow Nitin

Narang

brings citycentric wisdom to communities in India and beyond.

Urban Learning

By MICHAEL GALLANT

26 MAY/JUNE 2016

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ccording to Nitin Narang, the shapes of our lives reflect the shapes of our cities.

“Urban design involves the design of buildings, groups of buildings, spaces and landscapes, and impacts a large number of people,” says the Indian architect and urban planner, who is currently based in Los Angeles.

“Our physical environment has a direct impact on our chances to be safe, happy and prosperous.”

Narang’s belief in the power of cities to impact lives led the New Delhi native to apply for the 2012-13 Fulbright-Nehru Environmental Leadership Program Fellowship, through which he studied and conducted research at Columbia University in New York City. His project focused on rapid urbanization in India and an approach to urban design and development that he describes as the Triple Bottom Line.

“The Triple Bottom Line—people, planet and profit—leads to the creation of well-connected, walkable urban projects, neighborhoods and public places,” says Narang. And, in India, it might just be the right approach at the right time.

Up to 80 percent of India’s structures and

Nitin Narang’s professional works https://goo.gl/XHBIJ7

Fulbright-Nehru Fellowships http://goo.gl/sZfz7G

Columbia University

www.columbia.edu

IREO Management www.ireoworld.com

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ACCESSIBILITY

and to create examples of well-connected, walkable communities,” he says.

One example that Narang cites is his work with IREO Management Pvt. Ltd., a U.S. real estate developer working in India, which is creating a 500-acre mixed-use development project in Gurgaon for a population of more than 150,000 people. Narang’s urban design principles helped the project grow with sustainability and accessibility as key components. The result, he says, is a development “richer in meaning, more responsive to local culture and history, and more environmentally suited to the natural context.”

The ability to get around one’s community by foot, and not by car, is more than a luxury for residents, and has strong economic implications for developers. A study by the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute shows that in major American markets, walkability and access to public transit significantly increase the value of homes and commercial properties.

When it comes to urban design in general, Narang describes India as a unique market; one that will thrive through collaboration.

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communities that will exist in 2030 are yet to be built, says Narang, adding that too many developers nowadays are focused on a single bottom line: profit. Furthermore, current urban development in India is largely dependent on the use of automobiles, and not focused on energy efficiency. The result: isolated communities that are not built with the future in mind.

“Factors such as weak public policy, lack of enforcement and the missing voice of the community are leading to a state of urban experience in Indian cities that lacks focus on people and the environment,” says Narang.

“It’s the foremost responsibility of urban design professionals to bring awareness and an integrated approach to design and planning.”

Narang’s research through the Fulbright program gave him the tools and perspective to fight this trend and adopt a holistic approach toward business, urban design and environmental sustainability. His recent work has involved bringing business people, developers and communities together to create vibrant and accessible neighborhoods. “It gives me immense pride to see these projects take shape,

Photographs courtesy Nitin Narang

Nitin Narang (center) and his colleagues from Columbia University review the design of M3M Golf Estate, an ongoing environment-friendly residential project by M3M Group in Gurgaon.

Photographs courtesy Nitin Narang

“ Our

physical

environment

has a direct impact on our chances to be safe, happy and prosperous.

28 MAY/JUNE 2016

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“Creating shared core infrastructure and amenities, and building upon common longterm goals, is the key,” he says. “Government agencies need to hire talent, formulate strong enforcement teams and create incentives for initiatives by developers. Framework plans and urban design guidelines need to be developed to integrate best practices.”

Although it’s up to urban designers to plan great communities and up to government officials to create the right policies, Narang affirms that community members play a key role. “Successful urban developments are based on the voice of the public,” he says. “In the United States, public opinions on large developments have led to several community development agreements through which developers have had to provide conveniences and requirements for sustainable communities.”

Above and above right: Layout plan of a mixed-use development project and land use overlay of a 200acre walkable residential and hospitality development project of IREO, respectively. Both projects will come up in Gurgaon and were planned by Nitin Narang and his Columbia University colleagues.

Narang says urban design is an important discipline but not yet well-established in India.

He advises young people seeking a career in this field to develop their skills in diverse areas like real estate, finance, design strategy and environmental sustainability. “The Triple Bottom Line accountability,” he says, “with continuous balance of social, environmental and economic factors, is the key to success for urban design and development.”

Michael Gallant is the founder and chief executive officer of Gallant Music. He lives in New York City.

Rajeev Lunkad

S

discusses the need for smart water management for a sustainable future.

ustainable design has been a way of life for Rajeev Lunkad throughout his architectural career. In 2005, he was hired to oversee the revitalization of Jaipur’s historic Jal Mahal, an 18th century palace. Not only had the monument deteriorated, but its surrounding Man Sagar Lake was also contaminated. Over the next four years, Lunkad led a public-private partnership (PPP), comprising almost 150 people, for the restoration of Jal Mahal and the ecological rejuvenation of the Man Sagar Lake

through innovative water infrastructure solutions.

In 2011, Lunkad founded Human Project, a design process management enterprise that strives to find solutions for a sustainable way of life in sync with our culture and heritage. In 2014, he was part of the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) on the theme of “Managing Cross Border Water Resources.”

Excerpts from an interview.

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WATER MANAGEMENT

IVLP participant

Courtesy Rajeev Lunkad

By JASON CHIANG

STEREOSTOK/iStock/Thinkstock

Reviving Our Waters

What unique water management issues did you face during your work on the Man Sagar Lake?

The Man Sagar Lake posed unique challenges of scale and impact that I had never experienced before. 2005 and 2006 were still very early for reviving septic and polluted water bodies, so our team did not have an exact blueprint to copy. Here, two main nullahs, or water pipes, carried all of the stormwater through a highly urbanized area of Jaipur. This created a very polluted stormwater runoff—two to three times more polluted than raw sewage—which was destroying the lake and its habitat. There was also no on-site infrastructure to treat the water or manage the lake’s struggling ecosystem.

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How did your team overcome these challenges?

After a lot of deliberation and workshops,

Rajeev Lunkad

http://humanproject.in/about-11

Jal Mahal innovation report http://goo.gl/40snel

International Visitor Leadership Program

we were able to create a unique solution: an in situ basin that would deal with the pollutants resulting from the stormwater flow.

First, we diverted the Brahmpuri and Nagtalai nullahs, creating a buffer zone for removing solid waste before entering the lake. Next, we constructed a de-silting trap, which removed pollutant deposits from decades of sewage disposal and provided a sediment treatment zone for the water. What transpired was a firstof-its-kind water solution in India.

Can your restoration model for the Man Sagar Lake be scaled to benefit larger water ecosystems?

What was achieved at the Man Sagar is absolutely replicable and scalable to most urban environment and water bodies, where stormwater is an important source of water. It is even replicable for India’s larger rivers like the Yamuna.

Please share your experience of the IVLP exchange visit to the United States.

The IVLP was a great opportunity for me to learn about global best practices and also take a look at challenges elsewhere, as I did not come from an environmental engineering or social activism background. My lessons about water infrastructure were learned on the job in Jaipur. The IVLP allowed me to gain a better perspective about water management issues. I also met some great experts

http://eca.state.gov/ivlp

KULVEER SINGH/Courtesy Wikipedia

Rajeev Lunkad says that the restoration model used for the Man Sagar Lake can be replicated to treat larger water bodies too.

30 MAY/JUNE 2016

Cultural Heritage in

in the U.S. It was clear that water is a highly divisive and contentious issue across the world, due to its scarcity and ability to support life.

The United States faces many challenges to fix its aging water infrastructure. How do you think the country can tackle these issues?

The high energy costs required to manage enormous water treatment plants; the massive dams that change the ecosystem for local inhabitants; and, the belief that money can solve all problems are all huge issues. The solution starts with educating people to be more respectful of our precious resources. The world looks up to America for direction—they have an opportunity to redefine water consumption and lead the way.

IVLP alumna

Shriya Bhatia says that Indian cities must retain their traditional architecture while moving toward development and modernization.

A

ccording to the United Nations’ 2014 revision of the World Urbanization Prospects report, India’s urban population is expected to exceed 800 million by 2050. In response to this growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ambitious urban planning program, Smart Cities Mission, in 2015.

The Smart Cities Mission aims to meet the challenge of making cities more livable through technological improvements in transportation, utilities, housing, commerce and information technology (IT) systems connectivity. But equally important to the Smart Cities Mission is recognizing the intrinsic value of a city’s history and culture.

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HERITAGE CONSERVATION

Jason Chiang is a freelance writer based in Silver Lake, Los Angeles.

By HILLARY HOPPOCK

Courtesy Shriya Bhatia

Do you have any other lasting takeaways that you would like to share regarding smart water planning in the future?

The clear takeaways for me were that water is a resource that needs to be freed from numerous structures and clearly managed by one central department with overreaching powers and resources to ensure water quality and availability.

Some people have taken water for granted, while others have been deprived of it altogether. The availability of water is sometimes directly proportional to the socioeconomic well-being of its recipients. This needs to change.

Smart Cities

Courtesy Shriya Bhatia

Go Online 2014 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects

http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup

Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana http://hridayindia.in A heritage site in Kalyan, on the outskirts of Mumbai, includes Pushkarni, an ancient stepped bathing tank, and Shri Ram and Kashi Vishveshvar temples.

Shriya Bhatia, an environmental planner (consultant) at the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, explains the connection.

“For a healthy society, the mental, emotional and physical health of its people are central elements. In a technologicallyintensive, industrialized world, efficiency leading to economic gain seems to be our goal, thus turning people into machines.

The first step is to separate the economic value from the city’s physical and cultural resources and start looking at their social and ecological value, which are essential elements to building healthy communities,” says Bhatia.

According to her, the inclusion of the national Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) in the Smart Cities Mission validates the importance of a city’s natural and cultural resources.

“Cities are made of experiences, and people are integral to generating these experiences. Smart urban planning needs to stimulate positive interaction among people,” she says.

Bhatia’s work in Mumbai exemplifies a heritage-based development approach that centers on existing neighborhoods and the heart of the original city, in contrast to past development practices of neglect of historic fortifications as people migrated to newer, modern areas in the city. She points to the current urban planning policies that prohibit removal of heritage assets as well as amendments and reductions in taxes or 32 MAY/JUNE 2016

the floor space index for historic buildings.

Bhatia recently researched, compiled and listed historical, cultural heritage and environmental assets for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The Mumbai Heritage Conservation Society was then able to implement preservation measures, not just to protect, for instance, the style and façade of buildings, but also the setting of an historic, aesthetic, cultural or architecturally-unique listed heritage building, even to the extent of ensuring that the skyline of the historic sector is maintained.

Bhatia believes in the inclusive, bottom-up approach to planning. “It localizes the planning process to relate specifically to the people of the planned area,” she says. Bhatia cites her participation in the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program, an exchange program for professionals, on “Mega Cities and Urban Planning,” in 2013 as a major influence in developing this perspective.

“Localized planning was rarely seen in the Indian context. If the objective is to preserve natural and cultural resources, then we must clearly define what we’re aiming toward and look at the city’s environment and heritage to see how it will benefit the local community,” she says.

Bhatia is currently preparing neighborhood environmental improvement plans.

Her expertise in developing and implementing environmental risk assessment frameworks includes a review of the

Mumbai Metropolitan Region — Heritage Conservation Society http://mmrhcs.org.in

natural resources and ecosystems of proposed development projects, such as in her recent development plans for ecovillages in Maharashtra.

“A local forest, riverfront or a coastal ecosystem is considered an essential element as people positively engage and experience the natural resource for an improved quality of life,” says Bhatia.

Smart urban planning involves developing a city’s identity based on its main economic activity. According to Bhatia, while the economy drives urban planning in Mumbai, Gurgaon has become a hub for the IT sector, earning the title of “Millennium City.”

The focus on heritage-based development remains central to smart urban planning in India, as promised at the Sustainable Smart Cities India Conference 2015 in Bengaluru. Bhatia points to the heritage restoration efforts boosting the tourist-based economies of walled cities like Ahmedabad with its heritage walk; Jaipur, known for its walled city markets; and Varanasi, famous for its traditional arts and crafts. These have been identified

by HRIDAY for financial support to revitalize the soul of the heritage cities to let their unique characters shine through.

And, the conservation work will continue across the country to ensure India’s precious heritage is preserved.

Hillary Hoppock is a freelance writer, former newspaper publisher and reporter based in Orinda, California.

ALEXEYZEL/iStock/Thinkstock

Smart Mobility

I

puts feet, bikes and buses before cars to advance India’s urban centers.

nterested in a fast-paced, exciting, active urban life in a center of Indian business and culture? If so, don’t buy a car.

At least, that’s how Madhav Pai, an expert on smart urban transportation, would have it.

Pai is the India director of the World Resources Institute’s Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, a Washington D.C.-based organization that works to make urban sustainability a reality.

He is also the director for EMBARQ India, a sustainable urban mobility initiative of the World Resources Institute started in 2008. Pai focuses on helping Indian cities overcome

challenges posed by congestion, sprawl and energy inefficiency.

“For over a century, the prevailing paradigm in urban transport has been dominated by cars.

However, the increasing dependency on cars has produced tremendous negative externalities, including air pollution, chronic congestion, traffic accidents, greenhouse gas emissions and social exclusion,” says Pai. “These challenges have pushed human society to a tipping point, compelling the need for a paradigm shift.”

The shift Pai calls for includes cars, but as a side feature—not the main component—of

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TRANSPORTATION

Madhav Pai

BENOIT COLIN/EMBARQ/Courtesy Flickr

Photographs courtesy World Resources Institute

By CARRIE LOEWENTHAL MASSEY

BENOIT COLIN/EMBARQ/Courtesy Flickr PHOTOGRAPHS by TARIQ THEKAEKARA/WRI/Courtesy Flickr

urban transportation networks. He envisions modern Indian urban transport as one that’s governed by the following key principles.

Restricting the use of cars and transferring their costs to owners

Top: The Bangalore Intra-city Grid (BIG) bus network of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation is an attempt to make sustainable transport a better option for the city’s residents.

Above and right: Indore’s first Bus Rapid Transit corridor, iBus, carries more than 23,000 passengers per day, reducing congestion and travel time, and creating a safe mode of public transport.

Top right and top far right: People run and cycle on Gurgaon streets during a Raahgiri Day, India’s first sustained car-free event launched in the city in 2013.

EMBARQ India helped in conceptualizing and organizing the event.

Pai believes that the use of cars should be limited in urban centers and users should bear the full cost of car ownership. Right now, “parking is free or heavily subsidized, and Indian cities have very liberal policies on offstreet parking,” says Pai. Such a model does more harm than good, especially when “cars cater to five to seven percent of the population but monopolize 80 to 90 percent of the public space,” he adds.

Designing roads for universal access As much as 30 to 40 percent of Indian city dwellers walk or ride bicycles, according to Pai. But “road infrastructure, as it is designed today, is unsafe for these users,” he says. Pai cites New York and London as examples of cities that changed their roads to cater to walkers and cyclists, while also reimagining them as public spaces with chairs and potted plants.

Expanding mass transit systems to serve people equitably “Indian cities need to actively focus on upgrading their bus systems,” says Pai, noting that buses allow for quick and cost-effective scaling of mass transit.

Integrating physical assets, schedules and fares Global Positioning System (GPS) provides the necessary technology for posting real-time

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Photographs courtesy EMBARQ

Sharing mobility “We are moving to a paradigm of mobility as a service, and not mobility as an owned asset,” says Pai, noting the emergence of connected vehicles through services like Uber and Ola. India needs to establish a regulatory framework to “proactively engage with these advances and ensure public-good goals are achieved,” he adds.

While knowing what steps to take is critical to get the ball rolling on smart transportation for Indian cities, Pai cautions that the change will be “a long battle.”

“It will impact businesses of several incumbents, like car manufacturers, construction companies and real estate developers, who build distant, dispersed and disconnected settlements,” he says.

India’s goal, Pai notes, is to make the transition to sustainable transportation in 10 years, but it could take longer. He says that similar changes took more than 30 years to develop in the United States, where they started in the late 1970’s and came to fruition around 2010, and more than 20 years to manifest in Latin America, where governments undertook them in the late 1980’s and began seeing early successes in 2010.

India can learn from the experiences of both the United States and Latin America, says Pai. He, however, recommends not modeling Indian

cities after some of the more sprawling, cardependent American metropolises like Los Angeles, Houston and Atlanta, which are plagued by traffic congestion and long commutes—problems their leaders acknowledge and work to combat constantly. But, he notes that the United States is a leader in developing technology to sustain smart transportation.

“Mapping technologies and GPS came from the U.S. and soon driverless cars will come from the U.S.,” says Pai. “Silicon Valley investor-backed companies will lead the way on new, disruptive technologies.”

Pai attributes his theoretical knowledge of transportation policy, in part, to his time studying at the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed his Master’s degree in transport planning. There, he examined the impact of a carsharing program called “City CarShare” in San Francisco, one of the leading programs in the United States.

But it’s Enrique Peñalosa, mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, who ultimately inspired Pai to focus on advancing sustainable transportation in India.

Pai was hooked when he heard Peñalosa speak about Bogotá’s TransMilenio, the mass bus system he implemented, along with about 320 kilometers of bicycle lanes and large public spaces.

As Pai furthers his smart mobility initiatives in India, he keeps Peñalosa’s words in mind: Birds are meant to fly; fish are meant to swim; humans are meant to walk, says Pai, paraphrasing Peñalosa. We need to walk for our health and our happiness.

Carrie Loewenthal Massey is a New York City-based freelance writer.

Madhav Pai

www.wrirosscities.org/ profile/madhav-pai

World Resources Institute India

http://wricitiesindia.org

EMBARQ

http://goo.gl/784pcw

City CarShare www.gocarma.com/ carshare

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bus schedules and automating fares. Indian cities need to provide the necessary data like timetables and fare plans to app developers to create tools that bring the data to residents in usable ways, says Pai. The bigger challenges, however, are physical assets like depots, terminals and transfer stations as they are dependent on land availability.

Finding Solutions to

India’s Was

By PAROMITA PAIN

IVLP participant

Rishi Aggarwal

is an environmental activist and research fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in Mumbai. Founder of the Mumbai Environmental Social Network, Aggarwal has worked on environmental and urban issues for over 15 years.

Excerpts from an interview.

Kanvag/iStock/Thinkstock

Courtesy Rishi Aggarwal

Below: Rishi Aggarwal (left, standing) says that segregation of garbage can go a long way in managing waste.

What inspired you to work in the field of waste management?

My upbringing was important in shaping the way I think. I grew up in the then-pristine hill station of Mussoorie. My mother’s maternal grandmother didn’t believe in wasting anything.

Even the dust swept up from the floor would be put into the flowerbeds in the garden. When I was about 13, we shifted to Mumbai. The filth and waste in Mumbai were a complete contrast to Mussoorie. Also, much of the conversation around that time centered not just on solid waste management but also on how we could reduce air pollution and the pollution of our rivers. This strengthened my resolve to work in the area of waste management.

How does the concept of resource management apply to waste management?

What is waste from one process can become a resource in another. For example, food waste can be composted or converted into biogas, thus becoming a resource for heating or meeting soil nutrient needs. Therefore, the credo in the field is that it’s more about resource management rather than waste management. And that’s where we are failing.

What are some of the main challenges in smart waste management?

I have worked in this area for almost 15 years.

While our large population is often cited as a problem, I don’t believe that population alone is a problem.

Reduce, reuse and recycle are three simple ways to deal with the issue of waste. At present, about 6,500 tons of garbage and nearly 2,500 tons of construction and demolition waste are generated daily in Mumbai. Waste management isn’t about picking and putting the waste elsewhere. All the dumping grounds stand on

municipal land. Contracts have been given out for doing “scientific closure of dumps” and to process the incoming waste in a scientific manner. A per ton processing fee is decided upon.

But what we see in some cases is that while the fee is given out by the municipal corporation, no processing happens. In others, questionable technologies are used.

There is a clear distinction between solid waste, which comprises things like plastic packets, papers and other items that cannot be consumed and liquid waste like fat and oil. All governments should work to educate citizens about how such wastes should be treated.

Common people must become more aware of how their municipal corporations function and be involved. Municipal corporations should use public money better to manage garbage by supporting the fundamental principles of waste management and encouraging solutions based around them. For example, promote the use of cloth bags when you go to the market and recycling of wet waste for composting. While the solutions might not be easy, they are doable.

How important is creating awareness among people about waste management?

Expensive technology can provide solutions, but I believe even a simple solution, like having two bins to segregate waste, will go a long way in ensuring that garbage is disposed properly. I know of buildings in Parel, Mumbai, where people send no waste out at all. They segregate and compost. They have succeeded on their own, and they succeeded because they had the will to take action.

Please share your experiences of your visit to the United States in 2007 as part of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP).

My experiences as an IVLP Fellow were wonderful. We traveled to Washington, D.C., San Diego, Reno, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh. I enjoyed visiting an air pollution management center in Pittsburgh, where we saw how polluted the city was during the mining era and how it was later cleaned up.

Paromita Pain is a journalist based in Austin, Texas.

36 MAY/JUNE 2016

te Problem

The End of Garbage?

Join the Next Wave of Waste Management

T

recycling providers are scaling back the provision of services and increasing costs at the expense of municipalities’ bottom line and sustainability ambitions.

In response to these realities, cities increasingly are adopting innovative models to reduce costs and drive improvements across the entire waste management value chain.

First, [some] cities are leveraging emerging Internet of Things technology from [companies like] IBM to infuse

Palau83/iStock/Thinkstock

he combination of surging population growth and rapid urbanization continues to place stress on a wide range of city services. In addition to pursuing innovative solutions in areas such as water, energy, transportation, public safety and healthcare, city leaders are increasingly focused on addressing challenges associated with waste management.

According to the World Bank, by 2025, the global volume of urban solid waste is projected to grow from 1.5 billion tons to 2.2 billion tons, while the annual cost to manage that waste will rise from $244 billion to $375 billion. Given the rapid rise in both volume and costs, cities need to develop novel ways of managing their waste to achieve critical financial and environmental objectives. As circular economy objectives have come to the forefront of the contemporary waste management agenda, there is an increasing global realization that everything in the waste stream is a resource.

Nevertheless, cities around the world have struggled to implement new business models that can improve recycling and landfill diversion rates while driving down costs. For example, recycling rates in the United States are stagnant, while the combination of a long-term dip in commodities prices and increased processing costs threatens to undermine the viability of municipal recycling programs.

Given the fact almost every recycling facility in the United States is currently operating at a loss,

their waste management operations with intelligence. For example, cities can optimize collection routes based on waste generation patterns, create tailored marketing messages around recycling based on demographic profiles, monitor air quality and road conditions from sensors on garbage trucks, and track the composition of waste streams and diversion rates in real time. By applying waste analytics to digitize and integrate their waste supply chains—from collection to disposal and re-use—cities can derive

valuable insights and visibility into operational processes in order to generate substantial benefits.

Second, cities are partnering with the private sector to contain costs by supporting recycling business models that are not dependent on the risks associated with the commodities market. While traditional recyclers make a differentiation between commodities that have a market value and those that don’t, the reality is virtually everything in the waste stream can be re-purposed into value-added products. By partnering with companies that leverage advanced sorting and manufacturing technology and IBM smarter waste analytics, cities that adopt a smarter approach to waste management can eliminate commodity-related risks while reducing costs, generating jobs and [boosting] local economic development.

In the face of substantial urban challenges, a smarter approach to waste management can help cities to not only achieve their short-term objectives, but also contribute to resolving some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.

Indeed, by adopting new business models that encompass a proven combination of technology, analytics and subject matter expertise, cities can be at the forefront of the world’s next green revolution.

David Post is an executive manager on IBM’s Global Smarter Cities team.

He also leads IBM’s Smarter Waste Management business globally.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

By DAVID POST

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov MAY/JUNE 2016 37

LISAFX/iStock/Thinkstock

Many U.S. educational institutions offer opportunities to undergraduate students to combine different fields of study.

From Science to Arts: Crossing

I

Over in Higher Education

By DON MARTIN and WESLEY TETER

s it possible to focus on one field of study at U.S. undergraduate institutions, while having exposure to another field? For example, if a student is majoring in science, mathematics or engineering, could he or she also study writing, art or dance?

The answer is yes. Here are two of the countless examples of how this was and is being accomplished.

A student’s story Born and raised in New Delhi, Nikita Sachdeva began thinking about overseas study while in high school. With her parents’ support, she researched various educational institutions abroad and finally chose to attend the University of Chicago in the United States.

Initially, she was pursuing a degree in economics, but soon added statistics as her second major. She completed a dual bachelor’s degree in 2015.

But Sachdeva also wanted to pursue educational and extracurricular interests outside of her main focus on research, statistics and quantitative analysis. Her academic advisor encouraged her to “cross over” and explore other interests—both inside and outside of the classroom.

So, Sachdeva took courses in filmmaking, art and writing. “I got to study something that I would not otherwise have had the opportunity to do, and it was really exciting,” she says.

38 MAY/JUNE 2016

Sachdeva believes that the exposure to the arts helped balance out the more quantitative focus of her curriculum and develop her communication skills.

In addition, Sachdeva joined a student dance group and learned bhangra. This gave her an opportunity to pursue her high school passion.

She also became very involved in planning student events like Mardi Gras, an annual extravaganza held on campus.

Sachdeva believes this “cross over” to the arts helped round out her educational experience, strengthen her soft skills and deepen her memories of life as an undergraduate.

She is currently working in sales and trading on Wall Street in New York City, and might go to graduate school in the future.

Recommendations from a professor Helen Donis-Keller is a professor of biology and art at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, a private undergraduate institution in Needham, Massachusetts. The institution has established an outstanding reputation since its founding in 1997. Among its other distinctive features, it pays half of each student’s tuition.

Donis-Keller has a unique educational and professional background. Among her other academic accomplishments, she has earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology

ALEXANDER BUDNITZ/Courtesy Flickr

Below: The Olin Conductorless Orchestra is the only one of its kind at an American college.

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering regularly offers courses that integrate art and science.

Helen Donis-Keller

http://helendonis-keller.com

The Olin Conductorless Orchestra

http://goo.gl/98gvne

The Intersection of Art and Science

http://goo.gl/IUKD3z

EducationUSA

https://educationusa.state.gov

Don Martin is a former admissions dean at Columbia, University of Chicago, and Northwestern, and author of “Road Map for Graduate Study.”

Wesley Teter is a former Regional Coordinator of EducationUSA in India and Central Asia, supported by the U.S. Department of State.

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov MAY/JUNE 2016 39

EDUCATION

are often considered entirely different worlds inhabited by practitioners who have nothing in common. The purpose of the course is to debunk this myth by closely examining the discovery process in both disciplines and by comparing the culture of science to that of art, historically and in the present.

Donis-Keller will soon introduce a new course, The Intersection of Biology, Art and Technology. The course will be projectbased and some of the questions students will consider are: How do technological breakthroughs inform new possibilities in biology and art? How might biology inform art practice and how might art inform biological concepts? What are the implications of being able to change the genome of an organism?

Many undergraduate institutions in the United States offer opportunities to cross over, combining fields of study and extracurricular interests to create a more enriching and memorable college experience for students.

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from Harvard University. She also holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in studio art, under a combined program of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Before joining the faculty at Olin, she was at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

According to Donis-Keller, Olin now regularly offers courses that integrate art and science. Following are a few options.

The Olin Conductorless Orchestra: An ensemble without a conductor, featuring instrumentalists in leadership and collaborative roles. Dedicated to performance of chamber music, the orchestra fosters individual participation, active listening and group motivation into performances that have established it as the only conductorless orchestra at an American college.

The Wired Ensemble: As composers and performers of original works, students concentrate on instruments, voices and the symbolic language that bring them to life.

They compose music for every family of instruments—brass, strings, percussion—as well as voice and spoken word. The course features biweekly performances of original compositions.

The Intersection of Art and Science (taught by Donis-Keller): Science and art

Mall Vacation

A

By JASON CHIANG

mall might not sound like a unique destination for a family summer vacation. But, if the destination is Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, visitors can expect much more than a typical day of shopping, watching movies and eating out.

The largest mall in the United States, it has over 520 specialty stores spread across five million square feet and seven kilometers of storefront footage. It also offers a theme park with 27 rides, an 18-hole indoor miniature golf course, a chance to see thousands of underwater creatures and much more.

There is also a constant stream

of year-round special events, including weddings, book signings, fashion shows, product launches, concerts and movie premieres.

Small wonder the Mall of America is a major tourist attraction for family vacationers, with four out of every 10 visitors a tourist.

Retail therapy As expected, the mall scores big on retail therapy.

Here, visitors can find every major American brand, from Apple and Levi’s to Nike and Disney. Best of all, there is no sales tax on clothing items in the state of Minnesota. Around 40 million visitors pass through the mall’s doors every

Photographs courtesy Mall of America

America’s largest mall has a

40 MAY/JUNE 2016

Above: There are more than 520 stores in the Mall of America.

Right: There are 27 rides and attractions at the mall’s Nickelodeon Universe.

variety of unique thrills and entertainment for all ages and courage levels.

TRAVEL To share articles go to http://span.state.gov MAY/JUNE 2016 41

Go Online Mall of America

www.mallofamerica.com

Nickelodeon Universe

http://nickelodeonuniverse.com

Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium

MICHAEL OCAMPO/Courtesy Flickr

www.visitsealife.com/ minnesota

Above: Visitors can see thousands of sea creatures in the Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium inside the Mall of America.

Above center right: A girl gets a hug from Nick character, Dora the Explorer.

Above far right: At the A.C.E.S. Flight Simulation Center, visitors can experience what it feels like to fly a fighter aircraft.

Far right: Moose Mountain Adventure Golf is an 18-hole miniature golf course located inside the mall.

Bottom right: The LEGO store at the Mall of America has eight larger-than-life models, including a 34-foot-tall robot.

Bottom far right: Around 40 million visitors pass through the mall’s doors every year.

42 MAY/JUNE 2016

year, and nearly $2 billion of economic activity happens here annually.

Nick’s world Since its launch in 1979, Nickelodeon has become one of the most influential global family entertainment brands. With its viewership now exceeding 450 million households in 170 countries, it is only fitting that Nickelodeon has an indoor theme park inside Mall of America. Nickelodeon Universe, with over seven acres of family entertainment and 27 rides, offers super-sized fun that will delight the inner child in everyone. And, since 1992, 130 million rides have been ridden by visitors.

Opened in 2008, Nickelodeon Universe is a dream destination for fans who want to meet their favorite Nick characters. Special appearances are scheduled throughout the day for characters like Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants. The park’s rides are also named after popular Nick characters, like the SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Shell Shock and Rugrats Reptarmobiles. From gentle

bumper cars to dizzying roller coasters, there are rides for all age groups and courage levels. And, at the park’s closing time, guests are treated to a nine-minute show, Universe of Light, featuring lights, music and smoke effects.

While admission to Nickelodeon Universe is free, one has to purchase an all-day wristband for $34.99 to enjoy the rides and attractions.

Building and diving Another attraction for both young and old visitors is the LEGO Store on Level One of the mall, where they can choose from 180 different LEGO elements from a giant wall.

The store has many activities to spark people’s creativity, along with a massive 34 feet tall LEGO robot.

Next, one can head over to the Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium, also on Level One. It has thousands of sea creatures in its 1.3 million gallon aquarium, including freshwater stingrays, sea turtles and sharks. Besides snorkeling and other activities, it offers a Sleep Under the Sea activity where people check in at 7:00 p.m. and check out at

Courtesy Mall of America

DAWN VILLELLA © AP-WWP

Families with young children will also enjoy visiting the Minnesota Children’s Museum and Crayola Experience at the mall.

Both are designed to engage children in a range of hands-on creative activities that cater to their curiosity.

“The variety of attractions, stores and restaurants is impeccable, and I’ve always found the atmosphere inviting,” wrote Jessica Kasten in a review of the mall on its Facebook Page. “There is something for everyone. From small children to adults, everyone can have a great time here. The theme park’s rides are also exciting for a variety of ages. I always look forward to my annual visit to the Mall of America!”

Courtesy Mall of America

Creative turn

EDWARD FAULKNER/Courtesy Flickr

Courtesy Nickelodeon Universe

9:00 a.m. the following day. During this period, they can hike through the aquarium, take a behind-the-scenes tour or join a pizza party. Fees range from $55 to $65, depending on the activities selected.

Jason Chiang is a freelance writer based in Silver Lake, Los Angeles.

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Registered under RNI-6586/60

Courtesy Nickelodeon Universe

Located in the center of the Mall of America, Nickelodeon Universe boasts of seven acres of family entertainment and 27 rides.