Sustainability Practices for Urban Housing Societies
Journal Title: Trends in Civil Engineering and its Architecture - Year 2018, Vol 2, Issue 5
Abstract
Individual bungalows have given way to housing society in urban localities, where the floor area ratio is very high, most of the exposed areas are covered as pavements or parking spaces, and the population density is also very high. The pressures of modern life keep people from making intelligent and thoughtful decisions and thereby they fall prey to unsustainable social and environmental practices at their homes. A little awareness and effort from the housing society management bodies and cooperation from the residents would contribute to remedy this at the housing society level. This would set a strong example for all others to follow. Such sustainable practices, when adopted and implemented at different levels, would improve the living conditions and habitability in urban communities.The urban housing societies in the world, particularly in the developing countries, are becoming concrete hives for city dwellers to live in. The natural environment and greeneries get lost amidst the ever-increasing demands for greater floor areas or higher parking spaces. Generation of revenue fosters the irresponsible installation of high-paying mobile towers, which bring non-ionizing radiation right into the homes of people including elderly, children and infants. Many housing societies are facing acute water supply problems with the higher living standards of cities, and the deficit is passed on to the already meager grassy patches, plants or trees in the society premises – resulting in their slow deaths. The higher pressures of construction and deposition of construction rubbish leave the topsoil of the societies lacking fertility causing further depletion of greens. Thus, the popular practices are leading to degradation of the ambience of housing colonies and proving to be unsustainable. There are quite simple measures that can radically improve the living conditions of the housing societies without much drain of the financial resources. These require awareness, and collective responsible efforts with the infusion of some starting investments for easy implementation. In this short article, the author expresses opinion about few such aspects. These concepts have been drawn from author’s experience in Indian housing colonies. However, these would be equally relevant for other housing developments of the world, where urban man could be facing similar predicaments.
Authors and Affiliations
Saha Dauji
Keywords
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- EP ID EP608033
- DOI 10.32474/TCEIA.2018.02.000147
- Views 40
- Downloads 0
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