ANNOUNCEMENTS
The gamut of dependencies that the sectors of urban development projects entail is complex. Within the sphere of their critical role in reaching the minimum standard benchmarks, the impact they cast on each other is also significant since they are closely interlinked. The requirement of a site for landfill on a city-development project must not leave unaccounted cascading effects of the choice of the site based on the green/ open space compromised or the proximity to the habitable areas. While also considering the transportation costs and emissions caused for waste collection from a location that maybe so decided to be located suitably far and thereby also take into account the revenue generation model of the stakeholder providing the said service. Furthermore, for projects to be sustainable and address climate, social, and economic resilience the layers of dependencies multiply and the effect of actions of one sector to another become even more intertwined. The rationale behind goals set for such projects increases and their accountability becomes even more important; and calls for a framework that incorporates a deconstruction of action items while tracking their respective feedback loops, monitoring and reporting cycles – a part of system’s thinking. Such an approach which makes possible a substantive measurement of sustainability which many research claim is otherwise vaguely traceable, becomes important for assessment of urban development projects.
Meghalaya is a steadily growing city in the North-eastern region of India, with a wide share of urban challenges and resistance in growth through its unique structure and background of evolution. While the state is chasing the national graph of urban development, it also set onto achieve it through the goals of Sustainable Urban Development. The complexities are met in a top-down direction while implementing these objectives and delivering the sustainable urban services at a city level. Shillong being the highest urbanised city in the state is a model that faces multipronged difficulties and has reached a point of where it is slammed for facing “Urban Decay”. City like Shillong in the state require the lens of system’s thinking for rightfully approaching sustainable urban development and this research investigates the same.
Keywords: system’s thinking, sustainable urban development, Meghalaya, Shillong city.
