Deforestation and pollution have become a serious trouble and are even more of a concern in big cities with the air quality being constantly deteriorated by the fumes from vehicles and industries. And while the pollution is increasing, the green cover required to combat is decreasing, mainly to clear space for human settlement. Hence, our cities are turning into concrete jungles with the quality of air decreasing, thus increasing the chance of a variety of diseases. To combat this a new idea has been developed by builders and architects around the world, Vertical Forest or a Treescraper! It consists of a building which is based on an integration of modern architecture along with planting of trees and plants to create a green space.
The Vertical Forest has trees and plants to absorb Carbon Dioxide and Suspended Particulate Matter(SPM), which helps in reducing smog while creating a buffer to dampen the noise pollution, and are believed to lessen the heating effect around the building and in the area nearby because of transpiration from the trees and plants thus providing a cool environment upto an extent which translates to lesser energy consumption. A single building can be beneficial for the surrounding area, and in the current scenario where demands for space is growing, this can be a healthy compromise between sustainability and productivity.
Following the concept, Italian firm Stefano Boeri Architetti designed a Vertical Forest building which has won them multiple innovation and design awards, like second place in Emporis Skyscraper Award and also came first in the Best Tall Building Worldwide, decided by a jury from The Council on Tall Buildings And Urban Habitat. What makes this so special is that the treescrapers beat some great iconic buildings like 1 World Trade Center, NYC. This does mark the change in perception and want for sustainable and environment friendly buildings.
According to the designer and architect Stefano Boeri, the added greenery serves as a way to redefine the urban space. In his own words, “It is a model of vertical densification of nature within the city.” And it can be considered dense, as the two Vertical Forest towers, one 256-foot and the other 344-foot, are covered from top to bottom by more than 700 trees and 90 species of plants. For perspective, if all the trees and plants were planted on a single piece of land, the forest will take an area of about two acres more or less.
And now with China’s announcement that it will be using the services of Stefano Boeri to build at least two Vertical Forest towers in Nanjing to combat the worrisome air pollution present in China. The project has an estimated completion time of 2018 and initial reports suggest that each building will be able to absorb upto 25 kg of Carbon Dioxide and give out 60 kgs of Oxygen in a year.
Arun Swaminathan, Bengaluru based Environment Architect and Academician said, “Creating vertical gardens is the need of the hour in India. Particularly architects, engineers and developers and political leaders, of course, should look at green buildings as an alternative. It starts from your balcony itself. At the same time, we should keep planting more trees because there is no replacement for trees .”
With such announcements coming from around the world, it remains to be seen if a similar model of Vertical Forest can be built in our metropolitans, namely Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru where pollution is wreaking havoc. However the high cost of developing may not deem it as a profitable venture for our debt ridden developers who try every antic to decrease the cost, Also to make a considerable effect in the pollution levels around the cities, quite a few of these buildings will need to be designed, and with their set of challenges to work upon.
Durgesh Agrahari, head of partnerships and projects at Bengaluru based SayTrees Environmental Trust said,”It is one way of creating vertical gardens. In India, another way is to create gardens around flyover pillars. Shrubs and bushes which also act as dust absorbents will be used. It will also clean the environment. We do not have much space in cities and old trees are being cut across the country. To ensure a green cover in the city itself, we would focus on walls of buildings and pillars. However, initial costs of installation would be expensive but it is worth it”
Hence this project may not see the light of the day in a few years in our cities. However let’s hope for a greener future for that is the only sustainable way in long run!
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- In the Large States category (overall), Chhattisgarh ranks 1st, followed by Odisha and Telangana, whereas, towards the bottom are Maharashtra at 16th, Assam at 17th and Gujarat at 18th. Gujarat is one State that has seen startling performance ranking 5th in the PAI 2021 Index outperforming traditionally good performing States like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, but ranks last in terms of Delta
- In the Small States category (overall), Nagaland tops, followed by Mizoram and Tripura. Towards the tail end of the overall Delta ranking is Uttarakhand (9th), Arunachal Pradesh (10th) and Meghalaya (11th). Nagaland despite being a poor performer in the PAI 2021 Index has come out to be the top performer in Delta, similarly, Mizoram’s performance in Delta is also reflected in it’s ranking in the PAI 2021 Index
- In terms of Equity, in the Large States category, Chhattisgarh has the best Delta rate on Equity indicators, this is also reflected in the performance of Chhattisgarh in the Equity Pillar where it ranks 4th. Following Chhattisgarh is Odisha ranking 2nd in Delta-Equity ranking, but ranks 17th in the Equity Pillar of PAI 2021. Telangana ranks 3rd in Delta-Equity ranking even though it is not a top performer in this Pillar in the overall PAI 2021 Index. Jharkhand (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Assam (18th) rank at the bottom with Uttar Pradesh’s performance in line with the PAI 2021 Index
- Odisha and Nagaland have shown the best year-on-year improvement under 12 Key Development indicators.
- In the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu and, the bottom three performers are Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers were Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram; and, the bottom three performers are Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya.
- Among the 60:40 division States, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the top three performers and Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; and, the bottom three performers are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
- Among the 60:40 division States, Goa, West Bengal and Delhi appear as the top three performers and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura were the top three performers and Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh were the bottom three performers
- West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were the top three States amongst the 60:40 division States; while Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan appeared as the bottom three performers
- In the case of 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura were the top three performers and Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand featured as the bottom three
- Among the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and the bottom three performers are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Goa
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland and the bottom three performers are Manipur and Assam
In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)