A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1998

Urbanisation has led to third world cities facing the problems commonly known as brown issues, which include - lack of safe water, inadequate waste management and pollution control, congestion, crowding and air pollution. The authorities responsible for the delivery of environmental services in the city are constantly facing the challenge of over loaded infrastructure network and saturated natural resources, which is an obstacle for providing adequate services to the citizens. The situation has aggravated due to the lack of municipal finances to deliver the required services in the form of maintenance, upgrading and construction. The approach undertaken by authorities to repair or upgrade the environment services is governed by ad hoc based interventions in the absence of a well-defined operating system. In recent decades, interventions by planners and environmental managers are focussed towards improving the level of services in the developing cities. This study attempts to strengthen their base by proposing a model for assessing and rectifying the infrastructure services. This methodology is applied in the context of Lucknow, a rapidly growing city in India. The method applied for assessing the level of infrastructure in the city focuses on a ward as a spatial unit for assessing the level of infrastructure. The ward is divided into typologies within which representative settlements are assessed on the basis of pre-set norms. New parameters and indicators of four services are explored and integrated into the assessment model. Setting an example, the settlement is assessed on the basis of new assessment module and the deficiency is aggregated to the settlement typology level. Taking in account the infrastructure deficiency at the settlement typology level within the ward, a basis of prioritisation of intervention is arrived. Areas are prioritised on the basis of the deficiency levels to guide decision-makers in identifying priority areas and adopting rectification measures to upgrade the services. The measures are adopted for the city and settlement level and include upgrading option for the low income and bottleneck areas while a city level approach for rectification for all services. The study concludes by stating the potential of replicating the approach of assessment and rectification of services to other cities.