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India's Urban System: Sustainability and Imbalanced Growth of Cities
Tata Inst Social Sci, Sch Dev Studies, Mumbai 400088, Maharashtra, India..
KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Centres, Center for the Future of Places. Alexandru Joan Cuza Univ, Ctr European Studies, Iasi 700505, Romania.;Open Univ OU, Business Management Dept, NL-6411 CR Heerlen, Netherlands.;Polytecn Univ, Sch Architecture Planning & Design, Ben Guerir 43150, Morocco.;Uppsala Univ, Dept Social & Econ Geog, S-75120 Uppsala, Sweden.;.;Adam Mickiewicz Univ, Geog & Spacial Management, PL-61680 Poznan, Poland..ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7171-994x
Alexandru Joan Cuza Univ, Ctr European Studies, Iasi 700505, Romania.;Open Univ OU, Business Management Dept, NL-6411 CR Heerlen, Netherlands.;Polytecn Univ, Sch Architecture Planning & Design, Ben Guerir 43150, Morocco.;Adam Mickiewicz Univ, Geog & Spacial Management, PL-61680 Poznan, Poland..
2020 (English)In: Sustainability, E-ISSN 2071-1050, Vol. 12, no 7, article id 2941Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This paper maps out the structure and relative dynamics of cities of various size classes in India. It aims to address their hierarchical distribution, by employing the rank-size rule, Gibrat's law, and a primacy index. The implications of urban concentrations for GDP, banking system, FDI, civic amenities, and various urban externalities (such as pollution and spatial exclusion) are also examined. It shows that India's urban system, though it follows the rank-size rule, is huge and top-heavy. It follows also Gibrat's law of proportionate growth. Although India's cities collectively account for less than one third of the total population, they command more than three fourths of the country's GDP. Megacities have become congested, clogged, polluted, and also show significant social polarization. There is a gridlock situation for the cities, inhibiting their potential for becoming effective economic and social change sites. The top-heavy character of India's urban system also adversely impacts the balanced regional development of the country.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI AG , 2020. Vol. 12, no 7, article id 2941
Keywords [en]
urbanization, imbalanced growth, hierarchical distribution, rank-size rule, Gibrat's law, primacy index
National Category
Civil Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-276922DOI: 10.3390/su12072941ISI: 000531558100366Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85083527233OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-276922DiVA, id: diva2:1444476
Note

QC 20200622

Available from: 2020-06-22 Created: 2020-06-22 Last updated: 2022-06-26Bibliographically approved

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Kourtit, Karima

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