Answer:

Urban society is characterized by a SHARP economic disparity between a small number of wealthy families and a large number of petty traders, artisans and the poor. Urban planning is, therefore, necessary to reduce this disparity. Urban, city or town planning deals with the design of the built environment from the municipal or the metropolitan PERSPECTIVE. It is also concerned with the smaller scale of development in the city or town including architecture and urban design.

The Greek Hippodamus is often considered the Father of City Planning for his design of the city called Melitus, though examples of CITIES permeate antiquity. In India, people built planned cities right from the ages of the Harappan culture. But all these cities of antiquity were based on agricultural income and were built mostly because of the rise in population. Gradually, the nature of settlements or urban centres underwent a qualitative change, a transition from a locally focused, isolated, economically and socially self-contained, and basically agricultural community to global, economically and socially dynamic and basically industrial or service-oriented community.

Today’s urban centres are the BASIS of economic activities. People mostly migrate to these centres to earn their livelihood. Among the migrants, some settle down and some others move on to larger cities or towns in search of better opportunities. To improve the economic and physical infrastructure and also to provide essential services and facilities to the existing and forthcoming population, planning is essential.

Planning is also required to condense the load of larger cities or towns including metropolitan areas as it is observed that people usually migrate from rural areas to small urban centres, from small and medium towns to larger cities or metropolitan centres in search of livelihood. This can be done by providing similar employment opportunities and STANDARD of living in the smaller towns and cities.

SUPPORT ME FOR MORE