The IUC programme in India facilitated knowledge exchange between diverse Indian cities and European peers – and did so with great success. The programme led to the concrete transfer of successful solutions, and to the formation of long-term partnerships between diverse cities. The IUC India team recently reflected on the programme’s past four years; what follows is based on their reflection.
Early in the IUC, over 30 Indian cities submitted their interest in joining the programme. Ultimately, 11 of these were chosen, and have engaged in various IUC activities since January 2017. Most cities were motivated to join to align their smart city targets with EU standards, and to strengthen the implementation of various smart and sustainable city initiatives by streamlining with international best practices.
The IUC India team worked closely with these 11 cities and their European counterparts with an overarching goal: to identify major challenges across areas of cooperation, and to support cities in overcoming these through exchange of information and provision of expert services.
This ambitious goal proved to be achievable, but not without obstacles along the way. Frequently changing local administrations made it difficult to ensure continuity in exchanges, and led to delays in IUC work. In addition to foreseen challenges like this one, the COVID-19 pandemic put an additional significant strain on the development of the programme. In-person study visits and a regional event had to be postponed, altered, or moved online. Furthermore, key city contacts had to shift their attention to address the crisis, leading to unavoidable delays in the implementation of IUC activities.
These challenges did not, however, prevent cities across India from achieving success through the IUC in topics spanning from mobility, to water resilience, waste management, and even cultural heritage and tourism.
The City of Panaji, for example, worked with Dubrovnik (Croatia) to address traffic congestion by developing a smart parking solution pilot concept. Nagpur is also addressing sustainable mobility, learning from Karlsruhe (Germany)’s experience as a front-runner in public bike-sharing. Nagpur is implementing a similar programme to ensure that mobility remains people-oriented.
Rotterdam (the Netherlands) is home to the second-largest seaport in Europe, and has extensive experience considering water resilience. Through the IUC, the City of Surat is working to replicate their water plaza concept in one of its riverside neighbourhoods. The pilot project will address flooding, water scarcity and climate resilience – plus, the plaza will convert an open area into a public recreational greenspace. Solapur is also working on water management alongside their IUC partner Murcia (Spain). The cities are exchanging ideas on both demand- and supply-side measures that could improve overall water management with a focus on addressing potable water shortages.
Waste management is also critically important in cities across India. Udaipur and Aarhus (Denmark) have prepared a baseline study to assess the feasibility of utilising sewage sludge as an energy source, while Kochi and Vilnius (Lithuania) are cooperating on a baseline study to help establish a comprehensive system for solid waste management. Vilnius is transferring its experiences to support Kochi in effectively tackling challenges like low collection efficiency. Similar work has also been accomplished by Vijayawada and Hamburg (Germany), by Shimla and Wolverhampton (United Kingdom) and by Gangtok.
A number of Indian and European cities are home to remarkable, culturally important sites, which draw tourism. Leh, for example, is working with a cluster of neighbouring municipalities in Greece – namely, Trikala, Farkadona and Meteora – to develop sustainable tourism strategies. Gwalior and Leuven (Belgium), for their part, each have a number of culturally important buildings, including some under private ownership, which are not all well-preserved. Leuven is passing on its knowledge in the field of heritage protection to help Gwalior improve relevant regulations and mechanisms, including identifying key policy gaps and applicable solutions (e.g. cultural funds or smart technologies), which tap into the perspectives of local stakeholders.
The IUC’s second component – the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) – has successfully mobilised climate action in India. Twenty Indian cities are now signatories who have committed to the GCoM. Furthermore, in August 2019, the Covenant of Mayors of Gujarat was established with the participation of eight cities in the State of Gujarat.
Overall, the IUC programme in India brought about better understanding at the city-level of urban needs and potential projects to meet these needs. It bolstered the exchange and replication of international best practices in sustainable urban development and climate action, and developed a network of experts and city representatives who can (and will!) continue to work together beyond the programme’s completion. And, concretely, it established a number of pilot projects and frameworks, which can continue to be pursued in alignment with new EU programmes.
IUC’s success in India would not have been possible without close cooperation and key contributions from a number of organisations including ICLEI South Asia, TERI, WRI India, NIUA, AIILSG, The Climate Group, and several others.
It is clear that Indian and European cities have genuine and strong motivations to address urban and climate challenges together. Networks of experts can play a key role in translating this motivation into effective city-level action. As the IUC programme enters its next phase in 2021, Indian cities will continue to develop even more in-depth initiatives, applying new and additional global best practices.
Header image and infographic both provided courtesy of IUC India.