Key Questions

The spatial structure of cities has implications for socio-economic development and environmental sustainability. It affects a city’s social characteristics, economic efficiency, and potential for sustainability. Understanding and influencing city shape and expansion is an important dimension of the challenge to create sustainable, economically vibrant, and socially inclusive cities. However, the urban policy and planning framework in India has traditionally focused only on aspects such as population and economic output, while neglecting implications of spatial patterns and growth. Given that there has been limited research done on the dynamics of cities’ spatial growth in India, our study aims to close this gap through a set of three exploratory case studies of medium-sized cities in India.