Open Space Planning in India (Schweizer Asiatische Studien / Etudes asiatique suisses)

This probably first specialized and comprehensive book on open space planning in a developing country is an empirical study. Its interdisciplinary approach embraces planning and sociological perspectives. The open space problem of cities is analysed on the background of the actual situation of urban planning and housing and of its organisational, financial, legal and social frames. Key persons of both the camps of open space suppliers and users are interviewed. A detailed commentary attempts to answer the question of how a satisfactory supply and maintenance of urban open space could be kept in the light of rising costs and decreasing finances, resulting high densities and smaller houses and of the immense needs for basic shelter for at least a 100 million migrants and squatters expected alone for the four largest urban agglomerations within the next decades.