Was based onthree parameters: economic, socialand environment

Long-time Bengalureans may have many complaints about the rapid changes in the city. But the ‘garden city’ and ‘IT capital’ has proven to be more sustainable than Mumbai, according to a study by two researchers based in these cities. The study compares the two cities on four parameters: economic, social, environmental and governance (which was later excluded as the researchers found it difficult to collect).

Authors

The paper ‘Benchmarking Bangalore City for sustainability - An indicator-based approach’ has been authored by Balachandra Patil, Principal Research Scientist, Department of Management Studies and Associate Faculty at Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), along with Sudhakara Reddy from Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai.

Lags in economic domain

An IISc. release said Bengaluru lags in the economic domain. On the environment front, the city recorded a lack of green spaces and high water leakage, adding to water pollution. On the other hand, low levels of soil and air pollution, low contribution to global climate change (greenhouse gas emissions), low per capita water and energy consumption implied that the overall environment index was relatively high.

The study noted that Bengaluru provides its citizens with greater equity in income and demographics, access to education, health and basic needs (energy, water, sanitation), giving it a higher social sustainability index.

However, safety is an issue with a relatively low number of police personnel per one lakh population.

Though it has lower unemployment and inflation rates, indicating ‘good growth and development’, Bengaluru fares low on the overall economic index because of lower per capita income, per capita water and electricity consumption, lower access to public transport, poor road infrastructure and high congestion.

Elaborating on the difference between the two cities, Prof. Patil said the concentration of two-wheelers is higher in Bengaluru while in Mumbai, it is cars. Further, Bengaluru is a ‘greener’ city compared to Mumbai and livability is higher as there are fewer slums than in Mumbai. However, the size of economic activity is ‘significantly higher’ in Mumbai.

Global standards

The study not only compares the two Indian cities, but also other major cities — London, Singapore and Shanghai.

Among the five megacities whose sustainability indicators were compared, Singapore was ranked first, followed by London, Shanghai, Bengaluru and Mumbai.

Main findings

Bengaluru is below the benchmark on urban

sustainability due to lower scores on income, infrastructure and transportation

Higher scores in education, equity and access to basic needs as compared to Mumbai

Scores better in climate change, energy consumption

and soil pollution

The city scored low in urban green spaces and

water pollution

Performance on economic sustainability is main reason for both Bengaluru and Mumbai lagging behind Singapore, London and Shanghai