Chapter 1
COVID-19: An Opportunity for Smart
and Sustainable Cities in India
Meet Fatewar and Vaishali
Abstract The major portion of the world’s population, i.e. around 55%, resides
in urban settlements, which is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. Economic
development is always given more preference over environmental sustainability. The
COVID-19 pandemic is the result of ignorance to have an adequate number of basic
infrastructure facilities including healthcare infrastructure and less importance to
sustainable environment. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases are more in
the high-density settlements both at global and national level. Therefore, it becomes
crucial to develop Indian cities, which are sustainable and capable to fulfil the needs
of the citizens by providing smart solutions. A smart city provides smart services
to the residents by using Information and Communication Technology, Information
Technology, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning as
an integrated part of governance for development. Hence, it is essential to develop
smart sustainable cities followed by smart regions, which are well synchronised
with the digital technology, as a precautionary measure before an epidemic becomes
a pandemic through spatial-statistical analysis. The aforesaid digital model of smart
cities is capable of reducing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by analysing the
real-time data, which can further be extended to smart regions.
Keywords COVID-19 · Smart city · Smart regions · Sustainable cities · Pandemic
M. Fatewar (B) · Vaishali
Faculty of Planning and Architecture, Pandit Lakhmi Chand State University of Performing and
Visual Arts, Rohtak, Haryana, India
e-mail: spa.meetfatewar@gmail.com
Vaishali
e-mail: vaishaliredhu@gmail.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. Chakraborty et al. (eds.), The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Green Societies,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66490-9_1
1
COVID-19: An Opportunity for Smart
and Sustainable Cities in India
Meet Fatewar and Vaishali
Abstract The major portion of the world’s population, i.e. around 55%, resides
in urban settlements, which is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. Economic
development is always given more preference over environmental sustainability. The
COVID-19 pandemic is the result of ignorance to have an adequate number of basic
infrastructure facilities including healthcare infrastructure and less importance to
sustainable environment. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases are more in
the high-density settlements both at global and national level. Therefore, it becomes
crucial to develop Indian cities, which are sustainable and capable to fulfil the needs
of the citizens by providing smart solutions. A smart city provides smart services
to the residents by using Information and Communication Technology, Information
Technology, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning as
an integrated part of governance for development. Hence, it is essential to develop
smart sustainable cities followed by smart regions, which are well synchronised
with the digital technology, as a precautionary measure before an epidemic becomes
a pandemic through spatial-statistical analysis. The aforesaid digital model of smart
cities is capable of reducing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by analysing the
real-time data, which can further be extended to smart regions.
Keywords COVID-19 · Smart city · Smart regions · Sustainable cities · Pandemic
M. Fatewar (B) · Vaishali
Faculty of Planning and Architecture, Pandit Lakhmi Chand State University of Performing and
Visual Arts, Rohtak, Haryana, India
e-mail: spa.meetfatewar@gmail.com
Vaishali
e-mail: vaishaliredhu@gmail.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. Chakraborty et al. (eds.), The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Green Societies,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66490-9_1
1