Aurobindo Ogra

• Masters in Urban and Regional Planning | Masters in Business Economics
• Lecturer at University of Johannesburg

The foundry industry in South Africa forms one of the greatest industries in the manufacturing sector. It produces waste foundry sand (WFS) that ends up in landfill sites. Around 80% of the WFS could be utilized as a substitute for sand in concrete. The utilization of WFS will benefit the industry, as raw materials (natural sand alternative) and en...

The urban environment is a product of many tangible and intangible factors for communities, involving activities, spaces, and users of different age groups. Stakeholder consultation has become an essential part of envisaging any urban space. In general practice, mostly adults’ opinions and suggestions are taken into account, and children are sideli...

The creation of cities has been one of the most phenomenal achievements of human endeavor. Adults are the major stakeholders for such achievements but the children are helpless and representationless. The current research paper aims at understanding the issues faced by the children in the rapidly urbanized world where the lack of child-friendly env...

Rapid population increase, urbanisation, and huge exploitation of natural non-renewable resources are causes of great concern when it comes to the wellbeing of the present and future generations of all species on planet earth. The planning and management of existing cities on a large scale, in order to pursue sustainable transitions has led to the...

The concept of ‘Smart City’ has witnessed widespread applications across several city planning and development domains with specific emphasis on achieving smart sustainable cities. These concepts are seen to have evolved across the horizontal and vertical domains of the city governance, administration, planning and development and among others sect...

Cities in developing countries are growing at an unprecedented rate. In a recent article by the World Economic Forum and United Nations, the Sub-Saharan Africa is emerging as the fastest urbanising region with a population expected to be around 1.5 to 2 billion by 2050. It is however unfortunate that these urbanisation trends have not been without...

The current framework of planning legislation in South Africa reflects a growing emphasis in tools and strategies that seek to redress the spatial imbalances of the past and facilitate socioeconomic transformation going forward. As part of the planning efforts to give practical effect to these trajectories, Transit Oriented Development (TOD) has be...

South Africa inherits number of complex issues through apartheid legacy in areas of infrastructure, service delivery, governance and administration, racial segregation and disparities in areas of social, economic and financial realms of cities, towns and city-regions. South Africa’s rapid growth in urban areas has prompted challenges of innovative...

According to Gomide (2008) poverty in urban areas manifest through spatial isparities / isolation of the underpriviledged poor areas which is often linked to lack of public services and inadequate infrastructures, where the procurement of mass transportation is inappropriate as far as cost and also accessibility. These impediments restrict urban po...

Urbanisation poses complex institutional and fiscal challenges for urban areas across South Africa. The dynamics of urbanisation will have vast impacts in different parts of the country, as numerous municipalities continue to experience rapid population and economic growth. These trends are unlikely to be linear, predictable or determine the destin...

Public participation as the term indicates could be looked upon as a process by which the inhabitants of a particular nationality are involved in or made part of the development processes that concerns them. However according to contrasting planning cultures of the countries throughout the world, it is understood in a different manner. Although a n...

Conference Proceeding: Planning Africa 2014 - Making Great Places | 19th - 22nd October, 2014 | International Convention Centre, Durban | South Africa

This paper reflects on the efficacy of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and the primary components that constitute it. These components are widely recognized as manifesting themselves through the concept of “6Ds”: Design, Diversity, Density, Distance, Destination, and Demand management. The paper thus investigates the main aspects that underlie t...

The Transit Oriented Development (TOD) model is increasingly gaining momentum and becoming widely adopted by many cities in addressing a wide range of spatial development challenges within their communities. Development of this nature advocates for a return to a city form that is compact, higher in density, and supported by strategic nodes that pro...

The United States is one of the leading global leaders in e-Government and has consistently emerged as one of the top 10 countries from 2003 to 2012 on E-Government Development Index (EGDI). The paper focuses on theoretical insight and perspectives on different aspects of e-Government from the days of its evolution. The paper provides an insight of...

The emergence of new technology calls for fundamental rethinking and transformational shifts in the way we look at government functions and its service provisioning to the public. Governments are increasingly being solicited to take on the roles of a facilitator and enabler - to collaborate with the public, private and community sectors in creating...

The State of Uttarakhand is the 27 th State of India, and is popularly known as 'the abode of the Gods'. Tourism forms one of the major contributors to states economy. The state is world known for its historical, cultural and natural attractions. The two regions of the state namely: Garhwal and Kumaon regions offer unique natural and cultural touri...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the social, environmental and financial benefits (including the impact thereof) of implementing energy and thermal efficiency technologies Solar Water Heating (SWH) and passive thermal intervention in low income housing development project. Problem of investigation: South African housing backlog is es...

The effective municipal service delivery and good governance is one of the major challenges the municipalities are facing world over. From small municipalities to large metropolitan municipalities, the challenges surrounding these issues are more or less of similar nature but with varied scale. The municipalities are entrusted to provide efficient...

The country of India is rapidly expanding with much of the thrust being in areas of urban and rural infrastructure development. With varied infrastructure development practices, and the country’s emerging position as one of the developed nation, the civil engineers are challenged to develop its road network using sustainable practices. There are se...

The Good Urban Governance theme is closely viewed as associated with concepts like service delivery, citizen's satisfaction, access to basic quality services, managing and delivery of infrastructure services to citizens. Urban governance deals with complex issues demanding interventions at various levels for issues like urbanization and growth, man...