Exploring Walkable Localities as Organizing Principle of City Plan

Citizens aspire for good quality spaces and availability of amenities close to their homes in the neighborhood. They are thus encouraged to walk to the market places, parks, and other places of daily visit, which keeps them healthy. This paradigm shift of walkable localities in the planning of the cities as a global approach, calls for an investigation of whether there is adequacy in terms of amenities and whether they are within the walkable distance from homes. In this context, the “15-minute city” as defined by Carlos Moreno was an ideal urban area where most human needs and aspirations were located within a walkable distance of 15 min. This was used to evaluate the city of Hassan in Karnataka, India. By employment of a conceptual radius of 400 m, the pedestrian shed was defined as a locality, in the over laid model of the 15-min city for the context of Hassan. Seven such localities were defined to constitute a neighborhood. The 15-min city plan as defined by Carlos Moreno was overlaid on the existing plan of Hassan and analyzed with the assumption that the historical medium-sized city of Hassan may have an underlying structure of a walkable city damaged by recent developments. Restoring and guiding the urban transformations in accordance with a clearly defined structure of neighborhood localities was proposed which enhanced the quality of life of the citizens. The proposed structure also defined the areas for future proposed amenities at the neighborhood level.