Redefining Smart & Sustainable Cities, although has been conceived much earlier and has been continually refined over and over, the recent announcement of 1 Smart Cities by the Honble Prime Minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi, and the spate of events thereafter, has made the release of the book rather accelerated. It unfolds for its readers the thus-far little-known story about smart cities that have existed since centuries and what the existing cities can learn from them. The author has taken interesting habitat traits and important data points right from prehistoric times to the modern day. Parallels have been drawn from various parts of the globe cutting across time - right from the Stone Age to the modern Digital Age. The authors have critically analyzed and shown that since the problems had the same set of root causes the solutions can also lie among some of the thriving and sustainable modern-day smart cities of the world. In fact, through careful extrapolation of habitat aspects the author has shown that many of the sustainable smart cities today have undergone similar deterioration for at least some time before these cities were restored and made truly smart. Each chapter weaves into it text and explanations written in a direct and simple manner and is interspersed with interesting pictures, drawings, infographics, and facts and figures directly relevant to the topic under discussion. This makes the book a very engaging and interesting read.

About the Author

Prof. Charanjit S. Shah, Founder Principal Creative Group, is a practising architect, planner and infrastructure development expert. Besides practising as an architect and urban planner, he is a renowned author, academician, and an educationist. He is a great visionary and has a wide experience of more than four decades. His vision beyond imagination has transformed many of his works as a great piece of art and architecture which also befits as most sustainable projects. He professes that buildings should not be looked upon as a mass of brick and concrete but as a living organism which breathes as is embodied within nature. A multi-faceted personality, Prof. Shah has won many global and national design competitions and his works particularly in Aviation, Railways, City Master Planning, and Institutional Campus Planning have been acclaimed internationally. He also received CBR Lifetime Achievement Award. As an expert in infrastructure projects, creating Inter-Modal Hubs, Walkable Cities, and Townships, his vision looks beyond net zero campuses. His philosophy, commitment, and dedication towards a holistic approach, lenses through the transparent outcomes of design productivity derived on the basis of socio-economical, cultural, and technological aspects is way forward looking upon the cities as the manifestation of the human settlements. Prof. Shah has already authored four books on architecture and allied subjects. He is a mentor of profession of Architecture and commands leadership in providing direction to the profession and the society for better human settlement.