ROLE OF IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGY.

The application of immersive technology is the way forward in creating sustainable cities for future generations.

With mass urbanization and population growth, cities worldwide are crumbling when challenged by overcrowding and insufficient infrastructure. In India itself, urban areas are expected to house 40% of India's population by 2030. But are our cities ready for this?

The urban population is currently faced with great housing and infrastructure shortages as governments, capitalists and industrialists all do their best to match the growing need to house large populations.  Additionally, infrastructure deficiencies like inadequate water supply, mismanaged or even insufficient public transport, power shortages, resource distribution, sanitation, and waste management all form a nexus of challenges that plague urban life today.

The government is currently acting through various interventions such as policy changes, distributed economic growth and opportunities and infrastructure growth. However, today's most promising solutions for the generation of smart cities that uplift rural areas create new urban pockets that can take pressure off existing urban areas. As the Indian government moves towards establishing smart cities that are backed by technology for enhanced living standards and economic returns, for its maximum result, the need to equip designers with the necessary tools to design such a built environment is of utmost importance.

As technology moves forward by leaps and bounds every day, it offers us an opportunity to employ the same to declutter some of these convoluted systems and build efficient and functional cities that will sustain themselves when challenged with a growing population. With the help of communication and immersive technologies such as VR, AR and MR, designers can simulate large cities as they plan them. Plugging in the various systems that formulate a city, such as water management and waste management, into a simulated model would allow experts to check these systems before their application with minimal use of resources. Immersive tech can also aid in simulating transport solutions to reduce the waiting time at signals, reduce driving accidents, ensure smoother and faster movement through cities, to name a few examples. Simulating before execution will reduce the scope for error and create a robust and efficient system and allow experts to project future needs and improvise infrastructure at a similar pace to that of population growth.

At a more micro level, immersive tech also offers the opportunity for detailed urban design endeavours that resolve urban issues at a block level. The ease in switching between macro and micro scales seamlessly equips designers to comprehend the implications of every design decision at a multiscale level during the design process itself. This series of experiments and modelling can help us generate a built environment that is robust and future-ready. The use of technology also offers enhanced safety and surveillance in cities reducing crime rates and creating safer environments. Immersive technology can also be employed to generate healthcare networks and emergency systems that can come into play seamlessly in a time of need.

Through the application of technology, an urban design and planning model can be produced where various components of an efficient city such as water supply, waste management, transport systems, healthcare, safety and surveillance can all be accounted for as parameters. These parameters can then be utilized as a framework to test cities designed or even scaled, retrofitted or replicated to ensure high efficiency and consistent performance of urban design policies and frameworks.

Immersive technology has the potential to create cities that put their inhabitants first. It can develop systems and solutions that grow and improvise with time instead of crumbling in the face of overcrowding. The application of immersive technology is not limited to creating cities for a better today but is also the way forward for sustainable cities for future generations to come.

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