School of Planning And Architecture

Activities carried out and achievements in AY 2019-2020

a) The students of planning participated in the Annual NOSPLAN Convention 2019 held at UPES Dehradun and secured the “Second Runners Up” amongst all the educational institutions in planning across the country. In terms of formal events, SPAV students secured First Prize in the competitions of ‘Current Practices’, Second Prize in ‘Showcase Pin-up’ and ‘Wall Painting’. The NOSPLAN Annual Convention had over 1500 planning students delegates participating this year in over 15 competitive events.

b) B.Planning student Mr. Leelavamsi Chadarajupalli (2015-2019 Batch) was recipient of the Best UG Planning thesis award for the academic year 2018-19 by the Institute of Town Planners, India (ITPI). The award is a prestigious achievement where each of best planning theses of all planning institutes in the country is examined by a national level jury to identify the best thesis of the year 2019.

c) A team of four students from the Department of Planning have been recognized as the top winner of Wipro Earthian 2019 Challenge, which was themed this year on intelligent and sustainable management of “Water, Food and Waste”. This national level competition had participants from various universities representing different disciplines across the nation who submitted entries on innovating on aspects of management of water, food, or waste.

d) University of Melbourne and SPA, Vijayawada undertook a Joint Studio Programme on Humananitarian Design from 19 January - 04 February 2020 with second year students of University of Melbourne and second year B.Plan. and B.Arch students of SPA Vijayawada. Dr. Adinarayanane R, Head (Dept of Planning) was the Joint Studio Programme Coordinator.

e) Department of Planning organized various special lectures/ talks/ seminars by eminent academicians from India and abroad. Lecture by academicians and practising experts from NIUA Delhi, IIT Roorkee, SPA Delhi, SAP Chennai, AP-CRDA, DTCP Chandigarh, etc. Some noteworthy talks held in SPAV campus were –

Special Lectures/Seminars arranged in the Even Semester AY 2019-20:

i. Special Lecture on "Application of Geospatial Technology Towards Urban and Regional Planning" on 09.03.2020 (Monday, from 10.00AM till 12.00PM) at the Exhibition Hall delivered by Shri P. L.N. Raju, Director, North East Space Application Centre (NESAC), Dept of Space, Govt. of India organised by Dr. Ayon K Tarafdar, and attended by certain batches of Dept of Planning.

ii. A Special Talk on "Fulbright-Nehru and other Fulbright Fellowship Opportunities in the US" by Dr. Monika Setia was organised by Dr. Adinarayanane and Mr. Prasanth Vardhan, Department of Planning at School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada on 05.03.2020 (Thursday) from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM.

iii. Department of Planning arranged a special lecture on "Application of System Dynamics in Urban Planning" on 24.01.2020 (Friday from 03:00 PM till 06:00 PM at Exhibition Hall-SPAV) by Prof. Dr. V. Devadas, Professor, Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee organised by Dr. Adinarayanane R, and attended by certain batches of Dept of Planning.

iv. Department of Planning conducted a "Seminar on Preservation and Planning of Heritage Zones" on 13.01.2020 (Monday, from 10.15AM till 3.00PM organised by Dr. Ayon Tarafdar and Dr. Adinarayanane R. The seminar included special lectures and presentations by Prof. Dr. Michael Tomlan (Dept of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University, USA), Mr. Thomas Richmond (Practising Planner, New York State Dept. of Conservation, USA), Ar. Kamalika Bose (Practising Conservationist, Mumbai), Ar. Swapna Kothari (Practising Conservationist, Vadodara), Dr. P. Pavan Kumar (Associate Prof., Dept of Architecture, Bangalore University) and few other speakers.

Special Lectures/Seminars arranged in the Odd Semester AY 2019-20:

i. A one-day seminar on “Urban Green Spaces using Geo-spatial Techniques for City Planning” by Dr. RAAJ Ramsankaran, Associate Professor and Head of Hydro Remote Sebnsing Applications Group (H-RSA), Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay, organised by Dr. Adinarayanane R, was conducted by Department of Planning at SPA Vijayawada on 20.08.2019 (Friday) for the final year students of Master of Planning (MEPM, MURP), Bachelor of Planning, M.Arch (Sustainable Architecture), and M.Arch (Landscape Architecture) programmes. The session included a speial l;ecture followed by a hands-on-training session with the faculty and students at GIS Lab, Department of Planning, SPA Vijayawada; and the discussion that followed focused on data procurement, use, analysis including NDVI, and interpretation of results at city and neighborhood level.

ii. A Special Lecture on "Urban Design and Public Space Management" by Uwe S. Brandes, Professor of Practice and Faculty Director, Urban and Regional Planning Program, Georgetown University organized by Dr. Adinarayanane R and Mr. Prasanth Vardhan was arranged at School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada by Department of Planning on Friday, August 2nd2019. As a part of lecture series hosted by U.S. Consulate General Hyderabad, Prof. Brandes had agreed for a special lecture followed by discussion with Faculty and Students (students of M. Plan (URP and EPM), B. Plan (Final Year), M. Arch (Sustainable Architecture) and B. Arch (Final Year)) at School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada

iii. The Department of Planning, SPA Vijayawada organized a half-day event on November 7th 2019 to celebrate the World Town Planning Day 2019, with the theme on ‘Sustainable & Healthy Communities’. Prof. Dr. Eric Leclerc, visiting Professor (as a part of CIII cell) from University of Lille, France, was the guest speaker for the WTPD 2019.

iv. Academic visit of Prof. Dr. Eric Leclerc from University of Lille, France – included special lectures, interaction with final year students of B.Plan and M.Plan., discussion of studio work with B.Plan – Regional Planning (B.Plan IV Year) and Area Development Plan (B.Plan III Year) studios and, M.Plan – Regional Planning (M.Plan II Year – EPM & URP) and Area Planning studios (M.Plan I Year), and filed visit to Amravati.

v. A special lecture on “Smart City Planning Experiences from France”, by Prof. Dr. Eric Leclerc, from University of Lille, France, was arranged by Department of Planning at the G4 Lecture Hall, School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada on Saturday, October 30, 2019.

vi. A special lecture on “Climate Change and Vulnerability of Coastline and Coastal Infrastructure “, by Dr. Komali Kantamaneni, Research Fellow, Maritime, Technology and Environment, Solent University, United Kingdom, followed by interaction session was arranged at the Exhibition Hall, School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada on Saturday, November 30, 2019.

f) Software Training Programmes arranged in the Odd Semester AY 2019-20:

	i. A five days software training programme on “PTV VISSUM and VISSIM” (Traffic Simulation Software) by PTV Group was organised by Department of Planning in SPA Vijayawada from August 19th – 23rd 2019 for students pursuing MTIP. At the end of the course the students were able to independently build network models and perform common evaluations.
	ii. A five days software training programme on “CUBE” (Transportation and Land-use Modelling Software) by City Labs Group was organised by Department of Planning in SPA Vijayawada from September 3rd – 7th 2019 for students pursuing MTIP. At the end of the course the students were able to analyse the transportation networks and gauge their capacities in the context to the land use.

g) Guest Lectures arranged in last AY 2018-19:

h) The faculty of Department of Planning are also involved in various planning research and consultancy projects of the institute:

	i. Under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) project funded by the Government of India, SPA Vijayawada has adopted five villages for which development plan has been prepared with involvement of the local people. The project is under implementation stage.
	ii. SPA Vijayawada is providing advisory and technical support to the Directorate of Town and Country Planning, Government of Andhra Pradesh for the revision of the Town and Country Planning Act – AP RUPA 2020.
	iii. SPA Vijayawada is in the process of preparing the GIS based Master Plans for Bhimavaram region (consiting of three settlements of Bhimavaram, Tanuku and Narasapuram) and for Eluru region (consiting of three settlements of Eluru, Palakollu and Jangareddygudem). These Master Plan projects are funded under the AMRUT scheme of Government of India and are prepared for the Directorate of Town and Country Planning.
	iv. The School is undertaking a research project funded by the European Union titled ‘Building Resilient Urban Communities (BReUCom)’ funded under Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union which is being executed together with Danube University Austria, ITC Netherlands, SPA Bhopal and NIT Hamirpur. In this connection:
	i. Project Kick-off meeting at SPA Vijayawada dated February 11-15, 2019

	ii. Project Meeting and Site Visits:

	1. Dr. Minakshi Jain, Dr. Adinarayanane and Dr. Faiz Ahmed participated in a 6-day symposium and project meeting during the period of August 23 – September 01, 2019 at Danube University, Krems, Austria.
	2. Dr. Ayon Kumar Tarafdar and Mr. Karthik G. attended symposium with a focal theme on ‘Informality and Resilience to Climate Change, organized by Danube University, Krems, Austria from October 23-35, 2019, and delivered a presentation on ‘Traditional Settlement Design in Hilly Regions with specific focus on earthquake resilience’.
	3. Dr. Ayon Kumar Tarafdar delivered a presentation on “The Formation of Urban Heat Stress Zones and Urban Heat Islands and its implications on Land Use Planning in the Future” in Mumbai on December 4, 2019.

	v. Recently, SPA Vijayawada successfully completed a research project funded by the European Union titled ‘Building Inclusive Urban Communities (BINUCom)’ in collaboration with University of Krems, Austria, which aims to critically look at architecture and planning education in India terms of how much inclusive the syllabi. In this connection
	i. National Conference under Building Inclusive Urban Communities (BinUCom) was organized at SPA Vijayawada on February 6, 2019.
	ii. Local Dissemination Workshop (LDW-II) was organized at SPA Vijayawada on September 26-27, 2019.