Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11) aims to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. It focuses on ensuring access to basic services, affordable housing, sustainable transport, cultural heritage preservation, and disaster resilience. SDG 11 envisions cities that are socially inclusive, environmentally responsible, and capable of withstanding urban challenges.

• Ensure everyone has access to affordable housing and basic services.
• Provide sustainable and accessible transport systems for all.
• Foster inclusive and resilient urbanization, particularly in disaster-prone areas.
• Safeguard cultural and natural heritage.
• Reduce disaster-related deaths and impacts.
• Minimize environmental impact in cities, focusing on air quality and waste management.
• Ensure universal access to safe green spaces.
• Strengthen links between urban, peri-urban, and rural areas.
• Encourage cities to adopt inclusive and sustainable policies.
• Support least developed countries in building sustainable and resilient structures.

• Project Utthan aims to transform Dhalani and Koti villages of Dehradun into model smart villages, with special focus on healthcare, education and livelihood. These will be first of many villages to reap the benefits of this program, bringing more development and prosperity to the Indian rural landscape.
• The University offers programmes- M.Tech in Disaster Management, B.Des in Transportation and mobility design, M.Des in Transportation design, B.Tech in Sustainability Management, M.Tech Sustainability Engineering, B.Tech CSE in IOT and Smart Cities.
• Project Artisan empowers local communities, especially women weavers, in a remote village of Ladakh. They are imparted design skills for collective production and sales of back-strap loom carpets, while considering responsible consumption and production that uses affordable-clean energy. The project, which focuses on creating income opportunities, is a partnership between education institutes and local NGOs. It sustains their cultural heritage, without migration to cities from villages, an issue faced in the Ladakh mountains.
• Project UK (India Sustainable Development and Research Collaboration) is aimed at building a network of experts to find sustainable solutions, starting with reviving, modernising, and enhancing the small watermills for rural income enhancement. This networking plan directly addresses the issues of remote community poverty in India and is aimed primarily at the hill communities in Uttarakhand.
• Project Vikalp economically empowers rural womenfolk in the local community through manufacturing of environment-friendly ‘woodless pencils’, tech-assisted handicrafts, and growing medicinal and aromatic plants suitable to the climate and soil in the region.