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Abstract: Sustainable urban infrastructure interventions can help achieve both public health and low-carbon goals in cities. This paper explores the extent to which civil infrastructure (i.e., water, sanitation, energy, transport and building infrastructures) and environmental factors (e.g. air and water quality) associated with these infrastructures shape current urban health outcomes in cities in Asia using Delhi, India as a case study. Current mortality data for Delhi are used as context to estimate the extent to which urban health outcomes are shaped by infrastructure and infrastructure-related environmental factors, some of which could directly or indirectly reduce mortality through low-carbon interventions. Mortality data along with a preliminary survey of expert opinion indicate up to 19 percent of all recorded deaths in Delhi may be infrastructure-related. More detailed epidemiology studies and infrastructure models are needed to confirm these initial findings. The findings suggest public health outcomes may be a large factor in motivating low-carbon development in Asian cities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper analyses the problems of tenure security for the poor in Delhi by examining the recent programmes and policies adopted by the central and state governments, the orders passed by the judiciary and their implementation at micro-level. It provides an overview of the strategy adopted since the 1950s (after independence from colonial rule) until the late 1990s when the slum population was at its peak. An attempt is made to trace the more recent changes in policy perspective and the dilution of concern for the poor by critically examining the administrative decisions, developmental programmes, court orders, etc. and the method of their implementation. After discussing the broad distribution of households in various settlement categories and their access to tenure security and basic amenities, it argues that the prospect of finding space and even informal tenurial security for the poor would be bleak unless an explicit provision is made within the Master Plan. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]