The book goes on to cite Ahmedabad's Sabarmati Riverfront Development project (SRDP), one of the eight case studies, as an example of a scoping exercise that took a long time for completion.

The second step is the 'planning phase'. This involves 'designing a web of actions and institutions'. The book explicitly mentions that a successful planning framework brings together an inspiring vision with a clear regulatory process. A planning process with the help of scoping process must detail all the vital assets and elements including land, community and environmental issues.

In the case of SRDP, the planning phase was initiated once the special purpose vehicle (SPV) for riverfront development was established.

Post this, the third stage is financing. Here, there are generally two types of tools available. Financial tools involve direct financial assistance such as value capture methods (impact fees, special assessments, extractions). Regulatory tools utilize regulatory powers of a city to incentivise private sector participation in the form of tax-based/non-tax based incentives, zoning, land use planning and the like.

In the case of Ahmedabad, an innovative financial scheme was utilised for financing. Fourteen percent of the reclaimed land was used to finance complete regeneration of the riverfront. The city used its serviced public land to raise a loan from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO), a central government public sector undertaking.

The final step is the implementation stage that translates the vision for sustainable change into financial, contractual and institutional relationships between the public and private sectors. This involves creating an organisational structure, which is sustainable and can exist through multiple political administrations.

In the case of SRDP, post the establishment of SPV, a diverse board was enabled with members from the private sector, the bureaucracy and the political parties (both ruling and opposition) which enabled the project to be viewed as a civic work rather than one aligned with any party's agenda.