Sustainable Urbanization of water

Brief Overview

The cancerous growth of Indian cities that once used to be pin-pricked by water bodies have completely neglected public spaces around water and also the birth of new ones. Water forms the crux of our cities and is an engineered system planned, developed and operated. Water systems are closely related to ecological and energy flows of our environment. The neo-banal and monotonous infrastructure including the new and old neighborhoods hardly takes into consideration, the creation of new water infrastructure that promotes ecology, ground water recharge and rejuvenation of existing water bodies. Less and less resources are expended on the its creation by the public as well as private sector. Will this process cease any time soon or will continue to happen till the time, the memory of public water spaces ceases to exist. The city of Hyderabad has been once such place, punctured with uncontrolled urbanization around water, polluting it.
This research project not only looks at one point of view through architecture or urbanism but rather employs multiple view points to understand and present interventions to manage urban ecosystem and infrastructures. Policy making, economics, long term investment, public private partnerships, healthy community relationship has been looked at in-depth and the solutions provided are both long term as well as short term.

Snapshot of River Musi bifurcating the city of Hyderabad with several lakes around

Then and Now

The condition of lakes and River Musi of Hyderabad in 18th and 19th century (on the left). The present day condition of the lakes (on the right). They have put enormous pressure and stress on the environment by becoming a hub of pollution. It hinders the growth of the city too. The lack of public interest is also contributed to the failure of this urban system. The need of the hour is to think of solutions that take into account various urban actors.

IDL Lake forms the backbone of this project or one can imagine an experimental ground before implementing the policies and solutions on a larger city scale. Its one of the important lakes for the surrounding neighborhood community and deteriorating day by day because of uncontrolled urbanization.

The analysis of the surroudings around the lake

Intervention 1(left): Streets: Sectional view of the street and water absorption system and Intervention 2(right): Empty plots are used to create ephemeral community and engineered filtration spaces until the plots get occupied

Intervention 3(left): Creating a relationship between the school, horticulture and productive landscapes to boost social and economic sustainability and Intervention 4: Revitalization of water public space to improve tourism bringing in money

Intervention 5: New temple and bridge as a maker, connector and facilitator on landscape to attract people from the other side.and initiate the process of cleaning the "nallah" flowing into the lake

Intervention 6: The proposed infrastructure for immersion of Ganesha idol during the Ganesh Chaturthi and Durga Puja festival
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Intervention 7: A proposed community wetland park where all the filtrated storm water is channelized holds it, even during the times of flood, acting as a resilient urban infrastructure
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Resilient and native tree species are selected to contribute to economic and environmental sustainability. The trees provide economic benefits to the local stakeholder i.e. farmers and the official publication of the book coauthored with Prof. Stepher Goldsmith
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