Dr Ian Mell presented his research on integration of Green Infrastructure in city development plans citing a few examples and also depicting the case of Ahmedabad.
Dr Mell is a planning and civic design lecturer at the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Liverpool. His work integrates multi-functional perspectives of planning urban green spaces with evaluation of planning policies and socio-economic benefits. He has examined recent green infrastructure developments across the European Union and North America, and has recently extended his study to the rapidly growing urban spaces of India and China.
Earlier sustainability deeds were confined to Environmental NGOs, but within the last decade green infrastructure has emerged as a mandate across the European Union.
Green infrastructure focuses on developing infrastructure as a multi-purpose space with natural elements: water and green cover but not green technology; for example, the London Wetlands Centre is a habitat conservation landscape that simultaneously serves as a hub for recreational activities. It also includes infrastructures that make transport more convenient and sustainable; for example the elevated ‘SkyCycle’ bike routes in London and the Finger Plan of Copenhagen. Green infrastructures are broadly classified into garden cities, green belts and landscape conservation. Garden cities are self-sustainable habitats built to cater a certain population; green belts can be interpreted as roads with multiple features like green cover and permeable pavement along the way while landscape can be considered as an amalgamation of both. Sounds big, but the concepts are scaled as per the audience to be catered, namely state, city or community. Small community parks in London and New York Central Park both are green infrastructures but with different characteristics as they cater at different levels.
Such spaces also act as social hub for the community and hence tend to become epicenters of the vicinities.
When it comes to economic benefits, real estate costs are higher for properties overlooking green spaces due to perceived value; a good example is the gap between the property prices in Upper Manhattan and Lower Manhattan. Thus scaled concepts create multi-functional and holistic urban spaces with long term socio-economic benefits for the community. But these long term benefits are often overlooked as most decisions are based on returns on investment. Major challenges for implementation comprise of getting approvals from stake holders and most importantly convincing investors. Developing a scaled concept simulation can clearly define benefits and beneficiaries for convincing stake holders and investors, but tangible benefits would always be difficult to calculate. As Dr Mell mentioned, “getting people to agree is easy, politicians are difficult, but getting the figures right is the most challenging!” Though he suggested that in case of developing new spaces the administration can have arrangements with real estate developers to reap greater benefits.
Indian cities have less green cover compared to their foreign counterparts; among Indian cities Delhi has the highest green cover of nineteen percent while London scores a double of thirty-eight percent. But unlike Europe, Indian cities are densely populated and rapidly evolving so applying improved practices is an arduous task. By 2025, sixty-eight cities in India will have a population of over a million and with current global climate change, integration of green infrastructure in development plans can cater the needs in a sustainable manner. Implementing the concept does not imply mimicking existing solutions but as Dr Mell said, “Not doing the same thing at different locations but the right thing at right location.” Owing to drastically varying demographics the concepts are tailored to suit the existing infrastructure and demographics.
In India although investment in green infrastructure is growing, but it currently is limited to townships and suburban areas.
Ahmedabad currently has just two percent green cover but the Municipal Corporation ambitiously plans to increase it to fourteen or fifteen percent. It plans on developing existing water bodies and open pockets as green spaces; like the Vastrapur Lake. But most of the water bodies are located on the eastern half so in the western half AMC has planned green belts like tree plantations along Nehrunagar-Shivranjini Road. The lake conservation project at Kankaria simultaneously serves as a recreational space and social hub for the community. Thus it has become an epicenter of the locale. In India many schemes follow the Public Private Partnership model where the public pays the cost as usage fee, for example 10 rupees entry fee at Kankaria, whereas the West believes in providing facilities for free as nominal fees might still be exclusive. Other AMC plans might include brown field projects of transforming barren spaces and old unused industrial facilities into green multi-functional spaces, like the Millennium Park in Chicago developed over the old Illinois Central railway yard and parking lots. Though Ahmedabad has a well-defined plan, certain projects seem to be cavalier with the term; like the river front project which serves as a social and recreational hub with parks and other facilities and also provides economic benefit to real estate across the belt, but it simultaneously channelizes the river and can barely compensate for its own carbon footprint.
Green infrastructure amalgamates manmade and natural environment to create sustainable and better livable spaces. According to Dr. Mell, it is time to move beyond the conventional thinking and get people and expertise involved.
This article was originally published on CEPT Portfolio.
Header Image Source: Flickr user Andrew Mace
Savvy Munshi 