Dhara - Directing Flows in Mumbai Through Landscape

Abstract

From 1700 onwards the natural coastal landscape of Mumbai has gone through drastic changes and has become the highly urbanized metropolis we see today. The natural landscape was that of a forest to estuarine topographical gradient. This transformation of the land has had a major impact on the city’s resiliency, impacting water systems, green cover and communities. The natural systems have been built over with sea walls, causeways, railways and other such infrastructure elements that have become barriers, hampering the natural processes and flows. With urbanization, the local fishing communities that were initial inhibitors of Mumbai have been pushed to the fringes, now residing in the most vulnerable parts of the city. These problems, and the added pressure of climate change, has resulted in a very vulnerable system prone to flooding and consisting of compromised ecosystems and marginalized communities.

Considering the city as an interception within nature, it is important to look at the recovery of these elements via a nature based approach. Blue green infrastructure is a tool to deploy nature based solutions in complex urban environments. They work with landscape as infrastructure and infrastructure as landscape, creating an intertwined urban and natural system. Therefore the objective of this thesis is to explore the potentials of a blue green landscape framework that will provide conditions for hydro-morphological recovery, ecological restoration and communal requalification for the urbanized estuarine landscape of the Greater Mumbai Region. The thesis focuses on three design assignments, coastal protection, restoration of flows and communal safety. This in turn would impact the livability of the city and raise awareness of the importance of natural systems and processes in urban environments.

Design research and research by design provide the methods to direct this research where analysis and setting up of design principles are components of design research and the testing of design principles is part of research by design.

This research is conducted at three scales, examining the potentials of the blue green landscape framework at the regional scale, analyzing a watershed system boundary and a detailed design for the coastal region with elaborations related to mangroves, infrastructure and informal settlements. The research concludes with a reflection on the process and outcomes and their relevance for other geographical locations where similar threats are experienced.