Rethinking greenways design in context of sustainable development: towards landscape synergism

Greenways design and planning has been largely framed as a multi-functional, multi-objective approach to address socio-cultural and ecological concerns (Fabos,2004; Hough 2004, Steiner, 2002; Fabos, 1995, Ahern, 1995; Ndubisi, 1995; Forman,1995). Social well-being, identity and memory have been predominant socio-cultural concerns while biodiversity preservation and natural resources conservation have been key ecological concerns. These concerns have now been superseded by the more urgent concerns of sustainable development such as availability of energy resources, both food and fuel. Whether and how the design and practice of greenways meets these sustainable development challenges is the primary question raised through this paper. The greenway design and planning practice is reviewed through academic papers, government proposals and greenway reports generated by relevant agencies. Physical design typology in reference to the given physical, socio-cultural, political and ecological contextual is studied, and a hypothetical compound network design typology explored through academic projects. The inquiry overarches the realms of landscape design, planning, sustainability and urbanism. The paper, (a) outlines three predominant design typologies of greenways: connector design, containment design and composite network design, (b) advocates for composite network design typology of greenways for its scalar versatility enabling neighbourhood to city level applications, (c) illustrates the sustainable development outcomes related to socio-cultural, ecological and economic wellbeing as generated through green network design at neighbourhood scale, and, (d) articulates greenways as synergistic landscapes that create harmony amongst the urban system with broader biophysical system. Essentially, the paper calls for a renewed approach to greenways design and planning practice in order to start meeting sustainable development challenges more effectively and advocates for landscape synergism approach to design for sustainability and harmony

Contemporary practices in sustainable design: appraisal and articulation of emerging trend

Sustainable design is a phrase commonly used in the realms of design practice and yet the definition of the same remains quite fuzzy, thus providing the motivation for this research. The paper looks at contemporary sustainable design practices in the area of architecture design, building construction and landscape architecture. The objective is to understand what the term “sustainable design” really means as used in practice and what strategies are being employed towards the goal of sustainable development. The practices are assessed for their empathies as per the currently defined social, ecological, economical well-being goals of sustainable development. The paper concludes that out of the conventional triad of social, economic and ecological well-being, the socio-ecological well-being is emerging as the prevalent trend among the contemporary sustainable design practice. The trend needs to be continuously refined in this direction through intelligent employment of social and economic capital

Green-switch: Reducing the conflict between the industrial and the residential interface

The dilemma of co-existence of human-industry has been a constant topic of debate among the realms of landscape planning, many times without being clearly articulated as such. This paper examines the conflict through the study of industrial-residential domain. Natural resources such as water and land are primary reasons of conflict. The paper explores the potential of landscape design to address this conflict. The proposed landscape design strategy green-switch combines the landscape planning concept of “greenways” and applied ecological engineering concept of “constructed wetland” to address the conflict

Interdisciplinary industrial ecology education: recommendations for an inclusive pedagogical model

Industrial ecology education is being developed and delivered predominantly within the domains of engineering and management. Such an approach could prove somewhat limiting to the broader goal developing the industrial ecology as an integrated knowledge base inclusive of diverse disciplines in contributing to sustainable development. This paper hypothesizes that industrial ecology could be optimally delivered across broader disciplines if it were to be delivered as a supplemental knowledge among disciplines that engage with sustainable development education. Based on this hypothesis, a pedagogical experiment is devised and presented here. The paper is descriptive, reflective and exploratory in approach; the challenges embedded in interdisciplinary delivery of industrial ecology knowledge towards the aim of sustainable development are projected and addressed through recommendations on an inclusive pedagogical model. The intention is binary of contributing towards advancement of industrial ecology as an integrated body of knowledge, and, of introducing the concept of industrial ecology to the discipline of landscape architecture

Valuing Fishing Activity of the Deepor Beel

The Deepor Beel is one of the large and important riverine wetlands in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam, India. The only Ramsar site of Assam, the Beel is one of the richest biodiversity grounds in the wetland eco-system of the state. The Deepor Beel is the hub of a wide range of organisms. It provides various goods and services directly or indirectly to the villages near to the beel for their livelihood. Despite its contribution to society and ecology as a whole, these goods and services of the Beel are undervalued in the policy provisions. The prime reason for this undervaluation is that most of the goods and services of the Beel are non-marketable and those goods which have direct use-values are never valued in an economic term. To fill the gap partially, this study tries to estimate the direct use values of the Deepor Beel. Among the goods the Deepor Beel provides, fishing can be considered one of the economically significant goods. Fishing provides livelihood directly to 825 households living near the Beel. Therefore, this research tries to estimate the direct use value of fishing in the Deepor Beel. A market price approach is applied to estimate the value of this wetland resource. Net Present Value (NPV) of fishing is also estimated. The total estimated value of fishing is INR 11,64,69,375 per annum. The estimated value of fishing per hectare is INR 29,015.78 per annum. The estimated Net Present Value (NPV) of fishing is INR 97,05,78,125. This valuation is important to draw the attention of the policymakers for resource investment in conserving the Beel for continued benefits