Sustainable Greening of Urban Open Spaces Jeyabalaji Ravivarman Hofstra University 2022: Dept. Geology, Environment and Sustainability, Hempstead NY, 11549 Introduction
Results
Water, vegetation and sunlight are the primary resources for human beings to survive (Water, Air, and Soil | US Forest Service, n.d.). From stone-age to Industrial revolution, humans have had a significant impact on earth. Increased production of goods and excessive consumption of resources has disturbed the state of equilibrium in earth’s ecosystem (Monica G. Turner, 1993). In the process of human growth, the green covers have shinked and the water bodies are polluted. Several organizations and institutions have recently allocated a part of their income in reaction to counteract climate change (Page, 2008). They are involved in converting barren lands, wastelands and dilapidated lands into green zones by planting tree saplings based on the required site’s contexts. Increasing the greenery in urban areas affects the micro-climate through evapotranspiration (Johason Kelvin, 2016). At the current rate of rapid industrialization and urban development in India, most of the green covered areas have become artificial surfaces. Forests areas are being encroached for more human settlements leading to the shrinkage of green cover (Al-Husban, 2019). On a positive note, it has become essential to protect the green covers, flora and fauna for an eco-system to function in a sustainable way Tall buildings and their large foundations take away extensive ground cover.
An aerial drone photograph as shown in Fig.1 is the site where pits are dug. The onsite features with trees, wire meshes are seen. A building is seen as an off-site feature. Each pit has a newly planted sapling and is regularly watered from an overhead tank in a distance at the highest altitude of the site. A general layout of the site is given in Fig. 2. There are four walkways meeting at a quench pond towards the southeast. And there is an infinity shaped walkway interspersing through the rest of the walkways. There will be visitors’ and information huts at the end of each walkway where one could get to know more about the sacred grove. There is jeep safari track laid in a straight manner forming a quadrilateral encompassing the intersecting walkways and the infinity loop. There are future plans that the walkways are only for pedestrians and the jeep track is for a jeep present in the site to carry persons around the site. Drone photographs and site layout maps help in understanding the site in a much better way. A carbon sequestration exercise is conducted followed by a grove walk. A workshop is done on seed collection and stored in a seed bank. The seeds are stored in different ways. Some seeds are dried and stored, some are saved inside cow-dung and some are saved under water in containers. The seeds are displayed in a seed exhibition.
Figure1: Aerial drone photograph with pits dug for plantation
Discussion
In December 1982, the government of India under Prime Minister IK Gujral’s Union of Ministers established ENVIS (Environmental Information System) for providing environmental information from all over the country. It is managed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change, Government of India. (Forests, 2013). In the state of Tamil Nādu, located in the southernmost part of the Indian peninsula, is the city of Madurai. People carry out yearly festivals based on the local culture. Madurai is one of the ancient cities also called the “Temple Town” because of its high number of temples and it also has one of world’s largest temples “The Meenakshi Amman temple”. Madurai was once called ‘Kadambavanam’ based on the fact that Madurai was once a forest full of kadambam (Neolamarckia cadamba) trees. (History, Madurai District, Government of Tamilnadu, India, 2022) It consisted of sacred groves where the forest is worshipped as God. The common people planted these groves and the temple priests hosted festivals. Their social norms, stories and artforms are found in inscriptions and poetries
Methods The methods used are mostly qualitative and mixed methods. It involved consultation with stakeholders, Collector, Assistant Engineer of the ward, Leader of a community. The process involved choosing the criteria for selection of a site, selecting the site, approval of the site, stakeholder discussion, scope of development through stakeholder, Focus group Discussions with community formation. The official stakeholders were the people of the community, city corporation and Electricity Board. The primary data were collected through People Learning Methods such as Focus Group discussions, individual one-to-one interviews, future search workshops, timeline analysis, trend analysis, seasonality mapping, stakeholder analysis and Eco-system Services Mapping. A Focus Group Discussion is a qualitative method where people of similar interests gather to discuss a specific topic (Krueger, 2002).Future search workshops involve planned meetings based on principles that helped people to transform their ideas into actions in a fast pace. (Marvin Weisbord, 2010). Future search involves a variety of stakeholders. Their goals are aimed at climate resilience, low carbon emissions, carbon sequestration, creating steering communities, involving student engagements, conducting policy seminars, best practice documentation and hosting urban community laying program. Secondary data were collected from Line (Government) Departments such as corporation, Land Survey Department, Revenue department, Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The information from these departments and systems will be used to understand spatio-temporal variation in Open-Space Reserves and urban areas. Maps and Free Measurement Books were collected from respective departments. Expert consultations were done with the help of Biologists, Botanists, ornithologists, horticulturists, historians and forest departments to understand the characteristics of urban forestry such as types, nativity, methods of pollination etc.
Figure2: Site Planning and Landscaping of Adavi.
Women from Self-Help Groups promised on the day of plantation that they were planting under the hot sun talking about the urban grove and in the next year they will be standing under the shades talking with the trees. It has come true in this Forest Day (March 21st,2022). The women of SHG Federation, named the grove as ‘Kundrangkadu’, integrating the sacredness of Thiruparankundram with the grove (Kadu) that they were promoting. Many were not confident that the grove will thrive in a landfill site. Today, we have a dense grove and we could see fruits of Poovarasu (Thespesia populnea) and Kodikaipuli (Pithecellobium dulce), just in a year. “I personally believe that Kundrangkadu is not just the wish of us, DHAN Foundation and HCL Foundation, it’s also the wish of the nature, that’s why it showered a lot of rain in the previous monsoon. We can just plant trees, its only in the hands of nature to turn into grove.”, shared Ms.Bhuvaneshwari, the president of Avvai Pengal Vattara Kalanjiam. When her daughter tried to pluck the Kodikaipuli fruit, she stopped her and said, ‘Its a sacred grove, we shall not take anything from it’ – retrieving the lost social norms of ‘sacred groves’. Ancient literature cites Madurai had a lot of sacred groves (Koyil Kaadugal), Nandhavanams (Temple gardens) well governed by local communities and kingsmen, conserving the genetic reserve of local bio-diversity. These green spaces, historically existed as a dynamic and collective resource, – a form of social wealth – was governed by local custom. To protect these commons, the local communities necessarily presupposed a background of habit, shared expectation, customs, and unspoken assumptions, as well as social memory. All of this constitutes a set of cultural practices that over time became a tradition. The legends around Koyil Kadu are some of the evidences of the social norms and cultural senses built to protect these green commons. In the process of urbanisation, Madurai has not only lost its green cover and green commons, but also its unique native biodiversity. By comparing the future search workshops and the pilot study, we arrive at specific inferences. There is abundant awareness in terms of day-to-day happenings from youth to the middle-aged members of the community. The adolescents are inclined more towards entertainment and popular culture than the requirements of green commons in a park. The students from colleges have a future vision of how a river can develop into a blue commons corridor. The changes are happening gradually in these areas. As we note down the dynamics in a process note, there is development in knowledge about blue and green infrastructure in both rural and urban areas. The internet and media exposure has brought insights to the target audience.
Conclusion The results should reach to the local population of children. Teachers are the ambassadors, the educators of one tree, one family. If water is not available, it is our responsibility to identify resources and utilise them in a sustainable way. Sacred groves are traditionally a part of every religion out there. It’s our duty to protect them from being encroached. The populations need to follow rules and stop littering, expand the members, conduct meetings once in a fortnight. Each neighbour could try to create 1 sacred forest in a common land or in institutional spaces . Adavis are covered in science books as sacred groves. There is necessity to do more greening in the urban sectors. While establishing plots there should be a reservation for creating urban forests. Our leaders from various sectors need to endorse green commons in social scale. It is indispensable that the green commons give community strength, unity and creates social values. The future search workshops convey that there has been a very vast exposure for the adolescents and the college students when it comes to creating green and blue infrastructure. However, it remains only as a form of literacy and not in terms of technical applications. We need to care for green commons as they are being destroyed by urbanization. There is a growing need for researches in the future on how to sustain greenery because greens being autotrophs are the prime need and the basics of oxygen and food. The major examples from the literature review need more expansion for the demands of our growing population.
Research Questions 1. In open space reserves, how much opportunity is there for developing green commons and how much investment is necessary for green cover? 2. Traditionally a community’s cultural traits and values were imparted through green commons. Could they be restored and practiced again?
Kundrangkadu Urban Grove- Pilot Study
References
Result: When the process of promoting urban forest was taken towards the stakeholders it was idea of the communities to integrate the concept of sacred groves with the urban forestry. Some of the design principles proposed by the stakeholders are, the grove should hold no ‘deity’, as the grove itself is considered as ‘sacred’, and the grove should become an eco-educative space hosting the diversified flora and fauna. Regarding the species composition of grove, that host both native and migratory birds, interdependent plant species, fruit-bearing and flower-bearing trees were pooled and selected collectively.
Figure3: Tree Plantation with community and volunteers.
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