Reimagining Mumbai's Eastern Waterfront as an Eco-Portland

Reimagining Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront as an Eco-Portland Creation of a Symbiotic Relationship Through Ecological Restoration

Reimagining Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront as an Eco-Portland Creation of a Symbiotic Relationship Through Ecological Restoration

THE

WORLD’S COASTLINE AND COMMUNITIES ARE UNDER THREAT: DEGRADATION OF COASTLINES UNDER THE PRESSURE OF URBANIZATION AND TOURISM

Mumbai's growth potential is constrained by the city's proximity to the coast on both the east and west sides. This poses a variety of issues, such as increased demand for land and water resources, road and public transit networks, and a shortage of open space and affordable housing. With the city embarking on a major infrastructure push, including the construction of a Metro rail network to supplement suburban train systems, new arterial roads and bridges on the city's eastern and western seaboards, and a number of east-west connectors to alleviate traffic congestion, the city's green cover is under increasing strain.

1670: Bombay was originally an archipelago of seven islands which collectively operated as a trading post managed by the East India Company.

1812: Large-scale reclamations transformed the islands into a peninsula.

1864: The first rail track (Central Line) was laid in 1853. Bombay became an industrial city with a strong North-South axis and East-West divide.

1933: Extensive reclamations were carried out by Back Bay Reclamation and Bombay Port (along the east coast). Additional rail lines (Western and Harbour Lines) connected the hinterland to industrial sites and industrial sites to the harbour.

2007: The carrying capacity of the infrastructure of the Island City of Mumbai is exceeded. New infrastructure projects now reclaim the sea (Bandra Worli Sea Link) and reclamation of ecologically sensitive wetlands and coastal salt pans continues.

Mumbai’s port land extends over 752 hectares (ha or 1,858 acres), occupying one-eighth of Mumbai’s island city, making the Mumbai Port Trust (MPT) the city’s largest owner of real estate.

Importance of Mumbai Port

1982 mill strike Girangaon, which supported a workforce of at least 2.5 lakh workers, shut down, with workers, chawls and mills

1991, as textile mills shut down, the state drafted the development control rule 58 to redevelop mill land DCR 58 proposed the one-third formula to equally distribute the land.

The mills owners could sell one-third, give one part to the (BMC) to create open spaces and the third part (MHADA) to create affordable housing for mill workers, who lost their livelihood after the mills were shut.

Spread across 240 hectares or 600 acres, the defunct mill land got revamped into luxury apartments, corporate offices, fivestar hotels and shopping malls, without the adequate infrastructural upgrade

The city lost its golden opportunity to reinvent itself.

The Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) plans to open up the eastern waterfront, four times the size of the erstwhile mill land

An idea to give major chunks of 966.30 hectares between Wadala and Colaba to public, has eventually turned into a commercial development plan with sea terminal and water tourism, leaving only 74 hectares accessible to common public.

Correa had said: “Market forces do not make cities, they destroy them.”

Central Mumbai started to get a new landscape and skyline

1996, 50% area could go to mill owners, while 33.33% for civic amenities and 16.66% for affordable housing with higher buildable rights, was never implemented. In 2001 only vacant land or land with no built-up structure could be used for the one-third formula. Allowing mill owners to sell bulk of the land for profits, coupled with political and civic apathy, led to haphazard development with skyrocketing of real estate prices.

STORY OF MUMBAI’S MILL LAND DEVELOPMENT

Reimagining Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront as an Eco-Portland Creation of a Symbiotic Relationship Through Ecological Restoration

FOUR CHALLENGES FOR THE EASTERN PORTLAND

ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION

How can the design work on the Eastern Portland address the environmental imperatives?

Specifically, what can we do on the Port land and in the surrounding communities to rebuilt a healthy ecosystem and revalue it for its productive potential? How can we discover a new aesthetic that reflects and foresees a lifestyle in which culture, ecology and human processes balances and leads to an eco urban development?

Mumbai, India's financial capital, has long been a city of dichotomies. Home to millionaires and beggars, sky-piercing high-rise skyscrapers that loom above slums, and old growth forests that stand in stark contrast to the ever-expanding concrete jungle. Increasing urban pressures in an already overburdened metropolis, along with rising demand for housing and infrastructure, are eating away at the city's few remaining natural spaces, culminating in a Faustian choice for urban planners and people. With the looming threat of climate change becoming increasingly severe for a coastal metropolis like Mumbai, a fine balance will be required to guarantee that India's most vital economic hub continues to expand sustainably while maintaining the environment and quality of life.

SOCIAL EQUITY

The communities of the Port land and the surrounding neighbourhood are dramatically underserved in terms of its association and other amenities. This inequity compounds and exacerbates other social challenges. How can the design help create healthier and more equal society? How can a landscape resource that belongs to Eastern Port land become a destination for the whole city, the way the resources of the rest of the city are recognized and enjoyed by all?

VIBRANT ECONOMY

The Port land has always been a potent source of economic activity and vitality. In its current state, the rich ecology is constantly altered and is not reaching its growth potential. The Port land is lined with uses that don not provide value equal to their majestic location. How can the design foster new industries and new economies which are in line with ecology? How can the design interventions in the Port land catalyse broader economic activity and businesses of the future?

AUTHENTIC CULTURAL IDENTITY Mumbai has a rich history and diverse cultural influences. A thread linking generations is the relationship to the Port land. This was an important destination and conduit for native peoples. This resulted settlement with the rise of trade, Port activities and industries. As Portland has attracted and increasingly diverse population can this reimagination play a part in bringing contemporary citizens through sensitive development?

Townland Consultants

Perkins Eastman Design Consultants

•Public

•Theme parks and water worlds (230 acres),

•Affordable housing (395 acres),

•Commercial complexes and residences, and gardens (100 acres); Building the world’s tallest building

Theme for the redevelopment of the Mumbai Port Area, Townland selected “The Connected City”.

•Mumbai should be better connected spatially, socio-economically and virtually in order to become the World class City.

• Creating a large variation in waterfront identities

• Catering people from all socio-economic strata

• Opening up the city to its harbor front to change the identity of the entire city

• By allowing only spatially appropriate building densities and building heights based on land use, location, transit accessibility, open space and vista corridors, a truly Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and Pedestrian Friendly Environment can be achieved.

The design proposal for the waterfront redevopment is based on the concept of creating “New Gateway” to Mumbai.

•To redefine Mumbai as one of the largest metropolitan cities in the world and the biggest financial hub of the country.

•Waterfront destination which invites people to the water’s edge

•Generates a variety of Waterfront districts.

• To combine existing infrastructure with the newly proposed links.

•To follow sustainable planning principles by ensuring the development to be resilient and robust.

•To consider the existing industrial port for creating active, authentic waterfront districts, and one-of-a-kind global destination

Redevelopment of Eastern Waterfront gives an impetus to the economy and provide the much needed social and recreational public amenities to the city.

•The masterplan for the Mumbai Port Complex (MPC) has been proposed to meet dual objectives – of repurposing the port lands and of integrating it with the rest of the city, providing public spaces and facilities to the citizens.

• To develop a new financial centre, a Government office, hotels, commercial as well as residential properties in close proximity to the proposed metro line and the exisitng sub-urban railway stations.

•As a tourist and recreational zone which will have features such as the Mumbai Eye, Tourist Ferry Services, Cruises and Ropeway Connection to Elephanta Caves among other things.

• The project will also preserve heritage structures like the Sewri Fort, Ghadiyal Godi (Clock Tower) as well as the environmentally sensitive mudflats and mangroves that attract flamingos and other flora and fauna.

• The design explores the publicness of the place and has the approach of imposing and erasing existing imprints with the creation of sports city and commercial complexeswith the thought of building the world’s tallest building.

•The design holistically looks at site as been socio- economically connected and tries to give a New Defination in order to become World Class City.

•The design is a good balance between preserving the essence of the place as it combines the existing to newly proposed ones through sustainable planning principles.

•Targeted for high-end services, namely financial, healthcare, IT-enabled services and entertainment for economic regeneration of the city.

•Except for proposal for an ecological park, all other proposals are in the direction of denying the open spaces which this city desperately needs. Working class neither planned nor envisaged in this vision

Reimagining Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront as an Eco-Portland Creation of a Symbiotic Relationship Through Ecological Restoration

Which different Stakeholders are considered in the development ?

What are the concerns of the stakeholders?

Can we priotize of social infrastructure over physical infrastructure?

Can we come up with a way to restore the city’s green edge?

Can we come up with a solution to raise public awareness about these lands?

Can we come up with a way to establish the presence of these communities?

What is the importance of the considered stakeholder?

How these said concerns could be addressed?

Location: China Area: 85.63 sq.km

Approach: ‘Coastal Garden City’.

Reimagining Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront as an Eco-Portland Creation of a Symbiotic Relationship Through Ecological Restoration

To address the problems of over crowding, dilapidation and infrastructure.

The Mumbai Port Trust for instance, themselves developed housing and rented it out to their employees

A close look at the designs of the rehabilitation components show a complete disregard to the community structures and work and living patterns of slum communities.

REFERENCE STUDY

Concern:

The problem however is that the rehabilitation sites are on the outskirts of the city where the slum dwellers are made to move.

The townships came about in areas that were earlier protected for environmental purposes - sensitive coastlines with mangroves, or edges of the forest land.

While large builders involved in mobilising large pockets of lands that were earlier designated as environmentally sensitive areas.

•One the four earliest special economic zones in China’s coastal areas, Shantou has fallen behind the other zones in terms of growth.

•The qualities of the beautiful natural environment and unique cultural history are fading away by the monotony of the urbanization processes.

•Shantou has a long history of struggling with floods.

The plan observed the following general principles:

(1) Maximized Use of Hydraulic Power

The overall goal is to strengthen the functional and spiritual link between the historic legacy, the river, and the ocean. Water helps to shape local landscapes in coastal and eco-catchment areas.

(2) Precautions against Flood Risks

Serving as the natural safety barrier along the sea, the mangrove forest, islands and shoal are integrated dynamically into the urban design.

(3) Creation of International Coastal City Shantou

•The integrated riverside and seaside will form a new urban interface, linking the urban funtion of the old city, the new riverfront CBD, the coastal commercial area and administrative area.

•The riverside at the west of the city is highly urbanized, while the eastern side pays more attention to the natural and ecological quality.

(4) Diversities at Multiple Levels

Diversified function and user groups, Land use diversity stimulates the development of multifunction independent communities

The new redevelopments are typically tall towers in the middle of dense old city fabrics. Their location close to business areas of the city make them highly sought amongst the elite groups.

•Building connections to the old city.

•As in many post-industrial coastal cities, this opens the waterfront for public space and cultural uses.

•Integration of ecological patterns and hydrological threads within the city fabric.

•Development centered on a canal that provides public access to the waterfront, including residential development and dockside markets.

•Supported by the ecological open space network (threads) to link sea to land, it is also fronted by a climate change agenda that is part of a new economic generator for the region.

“Return” means to look backward to the nature of this city, and restore and rebuild the city identity and features what have been fading away, demonstrating a new urbanism paradigm for Shantou and other cities in.

Location: Greece

Area: 158 acres

Approach: Landscape Regeneration and Remediation.

Phases of Port City Development According to Hoyle (1989)

(5)Historical and Cultural Exploration History and Culture are the basis of design. Inspiration of New City comes from the typical urban mode of the old city.

Concern:

An industrial past of extensive depletion of its natural and ecological assets led the site to its gradual disconnection from the city and inevitably to a condition of disrepair, pollution and obsolescence.

The design followed the process:

•To metabolize an inherited lag in progressive action, by capitalizing on the comparative advantages of the multiple endangered landscapes of the site (coastal forests, meadows, coastal sand dunes and rocky formations), in order to generate added value and to promote a sustainable and self-generated park.

•To fights back the effects of crisis on a local as well as metropolitan level.

•To deliver a large urban park to the city by restoring the lost connectivity with the adjacent neighborhoods – and further the connectivity to the waterfront – through a design approach that integrates environmental, architectural and urban design parameters as well as technical, aesthetic and socio-economic constituents.

•To become a productive landscape of a metropolitan radiance through absorption of private and public investments for Research and Development, Education, Healthcare, Community Engagement, Sustainability and Culture.

• To restore/reprogramme strategies of preserved building stock and new building insertions the proposal connects significant landmarks that evoke collective memories with contemporary developments.

• The park settles in between those building developments offering an array of interconnected public paths, encouraging program services for cultural, recreational, educational needs and healthcare services.

• i) a garden for benthic ecologies, (ii) healing landscapes + thalassotherapy in repurposed buildings and (iii) phytoremediation, biodegradation and pollution regulation processes integrated with open spaces.

•Drawing from the complexities of the site, the master plan of the Interactive Pier aims to achieve three distinct goals: integrate the original quay wall into a new pier to commemorate thehistory of the old city; provide a unique form of infrastructure offering a cultural, educational, and artistic platform for social interaction; and reintroduce man to nature.

•The Living Port vision will pay homage to the long history of the port in various ways while engaging the most exciting potentials for the future.

•Moving forward, the port’s origins as an exploited rice exporter will be remembered together with the engagement in contemplative and ecological cultivation of rice fields on the site.

•Many existing port features, both large and small, will remain as tactile and visual reminders of the original physical gounds of the old port and piers.

•The design proposal holistically tries to establish a connectionto the adjacent neighbourhood and then the waterfront.

•It address land recovery issues, engages visitors and produces productive landscape.

•The restoration programme focuses on reprogramming of preserved buildings.

• It deals with sustainable drainage management, energy harvesting and phytoremediation applications on site.

•It not only emphasis on the existing concerns but further leverage the ecological performance.

•The design proposal gives a thought on conserving the essence of memories of history and memories and designs zones specially for various activities.

•The experiential walks allows accessiblity and connectivity throughout the port area.

•The productive landscapes creates beneficial and remediating ecological operations.

• The design also focuses onadaptive reuse of existing port facilities.

LAND RECLAMATION

Like dredging, reclaiming land changes the topography eventually disturbing the coastal ecosystem

TURBULENCE CHANGE Installing structures that impede water flow, such as dikes or piers or even construction of bridges or roads can cause flowing water to dissipate its energy more readily and moreover alter the marine life.

Reimagining Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront as an Eco-Portland Creation of a Symbiotic Relationship Through Ecological Restoration

Vision Statement: Reimagining Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront as an Eco-Portland would foster transformation in the production of nature, patterns of social entanglement and economic configurations in city with the creation of a symbiotic relation and sustainable development through ecological restoration.

Reimagining Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront as an Eco-Portland Creation of a Symbiotic Relationship Through Ecological Restoration

species.

EAST COAST EDGE PARK East Coast Edge Park takes the ecological green space as its carrier, focuses on the activation and regeneration of green space, makes an organic integration of industrial heritage and natural landscape, and adds the elements of culture and industrial heritage protection

MARITIME MUSEUM Mumbai’s Maritime Museum is a monumental intervention comprising of four wings, focusing on the themes of "the ancient sea," “the sea today," "journey of discovery" and "the age of the maritime", aiming to highlight Mumbai’s maritime evolution.

LABOUR COMMUNITIES

The newly developed Cotton Green for labour communities would focus on social greens and towards community living as a green residential district in the heart of Mumbai

MARITIME STUDIES

Preserving the existing college of Maritime studies and providing learning grounds for marine life and research centres along with green learning centres to create awareness and maintaining the importance of ecosystem restoration.

EASTERN FREEWAY

The ecological development will be strung along the elevated Eastern Freeway, which runs through the site and connects it to Chembur and Elphinstone Estate.

THE CITY FOREST

The piers would be developed as city forest, publicly accessible which would offer an authentic mix of indigenous species thereby increasing the vegetative cover.

THE FLOATING WETLAND

A continuous floating wetland developed at the water edge would create a liveable interface and provide a crucial habitat for wildlife.

0 250 500m

Reimagining Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront as an Eco-Portland Creation of a Symbiotic Relationship Through Ecological Restoration

In developing our waterfront cities, we have destroyed the ecotone that, in natural environments, provides the transition from land to water. We have replaced the wetlands, marshes, mangroves, tide pools, beaches, etc. with hardened edges that form a barrier between land and water. As a result, both sides of the barrier have suffered. Sadly, many of today’s urban waterfronts offer little to no habitat, protection from rising waters, and opportunities for people to connect to the natural, cultural, social, recreational, and educational resources that typically abound at the water’s edge.

Hard

•City forestry plays an important role in addressing environmental engineering problems, including those related to erosion control, noise and air pollution abatement, wastewater management. •Urban vegetation (trees and other plants) can be used to mitigate extreme stormwater runoff events. •Urban trees can affect stream flows as well, by their ability to intercept rainfall and affect soil infiltration rates of water. •These acts can reduce surface water runoff, which can indirectly affect water quality by reducing the amount of sediment and urban pollutants entering a stream system.

‘Ecological Mangrove Restoration approach’ -

The aim of the city forest is increasing vegetation cover, lowering the mean LST, developing an open and accessible public space, ensuring a buffer zone on the pier with appropriate selection of trees, and creating a retention area during rains and high tide.

Seedlings are planted densely, 3 trees/sq.m., and randomly, mixing as many native trees of potential natural vegetation as possible. CITY FOREST DESIGN PATTERN AND APPROACH

New pedestrian walks are created on the piers that run to the seaside and to the ease access will give the opportunity to meet different suggestions: the nature of the “Urban Forest”, going down closer to the sea easily.

This forest of life has the most authentic mix of indigenous species. This means that as the forest grows, all forms of life will start coming back to it. You will be able to spot the birds, bees, and butterflies otherwise not seen in urban spaces due to the loss of their host trees.

By 15-20 years after planting, the early model of a dense mature forest will be established.

Mangrove forests are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests live at the interface between the land, the ocean, and the atmosphere, and are centres for the flow of energy and matter between these systems. The forests are major blue carbon systems, storing considerable amounts of carbon in marine sediments, thus becoming important regulators of climate change.

Marine microorganisms are key parts of these mangrove ecosystems. Marine microorganisms have been variously estimated to make up about 70% or about 90% of the biomass in the ocean.

This approach focuses on creating the right biophysical and socio- economic conditions for mangroves to grow back naturally. This results in the establishment of a sizeable, diverse, functional and self-sustaining mangrove forest that benefits both nature and people.

Along the shoreline, a system of bamboo docks further absorbs the wave energy, traps the sediment needed for the mangrove afforestation while generating a trail to promote public accessibility in the area.

Reimagining

Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront as an Eco-Portland Creation of a Symbiotic Relationship Through Ecological Restoration

Native Plant species were selected for the ecosystem services and adaptability to the site’s soil profile, transforming the area into a biodiversity hotspot.

the allocation of open space.

Soil management, material reuse, efficient water systems, food, and energy production, and habitat creation all contribute to a working landscape centered on ecological restoration, climate responsiveness, and equitable access for Mumbaikars. More than a park, space is an amalgamation of activities ideal for people of all ages and an antidote for the congestion and increasing population of Mumbai.

vital habitat.

The clothesline is strung right outside the window, so when clothes are hung, they act as curtains as well as aid in cooling the house during the day.

The ground floor tenements spill onto outlying plinths called otlas, that are used as wet areas, storage or seating, all depending on the time of the day. These otlas are key nodes for communal interaction and one is very likely to find koliwada’s high-spirited residents on these plinths, both- humans and animals.

Each house, be it a hut, a chawl or a duplex, has its own ‘statement walls’, proudly painted by the homeowners in the most vibrant hues. The street facades are loud and bright.

With the specific goal of creating more than just a fish market the place is created as a major cultural facility that enhances the existing authentic market operations while providing generous public amenity to unlock the waterfront for all to enjoy.

This building will serve many functions when it is completed: a vibrant fish market, an attractive amenity for the city, a cultural destination, an urban connector, and an inspiring icon.

Reimagining Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront as an Eco-Portland Creation of a Symbiotic Relationship Through Ecological Restoration

Solar panels provide economic and environmental benefits for owners and the community.

Pollinator populations increase, helping sustain the ecosystem

Native vegetation planted on the solar fields attracts pollinators and supports native wild life.

REINTRODUCTION OF TRAMS

Waste Recycle Plant: Recycling conserves resources, energy, and water while lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, it creates a new industrial structure and jobs. By turning waste into valuable raw materials, recycling creates jobs, builds more competitive manufacturing industries and adds significantly to the economy.

A water treatment park in the city integrates landscape with public facility, creating avenues for awareness on sustainability and climate change.

Trams are surface cars that use electricity instead of fossil fuels to drive on the road rails, which emits less pollutants and is effective in reducing micro dusts. If the tram is powered by 100% renewable electricity, then there are zero carbon emissions.

Street Network

The eco-Portland utilizes many of Mumbai Port’s existing streets and is designed to provide a hierarchy to ensure the importance of surrounding ecology is maintained. The street is designed with dedicated route to tram making the Portland accessible through this feeder system. Proposal of NMT streets along the East Coast park makes it walkable and reducing the carbon emission significantly.When compared priority is given more to NMT street. The eco- Portland would therefore devote 10% of land for street.

Urban Greens

The master plan proposes a mix of urban greens through a network of small and large public gardens. These urban greens along with the East Coast Park (215 ha) will make this development of Eco-Portland

Air Pollution Reduction

Biological Control

Carbon Sequestration and Storage

Climate Regulation Energy Equity and Security

Habitat for Species

Heating and Cooling Efficiency

Maintenance of Genetic Diversity Identity Preservation

CURATE THE VISION THROUGH TIME

“The Eco-Portland in itself would be reflection of the ways in which the native and exotic cultures would first try to meet, and then shape the urban environment in ways which respected the traditional style while allowing the guest style to develop.”