lake preservation and protection in hyderabad: a watershed systems approach
DESCRIPTION
This is a presentation that builds on Hyderabad Urban Labs hypothesis that the preservation and protection of urban water bodies require actors to pursue an ecologically sensitive approach, which goes beyond property boundaries by explore the catchment in which these water bodies are in. Flows of water and waste are governed by an ecological frame that we believe is best understood at the scale of the watershed / catchment. This presentation will demonstrate the insights we can gain using this approach. It will also discuss a series of short term, medium term and long term interventions that can be imagined by urban communities. This presentation was given at Lamakaan on 24th March 2013.TRANSCRIPT
Hyderabad Urban Lab March 20th 2013
Dr. Anant Maringanti, Siddharth Hande
The Lake in its Catchment
Hyderabad Urban Lab
HUL is a multidisciplinary urban research initiative that is inspired by the idea of the ‘right to the city’.
It aims to build an academically rigorous urban research program that is responsive to the needs of new and emergent ‘communities of practice’ in cities in India and elsewhere.
HUL is committed to
Innovation in research
Interdisciplinarity and collaborations
Pursuit of ecological sustainability and social justice
Hyderabad Urban Lab
We are building an online platform for research, data sharing and data generation customized for the city of Hyderabad
Our prime focus is on water & waste. But we are interested in all things urban, urbanizing and globalizing.
We are committed to building new knowledge commons by deploying new technologies and working with communities
Hyderabad Urban Lab
Hyderabad Urban Lab
Hyderabad Urban Lab
Some of our interests…
Creation of decision support systems for campaigners, institutions of governance, and individual citizens
Thematically we are interested in
crime and safety
scrap markets
transit information systems
education and training on Right to the City
urban archives
The lake in its catchmentRidge centric approach to lake protection:
A people’s geography project ?
Lakes in the Deccan plateau…
were designed, built and used for irrigation purposes not so long ago…
had customary user groups associated with them (fisherfolk, washermen, potters, caste/religious communities)
were organized by a logic of catchments, ridges and streams
were managed by traditional caste/community based stewardship systems and through revenue board and private ownership
old user groups got displaced and sold out to new user groups : slums, apartments, corporations, hospitals, hotels through property transactions
old management systems have been displaced by new modern state agencies: Irrigation Department, Revenue Department, GHMC, HMWSSB, HMDA…
MAPS
Introduction- Visualizing the GHMC zone, ward and HMDA mandal administrative jurisdictions of Hyderabad - Visualizing water catchment regions, stream networks and water bodies in Hyderabad
4 Case Studies- Ambir Lake, Ameenpur Lake, University of Hyderabad Lakes (Peacock and Buffalo Lake) and Sheikpet Lake
Strahler Stream Order- Amanda Briney
When using stream order to classify a stream, the sizes range from a first order stream all the way to the largest, a 12th order stream.
A first order stream is the smallest of the world's streams and consists of small tributaries. These are the streams that flow into and "feed" larger streams but do not normally have any water flowing into them. In addition, first and second order streams generally form on steep slopes and flow quickly until they slow down and meet the next order waterway.
First through third order streams are also called headwater streams and constitute any waterways in the upper reaches of the watershed. It is estimated that over 80% of the world’s waterways are these first through third order, or headwater streams.
Going up in size and strength, streams that are classified as fourth through sixth order are medium streams while anything larger (up to 12th order) is considered a river.
Unlike the smaller order streams, these medium and large rivers are usually less steep and flow slower. They do however tend to have larger volumes of runoff and debris as it collects in them from the smaller waterways flowing into them.
Proposed action agenda Organize around catchments, i.e. groups of lakes and streams
rather than around single lakes
Build understanding and negotiation using online and offline maps
Use understanding to build new maps
Specific actions
Trek along the ridges and lakes
Build strong networks of people around catchment systems using maps
Put pressure on government to become custodians of new knowledge and regulatory tools
Role of Hyderabad Urban Lab
We can build platforms for knowledge and help organize people and data
We can identify skills and resources and help to bundle them and train people
What you can do with HUL
This work requires skills of various kinds in IT, media, social media, GIS and of course, people skills. With HUL you can
Volunteer
Intern
Develop new projects