BREAKING NEWS
Recent studies in urban resilience and sustainable development indicate that greater interest is rapt by the climate change scientists, environmentalists and urban planners in the development of sponge cities. The concept of sponge city was introduced by the Chinese primarily intended to mitigate urban ills which had made cities and towns vulnerable to diverse urban challenges. With the growing of awareness about the fall out of climate changes, probed challenges befitted and turned into more onerous. Ever since demystifying and exploring the linkages of conceivable threats to endurance and survival of cities with far reaching cataclysmic consequences in the form of recurring devastated floods, excessive run-off, loss of green cover, mosaic concreting of urban fabric, increase in temperature, loss of infrastructure and distressing urban life, sponge cities development has attained greater recognition. Sponge cities as imagined offers proposing solutions to most of the perplexing urban challenges in time and space. It is expected to promote sustainability, resilience and a better quality of life for urbanites and people living in their hinterland. The underlined objective of the sponge cities is to enhance permeability/infiltration focusing on minimizing the concretization with overriding emphasis on green infra , green spaces, permeable pavements, green roofs to ensure percolation of runoff into ground, preservation of bio-diversity, water security and management stabilizing cities to replenish the ground water resources and manage the run off.
Srinagar Sponge in Retrospect
Srinagar in particular and urban Kashmir in general was bestowed by mother nature analogous type of urban development system to sponge cities till late 1960’s. The landscape was chockfull of interspersed water bodies including lakes, wetlands, marshes, water channels, rivers rivulets with copious green cover and pervasive open spaces. Landscape in peripheries of the city and within it was dominated by presence of hillocks and the water bodies allowing alluring capacity to absorb the precipitated run off. Overall lakes and water bodies formed a vital natural resource of the city by providing economic sustenance to sizeable population apart from being a valuable natural habitat for varied fauna and flora. The city houses and buildings were full of greens on top providing a visual delight especially in spring without inflicting any damage to the environment and paths, roadsides, hillslopes and river embankments were full of verdure imbuing all the advantages of the sponge city to Srinagar. As Kashmir continues to urbanize at an hastened pace with Srinagar at its vertex, as dominant urban center recording exploding growth, is wielding excessive pressure on the existing sponge and green fields and the authorities fail to curb the unabated conversion into build areas. Consequently, the vestige water bodies and wetlands act as repositories to untreated waste waters draining in from peripheries, threatening the survival of biodiversity along with micro habitats and are testing its resilience and sustainability. During prehistoric epochs Valley floor is believed to have been underneath as a vast lake in the midst of the towering mountains of Kashmir, recognized as mythological lake “ Satisar” and a Sage Kashyap Reshi is assumed to have got it drained off near Baramulla by creating an opening between two mountains. After draining of the waters of this mammoth water body, copious lakes, wetland, marshes, springs and interconnected water channels with interspersed land masses emerged in the valley floor. Geologists also testify that Kashmir valley was once under Tethys sea and hemmed in by mountains. Due to frequent earthquakes throughout the prehistoric eras the mountain near then Varmulla broke up draining off the Satisar. Consequent to draining off lake waters, the oval shaped irregular valley of Kashmir came into being leaving behind lacustrine deposits at the rim of mountains forming tablelands or Karewas with interspersed lakes, wetlands, marshes, water channels surrounded by patches of land and land mass formed by leaving behind of lacustrine deposits in the midst of the valley.
Lessons from Disastrous 2014 Floods
During the floods of Srinagar 2014 about 70-80 percent city got deluged and remain submerged long time. Most of the people /experts argued that no infrastructure could have withstood such an extreme swelling of the Jhelum river basin waters. Such floods are generally known as fluvial floods which are triggered due to overflowing of rivers and are challenging to handle. The floods of 2014 where results of extreme torrential rainfall during which run off exceeded the capacity of valley drainage system and caused flooding due to over flowing of waters. The high river velocity inundation triggered by torrential rains falling within short span of time within the catchment area of Jhelum River. Srinagar in past has been able to engineer itself a way out of looming problems by predominantly relying on physical barricades and through a well-established drainage system including natural water channels, flood spill channels and irrigation khuls/Nallahs. During the 2014, Srinagar despite having green infra in place observed devastated flooding mainly on account unplanned urbanization, encroachment of wet lands, water bodies, water channels, loss of green cover and segmentation of flood absorption basins. It has prompted general awareness consciousness among masses about the looming threat beyond the established engineering solutions which miserably botched to up-stand climatic extremes of the valley. This has demonstrated that Srinagar needs to appreciate the importance of enhancing and pressing green infra along with the strengthening grey infrastructure. This might entail to relook the problem without out of box solution and follow a paradigm of city planning focusing on ecosystem having powerful linkage with nature based solutions rather than focusing on simple grey infra urban measures of curbing floods. Soon after the floods of 2014 restoring pre-developed infra and surface and hydrology in every location presented an arduous test for the city administrators and proved to be a herculean task to safe guard people, property, infrastructure, reaching people trapped in floods, provide food, water, medical aid and rescue operations. The whole operation had proved a challenge even after receding of floods waters with many people suffering psychological trauma, mental disorders and agony due to horrible devastating floods.
Diminishing Sponge-Srinagar
The unplanned urban sprawl coupled with unabated infringements, development of relocation projects by government, siltation and pollution and availability cheap land in close vicinity and development of housing by lower income groups, is threatening the fragile natural sponge in Srinagar. It is continuously diminishing through losing its battle of survival to vivacious forces of speedy spontaneous urbanization. In the process Srinagar is fast losing a deterrent, a sustainer, a modifier, a purifier and an absorbency to haphazard urban expansion, earth fillings, waste dumping siltation, tree cutting, and conversion. The serpentine river Jhelum, traversing almost 175 sq. km from south to north Kashmir is unique river morphology undergoes a “through stage” in the Himalayas. It makes capital Srinagar city vulnerable to alluvial flooding. Lakes/Wetlands/marshes, platation areas and open fields adjunct to both sides of Jhelum used to act as reservoirs of the floodwaters. However, during last five decades, most of the wetlands have lost their carrying capacity mainly due to conversion into agriculture land or concrete landscape. Ecologically important wetlands in the Jhelum floodplains like Rakh-i- Gundak Shah, Batmaloo Nambal,Chattabal Nambal, Hokersar, Bemina wetland, Narakara Wetland, Rakh-e-Arth, Shallabug, Anchar lake, Khushal sar,Lasjan Namble, Shalin Nambla, Tengen Nambal, Sioteng Nambal, Gungbug Nambal, Gilsar ,Bonamsar Namble, Neshbal Rakhi, Rabitaar, Mirgund Namble, Indhra Nagar wetland, Rakh-i-Summerbug, Rakhi Hanjik, Rakhi Haran, Rakhi Padshahibagh, Wet land Kawoosa Khalisa, Wetland Yarigund, Babe Demb, Drangbal Sar, Kujar Rakh and Dal, Nagin, Anchar Lakes have been degraded due to rapid encroachment and urbanization all losing substantial areas in the process. These wet lands/marshes/lakes/Nambles performed as an important natural resource within the Master Plan limits. These apart from acting as valuable habitats/ bio-diversity sub-ecosystems with varied fauna and flora and acted as the life line for large rural communities besides regulating water regime of the Jhelum Basin and function as major heat sinks in the city. Master plan 2035 has made a mention of making city planning responsive to the vulnerabilities caused by natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, landslides, land subsidence but has not made any mention of climate change ,decreasing sponge, vanishing heat sinks and emergence of Srinagar as a urban heat zone. This should have necessarily emerged in the so called detailed study on land suitability while exploring interconnected sustainability. Consequently, all the results and inferential proposals seem to be mere theoretical elaborations and a wish list for Srinagar as nothing has been actually realized on ground since its approval and operation. As regards to augmenting urban open space at local level there has been no increase of improvement and green space have remained depressingly at low ebb in the city. Regarding green pavement and roofs, city’s concrete is increasing manifold and there is no policy proposal advocated in the plan despite having rich history of the of green roofs and paths/streets in the past. All this aggregately is reducing sponge of the Srinagar and is likely going to be upfront worst climate change challenges by emergence of intense urban heat island in ecologically fragile and sensitive mountainous environs.
Planning Response
In an Era marked with fast and massive urban growth associated with its ill effects of climate change, sponge cities are proving and emerging as a viable solution. It covers a myriad advantage of efficient water regime management, helps to mitigate flooding and promote environmental sustainability. Green pavements and roofs counteract the ill effects of concrete and stabilize the thermal balance and recharge underground water. Green ecological area, gardens and fields allow greater permeability, promote absorption and retention of rainwater into soil and recharge ground water table, acts as a vital reservoir of water resource. Plants and green area serves as lively link between the earth, the sky and the life, supporting and enhancing likelihood of precipitation. A thoughtful urban planning needs to dovetail city sponge concept in it, to build and champion a climate resilient future for Srinagar and other towns/cities of Kashmir.
Bottom line
Srinagar in particular and Kashmir valley in general has started to show symptomatic indications of climate change, there is an urgent need for Srinagar to embrace conventional nature-based solutions to combat the eminent foreseeable change. If sponge city development is implemented, presence of vast ecological areas within city limits would provide a viable solution with a holistic approach to mitigate most of environmental challenges thrown up by rapid unplanned urbanization, demographic and spatial growth. The rapid pace of urban expansion, spurred by population swelling has led to accelerated construction activities, if allowed to continue in same trajectory, it has potentials to generate irretrievable environmental crises. Under this perspective, sustainability vulnerabilities such as loss of plant cover, recurring floods, urban heat, dry spell, extreme weather conditions and air pollution in climate-sensitive Srinagar, coupled with the consequences of erratic precipitation including water scarcity, agricultural decline, loss river discharge and significant loss of wetland ecosystems and biodiversity, transpire to the forefront. Srinagar need to be made resilient and sustainable to all these foreseeable vulnerabilities for which planners need to play overwhelmingly an important role by making it as a vital aspect in plan formulation.
Email:---------------------- hamwani24@gmail.com
Recent studies in urban resilience and sustainable development indicate that greater interest is rapt by the climate change scientists, environmentalists and urban planners in the development of sponge cities. The concept of sponge city was introduced by the Chinese primarily intended to mitigate urban ills which had made cities and towns vulnerable to diverse urban challenges. With the growing of awareness about the fall out of climate changes, probed challenges befitted and turned into more onerous. Ever since demystifying and exploring the linkages of conceivable threats to endurance and survival of cities with far reaching cataclysmic consequences in the form of recurring devastated floods, excessive run-off, loss of green cover, mosaic concreting of urban fabric, increase in temperature, loss of infrastructure and distressing urban life, sponge cities development has attained greater recognition. Sponge cities as imagined offers proposing solutions to most of the perplexing urban challenges in time and space. It is expected to promote sustainability, resilience and a better quality of life for urbanites and people living in their hinterland. The underlined objective of the sponge cities is to enhance permeability/infiltration focusing on minimizing the concretization with overriding emphasis on green infra , green spaces, permeable pavements, green roofs to ensure percolation of runoff into ground, preservation of bio-diversity, water security and management stabilizing cities to replenish the ground water resources and manage the run off.
Srinagar Sponge in Retrospect
Srinagar in particular and urban Kashmir in general was bestowed by mother nature analogous type of urban development system to sponge cities till late 1960’s. The landscape was chockfull of interspersed water bodies including lakes, wetlands, marshes, water channels, rivers rivulets with copious green cover and pervasive open spaces. Landscape in peripheries of the city and within it was dominated by presence of hillocks and the water bodies allowing alluring capacity to absorb the precipitated run off. Overall lakes and water bodies formed a vital natural resource of the city by providing economic sustenance to sizeable population apart from being a valuable natural habitat for varied fauna and flora. The city houses and buildings were full of greens on top providing a visual delight especially in spring without inflicting any damage to the environment and paths, roadsides, hillslopes and river embankments were full of verdure imbuing all the advantages of the sponge city to Srinagar. As Kashmir continues to urbanize at an hastened pace with Srinagar at its vertex, as dominant urban center recording exploding growth, is wielding excessive pressure on the existing sponge and green fields and the authorities fail to curb the unabated conversion into build areas. Consequently, the vestige water bodies and wetlands act as repositories to untreated waste waters draining in from peripheries, threatening the survival of biodiversity along with micro habitats and are testing its resilience and sustainability. During prehistoric epochs Valley floor is believed to have been underneath as a vast lake in the midst of the towering mountains of Kashmir, recognized as mythological lake “ Satisar” and a Sage Kashyap Reshi is assumed to have got it drained off near Baramulla by creating an opening between two mountains. After draining of the waters of this mammoth water body, copious lakes, wetland, marshes, springs and interconnected water channels with interspersed land masses emerged in the valley floor. Geologists also testify that Kashmir valley was once under Tethys sea and hemmed in by mountains. Due to frequent earthquakes throughout the prehistoric eras the mountain near then Varmulla broke up draining off the Satisar. Consequent to draining off lake waters, the oval shaped irregular valley of Kashmir came into being leaving behind lacustrine deposits at the rim of mountains forming tablelands or Karewas with interspersed lakes, wetlands, marshes, water channels surrounded by patches of land and land mass formed by leaving behind of lacustrine deposits in the midst of the valley.
Lessons from Disastrous 2014 Floods
During the floods of Srinagar 2014 about 70-80 percent city got deluged and remain submerged long time. Most of the people /experts argued that no infrastructure could have withstood such an extreme swelling of the Jhelum river basin waters. Such floods are generally known as fluvial floods which are triggered due to overflowing of rivers and are challenging to handle. The floods of 2014 where results of extreme torrential rainfall during which run off exceeded the capacity of valley drainage system and caused flooding due to over flowing of waters. The high river velocity inundation triggered by torrential rains falling within short span of time within the catchment area of Jhelum River. Srinagar in past has been able to engineer itself a way out of looming problems by predominantly relying on physical barricades and through a well-established drainage system including natural water channels, flood spill channels and irrigation khuls/Nallahs. During the 2014, Srinagar despite having green infra in place observed devastated flooding mainly on account unplanned urbanization, encroachment of wet lands, water bodies, water channels, loss of green cover and segmentation of flood absorption basins. It has prompted general awareness consciousness among masses about the looming threat beyond the established engineering solutions which miserably botched to up-stand climatic extremes of the valley. This has demonstrated that Srinagar needs to appreciate the importance of enhancing and pressing green infra along with the strengthening grey infrastructure. This might entail to relook the problem without out of box solution and follow a paradigm of city planning focusing on ecosystem having powerful linkage with nature based solutions rather than focusing on simple grey infra urban measures of curbing floods. Soon after the floods of 2014 restoring pre-developed infra and surface and hydrology in every location presented an arduous test for the city administrators and proved to be a herculean task to safe guard people, property, infrastructure, reaching people trapped in floods, provide food, water, medical aid and rescue operations. The whole operation had proved a challenge even after receding of floods waters with many people suffering psychological trauma, mental disorders and agony due to horrible devastating floods.
Diminishing Sponge-Srinagar
The unplanned urban sprawl coupled with unabated infringements, development of relocation projects by government, siltation and pollution and availability cheap land in close vicinity and development of housing by lower income groups, is threatening the fragile natural sponge in Srinagar. It is continuously diminishing through losing its battle of survival to vivacious forces of speedy spontaneous urbanization. In the process Srinagar is fast losing a deterrent, a sustainer, a modifier, a purifier and an absorbency to haphazard urban expansion, earth fillings, waste dumping siltation, tree cutting, and conversion. The serpentine river Jhelum, traversing almost 175 sq. km from south to north Kashmir is unique river morphology undergoes a “through stage” in the Himalayas. It makes capital Srinagar city vulnerable to alluvial flooding. Lakes/Wetlands/marshes, platation areas and open fields adjunct to both sides of Jhelum used to act as reservoirs of the floodwaters. However, during last five decades, most of the wetlands have lost their carrying capacity mainly due to conversion into agriculture land or concrete landscape. Ecologically important wetlands in the Jhelum floodplains like Rakh-i- Gundak Shah, Batmaloo Nambal,Chattabal Nambal, Hokersar, Bemina wetland, Narakara Wetland, Rakh-e-Arth, Shallabug, Anchar lake, Khushal sar,Lasjan Namble, Shalin Nambla, Tengen Nambal, Sioteng Nambal, Gungbug Nambal, Gilsar ,Bonamsar Namble, Neshbal Rakhi, Rabitaar, Mirgund Namble, Indhra Nagar wetland, Rakh-i-Summerbug, Rakhi Hanjik, Rakhi Haran, Rakhi Padshahibagh, Wet land Kawoosa Khalisa, Wetland Yarigund, Babe Demb, Drangbal Sar, Kujar Rakh and Dal, Nagin, Anchar Lakes have been degraded due to rapid encroachment and urbanization all losing substantial areas in the process. These wet lands/marshes/lakes/Nambles performed as an important natural resource within the Master Plan limits. These apart from acting as valuable habitats/ bio-diversity sub-ecosystems with varied fauna and flora and acted as the life line for large rural communities besides regulating water regime of the Jhelum Basin and function as major heat sinks in the city. Master plan 2035 has made a mention of making city planning responsive to the vulnerabilities caused by natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, landslides, land subsidence but has not made any mention of climate change ,decreasing sponge, vanishing heat sinks and emergence of Srinagar as a urban heat zone. This should have necessarily emerged in the so called detailed study on land suitability while exploring interconnected sustainability. Consequently, all the results and inferential proposals seem to be mere theoretical elaborations and a wish list for Srinagar as nothing has been actually realized on ground since its approval and operation. As regards to augmenting urban open space at local level there has been no increase of improvement and green space have remained depressingly at low ebb in the city. Regarding green pavement and roofs, city’s concrete is increasing manifold and there is no policy proposal advocated in the plan despite having rich history of the of green roofs and paths/streets in the past. All this aggregately is reducing sponge of the Srinagar and is likely going to be upfront worst climate change challenges by emergence of intense urban heat island in ecologically fragile and sensitive mountainous environs.
Planning Response
In an Era marked with fast and massive urban growth associated with its ill effects of climate change, sponge cities are proving and emerging as a viable solution. It covers a myriad advantage of efficient water regime management, helps to mitigate flooding and promote environmental sustainability. Green pavements and roofs counteract the ill effects of concrete and stabilize the thermal balance and recharge underground water. Green ecological area, gardens and fields allow greater permeability, promote absorption and retention of rainwater into soil and recharge ground water table, acts as a vital reservoir of water resource. Plants and green area serves as lively link between the earth, the sky and the life, supporting and enhancing likelihood of precipitation. A thoughtful urban planning needs to dovetail city sponge concept in it, to build and champion a climate resilient future for Srinagar and other towns/cities of Kashmir.
Bottom line
Srinagar in particular and Kashmir valley in general has started to show symptomatic indications of climate change, there is an urgent need for Srinagar to embrace conventional nature-based solutions to combat the eminent foreseeable change. If sponge city development is implemented, presence of vast ecological areas within city limits would provide a viable solution with a holistic approach to mitigate most of environmental challenges thrown up by rapid unplanned urbanization, demographic and spatial growth. The rapid pace of urban expansion, spurred by population swelling has led to accelerated construction activities, if allowed to continue in same trajectory, it has potentials to generate irretrievable environmental crises. Under this perspective, sustainability vulnerabilities such as loss of plant cover, recurring floods, urban heat, dry spell, extreme weather conditions and air pollution in climate-sensitive Srinagar, coupled with the consequences of erratic precipitation including water scarcity, agricultural decline, loss river discharge and significant loss of wetland ecosystems and biodiversity, transpire to the forefront. Srinagar need to be made resilient and sustainable to all these foreseeable vulnerabilities for which planners need to play overwhelmingly an important role by making it as a vital aspect in plan formulation.
Email:---------------------- hamwani24@gmail.com
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