Aim to influence positive change in favour of communities and eventually help empower them to become an agent of change.
Understanding the importance of lake ecology in an emerging urban context from a socio-ecological perspective: Puttenahalli Lake, Yelahanka.
July 2020
Capstone Project
CONTEXT
Puttenahalli Lake, Yelahanka, Bengaluru
COLLABORATORS
Yelahanka Puttenahalli Lake and Bird Conservation Trust
KEYWORDS
Citizen science, nature stewardship, lake ecology, Socio-ecological perspective, system thinking, community participation, urban commons, co-learn, global south.
The projects focus on to create and share knowledge, tools and approaches to understand the dynamic relations between natural environment and habitats through the social-ecological perspective around Puttenahalli Lake, Yelahanka.
The larger goal of the project focuses on understanding the social and environmental process that effects, influences and shapes the habitat. The project aimed to understand different patterns of relationships & delicate interdependencies in our lake system, through the context of Puttenahalli Lake, Yelahanka.
The objective of the project was to draw insights from local practices of various direct and indirect users of the lake and facilitate ways to contribute towards the development process of lakes. The methodology used to realise the project was working closely with the lake trust group at the ground level and simultaneous secondary research.
The study is directed to produce a toolkit that communicates the complexity of the lake system to the new urban communities that are settling around the lake. While such communication shall lead to discussions and dialogues, the study attempts to take this further by generating sight specific insights and solutions by laying out a process of citizen engagement that locals around a lake can engage and feedback to the caretakers of the lake.
Environmentalist Paul Shepard once said that 'The natural world is not only a set of constraints but of contexts within which we can more fully realize our dreams.' This statement very much resonates and incorporates the essence of my learning experience. Since the beginning of the coursework, one question I always asked my self was, 'How can the cities be more ecologically friendly and less of concrete jungles?'.
As a student of Urban Studies, the lake helped me understand the interconnectedness and interdependencies this sensitive system has with the city and its people. The lake ecology allowed me to investigate the various relations human-built environment- nature shares with each other.
This learning was made possible due to the on-ground engagement. Most of my lessons came from interacting with the robust community around the lake and the very active lake trust group.
Through the research engagement, I have realised my role as an Urban Facilitator rather than Urban Planner. The systems working within the city are rather complex and requires multidisciplinary teams working creatively and coherently to provide solutions. Lake Ecology has helped me realise the need for various experts from diverse backgrounds covering sociology, ecology, economics, scientists, governmental organisations, citizen representations, to make informed decisions. As an Urban Practitioner, my role is to facilitate such processes and work within multidisciplinary teams.
The complexity and challenges our urban system proposes are too complex for a single person to understand, let alone solve.
Hence, engaging with the lake ecology has only further fueled my interest to develop system and processes, that can help conserve ecology in our cities.