BRIEFING
Bringing nature into the city – place and health in the age of COVID-19 The lockdown has brought the role of landscape and public space to the attention of public and policy makers as never before. Read the thoughts of our contributors and then join us for two live sessions on Thursday 9 and Friday 10 July as we look at the role of a landscape-led approach to making our towns and cities more liveable.
Sandeep Menon
The challenges of urban open space in the post-pandemic global south Cities in the global south are great examples of social engineering, they are seemingly cosmopolitan, provide for socioeconomic opportunities and also allow for blurring of the social stigmas that many rural hinterlands maintain. This leads to a steady intranational migration of people to the cities. Even megacities like Mumbai do not have the adequate housing or the infrastructure to absorb this 6
influx, often leading to the proliferation of informal modes of housing in unclaimed, disputed and often unsafe land parcels within the city – the slums. As per the 2011 population census, about 65.49 million people live in slums in around 2,613 slumreported urban centres in India.1 Dharavi, the largest slum of Mumbai, has a staggering population density of about 869,565 people per square mile.2 Such hyper concentrations of
humans within the cities also magnify risks. The data on the current global pandemic of COVID-19 shows that the most affected are the urban areas where people live, work and travel in overcrowded conditions. Historically, pandemics have played decisive roles in reimagining the planning and design of cities. Be it the introduction of efficient sewerage systems after the cholera outbreaks in London, or the abandonment of
