SPONGE COLLABORATIVE +
WEAVING WITH WATER Team
MULLASSERY CANAL FRAMEWORK AND CANAL EDGE MASTERPLAN
Introduction Ente Kochi - Context The Entekochi Urban Design Competition under KMC seeks to create a project that leverages Kochi’s natural assets, monsoon culture, and social capital to make the city more resilient, vibrant, and inclusive. One of the key objectives of this project is to demonstrate an alternative approach to building resilience against the adverse effects of climate-induced risks by taking a comprehensive approach towards flood mitigation and waterbody management. In order to maximise the impact of this project, it is essential to consider a precinct-level framework for flooding rather than one that is narrowly focused on a single water channel viz. The Mullassery Canal. This report therefore presents key strategies for a Mullassery Canal Precinct Framework Plan.
Kochi - Context The Kochi metropolitan area is home to an estimated 3 million people who inherit a unique cultural and environmental legacy characterized by the calm backwaters, networked canals, and rich biodiversity. The city spans a low-lying monsoonal estuary that is soaked by rainfall. Water is integral to Kochi’s unique identity but climate change and unsustainable patterns of urbanisation threaten the balance between nature and society, land and water. Over the last couple decades, Kochi and its adjoining areas have seen tremendous growth at the expense of its lush green cover and the concretisation of its natural waterways (Figure 1). Canals that once linked waterways are concreted over, compromised by gray infrastructure, polluted or clogged by waste. This has left Kochi more vulnerable to the present and future impacts of climate change. As Kochi’s metropolitan population continues to grow at a rate of about 4% every year, the city and other urban centres in Kerala need to consider land and water-sensitive development paradigms that are more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
Figure 1: Kochi’s urbanisation has rapidly expanded into surrounding forests or farmlands turning porous land cover into impervious roof and asphalt (Image Credit: Sponge Collaborative)
