Chapter 2: Framework for the Mullassery Canal Precinct: Adapt, Connect and Empower

SPONGE COLLABORATIVE + WEAVING WITH WATER Team

MULLASSERY CANAL FRAMEWORK AND CANAL EDGE MASTERPLAN

Figure 12: An integrated approach for the Framework using toolkits of ADAPT+CONNECT+EMPOWER (Image Credit: Sponge Collaborative)

The Mullassery canal framework consists of three approaches: Adapt - Sponge Framework, Connect- Integrated Mobility Framework and Empower - Community Framework.

ADAPT mainstreams Nature-based Solutions through the Sponge Framework that leverage the landscape to re-establish the linkages between urban greenery, monsoons, water bodies and the aquifer. CONNECT describes an integrated mobility framework that includes redesign of the public realm and mobility systems to improve access to transit, lively places, and safe spaces. EMPOWER outlines a community framework that lays out how citizens can participate in the improvement of their neighbourhoods and build inclusive communities by facilitating the formation of social networks. The implementation of these strategies moves Kochi towards integrated climate-proofing. This approach is an effective way to integrate multiple systems within site-specific interventions. In the subsite master plans and pilot projects we showcase how the ADAPT+CONNECT+EMPOWER framework can be successfully implemented to reinforce each other and create multiple co-benefits at the level of a site intervention.

Mullassery Canal is a strategic ecological spine linking the wetlands at the confluence of the Perandoor Canal to the Marine Drive waterfront. The ADAPT principles are used to make surgical interventions such as parklets, infrastructural moves like daylighting and canal bed naturalisation, and strategic moves like opening up public spaces to a naturalised edge. It also provides a template for transforming existing streets into green infrastructure and open spaces into multi-functional, floodable landscapes. We propose a network of green streets and open spaces that slows down runoff. During cloudbursts or excessive rainfall, water can be managed within the urban fabric to slow down, stay, and replenish the aquifer when possible. Using the gray stormwater infrastructure to flush water away as quickly as possible is a wasted opportunity and aggravates flooding.\We recognize Kochi’s unique groves as natural assets and strengthen them as community resources. Community groves empower residents to sustainably manage and monitor natural resources like trees, rainwater, and groundwater. Green linkages between community groves weave into organic neighborhoods and informal settlements to improve residents’ health and well-being.

Sited between the KSRTC bus stop, Mahatma Gandhi Metro station, and the ferry connection to Fort Kochi, the canal edge is transformed into a continuous walkway and bike path. The CONNECT principles create a network of pedestrian-friendly arterial roads, neighbourhood streets, and open spaces of which the Mullassery bikeway becomes a centrepiece. This bikeway connects to a proposed waterfront trail along Marine Drive linking Subhash Bose Park to the Mangalavanam Bird Sanctuary. These connections make the area an ideal site to pilot Kochi’s bike-sharing programme. The collective strategies ensure last-mile connectivity to important transit nodes and

SPONGE COLLABORATIVE + WEAVING WITH WATER Team

MULLASSERY CANAL FRAMEWORK AND CANAL EDGE MASTERPLAN

safe access to new vibrant open spaces. This network is further activated by a set of cultural and tourism trails that renew heritage sites like the Jewish Cemetery and connect to proposed public spaces.

We understand solid waste management along the canal as a proxy for several civic issues. Through the EMPOWER principles, we have addressed ways to mobilise communities to push back against the problems that plague the canal in its current form. In order to build up trust and social capital amongst various stakeholders, we propose design strategies and spaces that allow different groups to deepen their social ties and networks, and bring about a greater sense of community. The primary purpose of the community-centric toolkit is: to inform and engage all stakeholders, collaborate with stakeholders to formulate community-led solutions, and provide instrumental support in the form of funding, agency and capacity building. Each of these strategies play out at three scales: the household, neighbourhood, and city scale to create lasting systemic change.