Title The Water Conserving Syntax: a rationale for sustainable urban performance.
Case Study Hampi, Vijayanagara, Karnataka, India.
Author Rahul Paul MA Landscape Urbanism Architectural Association, London +44 79 42 84 53 99 labyrinth.arch@gmail.com
Abstract
The notion of water in its tangible forms – rivers, lakes, coastlines – as a primary structuring element of urban patterns has been a well-established one, this article though investigates the role of water derived from ecologically designed sensitivity, as the primary structure, governing the urban spatial relationships in the city, and also highlighting its importance of establishing itself as an integral part of the urban and city system. The paper investigates the growth and structuring of the ancient city of Hampi, India based on the parameters and understanding of the principles of water management resource. The construction of the kunds (water tanks) to collect the surface run off from the terrain through a system of sustainable methods, the integrated agriculture fields to benefit from this run off and the modelling of the social, political and cultural built forms around these kunds was the micro level generic diagram of the city. Through this diagram of study, the concept of Landscape Urbanism integrating the modes and operations of landscape design into the domain of urbanism, is discussed as an indigenous process in time and not merely as a virgin idea developed in the late 20th century to articulate the new form of urbanism. What has transformed in this domain of study is that the new urban conditions have redefined the generic and simplified idea of the domain, making it a more a complex and hybrid discipline in order to engage with contemporary urban and environmental conditions. This uprising urbanisation and the new demands and terms of society has had its own implications on the discourse of the water management system, as holistically it has failed to comply with the existing populous conditions and patterns of urban life. A more comprehensive understanding of this system through the domain of Landscape Urbanism, in present heterotopic conditions, can lead to the resurgence of this water management system back into the urban process where it not only performs as an aesthetic and urban model for the city but also acts as a functional and survival tactic in a rapidly urbanising condition where increase demand of water is draining out its natural water resources.
Keywords Water/Hampi/ Sustainable Resource Management/Urbanisation/Landscape Urbanism
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Introduction: Water - beyond its tangible notions “Water equals power.”1 Water in its tangible forms, what we usually refer to as “water bodies” and its association and dependency with the human habitat has been a tradition in time. From the very outset of the human civilization, man has been dependant on water to structure its growth and necessities. “The influence of water bodies – be they streams, rivers, lake systems or sea fronts – on the settlement pattern have been strongly expressed in visual terms, both in traditional settlements as well as latter-day developments.” 2 Not just in visual terms, the dependency on these water bodies in the agrarian society, for the basic needs to irrigate their food was also a very common practice which has even so grown in popularity in contemporary times. The construction of water canals to divert the flow of water toward the drier regions of the state or the construction of dams and water tanks along the river bed to store water are themes that have for long served as models of utilising the natural resources to benefit the human civilization.
Image 1: London City
Image 2: Srirangapatna, India
What is least explored in all these studies of human and its relation to the water is the phenomenon of water resource management “at the territorial level and implications of the resultant landscape on the attendant urbanization”3. This facet of water system which had not been a popular practice in many parts of the world over the centuries still found traces of implementation in certain parts of the Asian sub-continent as illustrated by Fred Pearce. “In India, you can still see abandoned ponds and lakes dotted through the country side….much of India was irrigated from shallow mud – walled reservoirs in valley bottoms that captures the monsoon rain each summer”4 The reason for it being sparsely used as a technique to define human civilizations is understandable. The process of water resource management transcends far beyond just engineering skills to supply water to a community but is more related to a holistic understanding of the environment, the water cycle, the human needs, the landscape and topography of the region. The resultant application of this methodology, not only provides a sustainable solution to the city as a whole by conserving water, but also provides new dimensions and definitions to the existing landscape , which in turn indexes different urban patterns, associations and forms with it. This system, in few cases, has in itself transcended beyond just a survival tactic, and has adhered social dimension to it as well. As quoted by Hadeja, a retired Indian Police Officer, in Pearce’s book “I saw the people leaving the village and I wanted them to stay. That meant finding more water. So I tried catching the rain”5. A thought that transformed a small village of Rajsamadhiya, Gujarat, India into a metaphor of integrated sustainable living and urban performance. This water management methodology, as a model of study, borne out of any responsive cause, has the ability not only to transform the existing landscape into a more performative field, but also address the urban lines of action in a socially cohesive and sustainable manner. A tradition, yet not comprehensively explored, but a tradition that can comprehensively address the way of living.
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Shannon Kelly/Manawadu Samitha, Indigenous Landscape Urbanism, JoLA, 2007 Rao, Mohan, Landscape Urbanism: Traditional knowledge to contemporary application ,Leuven Conference,2008 3 Rao, Mohan, Landscape Urbanism: Traditional knowledge to contemporary application , Leuven Conference,2008 4 Pearce, Fred, When the Rivers Run Dry, pg 303, Eden project Books, 2006 5 Pearce, Fred, When the Rivers Run Dry, pg 308, Eden project Books, 2006 2
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Case Study: Hampi, Vijayanagar – the forgotten empire Hampi, a village located in the southern peninsula of India, in the state of Karnataka, India are the remains of erstwhile Vijayanagara, 15th century capital city of the Vijaynagara dynasty, now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Robert Swell states, The city of Vijayanagar is, as already stated generally supposed to have been founded in the year 1336, and that date is not far from the truth may be gathered from two facts. Firstly, there is extract inspiration of the earliest real King Harihara 1, dated in A.D. 1340. Secondly, by the account given by the writer raid southwards by Muhammad Taghlaq.6The city though, peaked in terms of scale & maturity during the 15th -16th century before being ransacked by an invading army.7 The region was abandoned following the attack and is now a prime archaeological site, with buried structures and settlements spread over 130 Sq. km. These buried structures said to be constructed in the “Vijayanagara style” is a combination of the Chalukya, Hoysala, Pandya and Chola styles which evolved earlier in the centuries when these empires ruled and is characterised by a return to the simplistic and serene art of the past8. This hybrid style of the buried structures though had its own unique architecture vocabulary and construction technology which was adapted to suit its culture, tradition and social behaviour and over the years established itself as a benchmark to serve as a model for the architecture vocabulary of the region. Vijayanagara architecture can be broadly classified into religious, courtly and civic architecture, as can the associated sculptures and paintings9. Though this statement is true, but what cannot be overlooked is that unlike the dynasties of the previous centuries the construction of elements was not only restricted to artistically crafted temples, royal palaces and dwellings but also derived new urban elements such as water storage tanks, water sprouts and intricately crafted water channels – as a response to the theme of rain water harvesting - which reflect a certain response not only to the visual, aesthetical identity of the city but also to its functional and rational identity. `
Image 3 : Location in India
Image 4: Location in Karnataka
Image 5: Satellite image of Hampi
The construction techniques were based on using locally available materials of the region, using natural materials to reduce ecological footprint and methodologies that were climatically responsive. In the very outset the city performed and established principles of what we now term as “sustainable design parameters” which nowadays has gained popularity among architectural practice. During the Vijayanagar period the local hard granite was preferred to the Badami, Chalukya style, although soapstone was used for a few relief and sculptures10. While the use of granite reduced the density of sculptured works, granite was a more durable material for the temple structure. Because granite is prone to flaking, few pieces of individual sculptures reached the high levels of quality seen in previous centuries. In order to cover the
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Sewell Robert, origin of the empire, The Forgotten Empire:Vijayanagar 1901, Forgotten Books Rao, Mohan, Landscape Urbanism: Traditional knowledge to contemporary application ,Leuven Conference,2008 8 A Concise History of Karnataka, pp 182, Dr. Kamath S.U, History of Karnataka, Arthikaje 9 Hampi - A Travel Guide, pp 36, Department of Tourism, India 10 Dr. Kamath. S.U, A Concise History of Karnataka, pp 184 7
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unevenness of the stone used in sculptures, artists employed plaster to give the rough surface a smooth finish and then painted it with lively colours11.
Image 6: The temple architecture
Image 7: The water tanks
Image 8: The water sprouts
The statement here critically assesses the aesthetic parameter of these structures, but contrary to most other civilization in the past especially in the Indian Sub–Continent the Vijayangar Dynasty seeks to establish a vocabulary that was just not contend to the aesthetics but have a far greater richness to it in terms of achieving a local response, a sensitive environmental approach and imbibing passive design techniques. Vijayanagar city, if comprehended briefly was a contradiction in time. It transgressed beyond the established territories of city making seen in the previous era’s not only in terms of its architecture style, but also in terms of its city planning and primarily through the application of the water resource management system that was undertaken in this period. Though it can be termed as a contradiction, it could have also been defined as the future.
The City Pattern – an integrated approach At its peak, Vijayanagara was the largest urban agglomeration of its day in the world12, housing a population of over 600,000. Contrary to the prevailing trends of the period, Vijayanagara was “not a uni-centered capital city”13. It was intentionally developed as a multipolar urban settlement, where each settlement – or ‘pura’ (town) – had a centrality of its own. Each settlement was defined and dominated by a temple complex dedicated to the presiding deity and a large bazaar street axial to the temple. All other components of the town – housing, workspace and markets – stretched along and behind the axial bazaar which formed the main spine of the pura. This approach of planning principle was not merely a preconceived thought that was implemented in the region, but was borne out in response to the topography and the site surroundings. The landscape of the region possessed its own visual delight and along with it engaged new possibilities to the making of the Vijayanagar citadel. Previous to this development, the engagement of the site with the planning of the city was unheard of. What was more common to our knowledge was the establishment of towns along the natural resources or “placing” of “diagrammed towns” amidst the serenity of natural landscapes. Never was the issue of engagement of town planning with site conditions to shape and define the territory rendered as an idea.
Image 9: Overview of the valley
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Hampi - A Travel Guide, pp 42-43, Department of Tourism, India Sewell Robert, The Forgotten Empire:Vijayanagar 1901, Forgotten Books 13 Rao, Mohan, Landscape Urbanism: Traditional knowledge to contemporary application ,Leuven Conference,2008 12
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The rocky landscape of the region is characterized by a series of steep hills and valleys. The visual quality of the landscape is absorbing with large boulders dominating the frame, with very little obvious signs of human intervention. The multiple nodes nestling in the valleys are visually isolated from the larger fabric. This distinctive settlement pattern has been traditionally interpreted as a security need – “a marital response with the surrounding hills forming a protective enclosure”.14 This statement though is partially true. A closer examination and further excavations in the site revealed an intimate relationship between the settlement pattern and the watershed characteristic of the region. Vijayanagara was strongly identified with the river Tungabhadra, one of the larger river systems of peninsular India. As Dr.Halkatti emphasises “The point of interest is the fact that the city did not use the river as a source for its domestic water needs” 15.This is exceptional in a region that receives a mere 560 mm of rainfall annually. Barring irrigational requirements, the river remained untouched as a source of water. This finding along with the latter day excavations of the kunds (water tanks) or popularly known in the region as pushkarni, which harvested and stored the rain water and the surface run off of the terrain, highlight the relation that the citadel possessed with its surrounding topography and the idea of water resource management that was incorporated in the planning of the city.
Image 10: The Tungabhadra River
The Kunds – an environmental and urban performer The kunds, which were built of stone as a series of stepped tanks was dotted throughout the extant of the landscape in relation to the valley system and the watershed characteristics of the region. These stepped water tanks served more than ceremonial and recreational identities for the habitat, as it was to perform functions of effectively harvesting, routing and storage of the run off water as the entire population of the day was dependant on effective management of rain water.16 The system of diverting water to these tanks was based on careful analysis of the topography and the terrain, which were in itself based on sustainable design solutions.
Image 11: View of Pushkarni
The water from the surrounding steep hills was diverted by means of creating swales – vegetated surface of linear depressions formed in the ground to receive runoff and slowly move water to a discharge point17- which was constructed along the main catchment zones in the watershed region. As these were the main channels to carry water to the lower terrain, built forms were avoided along these valley lines, which prevented any diversion or hindrance to the natural flow of water. These swales then were drained into smaller tanks (detention ponds) placed closer to the main water tank, to perform the function of majorly de-silting the 14
Longhurst A.H., Hampi Ruins, Described and illustrated, 1925
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Dr. Halkatti, C.S. Patil Water systems in ancient Vijayanagara, , Journal of Archaeology for Asia and the Pacific, June 2006 16 Rao, Mohan, Landscape Urbanism: Traditional knowledge to contemporary application ,Leuven Conference,2008 17 Guidance on the construction of swales for poultry farms. SAC Environmental, May 2003
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water. The water was then overflowed from this tank again through a system of swales, finally to be stored in the pushkarni. In most cases, the water from one pushkarni was also made to overflow into the other to create a series of water tanks that were dependant on the overflow of the tank at its immediate higher terrain. The landscape in response to this was also dotted by number of percolation pits which helped in maintaining the level of the underground water table. This territorial level understanding of the landscape and the reading of the terrain led to the establishment of an effective system for the city and rendered a sustainable network to the city’s performance by reducing its dependency on its natural source, the Tungabhadra River and increasing its efficiency by “catching the rain�.18
Image 12: View of detention basin on the Hill side
These water tanks though did not just possess a singular dimension of environmental response but were performative to engage the productive (agricultural), reflective (religious) and engineering (flood/drought control)19 aspects as a cohesive and integrated set of relations. The water stored in these tanks were utilised by the population to satisfy their daily needs. To dwellings they were the source of potable water as well as supply to carry out daily necessary domestic activities. In relation to the religious domain they were converted as sacred tanks which served water to the temples and also sufficed to all the water related rituals that the religious buildings demanded. In some cases, they were also used as recreational features to adhere to the livelihood of the royal population, where as in the agrarian community, they were beneficial to supply water to their crops. These water tanks though transcended beyond their usual behaviour of just water sources and engaged itself as an epicentre for social and cultural milieu. Though these kunds were not the only institutions that engaged with the social dimension of the citadel they were more an undefined physical entity that performed at a metaphysical level to weave the society together. They contributed to encourage social relationships in more informal mannerisms, create opportunities to define new set of cultural values and more so to reform itself as a platform to accentuate public participation beyond the divisions of caste, sex and religion. These tanks were social urban performers that created a more cohesive society as their existence, construction and relevance were not targeted towards to any specific community per say, but was a responsive endeavour that was to serve the entire population holistically. Thus, it reciprocated a sense of common belonging among the entire population.
Image 13: Relation of detention ponds to valley and bazaar below
18 19
Pearce, Fred, When the Rivers Run Dry, Eden project Books, 2006. Shannon Kelly/Manawadu Samitha, JoLA, 2007
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In terms of its physical form and existence it related and governed the spatial planning of the individual puras that were nestled amidst the terrain of the region. These pushkarnis though were not the geometrical centres of these towns, but were more epicentres around which the different institutions were arranged and planned. The temple, the bazaar (market) street, the dwellings and the workspaces were all developed in an accretive manner with respect to these stepped tanks and their spatial characteristics were defined in relation to these tanks. Thus, these kunds in its day was an entity that had far reaching effects from the micro to the macro scale – from defining the landscape territory at the larger scale , to establishing the urban pattern and finally to present itself as body to regulate the ‘way of life’ – urbanism20. Such was the importance of these water tanks, derived from water resource management principles to the city of Vijayanagara that during the restoration of this archaeological site by the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) a special impetus was undertaken to revive this entire water system and store water in these pushkarnis. This effort jointly undertaken by an environmental design firm Integrated Design (InDe), based in Bangalore, India has already been successful in channelising water to these pushkarnis. As the principal architect of the firm Mohan S Rao states “After only one season, the pushkarani now holds water through out the year in an area that is perpetually drought prone.” Though this effort of storing the water does not serve any habitable population now, but the resurgence of it has certainly bought back the cultural identity to this archaeological site and served as an impetus towards improving tourism opportunities.
Image 14: View of Pushkarni after revival
The application of these principles of water management resource, as early as in the 13th century thus introduces us into a new form of approach towards planning where the modes and operations of landscape design is integrated into the domain of urbanism to create new sets of urban materials based on intensive coexistence – an idea that in the 20th century has been coined as Landscape Urbanism.
Landscape Urbanism – an indigenous process As Gareth Doherty states “Two overarching themes bind landscape urbanism together. Firstly, that landscape urbanism is seen as a synthetic and multi-scalar discipline leading a range of other disciplines and interests. Secondly, the recognition of landscape infrastructure as the primary ordering device of the city”21 These principles if studied through the model of approach undertaken in the 13th century city of Hampi, Vijayanagar - where the water tanks derived from ecological understanding attended the immediate urban surroundings - reflect a close relation to the domain of Landscape Urbanism. The term landscape urbanism was first articulated in the late 1990s by Charles Waldheim but the study of these ancient civilizations and others in most parts of South and South East Asia reveal that the generic idea of landscape urbanism – understood as a structuring landscapes to guide their occupation, use and urbanization– is not new, but has indeed been in practice for several millennia.22 It can be argued that the term might be coined in the contemporary times in response to present day situations but its thought was in implementation in ancient times. As Shannon analyses “Much 20
Louis Wirth, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 44, No. 1. (Jul., 1938), pp. 1-24 Doherty,Gareth, presentation Landscape as Urbanism 22 Shannon Kelly/Manawadu Samitha, Indigenous Landscape Urbanism, JoLA, 2007 21
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of the contemporary discourse on landscape urbanism – and the projects aligned with this emerging field – focus upon the challenges posed by post-industrial urban voids, the recovery of brownfield sites and the reintroduction of natural processes and habitats but an investigation on territories structured by water resource management and the relationship of such landscapes to urbanization argues that there is an ancient, indigenous landscape urbanism whereby an integral system of urbanization is tied to the logics of landscapes”23 This model of study has also found traces in Sri Lanka where relation between landscape and urbanisation has had long – standing- tradition. The earliest Singhalese settlements – in the so-called DryZone of the flat coastal lowlands surrounding the central highlands – were structured in conjunction with an ingenious tank (man-made reservoir) and irrigation system, linking habitation to cultivation and sacred spaces to topography. The historical geography of urban water control in South and Southeast Asia reveals highly structured rural and urban systems that are physically and symbolically linked to both irrigation techniques and cultural/religious relationships with water bodies. The region boasts numerous waterscapes – man-made landscapes – that operate on a territorial scale. Waterworks were huge infrastructure projects that supported innovative and thriving civilizations. Their history became etched into the technical, socio-cultural and ecological structures of the water system. The South / Southeast Asian monsoon belt became synonymous with the rice belt due to the inhabitants’ hydraulic ingenuity24. A pattern also witnessed in classical cultures of ‘Greater India,’ in particular, where a number of such cities were developed based on the principle of indigenous landscape urbanism. As Anuradha Mathur and Dilip Da Cunha have stated on the making of the city of Bangalore, India “landscape was an initiator of the settlement” The lower Deccan Plateau, a triangle of the South Indian peninsula, was structured by a system of tanks that exploited the territory’s dendritic drainage pattern. The tanks were manmade lakes that served as water reservoirs during dry seasons. ‘The land of a thousand tanks’ – a land where the Great Trigonometric Survey of India was initiated – made a strong link between urbanization and water management. The interdependent system was begun by King Kempegowda I and included a number of traditional structures including the pettah (indigenous mud- and bamboo-walled city), agrahara (school for priests) and tota (gardens with strong social hierarchies) – all in relation to bunds, tanks and sluices.
Image 15: "The land of a thousand tanks", Bangalore,India
‘Contrary to the engineer’s view there is no dominant watercourse in the land of a thousand tanks. Instead there are many possible series reaching back from the ‘thousandth tank’ on the tableland via tenacious connections that are more political than physical, dependent on managed sluices more than natural sources25 The growth of the city of Bangalore based on these principles of water management syntax draws a close relation to the city of Vijayanagara and can be argued that this growth pattern was directly influenced from the ancient civilization as both these settlement patterns belong to the same hydrological, topographical and geographical conditions and lie in close proximity of 350 Kms from each other. A process of city development which in time turned into a traditional pattern of territorial engagement. The condition and growth of these civilizations is a testimony to the emergence of a process and a body of study – Landscape Urbanism - which is often heralded as the saviour of the built professions ,as the new –ism with concerns that are congruent with the politically correct, 23
Shannon Kelly/Manawadu Samitha, Indigenous Landscape Urbanism, JoLA, 2007 Shannon Kelly/Manawadu Samitha, Indigenous Landscape Urbanism, JoLA, 2007 25 Da Cunha Dilip, Anuradha Mathur, Deccan Traverses: The Making of Bangalore’sTerrain, pg 155,2006,Rupa 24
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ecological biases and priorities of the developed, Western World26. It is of importance to note here that this domain of study is traced with what had been the least explored facet of human civilization and its relation to water – the one derived from ecologically derived principles and not the relationship of human civilizations with the tangible notions. The reason for this association is that in all its tangible notions water only performed the role of either supply and/or a visual feature or a natural form of existence to shape the fringes of the settlement but in all these cases it was never integrated holistically with the process of city making to address the extant of landscape or to shape the socio – spatial relationships – Urbanism. The fact of this water management system being least explored, probably suggests why this discourse of Landscape Urbanism was suddenly heralded as a new emerging school of thought and not defined as a resurgence of an age old tradition to comply with the contemporary post - industrialisation times as a performative –ism. Well, this thought can certainly be argued upon and analysed further, but what can be critically comprehended that though this domain was indigenous in nature and had relevance in the ancient world, its advent in contemporary times has brought with itself new sets of emerging engagements such as uprising urbanisation, the concepts of pollution, new social and political strands of living and also new emerging spatial land use patterns. The absorption of these elements in the discourse of Landscape Urbanism has transformed this ancient process into a more complex body of organisation by redefining it with new operative capacities of multiscalarity, cross-scalarity and pre-physicality. This reformation of the domain is aptly defined by James Corner where he addresses this discipline as the “combination of biology and technology to spawn biotech, or of evolutionary science with business management to produce organizational dynamics”27
New parameters of engagement - the limitations of the water system Well, there has been no doubt that water resource management has been an effective scheme not only from the environmental issue but also as a poignant tool for urbanism. But with the advent of urbanisation this scheme of water system has been encountered to new set of issues that it had not been exposed to, in the earlier times. The engagement with these new set of issues – increase in population, increase in demands of water, the rise in pollution levels, the growth of new social relations, the political demands – have already raised questions of effective functioning of this system. Not only has this raised new set of questions and concerns but in some cases, the inefficiency of these water systems to engage with contemporary times has already led them into disrepair. Pearce states “The qanat is a classical technology for the communal management of water. It ha fallen by the way side not through any hydrological failing, but because it does not fit easily with the modern vogue for private ownership of resources” 28 The most striking of this failure of the water management schemes in cities - I emphasise on the scale of cities because on smaller scales of residential or individual institutional buildings this system of “catching the rain” still works effectively – has been the city of Bangalore, India. The city has probably witnessed a process over time to see its effective ancient system slowly being engulfed by the laws of rapid urbanisation. Rapid urban development in the city led to most of these water tanks being surrounded by developed land and the water tanks on the fringes being encroached for residential development. Increase in the nutrient content of tank water due to sewage disposal and increased erosion rate due to construction boom resulted in rapid siltation in down stream water bodies creating marshlands. As Seethalakshmi S states - Nearly 90 per cent of Bangalore's lakes are on the verge of extinction and the dissolved oxygen content of the water in the city's lakes has gone below the desired level of 4mg/lt due to organic pollution, a study conducted by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has revealed. The study which covered 60 lakes in the city has found out that most of the lakes are infested with weeds and the area near the lakes has heaps of garbage, faecal matter thereby making the water bodies completely unfit for recreation.
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Shannon Kelly/Manawadu Samitha,Indigenous Landscape Urbanism, JoLA, 2007 Landscape Urbanism: the machinic landscape,Architectural Association, 2003 28 Pearce, Fred, When the Rivers Run Dry,pg 348, Eden project Books, 2006 27
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The study undertaken also reveals some statistical information on the depletion of these water tanks by the effect of urbanisation. “Lakes are getting degraded beyond the point of recovery. Encroachment, siltation, weed infestation, discharge of effluent both industrial and domestic are knelling the death for lakes in Bangalore'' KSPCB Chairman Upendra Tripathy. ‘Take the case of Dasarahalli lake, where the dissolved oxygen (DO) level is less than 0.3 mg/lt due to industrial effluents from the Peenya industrial area and from nearby residences”. 29To add to this condition of disrepair some of the lakes have been converted to residential localities, while some have been used by state departments for public purposes like bus stand and stadium, the study has revealed. And for lakes situated on the outskirts of the city, it is discharge of toxic substances, including untreated urban sewage and industrial effluents, pesticide and fertiliser run off from agricultural fields. With this, some of the lakes in Bangalore are in the advanced stage of eutrophication – an increase in the organic and inorganic nutrient content of the water body, resulting in an unbalanced ecosystem. “The study conducted over two years has found that most of the water bodies are polluted on account of discharge of sewage effluent. Layouts coming up on the outskirts are also releasing untreated sewage effluents which get into nearby water bodies instead of reaching the sewage treatment plants,'' remarks Upendra Tripathy30.According to environmentalists, municipal effluents get into these lakes, due to the absence of proper sewerage system in the city. “The adverse effect is there for all to see depletion of dissolved oxygen affecting aquatic life, mosquito breeding causing health hazards, growth of water hyacinth and other aquatic plants which cut off sunlight affecting photo-synthetic action” an activist in Bangalore lamented.
Image 16 a-c: Bangalore City chronological growth and displacement of water tanks
The study and the condition focussing on the appalling state of these tanks derived from water management strategies subtly suggests us the growing limitations of this system in contemporary times. Limitations that have not only pushed the tanks into a condition of disrepair but also limitations that question the engagement and application of this water resource management in the larger scale as an integrated effective system within the city process. These limitations have rendered this process only to be implemented, as earlier stated, in small scale interventions of individual development where these new parameters of urbanisation have limited or no effect on the system and the process operates efficiently in negligence of the larger picture of its territorial implication. Though this would suggest that this water management system has restrictions on the scale of engagement with the city process and should be continued as a practice in smaller scales, the fact that cannot be ignored is that the resurgence of this system at the territorial level would have profound implications , as earlier studied, on the larger picture of ecology, environment, urban development and could
29 30
S.Seethalaxmi , http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy/wetlandnews/wetlandnews.html S.Seethalaxmi , http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy/wetlandnews/wetlandnews.html
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address the issues of urbanisation and ecological landscape practice in an integrated manner, which if comprehended is the need of today’s society which is striving - to grow under the conditions global warming and the necessity for rapid urban development - to achieve a sustainable entity for itself.
Resurgance of the system – the global implication. The importance and the need for the application of this water resource management in modern times has far greater implications of just serving as a potent tool to address spatial organisation of the city but more so as a methodology for survival where the demand of fresh water for the needs of human civilization is ever so growing and the natural resources available to man is slowly reducing towards extinction. As stated in Fred Pearce’s book “the world is running out of water. Some of our largest rivers now trickle into sand miles from the ocean, exhausted by human need. Water is ‘the new oil’ – except we can live without oil, there are no alternatives to fresh water.”31 This phenomenon of the rivers running dry has been an adverse effect which has taken shape over time due to the extreme dependency of human civilization towards these natural sources for their survival, food production and demands to meet their local needs by the diversion of river flow or construction of dams along the river bed to store water for irrigation. As agriculture is for most countries in the world, the biggest user of water and the biggest cause for water shortage32, this global issue is of even greater concern in the coming generations as the growing population demands more food production for survival –- which means greater consumption of the natural water resources – thus accelerating this phenomenon of turning our rivers dry into a condition where the world might not be left with any natural water resource in the future. Water demand for domestic and industrial use is expected to increase by two- thirds by 2025 and economists say that by this time water scarcity will be also cutting global food production by 350 million tones per year33. The most telling case, in this regard is China. Historically, the world’s most populous nation has almost always fed itself. But today, increasing water shortages are pushing the country to import food in a big way for the first time. And such is China’s size that this is already impacting the on world food security. The agronomist Lester Brown questions in the title of a book on Chinese agricuture “Who will feed China?”34, but as our rivers across the world dry we have to ask ouresleves: who will feed the world. Such is the growing concern of water scarcity and food production in the growing world that Raj Gupta, director of an agricultural research centre run by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Delhi says, “For the first time, we are starting to measure crop yield in terms of the tonnage produced for a given amount of water, rather than a given amount of land”35.The answers to these concerns though, does not lie in pouring in money to promote high scale infrastructural ventures like building large dams, water treatment works, pipe networks and sewer systems as these are short term methods only cater to immediate needs and as Perace states “Money thrown at problems, often produces the wrong solution”36.Even if the pipes are laid, the pumps are installed and the dams created, nobody is sure whether there would enough water37 to sustain the needs. The obsession of the 20th century to build large infrastructural ventures of conventional Western solutuions has to be done away with and what has to be encouraged is the engagement of the land with new priorities that are comprehensive, long term, ecologically sensitive and would effecinetly function to provide local water for local needs. The new prorities would mean reverting back to ancient ways of water resource management and engaging ourselves to go with flow of the water cycle and the grain of 31
Pearce, Fred, When the Rivers Run Dry, Eden project Books, 2006 Pearce, Fred, When the Rivers Run Dry, pg 343 Eden project Books, 2006 33 Pearce, Fred, When the Rivers Run Dry, pg 346, Eden project Books, 2006 34 Pearce, Fred, When the Rivers Run Dry, pg 347, Eden project Books, 2006 35 Pearce, Fred, When the Rivers Run Dry, pg 341, Eden project Books, 2006 36 Pearce, Fred, When the Rivers Run Dry, pg 345, Eden project Books, 2006 37 Pearce, Fred, When the Rivers Run Dry, pg 348, Eden project Books, 2006 32
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nature. As Harald Kraft comments “Rain water is a resource to be kept than to get rid of at a greater cost” 38.The potential lies in holistic understanding of the water cycle and developing efficient regimes to conserve water, rather than technical fixes to benefit greater social issues over narrow self interest. The need of the hour, thus heavily depend on finding new water conserving techniques without wrecking the environment;of restoring water to rivers,refilling lakes, and wetlands39, recycling water and more importantly consuming and utilising less water without leaving people thirsty.
Conclusion: Water Ethics – towards a sustainable future Water resource management has been a process in time which has been adopted by fewer civilizations in the past in their own understandings to answer to their local needs, where as most civilizations have conveniently established and flourished by dependence and utilization of the natural resource available to them – a discourse that still is present in today’s societywhich has given way to adverse global effects. This effective management process which has often been less explored and less documented in relation to human civilization now has transgressed as a potent global phenomenon that probably holds the key to ensure the availability of the world’s greatest renewable source – water and the efficient survival of future human habitats. The recovery, application and the realization of the resurgence is already gathering pace not only small scale villages where low mud – walls are dug in agricultural fields to divert the monsoon rain directly down their wells but also in cities as Sunita Narain says “In older parts of Delhi, where old tanks and ponds have been cleared of garbage and refilled with water, the water tables are rising.”40 Though these initiatives at the grassroots levels are heartening the real challenge lies to advocate these principles on the larger territorial landscape to address the city process on a holistic level. This in some cases would mean to reconfigure this system in cities where it has failed due to urbanisation and in some cases it means to plan new cities at the very outset with these principles to render a more sustainable outlook to the city as a whole. Both of this processes not only requires an ecological approach but also a deeper understanding of the urban actions of the city. The city of Hampi, Vijayanagara in this context serves as model of this engagement and addresses the potentials and possibilities of integration of this water resource management from both the domains of landscape and urbanism. The model of study not only serves us to address the sensitivity of approach that needs to be undertaken in contemporary times but also the arrangement of the city infrastructure for performing in a cohesive manner beyond contemporary models and notions of urban planning – which tend to be far more program driven rather than potentially achieved. This model though offers an effective and far reaching solutions its application in today contemporary times is still in question. Questions aroused due to its conflict with new terms of urban living and environmental hazards which have not yet been resolved to ascertain a global application of this water management system. The resolving of this conflict with present conditions and foreseen future laws of urbanization and environmental relations possibly holds the key for the efficient integrated functioning of this system. The forecasting of future relations is very vital - as dealing with only current issues would only trigger a malfunctioning of this system above a certain period of time- so that the community, the city and the world is future-ready to engage itself with ecologically balanced and urbanistically responsive environment through this ancient process of water resource management.
38
Pearce, Fred, When the Rivers Run Dry, pg 329, Eden project Books, 2006 Pearce, Fred, When the Rivers Run Dry, pg 351, Eden project Books, 2006 40 Pearce, Fred, When the Rivers Run Dry, pg 303, Eden project Books, 2006 39
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In the modern times the domian of Landscape urbanism as stated by Kenneth Frampton “offers remedial agent within urban areas, in the developing as well as the developed world41” as it is focuses on the establishment of operative systems of abstract relationships: artificial ecologies that can traverse disparate scales and areas of knowledge. The domain of Landscape Urbanism which engages with these new sets of given issues of today’s time and uses “'territories' and 'potential' instead of 'program', adaptable 'systems' instead of rigid 'structures'42as a better way to organize space” holds the key to the resurgence of this ancient system of effective water management with current global trends. This thus confronts us with an unusual situation where this ancient process of water system which traces the roots of the process of Landscape Urbanism, now needs to be readdressed through the contemporary enagagements of Landscape Urbanism domain, to redefine itself for its effective participation within the larger context. In this contemporary situation of flux, where the need of water resource management is essentially vital and so is the need for re establishing its notions with current patterns of urbanisations, Landscape Urbanism serves as the most critical and potential domain to interpret the water resource management system not only to initiate a mutual co existence between territorial landscape and attendant urbanisation for a performative city growth but also for its global implication of effectively functioning as a primary water source potential to the present and future generations before people consume all that water available and let the rivers run dry.
41
Doherty,Gareth, presentation Landscape as Urbanism Landscape Urbanism: the machinic landscape,Terra Fluxus, James Corner, Architectural Association, 2003 42
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References Books: Robert Sewell, A forgotten empire, Vijayanagar, Forgotten Books, 1900, ISBN 1606209590, 9781606209592 India Dept. of Tourism, India, Dept. of Tourism, Hampi Travel Guide, Eicher Goodearth Ltd. supported by Dept. of Tourism, Govt. of India, 2005, ISBN 8187780177, 9788187780175 Albert Henry Longhurst, Hampi ruins described and illustrated, Asian Educational Services, 1993, ISBN 8120601580, 9788120601581 Sūryanātha Kāmat, A Concise History of Karnataka: From Pre-historic Times to the Present, Archana Prakashana, 1980, Original from the University of Michigan, Digitized Aug 2, 2007 Fred Pearce, When the Rivers Run Dry, Eden project Books, 2006, ISBN 1903919576, 9781903919576 Mohsen Mostafavi, Architectural Association, Ciro Najle, James Corner, Architectural Association (Great Britain), Landscape Urbanism: A Manual for the Machinic Landscape, Architectural Association, 2003, ISBN 1902902300, 9781902902302 Anuradha Mathur, Dilip da Cunha, Deccan Traverses: The Making of Bangalore's Terrain, Rupa, 2006, ISBN 8129108526, 9788129108524.
Journal: Kelly Shannon / Samitha Manawadu, Indigenous Landscape Urbanism, JoLA, 2007 MohanRao, Landscape Urbanism: Traditional knowledge to contemporary application, Leuven Conference, 2008, Unpublished Louis Wirth, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 44, No. 1(Jul., 1938), pp. 1-24. Dr. Halkatti, C.S. Patil Water systems in ancient Vijayanagara, Journal of Archaeology for Asia and the Pacific, June 2006
Websites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampi - Hampi, Wikipedia- the free encyclopedia. http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/energy/wetlandnews/wetlandnews.html - 90 per cent of city's lakes dying, S.Seethalaxmi http://www.rali.boku.ac.at/7643.html - Landscape as UrbanismGareth Doherty, Harvard University, Cambridge USA
Image Courtesy: (all other images unless otherwise mentioned are credits of the author). Image 1 & 2 – Google Earth, Google Product Image 3 & 4 - http://www.canpirra.com/HampiWebSite/AboutHampi/AboutHampi.html Image 5 – Archaeological Survey of India; Image 9, 12, 13 & 14 – Mohan S Rao, InDe, Bangalore Image 10 – Hugo Bruley, France; Image 15 - Anuradha Mathur, Dilip da Cunha, Deccan Traverses: the Making of Bangalore's Terrain Image 16 – Anjali Karol Mohan, Planning Process for Bangalore, India, Rome Italy Nov 28 - 30, 2007
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