WATER AND SOCIETY
Water as an essential element critical for the survival of human society brooks no argument. The role of water in shaping society and settlements over millennia is well understood and continues to be interpreted in new light across geographies and disciplines. Critical debates on water use a wide variety of lenses – from the ecological to the anthropological, from gender to cutting-edge technologies. It is increasingly apparent that water is and will continue to remain critical to development debates. This is especially true of the global south, where access to very basic services including drinking water, remains a huge challenge.
Landscape architects engage with water at multiple levels; - from understanding regional level natural systems to backyard gardens, the profession addresses water from its most intangible forms to its most experiential. Given the highly integrated and cross-disciplinary nature of the landscape profession, the intention is bring together diverse perspectives, experiences and skills that connect water and the landscape profession.
In an effort to address the issue in a comprehensive manner, the theme of the conference has been classified into three broad categories. The three broad categories identified to inform design and planning oriented around the resource of water to address development paradigm, are:
Objectives:
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To examine the role of water at regional and urban level in tangible and intangible forms that can precipitate dialogues to address contemporary environmental and landscape challenges.
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To understand the related ecosystem sciences aligned to water to create new approach to design and planning at the infrastructure and city scale.
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To examine policies and legislation related to water resources to better address issues of livelihood, right to access and future urban growth and demand through planning and design mechanism.
Keywords: Resilience, climate change, vulnerability, adaptation, urban floods, wetlands, river basin
Water as a NATURAL RESOURCE
Water as a SOCIO-CULTURAL ATTRIBUTE
Water and DESIGN
Objectives:
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To examine the indigenous traditions on water management and human - water interface and its learning towards contemporary application.
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To comprehend the emerging landscapes being designed that come to terms with contemporary challenges of water.
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To address new attitude towards water and landscape that need to be catalysed within the profession and among society at large
Keywords: Traditional water systems, traditional knowledge, microclimate, waterfront development, recreation, cultural expression, productive landscape, technology innovation, green infrastructure
Objectives:
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To examine current and future ready topical technologies and alternative passive measures catering to provision of basic urban water services to inform landscape design
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To address the relation of water efficiency and landscape design in contemporary design towards sustainable benchmarking.
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To understand the related engineering sciences aligned to water to create new aesthetics of landscape design
Keywords: Efficiency, irrigation, rain garden, xeriscape, rainwater harvesting, recycling, water treatment, water conservation, rating, benchmark, vegetation, sustainable landscape, aesthetics,
Based on these broad thematic, the conference is organized as an interactive workshop-event. The intention is to critically discuss and deliberate each thematic through the two-day event, culminating in a presentation of the findings of each group. The aim of the three independent thematic workshops is to help examine the convergence of diverse and often conflicting dynamics of water and demands of society.
More information on SPEAKERS Profiles for the conference.