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Flow/ Overflow/ Shortage- measuring and managing extreme urban conditions, Date: 2023/05/24 - 2023/05/25, Location: Online

Publication date: 2023-05-24

Author:

Amir, Sheeba

Abstract:

This study interrogates the evolving hydrosocial system within the ‘emerging’ urban agglomeration of Gurgaon, a new city at the edge of Delhi, India experiencing growing water scarcity on the one hand and urban flooding on the other. Gurgaon, located at the periphery of Delhi, has urbanized tremendously over the last few decades to become part of a ‘mega’ urban region. The urban ‘development’ of Gurgaon is witnessed through land use change, industrialization, and environmental degradation. Along with its unprecedented urban growth, the semi-arid, water-stressed region is undergoing a fundamental reconfiguration of its ecologies, visible in its disconnected hydrological network, overexploited ground water and forgotten traditional water infrastructures. In this scenario of growing ‘water stress’, Gurgaon experiences annual urban flooding. Growing urbanization has altered the functioning of watersheds due to increased impermeable surfaces and greater runoff with no room for water, eventually changing the morphology of urban streams. The paper argues that urbanization and related landscape transformation in the region alter the socio-ecological processes by transforming human-nature relationships, which in turn impact the adaptive capacities and resilience of the region towards man-made and natural risks. In this study, water is positioned as a socio-ecological element, a resource in motion, transitioning through the territories that share a distinct relationship with it. The study employs cartography as a research method to translate socio-spatial and ecological processes and interactions of historical and contemporary layers of the water system. The paper analyzes three aspects of water, (1) availability- scarcity and excess; (2) consumption patterns; and (3) evolving water infrastructure. The research contributes towards developing a better understanding of the urbanizing regions and their complexities in the larger narrative of socio-ecological resilience. Keywords: Urban ecology, nature and society, water-stress, urban flooding