A Strategic Blue-Green Network for Bengaluru

A Strategic Blue-Green Network for Bengaluru

A Strategic Blue-Green Network for Bengaluru News / New Project / 16.08.2021

Funding has been announced for the Australia-India Council (AIC) 2021 Grants Program supporting projects to build innovative linkages and provide sustainable collaborations between Australia and India.

Building India’s Blue Green Network: A Strategic Framework for Bengaluru is one of the 12 projects selected for support by the Australian Government through the AIC and will be implemented by multidisciplinary design firm McGregor Coxall (Australia) in collaboration with Indian partners, Integrated Design (INDE; Bengaluru).

The project will be delivered through a four-part online series that welcomes international subject experts and thought leaders to participate in knowledge sharing workshops and cross-cultural investigations to develop innovative planning approaches to integrated environmental, water, urban, and landscape design.

A strategic climate adaptation, stormwater, and greenspace management framework will offer lasting environmental, economic, and social benefits for Bengaluru, said McGregor Coxall Senior Environmental Engineer and project lead, Joel Dalberger.

“Establishing a shared vision and integrated road map for Bengaluru’s Blue-Green Network will assist in driving future city development with equitable, holistic community benefits and environmental outcomes at regional and local levels,” said Dalberger.

“It cannot be ignored that cities and natural environments around the globe are facing significant challenges and increasingly uncertain futures. The project will bring together Australian and Indian firms, and academic and government actors via online platforms to develop a framework for enhancing Bengaluru’s Blue-Green Network.

“This network is critical for all cities and communities. It considers key elements of the natural environment – such as waterways, vegetation, and landform – with relation to priorities of human built environments including transport and mobility, urban development, public open space, parks, and civil infrastructure.

“Needs of people of different genders and demographics is considered though open and inclusive activities, forums, working environments, and subject matter.”

INDE’s Principal Director, Mohan Rao, said:

“The online platform is an exciting opportunity to collaborate with key actors and stakeholders across the world, and to arrive at a more nuanced definition of the Blue-Green Framework. More importantly, to derive a policy framework to strengthen and implement this natural system that has been an integral part in shaping socio-political geography of Bengaluru.

“The collaborative partnerships that emerge from this project within technical and professional circles and across the stakeholder basket, including those with communities and expanded engagement networks of INDE, more critically provides a platform for mutual learning and knowledge exchange. That this will happen across geographies (India and Australia), scales (city-region, city and sub-city level) and domains (policy and planning, landscape, design and community perspectives) will be of immense benefit for INDE.

“Blue-Green Network policy and programmes in India are in the formative stage. The project provides us an opportunity, at one level, to engage with some of the existing and emerging policy narratives to understand the gaps and the opportunities. At another level, a simultaneous deeper engagement with the city-region, Bengaluru-city, and sub-city scales (including neighbourhoods and wards) will allow a ground-up perspective, thereby enabling a policy feedback loop. We hope to leverage this simultaneous engagement to arrive at policy advocacy frameworks towards enabling effective policies.”

Programme activities cover the following topics:

1. Understanding Blue-Green Networks from Australian benchmarks and conceptualising Blue-Green Infrastructure in the Indian (Bengaluru) context.

2. Comprehending and discussing Blue-Green Infrastructure at the city and city region scale for Benguluru

3. Comprehending and discussing Blue-Green Infrastructure at the local scale

4. Developing an integrated Blue-Green Network framework/strategy for Benguluru city and city-region

Online workshops and forums are scheduled to begin in August 2021.

About ‘Building India’s Blue-Green Network: A Strategic Framework for Bengaluru’:

Cities and natural environments around the globe are facing significant challenges and increasingly uncertain futures. Building India’s Blue-Green Network: A Strategic Framework for Bengaluru is a project that unites leading Australian and Indian design firms to collaborate with academic and government actors in knowledge sharing, cross-cultural investigations, and development of innovative approaches to strategic planning across environmental, water, urban, and landscape design. The Blue-Green Network can be understood as a conceptual framework which considers key elements of the natural environment (waterways, vegetation, landform) with relation to priorities of human built environments (transport and mobility, urban development, public open space, parks, civil infrastructure). Person-to-person connections and institutional relationships will be facilitated through online forums, creating a platform for experts and thought leaders to guide the development of a strategic framework. The establishment of a shared vision and integrated road map for Bengaluru’s Blue-Green Network will assist in driving future development of the city with enhanced environmental, social and economic benefits at regional and local levels.


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