Green Infrastructure for Water Insecure South Asian Cities https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/proposals-2020/green-infrastructure-for-water-insecure-south-asian-cities https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/@@site-logo/sitelogo-75x75.png

Green Infrastructure for Water Insecure South Asian Cities

Additional Information
Used for	Earth Economics, in partnership with SmartPaani, Biome Environmental Trust, and The Institute for Social and Environmental Transition–International (ISET-International), seek support to advance green infrastructure solutions for South Asia’s water insecure cities. We will be using Bangalore, India, and Kathmandu, Nepal as case studies, to address the impacts of ongoing development practices, which prioritize grey infrastructure on water insecurity, including scarcity, flooding, pollution, affordability, and loss of heritage. Drawing on the expertise and experience of the project collaborators, this project seeks to inform and advance South Asian green infrastructure solutions in a way that builds water security, revitalizes heritage, and supports those most vulnerable: the urban poor, women, indigenous populations, and migrants.
Benefits	The project collaboration brings together a unique opportunity to share and scale-up data, approaches, tools, and arguments for an evidence-based case and roadmap for implementing green infrastructure in a way that is appropriate for South Asian cities. This project fills a critical gap in development knowledge and practices for South Asia by offering green infrastructure solutions and valuable information on the financing and decision-making of urban development to invest in existing green infrastructure, the revitalization of heritage, and modern green infrastructure. Lastly, this project seeks to support Sustainable Development Goals, particularly to uplift groups most impacted by water insecurity in South Asia: women, indigenous populations, migrants, and the urban poor.
Proposal Description	Project Benefits Millions of people across South Asia live with water insecurity: impacted by flooding, scarcity, and disease outbreaks. Yet, despite decades of development investments in grey infrastructure, current approaches to achieve water security have worsened the issue and widened inequities, as the urban poor, migrants, and women face greater exposure to water-related risks. The rapid loss of urban heritage exemplifies this trajectory. In both Bangalore and Kathmandu, modern development has destroyed communal spaces (courtyards, parks, and green spaces for infiltration), water technologies (wells, stone spouts, ponds, and canals), and traditional environmental knowledge thousands of years old. To transform development practices and address the effects of climate change, Earth Economics, SmartPaani, Biome Environmental Trust and ISET-International have been working to promote and implement nature-based solutions. Through the cases of Bangalore and Kathmandu, where we have ample data and experience, we seek support to combine and scale-up our work. Specifically, we plan to develop and test a framework and roadmap which will help cities see the value of green infrastructure (GI) to support its implementation. This framework, roadmap, and associated evidence will fill a major gap in knowledge on the potential for GI and direct efforts towards implementing GI in a way that supports Sustainable Development Goals, particularly for the poor, migrants, women, and indigenous populations. Specifically, this project takes inspiration from the ways people come together to revitalize ancient water systems with modern technologies and practices, like rainwater harvesting to build water security. For example, communities downstream and upstream supported the revitalization of the ancient Pim Bahal pond in the Kathmandu Valley. The development also invested in street and rooftop rainwater collection to keep the pond clean and full. These nature-based solutions provide direct benefits which include increasing flow to downstream communal water sites and reducing stormwater impacts while lessening the burden on wastewater infrastructure. The co-benefits of the project include enhancing local workforce and economic opportunity from tourism, community organizing, construction and maintenance, neighborhood water systems. Similarly, in Cubbon Park, Bengaluru, revitalization of seven 70-year-old open wells, three percolation ponds, and recharge with 60 recharge wells in the 220 acres park, now provides a substantial part of the parks need and demonstrates the possibility of heritage conservation, shallow aquifer revitalization and livelihoods to traditional well diggers who did the work. Please see attached files for photos and related publications. Project Activity We seek funding to dedicate capacity towards developing a framework and roadmap for implementing GI in South Asia using Bengaluru (Bangalore) and Kathmandu as models. Each organization brings tested tools, data, and approaches to this collaborative project. Earth Economics is recognized as a leader in Green Infrastructure valuation and financing. SmartPaani and Biome have conducted extensive data collection and are experts at implementing GI across sectors. ISET-International has worked across scales of social-ecological systems governance to improve adaptive management of natural resources. The project leads bring additional expertise on the subjects of civil engineering, ecological economics, development, policy, environmental justice, and water heritage. The result of this collaboration is a shareable online framework, a report of the results of the framework which shows the value of current and potential green infrastructure compared to the costs of water insecurity, and a brief for decision-makers explaining why and how to implement GI. Over the course of two years, this project will supply these outputs through a series of phases: Phase I. Share and consolidate data and information based on community consultations and international best practices from partners. Phase II. Develop a framework to communicate and analyze the value of green infrastructure’s direct and indirect benefits from water management to climate resilience to household savings. Phase III. Use the framework to analyze the value of current and potential GI solutions in comparison with current, centralized water and wastewater infrastructure. Prepare project outputs. We have developed a holistic systems approach for analysis that brings together local and international expertise through five domains across four different spaces for GI intervention: household, community, public (e.g., roads and parks), and private (e.g. industrial areas, hotels). Our work will be guided by the following questions: 1.Environmental – What are the direct and indirect environmental and cultural benefits of GI? 2.Resilience – How can GI promote adaptive governance to help build urban resilience and address the impacts of climate change on water systems? 3.Economic – What are the costs and benefits of green infrastructure in the short and long term? How do these costs and benefits compare with grey infrastructure? 4.Policy – How can this information be used to guide policy and investment decisions, and support existing and novel funding mechanisms? 5.Justice – What are the benefits and co-benefits that green infrastructure provides low-income and historically marginalized communities? Phase IV. Coordinate and communicate with identified non-profit, private, communal, municipal, finance, and governmental entities to share results and develop a plan and policies for green infrastructure implementation. We seek funding for Phase I-III. These stages will not require international travel or equipment, but plenty of time for virtual meeting and collaboration. After launching the framework through popular press and peer-reviewed sources, the project team will seek additional funding to support governments and development practices adopt GI. Project Outcome 1. Informed investment and policymaking in support of the Sustainable Development Goals. To achieve this outcome the project is working to develop and a share novel framework that raises awareness on, and values, green infrastructure in South Asia. Using this framework, the project will analyze existing data and report findings to show the value of nature-based solutions compared to current approaches and highlight priorities for green infrastructure implementation. In sharing the framework and results, this project will direct attention towards best practices for protecting existing green infrastructure (aquifers, wetlands, forests, lakes, parks etc.), revitalizing ancient infrastructure (wells, stone spouts, canals, ponds etc.), and building modern green infrastructure (rainwater harvesting, bioswales, rain gardens etc.). Doing so, the project will also prioritize efforts, like heritage revitalization, infiltration to feed public water systems, or rainwater harvesting to prevent stormwater overflow, which enhances the well-being of the urban poor, women, and indigenous populations by reducing water-related burdens and risks. As development continues to prioritize grey infrastructure development over cultural heritage, ecosystem protection, and benefits to the urban poor, introducing a framework that addresses these issues through nature-based solutions is ever more important. Outcome 2. Green infrastructure implementation for more equitable, resilient, and water-secure communities. Implementing green infrastructure will provide households, communities, industry, and government sectors with multiple benefits. For example, site-level rainwater harvesting at households, schools, hospitals, and other businesses can save thousands each year spent on water purchases from tankers and groundwater pumping, as well as reduce the emissions from diesel engines. Rainwater harvesting provides the additional benefit of access to less contaminated water. Meanwhile, promoting recharge in these sites helps prevent subsidence, scarcity, and drainage issues that lead to disease outbreaks, like dengue. For communities and public spaces, revitalizing ancient water systems with rainwater harvesting can help to save green space, manage stormwater, reduce heat, recharge aquifers, and improve year-round access for the thousand who pay little to gather water from these systems by choice or necessity. Together these solutions improve the affordability, ease of access, and quality of water, which reduces burdens on women, the urban poor, and migrants.