http://dspace.spab.ac.in:80/handle/123456789/556 MUD 2026-04-06T16:07:42Z http://dspace.spab.ac.in:80/handle/123456789/2879 Title: Reshaping community life in Garha, Jabalpur through public space network Authors: Patel, Swati. Abstract: Public spaces have historically played a crucial role in shaping 32 community life, particularly in urban areas rich in history and nature. In older settlements like Garha, located in the historic core of Jabalpur, these spaces are essential to daily life. Garha’s landscape—characterized by its undulating terrain, mature trees, ancient temples, sacred water bodies, and traditional market streets—creates a multi-layered urban fabric. Chowks, temple courtyards, narrow paths, lakesides, and open grounds serve not only as physical spaces but also as venues for interaction, rituals, commerce, and celebration. Despite Garha's cultural and ecological richness, the area is facing neglect due to urban expansion, lack of improvements, and changing social behaviours. Once vibrant spaces are now underused, degraded, or inaccessible. Informal vendors, reduced pedestrian areas, neglected lake edges, and insufficient resting spots hinder public engagement, weakening social ties and a sense of belonging. This study aims to enhance community life in Garha by improving the condition, usability, and experience of public spaces. It focuses on everyday interactions—such as market walks, shaded resting, courtyard gatherings, and lakeside sitting—that shape identity and relationships. Strengthening these spaces is vital for supporting public life with dignity, comfort, and joy. Key elements—chowks, lake edges, temple fronts, and open grounds—are analysed regarding their usage, accessibility, cultural value, and ecological roles. The study identifies opportunities for physical upgrades and community involvement to create inclusive and active environments. Proposed improvements include better walkways, shaded seating, support for informal use, and the preservation of green spaces and water features. Sacred and historic sites should be enhanced as places of memory and identity. Grounded in the principles of everyday urbanism, this work values lived experiences over largescale or purely aesthetic changes. It views public life as a shared, evolving process shaped by routine, tradition, and nature. Through the enhancement of public spaces, the study explores ways to strengthen community life in Garha, improving comfort, encourage social exchange, and sustaining cultural continuity for all ages and communities. Keywords: Community Life, Public Spaces, Cultural Identity, Urban Livability, Everyday Urbanism 2025-05-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.spab.ac.in:80/handle/123456789/2878 Title: Future for the gateway town of leh: addressing community needs and reimagining tourism opportunities Authors: Rana, Nishtha. Abstract: Srinagar, Manali, and the rest of India via the Leh-Manali and Leh-Srinagar highways. Given Ladakh's high-altitude terrain, Leh is crucial for acclimatization, making it a mandatory stop for tourists before visiting any other part of Ladakh. Leh is the largest urban center in Ladakh and is of central importance because of its crucial infrastructure - transportation, health care, educational, commercial and administrative facilities. Owing to these facilities and opportunities, the town has seen migration from rural parts of the union territory over the years. As the town’s population swells to three times its baseline during peak tourist seasons, its infrastructure, natural resources, and cultural traditions have come under intense pressure. The town has transitioned from a predominantly agrarian settlement into a tourism-driven urban center. This rapid growth has fueled economic growth but has also strained precious resources and threatened the fragile ecosystem of the town. The study explores Leh's rapid urban transformation from its historically agricultural roots to a dynamic, tourism-driven environment. It aims to enhance the quality of life for local residents and position it as a sustainable, culturally rich, and environmentally resilient destination for visitors. The study focuses on Skara (Ward 6) and parts of Skalzangling (Ward 7), which has the old fabric as well as new developed areas. The area is experiencing an increase in tourism facilities in the form of tourist accommodations. This thesis intends to develop an integrated urban design framework that enhances the quality of life for local residents by promoting inclusive, community-driven public spaces, preserving the fragile ecology, and integrating expanding tourism infrastructure without compromising the area's cultural and environmental integrity. The framework prioritizes the preservation and the area’s fragile ecology— reinstating low‐impact uses that honour the natural functions, safeguarding and raising awareness of the ecological functions. Reclaiming and introducing open spaces for recreation for the community, embedding cultural elements that reinforce residents’ connection to place. To guide tourism growth sustainably and positioning the area as an immersive gateway where visitors engage directly with local life. This framework tries to integrate ecological resilience, cultural guardianship, and community-focused design to preserve Leh as both a vibrant community and an authentic tourist destination 2025-05-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.spab.ac.in:80/handle/123456789/2877 Title: Reimagining contested terrains in moirang: navigating urban expansion ecological shifts and socio-cultural transformations Authors: Maisnam, Atul. Abstract: As cities expand, usually to peri-urban environments, culturally or environmentally significant locations, conflict over land usage increases. By the year 2050, according to the United Nations, 68% of the world's population will be in cities, putting additional pressure on contested areas. In spatial geography and urban planning, contested terrains are physical spaces where competing interests, whether environmental, social, economic, or cultural, intersect over how to use, develop or maintain the land. Over such competing claims, the land becomes a contested terrain, a place where decisions regarding its future are full of negotiation and conflict. Contested space brings out the multifaceted character of land as a resource, and reimagining such a space means moving towards integrative solutions that harmonise the diverse demands, where one interest does not dominate others. As one of the most rapidly urbanising countries, India's acceleration of urban growth is spilling over into peri-urban areas and becoming hotspots for contestation. Frequently neglected in national urban planning discussions, the Northeast region is experiencing urbanisation at a faster rate, which multiplies the challenge with its unique socio-cultural profile, high biodiversity, and prime geopolitical positions without robust planning systems in place elsewhere in India. Moirang, a heritage town in Manipur near Loktak Lake, the largest freshwater lake in north-eastern India, rich in history and culture, exemplifies this conflict. Its rich heritage, indigenous local community and physical environment are propelling Moirang into rapid urban planning and development driven by tourism, population increase and economic growth. This growth puts pressure on land utilisation and natural resources, which challenges the harmony of urban growth, environmental stability, and socio-cultural landscape. This thesis examines the dynamic between urban development, ecological stress, and socio-cultural change in Moirang, aiming to harmonise the pressure of development with the preservation of natural systems and cultural heritage. The study focuses on two precincts: the urban valley area that has major commercial zones and mixed-use settlements, and the island area within Loktak Lake inhabited by the indigenous fishing community of Moirang, who follow the traditional method of fishing and cultivating. These two separated precincts are interconnected at different levels, economically, ecologically, socio-culturally, and in infrastructure and accessibility as well. Each area has specific challenges; the valley is undergoing urban growth and expansion that encroaches upon wetlands and water channels, together with the transformation of agricultural lands and pisciculture ponds for residential purposes. In the meantime, the island region is confronted with settlement encroachment and loss of native fishing ponds on the periphery of the lake. These issues are accelerated by changes that impact both the ecology and the community. The design intervention for the valley region aims to address urban encroachment, water channel pollution due to runoff and bamboo processing, and riparian buffer erosion. Complementing Moirang's draft masterplan 2043, it promotes mixed-use development and active public corridor by rejuvenating a nearby water channel. Revitalising the channel for boat transportation to support eco-tourism and culture with green buffers to maintain ecological functions. The structure plan zones the area into a mixed-use corridor, a transitional green zone, and an ecological buffer zone. The design intervention of Moirang's island sector aims to address the issues of infilling traditional fish ponds for residence, dumping refuse along the lake boundary because pond buffers have been lost, and hill cutting for construction, resulting in erosion and loss of habitats. Interventions include ecological restoration, public access, and sustainable livelihoods with a restoration project rebuilding fishing ponds along the settlement-lake boundary and stabilising phumdis. Reducing hill cutting and increasing public access with viewing platforms to link residents and visitors to the lake. The structure plan organises the area into conservation, ecological restoration, and settlement zones in order to achieve well-balanced development and preservation Keywords: contestation, urban expansion, ecological shifts, transformation, ecological planning 2025-05-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.spab.ac.in:80/handle/123456789/2876 Title: Coastal connections: transitioning towards socio-ecological resilience through productive commons and maritime culture in Ratnagiri Maharashtra Authors: Ghosh, Sharamana. Abstract: There is a need to reimagine the way we think about our coastal commons. – Vikrom Mathur, Senior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation India’s 11,000km-long coastline – bordered by the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and Indian Ocean – has historically supported thriving maritime culture and economies, rich biodiversity, and deeply rooted cultural practices. While large coastal cities like Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata dominate attention around coastal urbanism, smaller coastal towns remain overlooked in policy and planning narratives. According to NASA’s Sea Level Projection tool, 9 out of 12 most vulnerable Indian coastal cities are small towns – signaling an urgent need for localised, adaptive strategies to build resilience. Coastal towns serve as vital socio-ecological interfaces shaped by maritime cultural landscapes, traditional fishing livelihoods, and seasonal ecosystems. These towns are repositories of local knowledge, traditional economies, and ecological stewardship. Ratnagiri, a historic port town on Maharashtra’s Konkan coast, exemplifies this interplay – where traditional Konkan settlements, fishing livelihoods, estuarine ecologies, and community-shared coastal commons such as local fishing zones, fishing jetties, mudflats, mangroves, and seasonal wetlands converge to form a maritime cultural landscape. Yet these coastal commons are becoming increasingly marginalised. Rather than experiencing abrupt decline, they face gradual erosion through neglect and misuse, unchecked encroachment, and ecological degradation. The urban form of the town is changing due to urban expansion. This has led to the spatial and visual disconnection of it’s waterfront from the rest of the town and weakened traditional coastal identity-place attachment. This thesis questions the urban design possibilities for re-establishing meaningful connections between the town and it’s maritime edge while safeguarding the coastal resilience. The thesis aims to provide urban design guidelines to reimagine the coastline accessibility of Ratnagiri using the concepts of urban commons framework, place-based urbanism, and continuous productive urban landscape (CPUL). The literature examines coastal settlement typologies, socio-ecological systems of coastal towns, and dynamic estuarine landscapes. Moreover, governance challenges shaped by the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) framework reveal the limitations of current planning policies in effectively responding to the evolving nature of coastal environments. The thesis focuses on a key precinct around the Kajali Estuary – areas characterised by dense settlement sprawl, ecologically sensitive zones, and local fishing activities. In response, the proposal offers an integrated urban design approach, interweaving spatial, economic, and ecological systems by developing a network of multifunctional coastal commons – spatial zoning to integrate maritime culture and adaptive public spaces; an economic spatial model of productive commons; and nature-based infrastructure for coastal edge preservation. By reframing the coastal edge not as a boundary but as a productive interface of culture, economy, and ecology, this thesis advocates for a coastal urbanism model that enables small port towns to adapt without erasing their identity. Ratnagiri is both a case and a catalyst for imagining a resilient, and regenerative future for India’s smaller coastal settlements. Keywords: Small Coastal Towns, Coastal Commons, Maritime Cultural, Socio-ecological Systems, Continuous Productive Urban Lands cape (CPUL) 2025-05-01T00:00:00Z