Addressing Climate Change Through Water Landscapes In India

The escalating problems of water scarcity and urban flash floods are only expected to get worse under the joint pressures of urban development and climate change. In an effort to better understand these challenges in the South Asian context, this paper surveys four simple water management landscapes currently used in India: the pond or talaab system, stepped river-fronts or the ghat system, artificial glaciers, and snow barrier bands. Talaabs are man-made ponds that capture and store monsoonal water for use later in the year; ghat are stepped edges of rivers which prevent riverine flooding; artificial glaciers store glacial meltwater as ice for use in spring; and snow barrier bands divert snow into high mountain watersheds so that the meltwater will become usable during the warmer months of the year. This research is based on both direct field studies and archival document studies, conducted during the course of the past three years. In considering these four disparate approaches to water management, one can better understand the wide variety of design decisions, implications for climate-adaptive planning, and opportunities for more widespread use that these examples offer.

Volume Editors
Luis Francisco Rico-Gutierrez & Martha Thorne

ISBN
978-1-944214-08-1