Training Programme on: 'Green Infrastructure - Effective measures to manage urban flooding and water supply'

Dates: January 28 - 30, 2021

School of Water and Waste, CSE organised a 3-day residential training programme on ‘Green Infrastructure - Effective measures to manage Urban Flooding and Water Supply’ at Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI) from 28-30 January, 2021.

The training aimed to build a community of practice who can successfully work towards designing and implementing green infrastructure interventions in town/ cities. The advanced training programme has been developed participants who have previously enrolled in our online course on Green Infrastructure which was held in September 2020. The purpose of this advanced course is to help students, working professionals and environmental enthusiasts learn state-of-art concepts and principles of green infrastructure for improved urban water management.

Covid-19 Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been prepared by the admin dept. of CSE, taking into account all Covid-19 precautions and social distancing measures, which have been followed during the residential training at AAETI.

A total of 23 participants attended the training programme, which comprised of students and faculties of the Urban Regeneration Programme under the Dept. of Architecture and Ekistics, Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI); which attended the programme under an MoU between CSE and JMI.

The training was inaugurated by Dr Suresh Kumar Rohilla, Senior Director, CSE, who welcomed the participants to AAETI, and gave an overview of CSE, School of Water and Waste and AAETI. He provided the context for the training programme, by highlighting the issues in urban water management in Indian cities, and focussing on how green infrastructure can repair the urban water cycle and address issues related to urban flooding and water supply. This was followed by a campus tour of AAETI conducted by Mr Dhruv Pasricha, CSE, where he showcased the various green infrastructure features of AAETI for rain/stormwater harvesting and decentralised wastewater treatment and reuse.

The first session of the day was conducted by Ms Shivali Jainer, on ‘Introduction to Green Infrastructure (GI)’, where she highlighted the concept of green infrastructure, and its applicability in the Indian context. She gave an insight on the key benefits of GI in moderation of extreme events, water supply augmentation and pollution abatement. She also talked about the opportunities for implementation of GI w.r.t. urban planning tools and documents, and the scope for implementation under Smart Cities Mission and AMRUT Programme. Ms Jainer also talked about the various overlapping terms of GI, Water-Sensitive Design and Planning (WSUDP), Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) and Rainwater Harvesting (RWH). She focussed on the scales on implementation of these concepts.

The session was followed by a documentary ‘Designs that hold Water’, which showcased a successful implementation of the SUDS initiative in the UK. The documentary was followed by a short quiz and brainstorming session on the applicability of these systems in India. The following session was conducted on ‘SUDS Approach: Planning and Management’, which exposed the participants on the planning, design, O&M and key thumb-rules for the implementing various SUDS components. This was followed by a group exercise on designing SUDS components for various urban contexts.

Post lunch, session on ‘Planning for GI at various urban scales’ was conducted by Mr Dhruv Pasricha. He gave insight on the planning methodology and basic analysis which can be done in order to map the GI potential at various scales in an urban area. The session was supported by national and international case studies on planning for GI for various objectives. The day was concluded with a group exercise on Identification of GI Potential and Strategies in an urban area, where participants prepared the GI potential maps for Pune, Bhopal and Bodhgaya.

Day 2 of the training began with a quick reflection session on the learnings of Day 1, followed by a session on ‘Stakeholder engagement and community participation for GI’. He talked about the classification of stakeholders and their roles for GI, stakeholder mapping and stakeholder engagement strategies. The session was supported by three models of stakeholder review in the context of urban lake management in NCT of Delhi. The session was followed by a role-play exercise, participants formed various stakeholder groups in the context of preparation of a lake management plan for Damdama Lake.

This was followed by a session on ‘Evolution and revival - Hauz Khas lake and Najafgarh Jheel’ delivered by Mr Manu Bhatnagar, INTACH. He talked about the importance of these water bodies as critical green infrastructure for augmenting water supply and managing extreme flood events. He also shared the journey of how these water bodies are impacted by planned and unplanned urban development, and what technical, legal and judicial measures are taken to revive these water bodies.

Ms Nupur Srivastava, CSE shared the journey of urban water bodies revival in Delhi, focussing on the policy, programme and project initiatives undertaken by the Delhi Jal Board and Dept. of Irrigation and Flood Control, Govt. of NCT of Delhi. She also shared the Rajokari Lake Revival Project. This was followed by session on CSE’s global compendium, C-GINS: Compendium on Green Infrastructure Network Systems, delivered by Ms Shivani, CSE. She highlighted the various types of case studies uploaded, and how users can access them, and share their own case studies and research. The session also included a small brainstorming exercise on how to use C-GINS.

After all sessions, the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) exercise was introduced to the participants. The exercise required participants to work in groups, and prepare SUDS Concept Plan for selected parks of different scales located in Bhubaneswar and New Delhi. The participants were required to ascertain the annual stormwater harvesting potential, and demarcate the SUDS features on the plan, and also provide information regarding the O&M of these features, and the various stakeholders involved. The participants worked on the exercise up till dinner time.

The final day of the training began with an hour allocated for completion of the DIY exercise, followed by a virtual presentation by Dr Harry Virahsawmy, Alluvium, Australia. He discussed the stormwater harvesting projects implemented in City of Melton and Stamford Park, Melbourne, where he showcased use of stormwater for horticulture and other non-potable uses.

This was followed by the group presentations for the DIY exercise, where the participants were assessed in four categories: Concept, Methodology, Applicability and Innovation. The training session was concluded with feedback session moderated by Dr Suresh Rohilla. The participants gave encouraging feedback on the training programme and its content and conduct. The also appreciated the Covid-19 precautions put in place for smooth functioning of the training, and the facilities at AAETI.