Changing Waterscapes: The Dichotomy of Development and Water Management Surrounding the East Calcutta Wetlands Since the British-colonial Era

Bera, Abhinandan; Wu, Hong

Title:

Changing Waterscapes: The Dichotomy of Development and Water Management Surrounding the East Calcutta Wetlands Since the British-colonial Era

dc.contributor.author	Bera, Abhinandan
dc.contributor.author	Wu, Hong
dc.contributor.corporatename	Georgia Institute of Technology. College of Design	en_US
dc.contributor.corporatename	Georgia Institute of Technology. School of Architecture	en_US
dc.contributor.corporatename	Pennsylvania State University	en_US
dc.date.accessioned	2021-03-04T03:32:27Z
dc.date.available	2021-03-04T03:32:27Z
dc.date.issued	2021-02
dc.description	ConCave Ph.D. Symposium 2020: Divergence in Architectural Research, March 5-6, 2020, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.	en_US
dc.description.abstract	The deltaic region of Bengal is known for its riverine networks and fertile soil. The capital of former British- India, Calcutta, was a swampy region with small canals connecting the land with the river Hooghly in the west and to the saltwater lakes in the east, now known as the East Calcutta Wetlands (ECW). The eastern canals carry the city’s wastewater to the ECW for treatment using sewage-fed fisheries and farmlands and then released it into the Bay of Bengal via the Kulti River. In the early British colonial period, the salt lakes were depicted as hindrance to the health and well-being of the city’s inhabitants because of high mortality in the region, presumably caused by miasmic diseases. Part of these marshes, the ECW now acts as a giant sink for this dense post-colonial urban settlement, helping to drain the land, providing food and employment, and saving costs for artificial wastewater treatment plant. This hydrologic system is now at risk due to encroachment from real-estate development and pollution in the adjoining canals, posing an immense threat to this critical human-water relationship. In this paper, we examine the dichotomy of urban development and water management since the colonial era to assess the temporal nature of the human-water negotiations behind the changing waterscapes.	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1853/64336
dc.identifier.uri	https://doi.org/10.35090/gatech/82
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US
dc.publisher	Georgia Institute of Technology	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	http://hdl.handle.net/1853/64350
dc.relation.ispartofseries	ConCave Ph.D. Symposium 2020 ; Divergence in Architectural Research
dc.subject	Colonial	en_US
dc.subject	Wetlands	en_US
dc.subject	Urban renewal	en_US
dc.subject	Calcutta	en_US
dc.subject	Human-water relationship	en_US
dc.title	Changing Waterscapes: The Dichotomy of Development and Water Management Surrounding the East Calcutta Wetlands Since the British-colonial Era	en_US
dc.title.alternative	CHANGING WATERSCAPES: The Dichotomy of Development and Water Management Surrounding the East Calcutta Wetlands since the British-colonial Era	en_US
dc.type	Text
dc.type.genre	Proceedings
dspace.entity.type	Publication
local.contributor.corporatename	College of Design
local.contributor.corporatename	School of Architecture
local.relation.ispartofseries	School of Architecture Symposia
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication	c997b6a0-7e87-4a6f-b6fc-932d776ba8d0
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication	0533a423-c95b-41cf-8e27-2faee06278ad
relation.isSeriesOfPublication	51397d92-47f5-4662-8d60-921d15a253a7