Inter-relation between psychology, land use and river sustenance

Abstract

Increasing urbanization is causing cities to expand spatially. In today’s realm of development, cities are becoming the manifestation of economic growth and bureaucratic decisions. Aligning with the debate of how to achieve sustainable healthy cities, regulation for preserving our valuable natural resources is required. Public space in cities are manifestations of both natural as well as the built environment. The sustainability of the city depends on how the resources from public places are being utilized by the users. The views of users about the ‘conservation of resources’ and how ‘built environment interacts with the resources’, becomes one of the driving factors of its future line of development. Realization of user’s responsibility towards maintaining the city’s Commons (Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Law and Order), is crucial for any development plan’s success. With responsibility comes a sense of belongingness which further increases the awareness and willingness to conserve any resource or follow any rules and regulations of the authority. This can be further related to the user’s morality and rational decision-making powers, in the favor of nature or humans (Themselves). Freshwater accounts for 2% of the total water content of the earth, out of which 1.7% is locked up in the glaciers and icebergs. From the remaining 0.3%, only 0.002% of the fresh waters flow in our rivers, worldwide. Hence an acutely scarce resource is under great pressure by humans. Habitat conservation for ecosystems is the need of the hour, concluded by NMCG (National Mission for clean Ganga) workshops. Rivers are surrounded by flood plains which can be also be characterized as active and historic flood plains. These parcels of land regulates the ecosystem of the river and also contribute to the environmental flow of the river. But in the context of urban rivers, these flood plains are highly encroached and there are no set rules for these land parcels to be conserved. The focus of this study is the formulation of a process to assess the user’s perception about river sustenance and the use of the land around it. Objectives are to inquire into the principles of Environmental Psychology as a tool to assess the user’s perception and identify the cognitive process that leads to a certain behavior. INTER RELATION OF PSYCHOLOGY, LAND USE AND RIVER SUSTENANCE iii Mapping of flood line based on the city’s morphology is also one intent. This assessment is used to build an argument through policy and advocacy review, ultimately aiming to sensitize users towards environmental issues. River Varuna, fifth order tributary of Ganga, is taken up as a case study. It flows through five districts of Uttar Pradesh namely, Pratapgarh, Allahabad, Sant ravidas nagar, Jaunpur and Varanasi. The city of Benarus lies at the downstream of the Varuna basin. Benaras is also known as Varanasi, meaning: a settlement that lies between the river Varuna and Assi. As per the experts, River Varuna is a crucial part of the cities hydrological regime. It is an interfluve river and has a dynamic channel with meandering flood plains. Due to urbanization, these flood plains are encroached and become a diffused source of pollution to the rivers. Risk of urban flooding is also increased. To assess the extent of the encroachment, flood plain mapping is pursued. Due to the non-availability of the monitoring data of river gauge station, flood extent mapping is performed by contour mapping of the adjacent areas of the river. Google earth imagery is used to prepare DEM. The extent of High Flood level is traced as per the hydrograph reading of the Varanasi city, provided by CWC. Flood extent is overlapped with the built up to assess the episode of urban flooding. In order to assess the cities inhabitants’ perception, the survey technique of “Perception via Preference” is used. This technique is referred from the field of environmental psychology, which states that the behavior of any individual is the result of the chain reaction, i.e. Preference, Perception, Attitude, and Behaviour. In the stretch of the whole urban river, 200+ photographs were taken in a similar light and time of the day. Photographs were taken with the agenda of capturing river and its surrounding land use variations. Most distinctive, 32 photographs were selected for the survey. People living along the river stretch were asked to batch the photographs as per their perception of river condition and use of land surrounding it, on the scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is very good and 5 being very bad. After the preference is made, they were asked about the liking and disliking in the scenes. All the surveys are compiled and analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. The results obtained showed human-centric and grey infrastructure development-based attitude. People liked the greenery and the soft environment INTER RELATION OF PSYCHOLOGY, LAND USE AND RIVER SUSTENANCE iv in terms of scenery but failed to establish a connection between river condition and use of the land around it. Users having specialized training in the environment or related fields showed the concern of river conservation in terms of soil erosion from bank to river bed, but their perception was also biased towards infrastructure development (ignoring urban floodplain encroachment). Overall users liked the city growth in terms of infrastructure development and disliked the waste management inadequacy along the river combined with polluted water (Responded to urban issues more than river sustenance issues). Users expressed the faulty use of the land around the river for dumping yards, as it directly impacted their health. Thus, a trigger in terms of health issue was found which made respondents complete the cause, issue and symptom chain. Our environment and urban policies, institutional framework as well as inhabitants of the city fail to establish the connection between river sustenance and use of the land around it. For the protection of the flood plains, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) tried to establish the River regulation Zones on the lines of coastal regulation zones. But the efforts were not fruitful. The problem lies in the mobilization of the users. Sensitizing the inhabitants of the city regarding the ill effects of the encroachment of flood plains and its viable uses will help to build their capacity to get their voices registered in the concerned authority. To initiate such a program at the grass root level, NGOs can be appointed by Mohalla Committees. Rules and regulation must be administered by the concerned departments. In the framework of urban governance, roles and duties of the departments are segregated sectors wise. Vertical coordination within departments and horizontal coordination between departments, like water resource, irrigation, development authority, municipality, and NGOs are required. The study is concluded with the recommendation to foster environmental stewardship in the users, through awareness and making them the city’s natural resource monitors.