Consultative Meeting

Eco-city: Time To Act Now

ECOLOGICAL RESPONSES:Traditional Newar Town

Urban Ecology and Eco-city• Urban Environment

– Physical Environment +– Economic Environment +– Social Environment [= Cultural Environment]

• Urban Ecology: PES Envn+Man/Society/Nature

• Eco-city has a sustained co-existence of nature (waste assimilation), economic pursuits (resource capitalization and waste generation) and social relationships (ordering of competition for resources and waste dissociation through of ethics and values.)

Urban Culture: Urban Ecology

ECONOMY: Resources & Waste Chains

NATURE: Physical Environmental Chains

SOCIETY: Social set up for Sharing/ Competition

Natural vs Urban Ecology• Natural ECOLOGY: balanced/ stable sub-systems:

millions of years of interaction of elements: Stable wrt. Externalities: dynamic internally.

• City sub-system: young and different dynamism

• URBAN METABOLISM– Concentrative system

(Concentrates/consumes huge amounts of energy (fuel, food) in small areas/waste sink

– Desert regime: Heat generating and holding capacity high: unparalleled in surrounding nature

– Desert regime: water exclusive

Input Concentration-Waste sink

• Input Tons per day Waste Tons per day• Water 625,000 Sewage 500,000• Food 2,000 Solid wastes 2,000• Fuel:Coal 3,000 Particles 150• Oil 2,800 Sulfur dioxides 100• Gas 2,700 Nitrogen oxides 100• Motor 1,000 Carbon monoxide 450• + HEAT

Inputs

Outputs

CITY SYSTEM ANAMOLY

Urban Ecology: Concentrative

• Inputs to city system: drawn from a much wider area as compared to where the ‘outputs’ occur.

• Inputs from dispersed micro-systems and outputs as concentrated sinks : new micro-environment

• Replaces a natural environment/eco-system with the different micro-environment

• Unbalanced conditions/ environmentally unsound: ecological and sustainability problems.

Urban Ecology: Desert Regime• Cities are hotter

– concentration of buildings, human activities and machines (heat-holding and heat-generating character.

– Umbrella of waste products discharged into atmosphere (haze hood) and heat trapping results.

– Masonry,cement and bitumen surfaces absorb solar energy/ slower release than natural ground cover.

– Natural elements convert sensible heat into other forms of energy: sensible heat remains as such in urban areas.

Urban Ecology: Desert Regime

• Cities are drier– Buildings and building materials based on

exclusion of water and water proofing– Paving and Road surfaces: impervious to

water (cf. natural cover/ sub-surface water) and falling ground water table

– Water collecting system and drain-off outside town (discharging system)

– Instant floods (cf. natural system of recharge)

Developing problems • Urban Ecological problem build up

– Increasing social heterogeneity and economic competitiveness for ‘plenty and surplus’

– Cyclically leading heterogeneity with disparities in sharing of gains into urban poverty

– ‘Economy of surplus’ consuming more than 'a necessary amount' of resources and leading to over-exploitation of resources

– Heavy waste generation/little assimilation/ land-air-water and builtup space pollution

– Urban decay/Distancing of man from Nature.

Eco-settlement: First Cultural Period • Dense and bounded settlements on high ground:

Preservation of economic base/agricultural land • Pringga, bru, dula and tala • Integration of nature, economy and society

– Dyochhe, pith and norms of social behavior• Pith located at ecologically sensitive spot such as

Water holes, Springs, Land humps, Clump of trees– Divine presence = ecological variance

• Festivals – sharing resources and recognizing the urban/rural continuum.

Terms: Topography & Land Use

• Cho and Gung• Pringga and Dula• Bru• Tala and Gvala

PRINGGA now 'pi', 'ping', etc.

DULA now 'dol'

TALA now also 'tala'

Gvala: settlement extent in dula

DULA now 'dol'

Eco-settlement: 2nd Cultural Period

• Guthi: a community based management– Private wealth as “Public Endowment”– Community ownership and operation of land – Maintenance of services

• Larger towns and the recognition of water supply as a urban service– Social mediation of urban rural continuum

– Matsendranath Festival

Eco-city: 3rd Cultural period• Development through a Mix of

– Kirat ecological prototype +– Lichchhavi’s urban planning principles

• Eco-sensitive ritual bounding and structure– Bounded urban development, Dune and Pine – Ritual/Social mediation of Wider urban-rural

continuum (resource base) – Tole sectorization, homogeneous neighborhoods– Change mediation through rituals

Eco-city: 3rd Cultural period• Responding to 'micro-heat, dry regime &

waste sub-structure’ – Capitalizes positive aspects of 'new nature‘– Potentially mitigates negative results

• Micro-heat:– High Density/Low rise dev.: warmer micro-climate – tight layout with small courtyards– predominance of paved streets/ heat gain– "No-Greenery-inside”– Lachhi – setback for a sunny spot in narrow lanes– Lung space: peripheral Khyos

Eco-city: 3rd Cultural period

• Responding to 'dry regime’ – Use of water-accepting technologies– Pervious paving, open joints– Surface collector drains separated from

deep drains – irrigating the dula or recharging kuwa

– Use of wells inside tole and pit conduits between neighborhoods > recharge through own waste water > protecting from pollution

Eco-city: 3rd Cultural period• Responding to 'waste sub-structure’

– Communal toilet streets, night soil collection and raw sewage manure agri-practice- ‘output-input’

– Waste management:garbage and Sagah• Capitalization of micro-heat: composting• Health hazard management: periodic cleaning through

seasonal rituals: Lukumadyo/Pasachahre (Chait)

– Sithi: Cleaning and maintaining water supply systems in the driest season (Baisakh/Jeth)

• Water for seeding

– Sithi: Maintaining other ‘urban services’ – public buildings

• Lean agricultural season

Eco-region: 2nd 3rd Cultural period

• Further away, agricultural land and forested hillocks protected and preserved.

• Watershed areas and sources of rivers were given religious sites as a preservation input

• Ecological responses cover PES environment and actors MSN in totality