Sustainability challenges related to food production arise from multiple nature-society interactions occurring over long time periods. Traditional methods of quantitative analysis do not represent long-term changes in the networks of... more
Sustainability challenges related to food production arise from multiple nature-society interactions occurring over long time periods. Traditional methods of quantitative analysis do not represent long-term changes in the networks of system components, including institutions and knowledge that affect system behavior. Here, we develop an approach to study system structure and evolution by combining a qualitative framework that represents sustainability-relevant human, technological, and environmental components, and their interactions, mediated by knowledge and institutions, with network modeling that enables quantitative metrics. We use this approach to examine the water and food system in the Punjab province of the Indus River Basin in Pakistan, exploring how food production has been sustained, despite high population growth, periodic floods, and frequent political and economic disruptions. Using network models of five periods spanning 75 y (1947 to 2022), we examine how quantitative metrics of network structure relate to observed sustainability-relevant outcomes and how potential interventions in the system affect these quantitative metrics. We find that the persistent centrality of some and evolving centrality of other key nodes, coupled with the increasing number and length of pathways connecting them, are associated with sustaining food production in the system over time. Our assessment of potential interventions shows that regulating groundwater pumping and phasing out fossil fuels alters network pathways, and helps identify potential vulnerabilities for future food production.
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... ABIM - An Annotated Bibliography of Indian Medicine. The Mughal garden: interpretation, conservation and implications. -. 210 p., col. pls., b/w pls., maps. ... (Eds.). Title: The Mughal garden: interpretation, conservation and... more
... ABIM - An Annotated Bibliography of Indian Medicine. The Mughal garden: interpretation, conservation and implications. -. 210 p., col. pls., b/w pls., maps. ... (Eds.). Title: The Mughal garden: interpretation, conservation and implications. Publication date: 1996. Checked: no. ...
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In July 2022, flash floods tore through mountainous areas of the upper Indus basin and Balochistan. At about the same time, monsoon storms inundated Karachi in what is becoming an annual occurrence in the poorly drained cities of South... more
In July 2022, flash floods tore through mountainous areas of the upper Indus basin and Balochistan. At about the same time, monsoon storms inundated Karachi in what is becoming an annual occurrence in the poorly drained cities of South Asia and around the world. In August of that year, historically unprecedented monsoon rains flooded the provinces of Balochistan and Sindh, affecting some 33 million people in the country of Pakistan. The previous mega-flood in Punjab had occurred in 2010, only twelve years before, beginning as monsoon flash floods in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa that ultimately cascaded through the Indus floodplains across much of southern Punjab and northern Sindh....
Poised as we are in this challenging period of great change, what are the
possibilities for refocusing attention on climate change in Islamic environmental design? They are many. As an illustrative regional exploration, it is useful to survey the range of creative adaptations across a broad geographical transect of conditions, from high mountains to coastal deltas, and laterally across the humid to arid plains and floodplains of the Indus River basin region.
Poised as we are in this challenging period of great change, what are the
possibilities for refocusing attention on climate change in Islamic environmental design? They are many. As an illustrative regional exploration, it is useful to survey the range of creative adaptations across a broad geographical transect of conditions, from high mountains to coastal deltas, and laterally across the humid to arid plains and floodplains of the Indus River basin region.
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This paper reviews and classifies forms of environmental relocation, including retreat, migration, and resettlement, which are increasingly being considered and promoted as mechanisms for adapting to environmental risks. Current research... more
This paper reviews and classifies forms of environmental relocation, including retreat, migration, and resettlement, which are increasingly being considered and promoted as mechanisms for adapting to environmental risks. Current research and practice in relocation planning lacks a typological framework for assessing the many modes and norms of risk-based movement. Classical and critical location models help theorize how populations have come to be settled in differentially risky places in the first place, and are helpful for categorizing relocation situations and evaluating the relocation planning strategies. Written from the perspective of environmental design and planning disciplines, our typological framework emphasizes relocation as spatial processes shaped by environmental risk, and the article thus focuses on relocation, retreat, and resettlement processes. A systematic review of current research on relocation and resettlement identified six descriptive spectrums of relocation attributes: agency, planning, grouping, speed, distance, and temporality. We discuss the normative aspects of those spectra, and relate them to the location and relocation literatures. We then combine these attributes to construct a typology of relocation processes through the lenses of space, time, and power. By considering normative as well as descriptive aspects of relocation, we show how the typology can help address the equity of relocation. The resulting framework provides an analytical and planning tool that is practical and flexible. It can be used to assess and compare relocation projects that have already occurred as well as to evaluate strategies for relocation planning.
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Complex water-stressed basins like the Colorado River in North America have multiple institutional levels of water management. Each institutional level is characterized by rules, organizations, and spatial jurisdictions that developed... more
Complex water-stressed basins like the Colorado River in North America have multiple institutional levels of water management. Each institutional level is characterized by rules, organizations, and spatial jurisdictions that developed over decades to centuries to shape a dynamic multi-level system. After introducing the concept of institutional levels, and its relationship to geographic scales, this paper employs systematic bibliographic search methods to review their development in the Colorado River basin region. Results begin with the community level of water management from prehistoric Indian water cultures to early Hispanic water communities, 19th century water communities, and 20th century water organizations. Conflict among water communities shaped the state level of constitutional authority over water rights administration during the 19th century. Competition among states led in the 20th century to the interstate level of apportionment that often paralleled federal and triba...
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Laborers and draft animals played underexamined roles in building and operating the waterworks of Mughal gardens and landscapes. This article analyzes four sources of evidence about water-related work: Mughal paintings; historical texts... more
Laborers and draft animals played underexamined roles in building and operating the waterworks of Mughal gardens and landscapes. This article analyzes four sources of evidence about water-related work: Mughal paintings; historical texts on the political economy of Mughal waterworks; historical sources assessed in relation to modern estimates of human and animal energy needed to build and operate the waterworks; and historical sources considered in relation to the work of natural waters shaping land and society in material and cultural terms. Taken together, these four lines of inquiry provide a unified framework for research on Mughal waterworks and livelihoods.
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Districts across India are progressing toward the national Jal Jeevan Mission goal of piped water supply and 100% Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) for all by 2024. While state and national data monitor progress toward tap water... more
Districts across India are progressing toward the national Jal Jeevan Mission goal of piped water supply and 100% Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) for all by 2024. While state and national data monitor progress toward tap water connection coverage, the functionality and sustainability of those piped water supplies are less clear. This study presents a Sustainability Planning Framework to assess rural drinking water conditions and needs at the village, block, and district scales. It employs a mobile app to survey five key aspects of sustainability: source water sustainability, water service sustainability, operations and maintenance financial sustainability, village institutional capacity, and asset management. Ordinal scores for these sustainability variables are analyzed and interpreted though GIS mapping to identify locations and types of village support needed. Scores are aggregated to create an overall village drinking water sustainability index. Important hydroclimat...
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... Humayun's tomb-garden's prox-imity to the shrine ofSheikh Nizamuddin Auliya Chishti had special significance for Akbar, who drew spiritual... more
... Humayun's tomb-garden's prox-imity to the shrine ofSheikh Nizamuddin Auliya Chishti had special significance for Akbar, who drew spiritual inspiration from ... Sheikh Salim Chishti forecast the birth of Akbar's son and heir who was named Salim after the sheikh, and who would ...
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... evaluation, and decision-making. 3. There seems to be more analysis of projects under construction (eg, Three Gorges, GAP, and Sardar Sarovar) than of the long-term impacts of completed projects. 4. There are important regional ...
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The Qur’an refers to water many times and in many ways—from the waters of creation at the beginning of time to those of paradise gardens “underneath which rivers flow” and the boiling waters of hell on the day of judgment. Between the... more
The Qur’an refers to water many times and in many ways—from the waters of creation at the beginning of time to those of paradise gardens “underneath which rivers flow” and the boiling waters of hell on the day of judgment. Between the waters of creation and resurrection, and linking them to one another, the Qur’an refers to the waters of this world in ways that aim to guide human understanding and sustainable behavior in changing places and times.
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Abstract Faced with rapid resource depletion, degradation, and shortages in the Indus River Basin in Punjab, Pakistan, the provincial government of Punjab identified “integrated water resources management” as the guiding paradigm for... more
Abstract Faced with rapid resource depletion, degradation, and shortages in the Indus River Basin in Punjab, Pakistan, the provincial government of Punjab identified “integrated water resources management” as the guiding paradigm for achieving efficient, equitable, and environmentally sustainable use of natural resources in the province. However, no clear roadmap for how multisectoral, “integrated” resource management and governance can be operationalized exists. The larger challenge involves growing municipal, industrial, and environmental demands for water, the rapidly growing need for food in the populous province, and the expanding requirements for energy. This chapter focuses on the most obvious but elusive challenge of integrating irrigation and agriculture in Punjab and explores the essential nexus of water and food. It uses a combination of historical, institutional, and statistical analyses to investigate how integrated food and water planning can be achieved in Punjab. The historical analysis traces how the idea of integration in irrigated agriculture evolved in Pakistan's colonial history and within the province of Punjab after independence. It reveals that both the Irrigation Department and the Agriculture Department have highlighted the need for vertical and horizontal integration within and between the departments throughout their existence. The institutional analysis explores how planning is currently done within and across the provincial departments of agriculture and irrigation. Finally, the chapter briefly demonstrates the statistical challenges of and opportunities for integrating irrigation and agricultural data, which are recorded in different spatial units but which can still have a measure of integration in integrated farm-level data analysis. Finally, this chapter uses the idea of boundary spanning to strengthen the meso-scale capacity for integrated irrigation agriculture planning in Punjab.
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Drinking water supply and sanitation have had a strong association with military institutions in South Asia from the colonial period to the present. This paper shows how military-state-society relationships created spaces of differential... more
Drinking water supply and sanitation have had a strong association with military institutions in South Asia from the colonial period to the present. This paper shows how military-state-society relationships created spaces of differential water access and sanitation burdens in mid-19th-century cantonments in ways that involved complex gender relations. In comparison with previous research, we argue that privileged military enclaves were segregated but never fully separated from larger urban water and sanitation systems. We use historical geographic methods to review the evolving role of military sanitation regulations in cantonments from late-18th-century policies of the East India Company (EIC) through mid-19th-century rule by the British Crown, during which time military cantonments, regulations, and formal monitoring reports were established. Close reading of the British Army Medical Department’s Statistical, Sanitary, and Medical Reports (Sanitary Reports) in the 1860s then shows...
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India has made good progress toward meeting basic standards of access to safe drinking water, but improved planning methods are needed to prioritize different levels and types of water service needs for public investment. This paper... more
India has made good progress toward meeting basic standards of access to safe drinking water, but improved planning methods are needed to prioritize different levels and types of water service needs for public investment. This paper presents a planning approach for collecting, analyzing, and mapping drinking water service data at the village, block, and district levels in Pune district, Maharashtra, India. The planning approach created a mobile application for data collection by gram sevaks at the village level. It employed ranking methods developed with district officers to prioritize villages with the greatest needs, cluster analysis to distinguish different types of needs, and geographic information system (GIS) mapping to visualize the spatial distribution of those needs. This analysis shows that there are high levels of spatial heterogeneity in water services within, as well as between, blocks but also that there are broad patterns of priorities for planning and policy purposes...
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National drinking water programs seek to address monitoring challenges that include self-reporting, data sampling, data consistency and quality, and sufficient frequency to assess the sustainability of water systems. India stands out for... more
National drinking water programs seek to address monitoring challenges that include self-reporting, data sampling, data consistency and quality, and sufficient frequency to assess the sustainability of water systems. India stands out for its comprehensive rural water database known as Integrated Management Information System (IMIS), which conducts annual monitoring of drinking water coverage, water quality, and related program components from the habitation level to the district, state, and national levels. The objective of this paper is to evaluate IMIS as a national rural water supply monitoring platform. This is important because IMIS is the official government database for rural water in India, and it is used to allocate resources and track the results of government policies. After putting India's IMIS database in an international context, the paper describes its detailed structure and content. It then illustrates the geographic patterns of water supply and water quality tha...
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ABSTRACT Pakistan’s Indus Basin irrigation system, conceived initially as a vast network of gravity-fed canals, has evolved into a quasi-conjunctive management system in which pumped groundwater increasingly augments surface water... more
ABSTRACT Pakistan’s Indus Basin irrigation system, conceived initially as a vast network of gravity-fed canals, has evolved into a quasi-conjunctive management system in which pumped groundwater increasingly augments surface water supplies. Analysis of the evolution of on-farm energy use for agriculture in Punjab Province over the last 15 years finds that while total crop production increased 31%, direct energy intensity for agriculture increased 80%. Moreover, direct energy use is chiefly driven by groundwater pumping (61%). Important knowledge gaps are identified in the critical water-energy-food interdependencies that need to be addressed for sustainable management of scarce natural resources in Pakistan.
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The expanding literature on climate change and water resources in South Asia includes a small number of works that stress the role of human wisdom—past, present, and future. Some studies draw attention to the “dying wisdom” of traditional... more
The expanding literature on climate change and water resources in South Asia includes a small number of works that stress the role of human wisdom—past, present, and future. Some studies draw attention to the “dying wisdom” of traditional water systems, whereas others seek wiser conceptual models for addressing climate change and water stresses. This article examines the historical geography of hydroclimatic adjustment in early Mughal India, with an emphasis on state formation in chronicles of the late sixteenth century. Notwithstanding claims of wisdom then, as now, water and climatic hazards had limited episodic salience in Mughal chronicles. Even so, Mughal sources identify indirect forms of human adjustment, ranging from land revenue policies to infrastructure investment, administrative reform, human mobility, and landscape interpretation that bear comparison with current deliberations.
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The ethical dimensions of irrigation in landscape planning and design are examined. After introducing the historic ‘duty of water’ standard for irrigation use, four major extensions of that concept are discussed: 1) the duty to start... more
The ethical dimensions of irrigation in landscape planning and design are examined. After introducing the historic ‘duty of water’ standard for irrigation use, four major extensions of that concept are discussed: 1) the duty to start watering (reclamation ethic); 2) the duty to reduce watering (conservation ethic); 3) the duty to stop watering (ecological ethic); and 4) the duty to continue watering (planting ethic). No one of these duties universally overrides the others. They need to be critically examined and coordinated with one another in irrigated landscapes. The final section of the paper outlines a pragmatic path toward an ethics of irrigation in landscape planning and design.
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The prior appropriation doctrine has come under criticism for impeding both the efficient allocation of water and the adoption of water conservation improvements. Analysis of water rights statutes and case law revealed the following... more
The prior appropriation doctrine has come under criticism for impeding both the efficient allocation of water and the adoption of water conservation improvements. Analysis of water rights statutes and case law revealed the following opportunities for evolutionary reform of the appropriation doctrine in Colorado: more precise definition of key property rights concepts (such as beneficial use, waste and duty of water); improved public administration (e.g., in record-keeping and analysis of water use patterns); and organizational adjustments to reduce transaction costs and strategic behavior. Integration of vested rights with the concept of maximum beneficial use will depend upon such creative adjustments in public and private institutions for water management. 32 references, 3 figures, 4 tables.
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Drains are the veins of a city. Although necessary for conveying wastes from home and workplace they have unpleasant qualities when they back up or overflow, as they do during monsoon rains in Lahore. The rains were about to deluge the... more
Drains are the veins of a city. Although necessary for conveying wastes from home and workplace they have unpleasant qualities when they back up or overflow, as they do during monsoon rains in Lahore. The rains were about to deluge the city in July 1988 when I showed bad taste at dinner by asking my new acquaintance, a literary figure who lives near Shalamar garden, about a new drainage project in his neighborhood. He replied. "I leave drainage to those who care about drains." But for me, a geographer studying Mughal dynastic (1526-1759) gardens, the proximity of Mughal waterworks and community drainage was intriguing.
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This paper reviews and classifies forms of environmental relocation, including retreat, migration, and resettlement, which are increasingly being considered and promoted as mechanisms for adapting to environmental risks. Current research... more
This paper reviews and classifies forms of environmental relocation, including retreat, migration, and resettlement, which are increasingly being considered and promoted as mechanisms for adapting to environmental risks. Current research and practice in relocation planning lacks a typological framework for assessing the many modes and norms of risk-based movement. Classical and critical location models help theorize how populations have come to be settled in differentially risky places in the first place, and are helpful for categorizing relocation situations and evaluating the relocation planning strategies. Written from the perspective of environmental design and planning disciplines, our typological framework emphasizes relocation as spatial processes shaped by environmental risk, and the article thus focuses on relocation, retreat, and resettlement processes. A systematic review of current research on relocation and resettlement identified six descriptive spectrums of relocation attributes: agency, planning, grouping, speed, distance, and temporality. We discuss the normative aspects of those spectra, and relate them to the location and relocation literatures. We then combine these attributes to construct a typology of relocation processes through the lenses of space, time, and power. By considering normative as well as descriptive aspects of relocation, we show how the typology can help address the equity of relocation. The resulting framework provides an analytical and planning tool that is practical and flexible. It can be used to assess and compare relocation projects that have already occurred as well as to evaluate strategies for relocation planning.
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It is no exaggeration to say that the essays in this volume offer a wealth of insights into Placemaking and Cultural Landscapes. Each of their core concepts – “place” and “landscape” –have rich supporting theoretical and regional... more
It is no exaggeration to say that the essays in this volume offer a wealth of insights into Placemaking and Cultural Landscapes. Each of their core concepts – “place” and “landscape” –have rich supporting theoretical and regional literatures. One can think of this pairing, between places and landscapes, as a dialogue between two closely-related ideas. These studies suggest a set of relationships where the activities of placemaking collectively produce larger cultural landscapes. Other studies draw attention to differences and tensions between concepts of place and landscape (e.g., Malpas, 2011). However, it seems fair to say that this volume emphasizes their interrelationships and complementarities. It is thus exciting to consider the intersections among various chapters in the book. On one level, their relationships are manifestly plural, with many types of places producing varied cultural landscapes. This pattern brings to mind the philosopher William James’ (1909) Pluralistic Universe. At the same time, the essays individually and collectively suggest a unity of thought, a universe of many diverse but well-composed parts. Several integrative themes come to mind, which are shared below for the reader’s consideration.
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Complex water-stressed basins like the Colorado River in North America have multiple institutional levels of water management. Each institutional level is characterized by rules, organizations, and spatial jurisdictions that developed... more
Complex water-stressed basins like the Colorado River in North America
have multiple institutional levels of water management. Each institutional level is characterized by rules, organizations, and spatial jurisdictions that developed over decades to centuries to shape a dynamic multi-level system. After introducing the concept of institutional levels, and its relationship to geographic scales, this paper employs systematic bibliographic search methods to review their development in the Colorado River basin region. Results begin with the community level of water management from prehistoric Indian water cultures to early Hispanic water communities, 19th century water
communities, and 20th century water organizations. Conflict among water communities shaped the state level of constitutional authority over water rights
administration during the 19th century. Competition among states led in the
20th century to the interstate level of apportionment that often paralleled federal and tribal level water development policies, eventually leading to the international level of treaty relations between the U.S. and Mexico. This macro-historical geographic progression from institutions that were relatively small in size and early in time to those at higher levels and more recent in time offers insights into the multi-level institutional of the “law of the river” in the Colorado River basin region.
have multiple institutional levels of water management. Each institutional level is characterized by rules, organizations, and spatial jurisdictions that developed over decades to centuries to shape a dynamic multi-level system. After introducing the concept of institutional levels, and its relationship to geographic scales, this paper employs systematic bibliographic search methods to review their development in the Colorado River basin region. Results begin with the community level of water management from prehistoric Indian water cultures to early Hispanic water communities, 19th century water
communities, and 20th century water organizations. Conflict among water communities shaped the state level of constitutional authority over water rights
administration during the 19th century. Competition among states led in the
20th century to the interstate level of apportionment that often paralleled federal and tribal level water development policies, eventually leading to the international level of treaty relations between the U.S. and Mexico. This macro-historical geographic progression from institutions that were relatively small in size and early in time to those at higher levels and more recent in time offers insights into the multi-level institutional of the “law of the river” in the Colorado River basin region.
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Improving rural drinking water services at the village level is a high priority in India. The National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP) calls for village drinking water plans on an annual basis. However, planning data analysis and... more
Improving rural drinking water services at the village level is a high priority in India. The National Rural Drinking Water Program (NRDWP) calls for village drinking water plans on an annual basis. However, planning data analysis and mapping are complicated by the different levels of local settlement that are involved. The aims of this paper are: first, to review how the term ‘village’ has come to refer to three different types of settlement for planning purposes in India; second, to show how each settlement type has different water data and GIS map coverage; and third, to identify practical strategies for using these different data and mapping resources to develop rural drinking water plans. We address the first objective through a brief historical review of local government administration and drinking water database development in India. Challenges of data analysis and mapping are demonstrated through a case study of Pune district in Maharashtra. This challenge led to the identif...
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Laborers and draft animals played underexamined roles in building and operating the waterworks of Mughal gardens and landscapes. This article analyzes four sources of evidence about water-related work: Mughal paintings; historical texts... more
Laborers and draft animals played underexamined roles in building and operating the waterworks of Mughal gardens and landscapes. This article analyzes four sources of evidence about water-related work: Mughal paintings; historical texts on the political economy of Mughal waterworks; modern estimates of human and animal energy needed to build and operate the waterworks; and historical sources considered in relation to the work of natural waters shaping land and society in material and cultural terms. Taken together, these four lines of inquiry provide a unified framework for research on Mughal waterworks and
livelihoods.
livelihoods.
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This study offers a macro-historical geographic comparison of blue-green urban infrastructure in the coastal cities of Boston, USA and Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India. After introducing the aims and methods of comparative historical... more
This study offers a macro-historical geographic comparison of blue-green urban infrastructure in the coastal cities of Boston, USA and Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India. After introducing the aims and methods of comparative historical geography, we focus on the insights that these two cases offer. Their stories begin with ancient coastal fishing settlements, followed by early processes of urbanization and fortification in the 17th century. By the late-18th century Anglo-American merchants in Boston were trading with Parsi merchants in Bombay, at a time when Bostonians had little more to sell than ice in exchange for India’s fine textiles. From the early-19th century onwards, the two maritime cities undertook surprisingly parallel processes of land reclamation and water development. Boston commissioned blue-green infrastructure proposals at the urban scale, from Frederick Law Olmsted’s Back Bay Fens to Charles Eliot’s Metropolitan Park District Plan—innovations that offer more than a c...
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Drinking water is essential for life, and it is a vital but somewhat underdeveloped topic in settlement planning. This issue is more commonly addressed by civil engineers and public health professionals than by planners. This chapter... more
Drinking water is essential for life, and it is a vital but somewhat underdeveloped topic in settlement planning. This issue is more commonly addressed by civil engineers and public health professionals than by planners. This chapter makes a case for the contributions of planners and planning to drinking water services in India. I have previously written about water and poverty, the right of thirst for
animals, and ethical responsibilities to plants in irrigated landscapes, in each case striving to link pragmatic and rights-based approaches to fulfilling basic water needs. This chapter builds on those efforts by examining human water needs in ‘rurban’ settlements, that is villages that aspire to urban standards of living. This middle landscape of rurban and peri-urban communities may constitute a majority of human settlements in India today, and they present widespread planning challenges. They receive comparatively less attention from water
planners than formal cities, particularly mega-cities that not only face monumental water challenges but also receive a large proportion of policy emphasis (e.g. to name a few important studies, see the following citations). Rural drinking water and sanitation have become a specialised field of expertise, with its own department in the Government of India, state government departments, and dedicated non-governmental organisations. Rurban settlements, by comparison,
are located somewhere in between villages and cities, and they lack the
specialized financial, technical, and managerial support needed for planning and development.
animals, and ethical responsibilities to plants in irrigated landscapes, in each case striving to link pragmatic and rights-based approaches to fulfilling basic water needs. This chapter builds on those efforts by examining human water needs in ‘rurban’ settlements, that is villages that aspire to urban standards of living. This middle landscape of rurban and peri-urban communities may constitute a majority of human settlements in India today, and they present widespread planning challenges. They receive comparatively less attention from water
planners than formal cities, particularly mega-cities that not only face monumental water challenges but also receive a large proportion of policy emphasis (e.g. to name a few important studies, see the following citations). Rural drinking water and sanitation have become a specialised field of expertise, with its own department in the Government of India, state government departments, and dedicated non-governmental organisations. Rurban settlements, by comparison,
are located somewhere in between villages and cities, and they lack the
specialized financial, technical, and managerial support needed for planning and development.
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Among the capitals and major cities of the Mughal Empire, Lahore stands out for its identification with gardens, and it was known historically as the Mughal city of gardens (Wescoat 1996). Mughal gardens in Lahore included the full range... more
Among the capitals and major cities of the Mughal Empire, Lahore stands out for its identification with gardens, and it was known historically as the Mughal city of gardens (Wescoat 1996). Mughal gardens in Lahore included the full range of types mentioned above. Historical texts use the language of gardens in ways that help interpret the meaning of associated events and places. To assess these associations, this chapter begins by surveying garden verses in the Qur’an with an emphasis on the ideals and imagery that they convey. In addition to the primary emphasis on the paradise gardens of the resurrection, Qur’anic references to the Garden of Eden and gardens of this world are considered. The second part of the chapter then surveys the range of gardens and garden-like places in Lahore to ask how they compare with the denotations and connotations of Islamic paradise garden ideals. This search leads to the consideration of Sufi shrines, mosques, and parks, as well as Lahore’s famous Mughal gardens.
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Districts across India are progressing toward the national Jal Jeevan Mission goal of piped water supply and 100% Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) for all by 2024. While state and national data monitor progress toward tap water... more
Districts across India are progressing toward the national Jal Jeevan Mission goal of piped water supply and 100% Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) for all by 2024. While state and national data monitor progress toward tap water connection coverage, the functionality and sustainability of those piped water supplies are less clear. This study presents a Sustainability Planning Framework to assess rural drinking water conditions and needs at the village, block, and district scales. It employs a mobile app to survey five key aspects of sustainability: source water sustainability, water service sustainability, operations and maintenance financial sustainability, village institutional capacity, and asset management. Ordinal scores for these sustainability variables are analyzed and interpreted though GIS mapping to identify locations and types of village support needed. Scores are aggregated to create an overall village drinking water sustainability index. Important hydroclimatic, geomorphological, and socioeconomic correlates of the drinking water sustainability index are also examined. This framework and methods can help districts in Maharashtra and other states analyze drinking water services, plan future investments, and make policy adjustments to ensure sustainability.
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Sustainable rural drinking water is a widespread aim in India, and globally, from the household to district, state, and national scales. Sustainability issues in the rural drinking water sector range from increasing water demand to... more
Sustainable rural drinking water is a widespread aim in India, and globally, from the household to district, state, and national scales. Sustainability issues in the rural drinking water sector range from increasing water demand to declining groundwater levels, premature deterioration of village schemes and services, inadequate revenues for operations and maintenance, weak capacity of water operators, frequently changing state and national policies, and destabilizing effects of climate change. This paper focuses on the special role of district-scale drinking water planning, which operates at the intersection between bottom-up water demand and top-down water programs. After surveying the challenges associated with bottom-up and top-down planning approaches, we present recent efforts to strengthen district and block drinking water planning in the state of Maharashtra. A combination of district interviews, institutional history, village surveys, GIS visualization, and planning workshop...
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This chapter focuses on ethical aspects of Islamic gardens, which involve a wide range of environmental experience, actions and judgements that collectively yield a pluralistic yet coherent perspective. This is not to neglect larger... more
This chapter focuses on ethical aspects of Islamic gardens, which involve a wide range of environmental experience, actions and judgements that collectively yield a pluralistic yet coherent perspective. This is not to neglect larger environments, but rather to consider them in some cases as extensions of Islamic garden ideals. The first part of the chapter examines ethics associated with three major categories of Islamic gardens addressed in the Qur'an and Hadith, beginning with the creation, proceeding to the gardens of this world, and then to the paradise
gardens (jannah) that await the righteous at the end of time. While the case studies in this volume deal with historical and contemporary gardens and parks in this world, their ethics are linked with those of the creation and resurrection as well. The second part of the chapter examines four major approaches to the environmental ethics of Islamic gardens: i) Shari'a law ethics; ii) Akhlaq virtue ethics; iii)Adab poetic ethics; and iv) Sufi mystical ethics. These ethical approaches are the subjects of vigorous theoretical debate. Some draw upon pre-Islamic Greek and Indian ethics. All of them are grounded in perspectives on Islamic revelation.
gardens (jannah) that await the righteous at the end of time. While the case studies in this volume deal with historical and contemporary gardens and parks in this world, their ethics are linked with those of the creation and resurrection as well. The second part of the chapter examines four major approaches to the environmental ethics of Islamic gardens: i) Shari'a law ethics; ii) Akhlaq virtue ethics; iii)Adab poetic ethics; and iv) Sufi mystical ethics. These ethical approaches are the subjects of vigorous theoretical debate. Some draw upon pre-Islamic Greek and Indian ethics. All of them are grounded in perspectives on Islamic revelation.
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River systems originating from the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) are dominated by runoff from snow and glacier melt and summer monsoonal rainfall. These water resources are highly stressed as huge populations of people living in this region... more
River systems originating from the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) are dominated by runoff from snow and glacier melt and summer monsoonal rainfall. These water resources are highly stressed as huge populations of people living in this region depend on them, including for agriculture, domestic use, and energy production. Projections suggest that the UIB region will be affected by considerable (yet poorly quantified) changes to the seasonality and composition of runoff in the future, which are likely to have considerable impacts on these supplies. Given how directly and indirectly communities and ecosystems are dependent on these resources and the growing pressure on them due to ever-increasing demands, the impacts of climate change pose considerable adaptation challenges. The strong linkages between hydroclimate, cryosphere, water resources, and human activities within the UIB suggest that a multi-and inter-disciplinary research approach integrating the social and natural/environmental sciences is critical for successful adaptation to ongoing and future hydrological and climate change. Here we use a horizon scanning technique to identify the Top 100 questions related to the most pressing knowledge gaps and research priorities in social and natural sciences on climate change and water in the UIB. These questions are on the margins of current thinking and investigation and are clustered into 14 themes, covering three overarching topics of "governance, policy, and sustainable solutions", "socioeconomic processes and livelihoods", and "integrated Earth System processes". Raising awareness of these cutting-edge ORR ET AL.
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Research Interests:
Designing urban residential landscapes in arid regions requires careful consideration of water use and costs. Landscape performance assessment at the residential scale has historically been limited to esthetic preferences. Landscapes... more
Designing urban residential landscapes in arid regions requires careful consideration of water use and costs. Landscape performance assessment at the residential scale has historically been limited to esthetic preferences. Landscapes provide many more services. Quantifying these services allows a comprehensive understanding of the costs and benefits of landscapes. Landscape architecture decisions impact urban planning goals like water-use efficiency, yet the links between planning and planting criteria are rarely evaluated in design decisions. To address these deficiencies, this paper presents a Landscape Decision Assessment Tool (LDAT), a multicriteria, geometrically explicit, multiresolution modeling framework. Its use is targeted to urban planning and water engineering departments in arid regions as well as design practitioners. It aims to improve the multicriteria design of villa landscapes to explicitly include beauty, privacy, shade, views, and water conservation. Results from a typical parcel-level case study in the United Arab Emirates identify substantial opportunities to improve water efficiency without compromising residential design criteria by adjusting landscape configurations. Multiple configurations perform nearly equally well indicating a range of choices for households to choose from based on the household weighting of criteria.
Problem statement In post-disaster situations, it is often necessary to undertake rapid visual site reconnaissance to characterise patterns of damage and identify reconstruction opportunities and constraints. Rapid visual site analysis... more
Problem statement In post-disaster situations, it is often necessary to undertake rapid visual site reconnaissance to characterise patterns of damage and identify reconstruction opportunities and constraints. Rapid visual site analysis can occur over a period of hours to days rather than weeks to months. The time constraint is often necessary to assess the viability of initial reconstruction scenarios and help broaden the range of choice among site planning options. Rapid assessment can also minimise the use of scarce local post-disaster resources during the initial reconnaissance phases of planning. Because it involves visual methods rather than equipment-intensive survey techniques, it serves as an initial scoping of alternatives. It may follow emergency shelter response planning methods (for example, Sphere Project, 2011, ch 4) and be followed by more comprehensive site mapping and screening. This action–research project reviews the literature on post-disaster site analysis with ...
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Comparison is common in water management research: every table, map, and graph invites comparisons of different places and variables. Detailed international comparisons, however, seem infrequent in water resources research. To assess this... more
Comparison is common in water management research: every table, map, and graph invites comparisons of different places and variables. Detailed international comparisons, however, seem infrequent in water resources research. To assess this perceived gap, this paper searched for examples of comparative research between two water sub-sectors in two countries using systematic bibliographic mapping procedures. It focused on rural and urban water conservation research in India and the United States. Search methods built upon procedures initially developed for the FAO Investment Centre and more advanced systematic review methods. The search generally confirmed that there have been few detailed comparative international studies on the subject of this review. Not surprisingly, there are a greater number of comparative studies between rural and urban water conservation within each country. The search also identified different conservation emphases in the two countries, e.g., rainwater harvest...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Gilbert F. White (1911–2006) is variously known as the “father of natural hazards research,” “father of floodplain management,” and all-around leader of the environment-society branch of geography in the United State during the twentieth... more
Gilbert F. White (1911–2006) is variously known as the “father of natural hazards research,” “father of floodplain management,” and all-around leader of the environment-society branch of geography in the United State during the twentieth century (Wescoat, 2006). These father-figure references convey the regard in which White has been held for his mentoring of two generations of colleagues and students as well as for his pioneering research on water resources, natural hazards, and environmental management. White's seven decades of creative work, beginning with policy analyses in the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration in the 1930s and concluding with reflective essays on environmental stewardship in the early years of the twenty-first century has produced a rich historiography of appraisals. The first section of this article reviews the historiography of previous assessments of White's research, from an early festschrift (Kates and Burton, 1986) to theoretical debates (Wescoat, 1992), an autobiographical essay (White, 2002), and memorial reviews following his death (Kates, 2011). The second section of the article rereads White's research contributions in different periods of his career, underscoring the relationships among research subjects, ethical concerns, and contributions to the field of environmental geography.