INTEGRATION OF BLUE-GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE (BGI) IN STATUTORY PLANNING FRAMEWORK OF A HILL CITY: A CASE OF DEHRADUN

Abstract

Urbanization is increasing day by day giving birth to a plethora of issues, climate change being at the top. Hill capitals around the world face unique climate risks, like extreme precipitation, rising temperature etc. urban flooding being one of the most prevalent one in hilly urban areas. Dehradun, as a representative hill capital, is particularly vulnerable to these hazards. Dehradun has witnessed recurring urban flooding events in the past few years leading to damage of physical infrastructure, disruption of services, and negative impact on the mental and physical well-being of the inhabitants. To enhance climate risk resilience in such regions, the strategic implementation of Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) offers a promising solution. Blue-green infrastructure can act as natural channels for the drainage of stormwater augmenting the overall stormwater management capacity of the city in a sustainable manner. But despite numerous policies advocating and promoting conservation and augmentation of blue-green infrastructure in India, the on-ground implementation remains elusive. The lack of integration of blue-green infrastructure strategies within the statutory planning framework can be one of the contributing reasons for this issue. Hence there is a strong need of the integration of BGI strategies with statutory planning documents like Master Plan which can provide legal backing to the concerned strategies and help them get implemented on the ground. This research investigates various approaches through which Blue-Green infrastructure strategies can be integrated with statutory planning of Dehradun to mitigate climate risk, focusing on urban flooding. Methodology includes investigating into various successful BGI strategies that have been adopted around the globe through secondary case studies followed by flood risk mapping of Dehradun to divide the city into various zones based on its flood susceptibility. At last various issues related to existing infrastructure in these flood prone zones have been identified through comprehensive field survey followed by expert consultation for identification of barriers and challenges to implementation of blue-green infrastructure projects in Dehradun. The study concludes with the recommendation of some solutions and strategies for overcoming these barriers and integrating blue-green infrastructure in the statutory planning framework of Dehradun city.