VISUALISING SUSTAINABLE CITIES
Designing information to create awareness about depleting natural heritage of Bengaluru City
BACKGROUND
Under this project, I worked on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-Goal 11; ; to make cities safe, sustainable, inclusive and resilient. With the support of UN-Habitat; under Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology's UNESCO chair, this project brought me an opportunity to look at Bengaluru city’s trees and vegetation in my area of study of Visual Communication. It involves visualising a desirable sustainable city in comparison to the current scenario to create awareness among the stakeholders. The awareness is a part of the UN conference, The New Urban agenda held in Quito, Ecuador on October 2016.
CHALLENGE
WHEN
2016
DURATION
6 months
ROLE
Design Research
Systems thinking
Information Design
Visualisation
Sense-Making
Storytelling
TEAM
Individual
MENTOR
Yamini Temujin
LINK
LOCATION
It’s a mind boggling fact that over half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and this number will increase to about two thirds of the world’s population by 2050, which means that today, 3.9 billion people are living in cities, and that number will continue to rise. The problems created by rampant urbanisation are amongst the most important challenges of our time. Bangalore city, which was known for its trees, lakes and pleasant air 25 years ago has now moving to become a dead city with rising air pollution, lakes killed and nowhere for the waste to go. This city has sacrificed its environment for some of the fastest economic growth seen anywhere in the world. The scope of the project was to communicate to the people about the importance of the biodiversity.
CONCEPT
There were many directions in the 11 goals. I choose to work towards Goal 11.4 (Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage) Natural heritage refers to the sum total of the elements of biodiversity, including flora and fauna and ecosystem types, together with associated geological structures and formations (geodiversity). Heritage is that which is inherited from past generations, maintained in the present, and bestowed to future generations. The task as a Visual Communicator was to promote ‘Awareness of Goal 11’ to specific audiences/age groups (Bangalore specific) through Visual Communication material.
KEY FEATURES
Based on the research featured below, I designed a coffee table book and tent cards to increase consciousness about green infrastructure. The aim was to help the people understand the urban ecosystem and how much it can contribute with their help to cure the current situation. Also, recall how Bangalore used to be a known as a Garden City.
TENT CARDS
DOCUMENTATION BOOK
THE PROCESS
THE PROBLEM
Bangalore is one of the fast-growing cities located in the southern state of Karnataka, India. Urban areas in India are looked upon for growth and prosperity and so people are migrating from other states to the city causing urban sprawl. This is causing relatively high rate of degrading changes in the landscape of the city, which is stretched beyond its carrying capacity and has become unsustainable. Ironically, the city was once known for its wide tree-lined avenues, historic parks, and expansive water bodies. The growth has caused major impact on the ecosystems and biodiversity and led to causing the disappearance of some of the oldest botanical gardens. To better understand the challenge and the bigger system, I started observations and inferences to unlock the urban challenges in Bangalore city. I used Look - See - Foresee as a method for data gathering.
Understanding Sustainability
FIELD VISIT
Photographs from field observations of Bangalore city's downtown and slums
INTERVIEWS AND SEMINARS
To understand the current situation better, I met subject matter expert Vijay Thiruvady - who conducts Bangalore Walks at Lal Bagh; a botanical garden located in the heart of the city to create awareness and educate people about the trees that provide important biodiversity and environmental/ecosystem services to the city.
Attended a Arboriculture seminar to gain more knowledge about the subject
Conducted interview of Sri R. Sharath babu who is the urban forest officer of Karnataka Forest Department.
Interviewing the subject expert matter and attended seminars
THE WICKED PROBLEMS
With economic growth and unprecedented urbanisation, the chaos of development has negatively started impacting human and environmental health. With my primary and secondary research I have found some of the factors that contributes to the current situation of Bangalore City.
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Urban growth much less directed by state policies or colonial legacies
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The ecosystems have been significantly modified by human influence, responding to social preferences like old trees that provide biodiversity support are now focused more on ornamental species that are short lived and easy to maintain.
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Transformed land-use patterns deteriorated soil quality and increase urban heat island effect
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The city attracts high rate of migrants
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Lack of strong public-private partnerships
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Lack of waste management
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Disruption of drainage networks polluted by domestic and industrial waste.
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Lack of mobility planning
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Lack of resilient water supplies
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Water Scarcity and epidemic
Narrowing from macro level problems to micro and in relation with UN-Habitat Goal 11.
Satellite images of Bangalore city development at the cost of green infrastructure
KEY FINDINGS
Trees contributes to major biodiversity services in the ecosystem.
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Reduces air temperatures in the summer by 3-5 ℃
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Cools the road asphalt surface temperature by as much as 23 ℃
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Cleans the air by reducing the levels of noxious air pollutants
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Trees near lakes reduces soil erosion
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Supports wide diversity of birds, insects and other fauna
Bangalore has a reasonably high tree diversity but relatively low tree density; 3 out of 4 parks now has more exotic species than native trees. Native trees are those which are culturally, medically and culinary related with the land.
There are local and community groups who have started plantation drives before monsoon approaches but the lack of awareness for local native trees is missing.
Read these books on collecting more information about the native trees
OPPORTUNITY
How might I create easy access of information about native trees of Bangalore city to the youth?
TARGET AUDIENCE
For my target audience I decided it to make this information design appeal more to the youth who are more intuitive to their surroundings. They are bearers of change. The UN, for statistical consistency across regions defines 'youth', as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years. Young crowd being more socially active and can also influence their surroundings, this could be a right audience who might as well have more free time.
IDEATION & STRATEGY
Based on the research findings, I focused on developing infographics that can be placed at youth campuses, cafés and other hangout places where young crowd is mostly active. Through testing, found out that it only became hard to read and can become boring to attract the young crowd. After repeated iterations, I decided to make a small coffee table book and tent cards with current problem illustrated on one side and other side has a solution to the problem with actionable steps and can be placed at cafés to attract more discussions.
EXPLORED
LEARNINGS
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Interdisciplinary approach is important in solving social problem. I developed skills in writing, research and analysis.
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Throughout the process, my idea of sustainability kept developing and I am grateful to have worked on this project and engage my skills to use it further in the social impact space.
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Learning comes by doing and change only happens with small steps at a time.
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Considering all stakeholders throughout the process is important for better communication.
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Insight Generation
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Critical thinking
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Sense-making
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Research Methodology
