IN-PERSON: Prague – Section A

Abstract

Traditional water management systems are an invaluable community heritage and have sustained agriculture and communities across the world. Identification of the various pathways through which they are affected by urbanization is essential for their protection. In the peri-urban areas of Chennai, India, the ‘Tank systems’ have ensured the availability of water throughout the year for use by the community. Evolved through time, this traditional water management system is an invaluable community heritage that is being destroyed by urbanization in the Peri-urban areas of Chennai. The ‘Tank systems’ are a complex socio-cultural water management system that connects the people and the tanks through interdependencies based on needs and benefits acquired. The basis of this system is rooted and intrinsically woven within the processes of rural communities. Therefore, the role of land-use change that invariably occurs in peri-urban areas due to urbanization, is critical to these systems. The objective of this paper is to outline the various pathways through which land-use change due to urbanization has affected the tank systems. To outline these pathways, the change from agriculture to other land uses is compared with the status of the ‘Tank systems’ through correlational and spatial proximity analyses. The results from the analysis show that urbanization has a multifaceted impact on the tank systems. Land-use change of agricultural lands to other urban land uses not only removes the need for water storage structures, but it also removes the tangible and intangible benefits derived from the system, therefore disincentivizing the cost and effort needed to maintain the system. These neglected water storage and conveyance structures then fall prey to land grabbing and conversion to other uses, effectively crippling the system.