Eighth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Urbanisation is the process of creating and enlarging cities and towns with creation of a new type of planned housing layout to accommodate additional population. Conventional housing layout heavily relies on imported water either from municipal supply or through withdrawal of ground water. This phenomena creates undesirable hydrological impacts such as increased storm water runoff leading to urban flooding, drop in ground water level without much recharging through infiltration, and above all huge discharge of waste water thereby adding to surface water pollution. This study investigates and compares the various uses of water, which includes imported water, rain water, waste water, and ground water to facilitate water conservation measures in newly planned housing clusters in different parts of the metropolitan area in Kolkata. The main attributes utilized for the study consists of assessing the extent of urban water utilization and feasibility of waste water re-use in typical housing clusters, identifying the planning and design criteria in typical housing cluster layout, which helps in optimizing the use of freshwater (including control of runoff), assessing various alternatives for rain water harvesting in meeting the partial demand for water among the residents, and developing options for reform of building rules and related regulations to facilitate Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD), within the framework of relevant legislative and economic constraints. The results and outcome will talk about comparative surveys of various housing layouts and their hydrological impact on surface runoff, drainage, catchment drying, and water pollution in the local area. Additionally, construction of a set of benchmark urban design policies and standards for application across jurisdictions, adapted to different planning contexts and scales (greenfield, small lot, subdivision of up to fifty lots, and single dwelling scale) will be stated along with better linkages with methodologies for such water sensitive infrastructure for designing future housing layout, including the use of development levies, as an alternative to relying on funding of large-scale capital items through expenditure of public funds.