Arn-703 Design Studio-III

Minor Problem -1
IMPACT OF LAND USE CHANGE ON WATER BALANCE FOR
THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Can a habitat and its people exist without water? Any settlement is
not just a thing, it is a system of things. Of which, water forms an
extremely essential element to sustain life Availability of water is
largely dependent on the availability of its ecological systems and
its services, rainfall distribution over an area, which again get
distributed into various components of interflow,
surface runoff etc. Increasing demand for land resources by a
rapidly growing population, with fast urbanization and
industrialization, has resulted in land use changes all over the
world. Land use and land cover changes considerably affect and
modify the proportion of these components of water resources,
which again causes significant changes in the ecological systems
and the services thus provided.

The land use change assessment is important because it is human

activities (different uses of land), not nature’s agents, that bring
about these critical environmental changes. As built environment
professionals we do bear certain responsibility in the process of
creating and reframing our built environments. Even with these
environmental challenges, little research has been conducted in
term of assessing how land use changes have brought impacts on
water balance, in the past, present and future.

Hence, this assignment is aimed to sensitize the students on issues

related to water that underpins our future urban environments.
Students should divide into groups of 3-4. Each group is required
to select one typology of land use within and around Roorkee.
The following focus areas should be selected.
1. Industrial land use
2. Institutional land use
3. Residential Land use
4. Public land use associated with cultural activity( for
instance piran kaliyar)
Student are required to develop their understanding in the
following aspects.
1. At a macro level setup, how Roorkee is situated vis – a vis
the ecological resources.
2. Mapping down the past, present and future (proposed)
spatial transformations since colonial times, along with
demographic changes and establish the transformation in
the linkages with water systems.
3. Analyze the challenges brought by the land use changes and
how such changes have brought pressures on the water
demand and quality of built environment.
4. Compare with the similar context of the land use changes
elsewhere and document the best practices how they have
dealt with such similar situations.

This minor problem ends with a 3 days workshop –Living Lab will
be conducted through expert Dr.Salil Sen from Bangkok.

First preliminary presentation of your analysis is on 7th August

2019.
Final A3 Report and presentation is on 13th August 2019.

Evaluation: 25 Marks