Dr. Mansee Bal Bhargava 
Fulbright Scholar
Environmental Design Consultants, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
November 18, 2016 2:20-3:20pm
JDT 410
Abstract
My Fulbright project looks at the contextual and institutional environments those that facilitate/challenge the integration of water resources (urban lakes here) into the planning and management of cities. The project applies a multi-tier Social-ecological System (SES) framework (inspired by the works of The Ostrom Workshop). A diagnostic ontological approach is used to analyse the variables and sub-variables of urban lake systems. The research component is an attempt to model the patterns of interactions between the variables and the sub-variables of the contextual and institutional environments those that facilitate the integration of urban lakes into the planning and management of the cities. A SES data base of urban lakes is used for analysis the patterns. The classificatory structure for explanation is inspired by Christopher Alexander’s ‘The Pattern Language’. The teaching component emphasizes the application of the SES framework in a pattern language towards integration of urban lake management into urban development.
| Bio: |
| Dr. Mansee Bal Bhargava is an entrepreneur and educator. Her entrepreneurial work is carried out with Akshay Bhargava through Environmental Design Consultants, Ahmedabad, and includes landscape and architectural consulting for residential, institutional, industrial, and recreational developments; and research on the governance and sustainability of social-ecological systems like urban lakes. Her education work is diverse in affiliation and field, spanning architecture, planning, governance, and sustainability. She has designed a number of courses, through which she promotes research as crucial to the sustainable growth of a society. Her pedagogy encourages sensitive and productive citizenship. Dr. Bhargava holds a PhD from Erasmus University, Rotterdam. She has received fellowships from: Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies Rotterdam (2009–13), Research Institute for Humanity and Nature Kyoto (2014–15), Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis Bloomington (2011), Netherlands Fellowship Programme (2007–08), Cambridge Commonwealth Trust (2005–06), and Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineering (1997–99). Dr. Bhargava’s Fulbright-Nehru project examines the contextual and institutional environments that facilitate the integration of water resources (urban lakes) into the planning and management of cities. The project applies a social-ecological system framework. The research component of the project emphasizes modeling the patterns of interactions between the characteristics of the contextual/institutional environments that facilitate/challenge integration through the study of several lakes. The teaching component of the project emphasizes the application of the social-ecological system framework toward the integrated management of water resources. |