Pestilential or Productive? Tracking Two Centuries of Environmental Change and Current Perceptions About Ecosystem Services of the East Kolkata Wetlands

Mundoli, Seema and Sanfui, Abhiri and Nagendra, Harini (2023) Pestilential or Productive? Tracking Two Centuries of Environmental Change and Current Perceptions About Ecosystem Services of the East Kolkata Wetlands. Urbanisation. pp. 1-21.

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Abstract

Nature-based solutions (NbS) have gained popularity for their capacity to address sustainability chllenges in multiple ways. A historically grounded understanding of NbS framing in older urban areas, coupled with an examination of their resilience in contemporary times, can be very useful, especially in the global South, in the context of its urbanisation. The east Kolkata wet-lands are a unique urban ecosystem for waste management and food provisioning in peri-urban Kolkata, one of India’s largest metropolitan cities. Using archival data, dating back to colonial times (mid-eighteenth century), secondary data on land use changes and in-depth interviews, we map the changes in perception and use of this wetland. By studying how food production and waste management supported by the wetland are in danger of being compromised, our research high- lights why it is critical to acknowledge the multiple services of urban wetlands that are often under- valued by policymakers. We argue that if these services historically provided by the wetland are viewed as emerging NbS, they can contribute to enhancing ecosystem services, provide a better understanding of trade-offs between ecosystem services and disservices and help address sustain-ability challenges in today’s urban planning.

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Article

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Mundoli, Seema and Sanfui, Abhiri and Nagendra, Harini

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