An Introduction to Urban Ecological Heritage: Theories and Applications

For a long period of time, cities were considered antithetical to nature. While cities implied buildings, bridges, and urban infrastructures, and urban heritage signified preservation of historical architecture, ecology consisted of forests, pasture lands, wetlands, waterbodies, etc. It is only recently that there is a greater awareness that cities and nature are inherently interconnected to each other and the protection of the latter ensures urban sustainability and resilience. This provokes us to think about ‘urban ecological heritage’ – enabling us to expand our perceptions about cities, nature, and heritage – and their inevitable intersections. This idea is also rooted in SDG 11.4 that calls for safeguarding the world’s natural-cultural heritage – awaiting investigations and analyses within particular cities of the world – especially the global South, dotted with multiple challenges including ecological degradation due to unhindered urban sprawl.

Within this contemporary context, this course will familiarize participants to theories and applications of urban ecological heritage by discussing global conventions on urban heritage and the recent advancements to include natural-cultural components. Using first-hand case studies from urban ecologies of two Indian metropolitan cities, the course will lay out why and how transdisciplinary involvements and actions can facilitate sustainable development goals geared to revive and rejuvenate the urban by addressing core issues of ecological resilience in recent times.

This is a unique NPTEL MOOC sponsored by the Global Center of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability, where along with classroom studio lectures, live interviews and videocasts from the case study sites will expose participants to real life scenarios, motivating them to engage in long-term research and practical actions in this emerging domain.