Risks and Responses to Urban Futures: integrating peri-urban/urban synergies into urban development planning for enhanced ecosystem service benefits.

Urbanisation brings the creation of new opportunities for many, while also resulting in a dramatic increase in the concentration of poverty and environmental degradation in peri-urban zones. Peri-urban areas, at the interface between urban and rural, link rural livelihoods with the urban lifestyles that put multiple pressures on peri-urban ecosystems. This poses huge challenges for the health and livelihoods of an increasing number of disenfranchised, poor and marginalised citizens, and for the sustainable urban development.

Urban policies for provision of essential services such as food and water, draw upon ecosystem services (ES) from the peri-urban zone and from further and further afield. At the same time the export of polluting activities and domestic waste to peri-urban localities degrades ES, with adverse implications for urban and peri-urban communities.

This research project aims to explore the intersections between ES and poverty in peri-urban areas of India, and implications for urban development. Our overarching research hypothesis is that a better understanding of peri-urban ES and relationships with poverty alleviation will generate knowledge and mobilize people, and in turn generate more effective urban development initiatives. These will build much needed synergies between urban and peri-urban communities to support poverty alleviation goals.

To better understand the complex interactions of ES and human well-being in highly dynamic peri-urban landscapes, we will use spatio-temporal modelling to analyse interactions and trade-offs. This will involve a combination of primary and secondary data and the development of new approaches to modelling that could be used to support initiatives to enhance ES benefits and support urban planning processes.

Empirical detailed case studies will be carried out in Delhi's National Capital Territory. We will work with peri-urban communities to examine the relationship between ES (emphasis on primary data collection for ES associated with agriculture and food systems) and multiple dimensions of poverty (emphasis on health). We use this new knowledge to identify specific, local, technical and institutional interventions with affected communities, that will help to sustain ES and the livelihoods that they support. We will also identify policy entry points, working with diverse stakeholders to examine the potential to integrate an understanding of the interaction between peri-urban ES and poverty alleviation goals into decision making processes and implementation. Target policies and programmes will include those associated with the national urban horticulture initiative, which aims to support peri-urban producers and ensure a supply of fresh produce to cities, and urban waste management and pollution control plans. The spatial analyses will form the basis of tools to support dialogue with policy actors.

For comparison, parts of peri-urban areas around five additional cities (Hyderabad, Bangalore, Varanasi, Kathmandu and Dhaka) will be mapped at coarser resolution and a subset of ES, selected based on their importance identified in the detailed case studies, will be modelled using tools developed for Delhi. Using data from 5 cities and Delhi we will explore the use of time-series, space-for-time substitution and scenarios to explore the use of narratives and quantitative models of the likely impacts of current (and future) policies on ES and dependent livelihoods.

We will also actively engage with initiatives in other south Asian cities, building a network with partners from other Indian cities and in Nepal and Bangladesh through project-linked activities. This network will facilitate the joint development of research approaches and tools for policy engagement that can be applied more widely.

Our vision is of a world in which diverse peri-urban residents recognise the value of ecosystem services (ES), are able to identify potentially destructive pathways which erode these ES and work with stakeholders (e.g. civil society organisations, policy makers and regulators) to develop constructive pathways that protect ES and help lift people out of poverty.

Our project involves impact activities at three interacting levels: 1) peri-urban communities in the vicinity of Delhi, 2) building on our Delhi case study, national policies of direct relevance to other Indian cities, and 3) a south Asia regional network. In each case we draw on established contacts and extensive experience within the research team.

We aim to provide an evidence base and analytical tools that will support greater coherence across the policy streams of environment, health, agriculture and development, to achieve poverty alleviation and urban development goals while the long term sustainability of ES is maximised. Our focus is on building epistemic communities and ES-conscious policy makers, rather than directly tackling vested political and economic interests. The overall goal is, nonetheless, that these activities continue after the research funding ceases, with community representatives, researchers and intermediary organisations skilled and knowledgeable enough to engage in on-going impact initiatives.

Our primary target beneficiaries are poor communities dependent on peri-urban ES, whilst secondary beneficiaries include local political actors, national and regional policy makers, government service providers (e.g. water, agriculture) and health/environment NGOs. Our theory of change, to be developed at the inaugural workshop, starts with the assumption that excellent science needs to address local concerns, engage the most affected people and translate these concerns into policy relevant findings, linking science, practice and policy.

We will engage with peri-urban communities and stakeholders (government officials, policy makers, NGO workers, environmental activists) from the onset. We will utilise participatory approaches throughout including community participatory mapping and impact pathways analysis, in conjunction with a programme of community meetings, workshops, training sessions and policy dialogues. We will engage in dialogue with stakeholders using the maps of ES flows from our spatial analyses, using these visual tools as a way of engaging in discussions about different strategies and policies for peri-urban ES and livelihoods. In addition to identifying specific local interventions to protect ES with the communities involved in Delhi, we will explore specific entry points and processes for local and national policy interventions. In order to do so, the project will build on different partners' existing relationships and engagements with key policy processes (e.g. IWMI engages with policy makers on urban agriculture, water and urban resource reuse and recycling).

Finally, we will establish a regional south Asia group on peri-urban ES to support development of ES/PA methodologies, identify opportunities to raise awareness of ES and poverty alleviation interactions in city policies and plans for resource management. The group will include representatives from each of the cities participating in peri-urban ES mapping activities (Delhi, Varanasi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Dhaka and Khamandu) and from other relevant national and regional groups including WHO and FAO.

Our range of communication material will include details on the participatory mapping of ES and their values, spatial charts of processes, project newsletters, blogs, as well as academic seminars, conference papers, and peer-reviewed journal articles. A project website will provide a collection of new material, including documents, photos, accounts of café scientific and other meetings, and a central space for on-going discussion.