Reading Urban Futures Through Their Blue Infrastructure: Wetland Networks in Bangalore and Madurai, India

Abstract

By examining the transforming geography of water systems through its interactions with everyday life and the governance in Madurai and Bangalore in South India, we argue that making sense of the risks and vulnerabilities associated with the blue infrastructure in these cities needs to be understood as the consequence of transforming political relations of governance rather than from the notion of an indifferent and incapacitated state or the disappearance of traditional community management institutions. It is our contention that governing complex ecological assets demands an equally complex relationship between a wide range of social actors in diverse locations of power and capacity embedded within emerging political relations and realities.