The Horizontal Metropolis, a new project paradigm for the Mekong Delta

Having challenges discussed through the aims of Swyndegouw's Urban Political Ecology serves as an alternative way of metropolitanization, which shall be explored through the perspective of the *Horizontal Metropolis*; as an alternative way of metropolitanization, which was observed by Bernardo Secchi and Paola Viganò across explorations of Brussel's regions (1990-2014)(Barcelloni Corte, Cavalieri, and Viganò 2018; Barcelloni Corte 2019; Barcelloni and Viganò 2022). The *Horizontal Metropolis* is a radical Social-Ecological approach to integrating urban, rural, and natural territorial processes; it regards the idea of the European metropolitan city as a diffuse urbanization phenomenon characterized by self-organizing processes across dispersed living territories, also known as *Citta Diffusa*. Discovered in Italy, Citta Diffusa was founded by Indovina in 1990 and further investigated by Secchi and Viganò, whereby once dispersed territories were found to be transformed by centralized urbanization.

Thus, the research-by-design epistemology centers on a hypothesis that the Citta Diffusa concept can be applied across the Mekong's territorial organization, however, based on the East Asia equivalent existing phenomenon found in *Desakota*—despite its significant difference to Citta Diffusa. The Citta Diffusa concept was derived from Indovina's study of the Veneto region (1990), whereby a new pattern of diffused urbanization was found across the rural region, a diverse mix of old and new, big and small settlements of self-built and self-organized homes, exempt from rent. This phenomenon results from the outmigration of urban dwellers into the rural region, within a zone of different economic conditions, under a low level of essential services and even limited road access—however, some are attracted by production access or technological opportunities in peripheral areas. Nevertheless, it is a self-sufficient work-live environment for middle-income inhabitants whereby production takes place at decentralized locations as a response to the dissatisfaction felt living in the centralized city. These diffused territories are home-oriented, with some elements of urbanism and a weak link to community services.

In contrast, the Desakota phenomenon in the Mekong Delta is driven by infrastructural investments and primarily attracts local farmers seeking better economic livelihoods. Desakota is attracted to ecosystem services that help fill the livelihood gap. While, Citta Diffusa critiques centralized cities, Desakota embraces cities' intensity, density, and commercial activities. Both phenomena challenge traditional urban and rural planning policies and transform the context to meet social needs.

However, Citta Diffusa has received positive responses and support from public-private cooperatives, while Desakota territories in the Mekong Delta remain unrecognized and face water ecosystem stress and infrastructure strain. Ultimately, as a concept that could benefit Desakota's future projection, Citta Diffusa is well characterized by the ideas highlighted in the Horizontal Metropolis, whereby horizontal connections diffuse the ranking of places to create a "non-hierarchical" territory. The diffused city is thus not characterized by any spatial hierarchies as everything is equally accessible in all directions or multi-directional—thus. Although it is non-hierarchical internally, it is still set inside a regional context of traditional territorial hierarchies. On the contrary, though the Desakota phenomenon began from a networked territory of dispersed linear urbanization, it has resulted in a hierarchy of spatial destinations, increasingly hierarchically organized around infrastructure and urban centers, resulting in environmental fragmentation.

Therefore, the challenges posed by the Mekong Delta's Desakota conditions under the umbrella of not only climate change and Second Nature's State of the Anthropocene but the challenges posed by the Delta's water ecosystems due to centralized and decentralized geopolitical processes all become subject to a radical project based on the figure of discourse posed by the Horizontal Metropolis: To answer the challenges between the disconnected, diffused and clashing mixed territories resulting from processes of technological modernization, the centralization of urbanized planning (and spatial social capital, between the natural and political) as well as the decentralization of production (privatization, globalization, and corporation). Under the discourse of the Horizontal Metropolis, the region's future extended metropolis can act as an agency of transformation of horizontality and metropolis—as a radical project whereby non-hierarchical horizontal processes and relations between water nature and human urbanization can be (re)introduced across the extended post water techno-managerial territory (Barcelloni Corte 2019).

Proposing an Ecological Transition for the Vietnamese Mekong Delta Rururban Political Socio-Ecologies

The research-by-design proposition aims to bridge the scale and processes between the proposed Mekong Delta-wide *Agri-business* plan and the local Social-Techno-Ecological interrelationships between a work-and-live lifestyle. With the ambition of fostering the Horizontal Metropolis paradigm for the future
rururban development patterns across the deltaic territory, the project aim is to release the stress imposed on water ecosystems and promote cohabitation between humans and nonhumans. The objective for the future vision of the Mekong Delta is to mitigate between a history of centralized planning and mega-engineered water management based on engineered hydraulic systems and to foster the local resilience pattern reflective of the multi-functional Socio-Techno-Ecological relationships found in the fabric. This objective can be achieved by formalizing a spatial territorial design framework in relation to the current infrastructure and associated Social-Ecological surroundings through blue-green corridors characterized by *Weak Structures*.

### *The Agropolitan model*

The thesis proposes adopting Friedman's Agropolitan model (1979) as a beneficial principle for the Mekong Delta's urban-rural Ecological Transition. In the 1970s, the Agropolitan model was a radical stance taken against the negative impact of the industrial and urban transition, resulting in urban flight and an outmigration into rural milieus in search of freedom in housing and jobs in agriculture. In addition, the model fosters the need to emancipate the farmers and rural peasants from the centralized planning model often endorsed in urban planning via the decentralized autonomous model based on community self-organization and self-sufficiency (Friedmann 1979). Therefore, the Agropolitan model shall serve as a basis for investigating the Mekong Delta's current Desakota phenomenon and intensified rural development trends, particularly toward urbanization.

As a gridded hydraulic machine, the development of the Mekong's agrarian territory has yielded some quantitative and modular characteristics, whereby improved prototypical projects could well serve by better responding to different environmental and geographic contexts. For example, the existing conditions of the typical distance between feeder or primary canals range from 7km to 14km, and the standard canal width of the inner primary canal range from 35 to 50m. As massive hydraulic infrastructural systems, they should be reframed to transform the industrial scale set by the agrarian regime to a livable scale as part of the urban-rural milieu.

The prototype for diversification proposes a 500m for Social-Ecological 'diversification' processes by offsetting the span on both sides of the primary canal to create a 1km wide ecological corridor. This corridor is envisioned conceptually as a dedicated ecological multi-functional space to foster paradigms in making "room for the river," diversified types of ecosystems based on different freshwater bodies and soils, i.e., renaturalized water bodies by wetlands, mangroves, and forests, reintroducing spaces whereby ecological wisdom in cultivation practices, e.g., traditional floating rice. These new types of water and open spaces could foster farming based-communities and introduce other innovative practices in permaculture and agronomy.

### *Depoldering infrastructure to make way for the Weak Water Structure*

These propositions are envisioned as a post-rationality for the existing technological systems of canals. If parts of the dikes were depoldered or released, the trend towards Social-Ecological diversification in habitability, land cultivation, and aquaculture could well be fostered by freeing up some open water space for natural, however, controlled, open space relationship between nature and the seasonal flooding pattern—as well as planning for the long-term flooding events. The deltaic water's natural cleansing processes could partially resume within the 1km corridor at parts deemed compatible with the ecosystem functions and land cultivation practices.

Figure 4 shows the stages of canal front development; the stilt homes which grew organically lined along the natural levee of rivers or canals became increasingly overlooked after flood protection was introduced in favor of rice production by the addition of dikes to the back of the linear settlements. The rural fabric grew through road-oriented shophouse development. Consequently, the stilt homes were unmanaged and disregarded, leading to the environmental degradation of the river or canal embankment, water pollution, and subsequent Social-Ecological risk due to environmental conditions.

The research-by-design proposes to restructure the existing hydraulic infrastructure by providing a framework along the new *Social-techno-ecological water corridors* as a solution that respects the rural population's water-fronting lifestyle while ensuring safety, security, and Social-Ecological opportunities. As the existing irrigation structure is already gridded, different patterns of the dike's depoldering process could occur along the canal based on contextual conditions and community needs. Figure 5 shows the proposal, whereby rather than excavating sand from the canals to build dikes along the immediate embankments, the project
proposes a stepping terraced relationship of excavated soils at 1m increments from the canal up to 500km away from both sides of the water, whereby existing dikes continue to serve as flood protection to inhabited areas, and replacement dikes could restructure depoldered land areas based on specific configurations between water and inhabitant spaces. This new prototype would open up the possibilities for variations in water levels and water controls based on contextual conditions and community needs to promote the diversification of land use and cultivation practices.

<figure><img src="image_199.png" /><figcaption>[fig.4] section showing the existing canal conditions, general condition of stilt housing along canals with added dikes.
Elaborated by the author.</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_200.png" /><figcaption>[fig.5] Section showing the proposed expansion of existing canals by depoldering and stepped terracing, with relocation houses. Elaborated by the author.</figcaption></figure>

Figure 6 depicts the 'comb-like' irrigation system established during the French colonization, with primary canals designed for water drainage. Over time, these canals have become densely urbanized, accompanied by parallel road networks and increased land densification. Subsequent subdividing canals, implemented after the 'Doi Moi' reform period, primarily serve as irrigation systems and water management for the sparsely inhabited Long Xuyen Quadrangle region. These newer canals fill the wide scalar gaps in between the original colonial canal structure, providing more frequent water irrigation to support the lightly settled corridors that present an opportunity for a prototypical model to foster the Ecological Transition and support the diversification initiative.
<figure><img src="image_201.png" /><figcaption>[fig.6] Map showing existing conditions of the regional study area, particularly noting the relationship between the currently densified linear areas along the historically dredged canals and the low-density subdividing canals added in the 80s. Elaborated by the author.</figcaption></figure>

These new *Social-techno-ecological water corridors* reframed within the 1km wide ecological corridors shall serve as attractive new places to work and live—while integrating the few existing rural settlements; meanwhile, existing linear settlements of Desakota-based activities shall remain along the colonial-era primary canals. These ecological corridors would offer a more dynamic Social-Ecological habitat within the formerly engineered water canal infrastructure, ecologically transformed to foster the relationship between the human and natural milieu. As a newly multi-functional techno-water-scape, these Social-Ecological corridors serve as multi-function grounds of waterscapes, ecological, cultivable, and open spaces to foster the Agropolitan communities as places for work, live, and leisure.

As shown in Figure 7, characterized by *Social-techno-ecological water corridors* whereby natural and artificial processes could coexist between water ecosystems and habitats, they are proposed along subdividing canals to foster a resilient and diversified interrelationship between different ecologies, habitats, and water ecosystems as a Social-Ecological framework. Therefore, whereas the economic activities existing in the historical canals can resume, a phasing of new activities based on water as the agency and its interrelationships between humans and nonhumans alike shall be generated as a new attractive place for cohabitation. Once implemented, this framework shall promote the continuity of species across corridors and the regeneration of biodiversity across the Mekong Delta to reinstate the countryside and its more
urbanized characteristics through well-being and belonging through community cultural identity for those living along the canals, as a diffused Agropolitan territory.

<figure><img src="image_202.png" /><figcaption>[fig.7] Urban design framework proposing 1km wide *Social-techno-ecological water corridors* to reframe the subdividing primary canals as Weak Structures characterized by water ecological continuities. Elaborated by the author.</figcaption></figure>

At the transect project scale, the section to the top in Figure 8 shows a typically engineered canal with dike and irrigation system based on existing conditions; the primary canal is approximately 25m to 35m in width. The elevated embankment characterizes both sides of the canal, supported by 2.5m high dikes doubled up as a general road linkage for narrow traffic flow at approximately 3 meters in width. Homes typically line these roads with privately provided access; in this case, the house is built on an elevated concrete platform with light ramp access to the road. Orchards are cultivated on top of the plot and intensified agricultural fields span the rest of the area. The section to the bottom in Figure 8 depicts the transformation achieved by depoldering part of the canal's dike to create a new water space for various ecosystem services. The design includes stepped water terraces and proposes a water pond for retention or fisheries. In addition, the dwellings are set-back with water gardens along the canal, and a new diked road allows for the development of a polder town.
<figure><img src="image_203.png" /></figure>

[fig.8] Sections of the existing and proposed ecological corridor scenario. The proposed new ecological section to the bottom, shows the proposed stepped terraces whereby the canal is expanded to accommodate different water bodies. Elaborated by the author.

Figure 9 depicts the transformation of the canal, highlighting the distinction between lowered water levels and the poldered habitat area along the road. Various water types support diverse wildlife habitats. Traditional fishing methods are used, and the flow of deltaic waters contributes to the growth of marshes, mangroves, and water-compatible species. Irrigation channels serve as part of the cultivation system for trees and vegetation. Adaptation to climate change is possible by alternating between aquaculture and floating rice or shrimp and rice. Improvements in public services can include collective gardening spaces and water filtration systems, enhancing the countryside lifestyle.

<figure><img src="image_204.png" /></figure>

[fig.9] The axon illustrates the transect across the canal, proposing different types of water spaces for fauna and flora and various water-land-based cultivation practices within the surrounding community. Elaborated by the author.

The Ecological Transition scenario of the existing canal into the *Social-techno-ecological water corridors* paradigm shall transform the canal with thickened moments composed of multi-layered types of open spaces along the canal, resulting in diversified landscapes whereby ecosystem processes and cohabitation could take place. These *Social-techno-ecological water corridors* ensure the adaptation to living with the water as climate change impacts intensify, and it introduces a new water ecosystem through the alteration of the built water infrastructure by offering more diffused water and landscape relationships. New landscapes are envisioned to offer diversified services to neutralize the current fragmented geopolitical territories and improve environmental qualities by partially reinstating natural water processes.

## Conclusion

The proposition for an Ecological Transition in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta presents a radical project that seeks to address the challenges faced by the region in the face of climate change and environmental degradation. Resolution 120, a nationwide mandate in Vietnam, emphasizes the importance of environmental adaptation and living in harmony with extreme weather conditions. It calls for ecological and high-quality agriculture, signaling a shift towards a more sustainable and nature-based approach to farming. This mandate presents an excellent opportunity to protect the Delta's natural ecosystems and improve farmers' livelihoods in rural and rururban areas. The project proposal suggests adopting Friedman's Agropolitan model by promoting autonomous and self-sufficient farming habitats. The Agropolitan model can support family farms and foster a sense of belonging and connection to the land, offering an alternative path that capitalizes on the Delta's ecosystem as a competitive advantage.

The integration of past and new hydraulic projects, as outlined in the MDIRP plan, can contribute to the Social-Ecological development of the Delta. By reconfiguring hydraulic infrastructure and incorporating civic open spaces, water ecosystems can be better protected, and society can benefit from improved living and leisure spaces. The proposed creation of a 1km wide ecological corridor along primary canals further promotes Social-Ecological diversification, with a focus on renaturalized water bodies and innovative farming practices, by depoldering and stepped terracing techniques to create variations in water levels and controls, fostering the diversification of land use and cultivation practices.
## Bibliographic References

Corte, M. B.; Viganò, P. (Eds.). (2022). *The Horizontal Metropolis: The Anthology*. Springer Nature.

Branzi, A. (2022). *Agronica* (1995). In *The Horizontal Metropolis: The Anthology* (pp. 427-437). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Indovina, F. (2022). F. Indovina on La Città Diffusa. In *The Horizontal Metropolis: The Anthology* (pp. 499-509). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Friedmann, J. (2022). *Agropolitan Development* (1978). In *The Horizontal Metropolis: The Anthology* (pp. 261-292). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Ginsburg, N. S., Koppel, B., & McGee, T. G. (Eds.). (1991). *The extended metropolis: Settlement transition is Asia*. University of Hawaii Press.

Kontgis, C., Schneider, A., Fox, J., Saksena, S., Spencer J.H., Castrence, M. (2014). *Monitoring peri-urbanization in the greater Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area*. (pp. 377-388) Applied Geography, Vol. 53.

McGee, T. (2009). *The spatiality of urbanization: the policy challenges of mega-urban and Desakota Regions of Southeast Asia*. UNU-IAS Working paper no. 161. Yokohama: United Nations University-Institute for Advance Studies.

Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. (2013). *Mekong Delta Plan. Long-term vision and strategy for a safe, prosperous and sustainable delta*. Ho Chi Minh City: Author.

Socialist Republic of Vietnam, (2017) *Resolution No. 120/NQ-CP, On sustainable and climate-resilient development of the Mekong River delta*. Hanoi, Vietnam.

Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. (2020). *Mekong Delta Integrated Regional Plan*. Reference: MDIRP-RHD-D4-XX-RP-Z-0007. Project Team: Authors.

Swyngedouw, E., & Heynen, N. C. (2003). *Urban political ecology, justice and the politics of scale*. Antipode, 35(5), 898-918.

Van Kien, N., Hoang Han, N., & Cramb, R. (2020). *Trends in rice-based farming systems in the Mekong Delta. White gold: The commercialisation of rice farming in the Lower Mekong Basin*, 347-373.

Viganò, P., Cavalieri, C., & Corte, M. B. (Eds.). (2018). *The horizontal metropolis between urbanism and urbanization*. Switzerland: Springer.

Viganò, P. (2018). *The horizontal metropolis: a radical project. The Horizontal Metropolis Between Urbanism and Urbanization*, 1-9.

Viganò, P. (2022). *Interpretative Concepts and Visions: Introduction*. In *The Horizontal Metropolis: The Anthology* (pp. 185-191). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
II.d
Social actions : from sharing to appro-
priations

*Generative analogy for a collective action in urban design* (p.328)

Jung Hee-Won, ENSA Paris la Villette (FR)

*Rich, poor and mechanism of sharing's in Hyderabad city, India* (p.336)

Sirimalla, Shyam, EPFLausanne (CH)

*Social Relations and Landscape Transformations: Settling practices of Garhwali community* (p.343)

Zeba, Amir, KULeuven (BE)

*Countering the Ongoing Metropolization Process and Neoliberal Logics. Experiences of Dwelling and Cohabitation in the New Neighborhoods of Ain El Aouda, Morocco* (p.354)

Belkebir, Salma, ULBruxelles (BE)
# Generative analogy for a collective action in urban design

Hee-Won Jung

Affiliation: LET-LAVUE at ENSA Paris la Villette

Supervisor: Jodelle Zetlaoui-Léger and Marie-Christine Bureau

Expected thesis defence: June 2024

Email: ddominica@gmail.com

This paper examines the use of analogy in addressing collective action in urban design and proposes an analytical framework centered on generativity driving collective action. The cases discussed - Atelier des Place du Grand Paris and la Preuve par 7 - showcase the evolution of collaborative practices in urban design, highlighting two key aspects: the expansion of collaboration to tackle complex design challenges and the dissemination of results, whether in terms of products or processes, leading to significant collective action endeavors. Both cases aim to develop an analogy for creative adaptations within the realm of collective action. The discussion explores the distinct nature of these analogies as catalysts for cognitive displacement or as new frameworks for inquiry.

## Introduction

The use of analogy in learning, scientific research, or design has been the subject of numerous studies, from its trivial forms to its more creative and decisive contributions (Sander, 2000; Durand-Richard, 2008; Chupin, 2013). These works highlight the different registers of analogical reasoning in their respective fields, while also showing the difficulties in establishing a robust analytical framework for their research object due to its vast boundaries. In fact, analogy is an omnipresent form of reasoning in human thinking (Hofstadter & Sander, 2013).

This paper focuses on the use of analogy to address collective action in urban design and aims to propose an analytical framework based on generativity driving collective action (Schön 1979). The cases explored in this paper are selected from my ongoing PhD research on the evolution of collaborative practices in urban design. The research focuses on cases that exhibit two main aspects: the expansion of the sphere of collaboration in response to the complexity of the design challenges, and the desire to disseminate their results, whether it be the product or the process, ultimately leading to significant collective action undertakings.

The drive for dissemination incorporates a form of standardization and normative leap within it, which engenders inherent tensions in urban design, where the context and singularity of a given project are of primary importance. Such tensions lead to a shift in the object of design, where the focus moves upstream in the process of urban fabrication. The objective of this kind of initiative becomes to develop design principles and to create the social and political environments and measures to integrate these ways of designing on a larger scale. The use of analogy in these situations meets the need to encourage creative appropriations of actors engaged in the process of dissemination. It presents a particularly hybrid aspect that incorporates the reflexive and pedagogical dimensions beyond the issue of spatial design.

Two cases located in France are under study in this paper, namely the concept of 'scripting (scenarisation)' in the Atelier des places du Grand Paris and the concept of 'case law (jurisprudence)' by La Preuve par 7. The former is an action carried out by the Société du Grand Paris and the TVK group to develop a design guidebook of the public spaces around the 68 stations of the Grand Paris Express subway network. The latter is an approach initiated by the architect-scenographer Patrick Bouchain and his networks of actors aiming to disseminate 'architectural permanence' and to promote the "right of experimentation" in urbanism. Both analogical concepts aim to create an open framework to encourage forms of appropriation specific to each context by local actors, and are the result of collective elaboration by designers-protagonists over several years.

This paper outlines the context, the actors, and the process of elaborating these analogical concepts. Although the two cases under study share the objective of developing an analogy for creative appropriations within the context of collective action, they are rooted in different contexts, implying different aims and constraints. Consequently, a simple comparison proves ineffective. Instead, the discussion focuses on the distinct nature of these analogies as catalysts for cognitive displacement or as new frameworks of inquiry. Furthermore, the contributions and limitations of analogies will be discussed, drawing upon the testimonies of the actors involved in these collective actions.
The current research is based on document analysis, participatory observations, and semi-directed
interviews with actors and stakeholders of each case under study.

The case context and main features of analogy in the two case studies

‘Scripting (scenarisation)’ as an alternative approach to planning in urban design

The concept of scripting developed by TVK has evolved through various prospective research
missions the agency has been engaged in since 2012. By drawing a parallel between the 'scripting' of
TV series (in the realm of storytelling) and urban planning (which involves tangible interventions in
material and spatial urban conditions), the analogy of 'scripting' proposes an alternative perspective
on urban design. It acknowledges the need to address long-term and uncertain situations that cannot
be effectively managed through deterministic planning approaches.

This analogy introduces the following conceptual framework: the 'bible', representing the main idea of the story line (which can be translated as the prospective vision in urbanisme), and the 'seasons', which are relatively independent, yet cohesive narratives derived from the 'bible'. Additionally, it emphasizes the significance of the present as a state with its own coherence, which is not just serving the future.

The concept of scripting emerged during the Atelier International du Grand Paris (AIGP, 2012-2016), a prospective study on the urban conditions of the Grand Paris in which TVK participated as one of the fifteen international multidisciplinary teams. The idea was initially put forward by Martin Vanier, a geographer from Acadie<fnref n="1" /> and a member of the TVK group<fnref n="2" />. It was subsequently adopted as one of the central themes guiding the group's final proposal<fnref n="3" />.

Compared to the analogical concepts proposed by other participants in the AIGP teams, one of the distinguishing features of 'scripting' is that it focuses not on the urban or architectural form as a design object, but on the approach and methodology of design. It incorporates a reflexive dimension, thereby highlighting the unique perspective of the TVK group.

Since then, the concept of scripting has been further developed through TVK's subsequent urban
prospective missions in various French and international territories (Trévelo et al, 2021). Over time,
it has become one of the agency's primary conceptual approaches in urban projects that involve long-
term vision and planning.

In October 2016, the TVK group<fnref n="4" /> was selected to participate in the Atelier des places du Grand Paris (APGP, 2017-2019). Their task was to develop a guidebook for the creation of public spaces surrounding the 68 stations of the Grand Paris Express (GPE), the new suburban subway network for the Grand Paris area. This mission was commissioned by the Société du Grand Paris (SGP), the institution in charge of the implementation and maintenance of the GPE.

This mission presented a significant opportunity for TVK to test and refine the concept of scripting,
which was initially developed in response to the complex urban situations encountered in the Grand
Paris project. The concept was considered well-suited for the guidebook due to the inherent
complexities involved, including:

- Governance and cooperation: The guidebook had to serve as a tool for governing and fostering collaboration among multiple stakeholders involved in the Grand Paris Express (GPE) network. This encompassed local authorities responsible for implementing public spaces and central institutions such as SGP and Ile de France Mobilité, which oversaw the quality of public spaces around subway stations through partial funding.

<footnote n="1">1 Adadie is a consulting cooperative agency mainly composed of researchers and research-professors in urbanism.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">2 The TVK group refers to the consortium composed of multiple agencies and experts who are mandated by the TVK agency.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">3 'System Ouvert', the group's final report of the mission, presents an illustrated story developed in four "seasons" with unforeseen urban consequences of the new subway network, Grand Paris Express (GPE). Known as "the worksite of the century," this extensive subway network (equivalent in total length to the existing railway network of the Grand Paris region) is the primary urban policy simultaneously developed by the Sarkozy's government in relation to the reflections of the Consultation Internationale du Grand Paris (CIGP, 2008-2010). AIGP's participants, most of whom also participated in CIGP, had a critical stance on GPE, concerned with the simplification or impoverishment of their reflections in the implementation of a new public transportation network.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">4 Mandated by TVK, architect-urbanist agency, the group consists of experts and agencies specializing in diverse fields relevant to public space, such as landscape architecture, mobility, environmental sustainability, geography, urban sociology, history, and more. In addition, the group includes experts in coordinating collaborative practices, fostering multi-institutional cooperation.</footnote>
- Diverse urban situations: The guidebook needed to address the diverse urban contexts surrounding the 68 GPE stations, combining a comprehensive vision with practical methodologies that could be applied effectively in each unique setting.

- Sequential network completion: With the planned sequential completion of the entire subway network scheduled between 2022 and 2030, special attention was required to anticipate significant changes in the surrounding public spaces over time. The guidebook needed to account for the evolving patterns of usage and adaptability of these spaces.

The concept of scripting has served to structure the group's collective investigation and its results during the first phase of the mission. The Phase 1 report presents the skeleton of the 'bible' and 'seasons', the first related to themed research accompanied by examples of public space implementations, and the second related to the analysis of the urban and temporal situations of the 68 sites of GPE<fnref n="5" />.

As the mission progressed, the concept of scripting underwent a transformation and found its expression in various forms within the final guidebook. One of the main editorial lines of the guidebook focuses on the temporal dimensions of urban design. This is illustrated through opening visuals and introductory or themed texts that provided perspectives on the evolving urban environment. Additionally, the guidebook prescribes several principles for integrating and managing temporal dimensions. One such principle is "Test and observe", which emphasized the importance of organizing temporary experimental implementations to learn from and adapt to changing circumstances. Another principle is "Represent without fixing", which underscored the need for graphical and cognitive expressions that allowed ongoing projects to evolve and adapt over time.

TVK's focus on the concept of scripting does not appear to have been fully concluded after this mission. In 2021, following the APGP mission, TVK independently published a paper entitled "Open Future: From Planning to Scripting" (Futur ouvert : de la planification à la scénarisation)<fnref n="6" />. The paper presents the key insights gained from the concept of scripting in urban planning, accompanied by four carefully selected images. Among these images, two are from the American series "The Wire". The article establishes a parallel between two images [Fig. 1]: a photograph depicting planners of a 'Ville nouvelle' (new town) from the 1970s, and a screenshot from the drama series showcasing four African American boys from a suburban neighborhood who serve as the primary storytellers of future narratives. The second image [Fig. 2] portrays the cover of the 'bible', a text containing the fundamental ideas of the future project, which can be perceived as either 'a piece of evidence' or 'a sacred object' depending on the reader's perspective. The document's construction strategy aims to strengthen the message derived from the analogy as an instigator of cognitive shifts by feeding the narrative with cases and illustrations on the other side of the analogy that can demonstrate their relevance to urban design issues.

The conceptual gap between planning and storytelling makes the analogy disorienting but intriguing and inspiring. It calls for a creative endeavour and interest to translate one's own interpretation into tangible actions within the realm of urban planning.

<footnote n="5">⁵ The second phase involved conducting case studies on several hubs of the Grand Paris Express (GPE) and translating the findings into design principles. The third phase was dedicated to refining the final drafting and structure of the guidebook.</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ A part of this development was previously presented at a conference in 2017 at ENSA de Marseille. However, the publication was made available for a wider accessibility on Metropolitiques, an online media platform known for its open and hybrid nature, including papers of researchers and also of practitioners.</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_205.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_206.png" /></figure>

[Fig. 1] The culture of planning vs the culture of scripting: the actors of the planning of Cergy-Pontoise (left), the actors of the first season of The Wire (Viger-Kohler. et al, 2021)

<figure><img src="image_207.png" /></figure>

[Fig. 2] Cover of the “bible” of The Wire, David Simon, 6 September 2000 (Viger-Kohler. et al, 2021)

### 'Case law' (jurisprudence) as a tool for promoting urban experimentations

Over the past 10 years, there has been a growing social consensus regarding the negative effects and contradictions arising from the abundance of standards and regulations in architecture and urbanism<fnref n="7" />. This consensus has led to successive legislations starting from 2016, including the LCAP law, the ELAN law, and the ESSOC law<fnref n="8" />. Of particular importance is Article 88 of the LCAP law, known as the 'Permit to do (permis de faire)', which aims to evaluate and regulate urban and architectural experiments based on their achievements rather than on their means strictly constrained by standards and norms. It provides a certain degree of freedom to adopt non-standard methods, with the condition that their effects are assessed in subsequent stages. However, the original intent of the law has quickly become more rigid in its subsequent development through concrete legislative decrees.

<footnote n="7">7 This is the main finding of the Information Report on architectural creation, authored by Patrick Bloch in July 2014.</footnote>

<footnote n="8">8 law on Liberté Création à l'Architecture et au Patrimoine (Freedom of Creation, Architecture and Heritage), law on Evolution du Logement, de l'Aménagement et du Numérique (Developments in Housing, Planning and the Digital Economy) and law on État au Service d'une Société de Confiance (State at the Service of a Trusted Society)</footnote>
Patrick Bouchain, an architect-scenographer, played a significant role in the development of the 'Permit to do' article. He is a famous French figure known for his architectural and social experiments through various projects, as well as his extensive networks in the realms of politics, art, and architecture<fnref n="9" />. Recognizing the gradual dilution of the original intent behind the 'Permit to do' legislation, Bouchain chose to pursue his own path of experimentation independently of these measures.

In 2018, he obtained financial support from two French ministries<fnref n="10" /> to establish an initiative called 'La Preuve par 7' (Proof by 7). This project advocates for the right to experiment in architecture and urbanism across seven different scales of French territories, primarily by means of 'architectural permanence'.

'Architectural permanence' aims to establish a space for experimentation by utilizing abandoned buildings<fnref n="11" /> that have been neglected due to economic, technical, or legislative factors, despite their urban and architectural potential. It aims to explore modeste but creative forms of occupation and programs by involving civic stakeholders. The goal is to promote the revitalization and rehabilitation of these spaces through collective experimentation in space utilization, ultimately leading to the identification of necessary architectural interventions.

La Preuve par 7 is organized into two distinct periods. Season 1 (2018-2021) was dedicated to searching for opportunities and establishing 'architectural permanences' across eleven sites of seven urban scales in France, encompassing both metropolitan and overseas territories. Season 2 (2021-2023) is currently underway and emphasizes the development of a collaborative online platform. This platform documents past and ongoing experimental cases, particularly highlighting tools and experiences that have helped overcome administrative, legal, technical, and normative obstacles. It encompasses initiatives triggered by actors within Bouchain's network as well as other contributors. The aim is to establish a precedent and disseminate these kinds of urban practices on a larger scale. The notion of case law became prominent in Bouchain's discourse following the enactment of the LCAP law, and its significance grew further with the release of the initial set of application decrees on fire safety in May 2017. Bouchain argues that these decrees undermined the original spirit of the 'Permit to do'. He emphasizes that all laws inherently contain a certain degree of interpretive flexibility to avoid becoming overly coercive<fnref n="12" />. Many of Bouchain's previous projects were also a result of persistent exploration within this interpretative latitude, allowing for a certain level of freedom and fostering a relationship of trust among stakeholders in reaching a mutual understanding based on a "common sense" (du "bon sens") (Bouchain, 2018).

Similar to the concept of scripting, the analogy of 'case law' is not concerned with the physical form of urban or architectural elements but rather with the approach and methodology employed. The term 'case law' is used here in a broader sense, not specifically referring to court decisions but encompassing a wider range of urban experimentations that serve as precedents and are worthy of dissemination.

Unlike 'scripting', the concept of 'case law' closely relates to the objects or cases it refers to. In fact, the main message of la Preuve par 7 is the strong connection between certain cases and the notion of 'case law', as these cases have the potential to set precedents and influence future developments. In Season 2, the notion of case law becomes more prominent through the documentation available on the Internet platform called 'L'école du terrain' (The field school)<fnref n="13" />. The platform is organized in three main branches: Projects, Ways of doing (Manières de faire), and Laboratory, which show how the analogy is translated into reflections and tangible actions related to urban experimentation.

<footnote n="9">⁹ Patrick Bouchain has built up a singular career in various fields: political consultancy, teaching at a design school and architectural practice. His approach to architecture and urban projects has often departed from conventional frameworks, with a more marginal character. However, his work finally received institutional recognition when he was awarded the Grand Prix d'urbanisme in 2019.</footnote>

<footnote n="10">¹⁰ The Ministry of the ecological transition and the Ministry of the Culture</footnote>

<footnote n="11">¹¹ It can also involve finding a location and resources to incubate a program, like a school or social housing project, in response to local needs and limited resources elsewhere.</footnote>

<footnote n="12">¹² 'Le permis de faire, l'esprit plus que la lettre', https://www.espazium.ch/fr/actualites/le-permis-de-faire-lesprit-plus-que-la-lettre#:~:text=Patrick%20Bouchain%3A%20Le%20permis%20de%20nous%20risquons%20de%20perdre, accessed on 01/06/2023</footnote>

<footnote n="13">¹³ https://lecoleduterrain.fr/, accessed on 01/06/2023</footnote>
Under the Projects section, each case is presented, showcasing how it managed to overcome or navigate conventional obstacles and establish alternative frameworks for stakeholder collaboration. Key documents such as the initial call for proposals, contracts between main stakeholders, documentation tools, and relevant external resource documents are included for each case.

The Methods section delves into methodologies and reflections organized by themes. While the concept of case law serves as a philosophical background for this section, it also features two themes directly related to legal issues written by domain experts.

The Laboratory section comprises thematic audio-visual documents, including interviews and conferences. Within this section, there is a subsection entitled 'case law', which includes interviews with experts in various legal domains related to urban experimentation, such as notaries specializing in public property transactions, lawyers specializing in transitory urban occupations, and experts in public law.

Finally, the concept of case law allowed to produce information-rich stories (Schön, 1979) and relative knowledge and therefore works as a frame for inquiry.

## Discussion: on the nature of the generativity of analogy for a collective action

The analogies being studied encompass two distinct dimensions: as instigator of cognitive frame shifts and as framework for inquiry. Rather than being incompatible, these dimensions appear to be complementary aspects of a generative analogy. Meanwhile, certain aspects can be further developed or, on the contrary, be constrained depending on the context in which it is deployed. This includes considering the relevance of the conceptual structure revealed by the analogy in relation to the nature of the organization being undertaken and the strategies employed by its protagonists.

The "innovative<fnref n="14" />" aspect of the analogy of 'scripting' lies in its ability to evoke the popular imagination of drama series, which can provide rich illustrations for the target audience (both urban practitioners and the general public). The consistency of these illustrations offers ample material for a cognitive frame shift and prepares the generation of a new perspective on urban planning through the lens of 'scripting'. The underlying message that urban planning should embrace a long-term vision that allows for the organization of different temporalities, akin to coherent seasons with relative independence, resonates with the audience and serves as a counterbalance to the deterministic representation inherent in the phasing of the GPE subway network.

Beyond this philosophical stance, the APGP mission had a practical objective of producing a guidebook with operational design principles on diverse dimensions and issues engaged in a public place design. The conceptual skeleton of 'scripting' ('bible' and 'seasons') has structured the collective investigations of the TVK group in the first phase. It also has served as a frame of investigation to engage collaborations with practitioners out of TVK group for the principle 'Test and observe' related to the transitory implementation design. But it had no longer the same validity on diverse issues and the concept of scripting becomes rather symbolique than analogique in the absence of clear conceptual isomorphisme between two spheres related by the analogy. Consequently, the concept worked as a primary generator (Dark, 1979) for the APGP mission.

Meanwhile, TVK continues their own investigation to enrich the narrative surrounding the realm of storytelling, demonstrating its relevance to urban design issues. In that sens, the analogy works as a frame for inquiry for their own practice inspiring and guiding their exploration. They also aim to manifest its pertinence through public medias to inspire others.

For the 'case law' concept within the PP7, rooted in the common understanding of the term and its social implications, the concept presents a simple conceptual framework where a specific case can have a similar impact as a law. The analogy between the two spheres, while not triggering a significant cognitive shift, manifests the underlying philosophy of the initiative. The concept is primarily employed to explore projects and cases in relation to their ability to set a precedent within their respective contexts. It serves as a framework for investigation on emerging practicies. Simultaneously,

<footnote n="14">¹⁴ Two of the interviewed participants of TVK group considered the analogy innovative in this point of view.</footnote>
it acts as a mediator, bringing together actors who share a common vision and interests, thereby laying the foundation for future collaborations.

The contributive dimension of the initiative without strict goals and deadlines facilitates the emergence of these conditions. Moreover, by establishing a framework of inquiry, the actors involved in the PP7 actively engage other individuals who possess interest and expertise in various domains related to the urban practices advocated by the initiative. This fosters the formation of a community of practice (Wenger, 2005) and enables the establishment of alliances with selected actors. Through these opportunities for discussion, the participants refine the concept and identify new avenues for their research.

The accumulation of project cases through these processes forms a foundation of information-rich stories. These illustrations create the conditions necessary for a cognitive shift among the actors engaged in this community of practice and, in the long term, for the broader general public as well<fnref n="15" />.

## Conclusion

Our cases extend the research axis put forth by Schön (1979) regarding the favorable conditions for a generative analogy driving collective action. The case study demonstrates the relevance of aligning the conceptual framework of the analogy with the direction of collective action. Furthermore, it emphasizes the significance of illustrative materials (information-rich stories, as per Schön) in initiating or fostering collective action. These conditions provide a foundation for understanding and creatively appropriating by the actors involved, enabling them to undertake effective actions.

We also observe that both analogies operate on the methodological dimension. On one hand, they facilitate collaborations among multiple stakeholders by providing a structured framework for investigation. On the other hand, they serve to disseminate experimental practices by sharing reflections on methodological obstacles.

Meanwhile, the final productions of both cases, namely the guidebook and the online platform, do not necessarily follow the structure of the analogy. Instead, they adopt a conventional category system that aligns with the cultural and practical expectations of their intended audience. This approach aims to enhance accessibility and comprehensibility of the contents.

Finally, the hybrid nature of these analogies, combining pedagogical and reflexive elements beyond the scope of spatial design, calls for further reflection. This is particularly important in terms of its impact on the evolution of the architectural profession and the broader sphere of architectural practice.

The first issue involves exploring and designing the realm of fiction to enhance its relevance to current urban design issues. In the case of TVK, this approach becomes one of the agency's design strategies, utilizing fiction and history as a valuable resource to draw inspiration and make cultural contributions that inspire other urban practitioners. This kind of reflection, regarded as research, sparks a different type of discussion that diverges from the discussions found in literature on "research by project". It is important to consider the nature of the knowledge that is generated through this approach and the criteria that are relevant for assessing its impact.

In the case of the PP7, it is important to pay attention to the diversification of the architect's role in the process of urban development. Creativity and ability to comprehend various subjects can play a crucial role in engaging in community organizing, addressing technical and constructive issues, and shaping the initial project brief. This calls for a reflection on the pedagogical programs in architectural schools and how to enhance collaborative capacities to meet the expanded competences required in urban design.

## References

* Bouchain, P., 2018, *Permis de faire*. Paris: Cité de l'architecture & du patrimoine

* Chupin, J.-P., 2013, *Analogie et théorie en architecture : de la vie, de la ville et de la conception, même*. Geneve: infolio editions collection projet & théorie.

<footnote n="15">15 However, the dual nature of the platform, serving both as an instrument to expand the alliance and as a tool to disseminate specific forms of urban practices, introduces a certain ambiguity in the clarity and quality of its contents. Given that the platform is still in its early stages (launched in October 2022), it requires further observation to assess its ongoing evolution and development.</footnote>
Darke, J., 1979, The primary generator and the design process, *Design Studies*, Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages 36-44.

Duranel, G., 2019, *Les conventions de l'Architecture au prisme du dispositif du Grand Paris*. Ph.D, Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers

Durand-Richard, M.-J. (dir.), 2008, *L'analogie dans la démarche scientifique*. Paris: l'Harmattan.

Hofstadter, D., Sander, E., 2013, *L'Analogie, cœur de la pensée*, Paris: éditions Odile Jacob.

Sander, E., 2000, *L'analogie, du Naïf au Créatif : analogie et catégorisation*. Paris, L'Harmattan.

Schurz G., 2008, *Patterns of Abduction*, Synthese, 164: p. 201–234.

Schön, D., 1979, *Generative Metaphor*, in Andrew Ortony, A.(dir.), *Metaphor and Thought*. London: Cambridge university press.

Société du Grand Paris and Ile de France Mobilité (dir.), 2019, *Place du Grand Paris: Principes du conception pour les espaces publics du Grand Paris Express*. [online] Available at: <https://admin-mediatheque.societedugrandparis.fr/publicMedia?t=pmBFCG41G6> [Accessed 1 June 2023].

Viger-Kohler, A., Enon, D., Malaud, D., and Trévelo, P.-A., 2021, Futur ouvert : de la planification à la scénarisation, *Métropolitiques*, [online] Available at: <https://metropolitiques.eu/Futur-ouvert-de-la-planification-a-la-scénarisation.html> [Accessed 1 June 2023].

Wenger, E., 2005, *La théorie des communautés de pratique : apprentissage, sens, identité*. Québec: Les presses de l'Université Laval.
# Rich, Poor and Mechanism of sharings in Hyderabad City, India.

Shyam sunder Sirimalla

EPFL, Laboratory of Urbanism
Paola Vigano, Vincent Kaufmann
Expected thesis defence: December, 2025
email: shyam.sirimalla@epfl.ch

## Abstract

Public space, accessibility, and the ability to move in space are vital for the socio-economic well-being of the poor, destitute, and especially those in the lower strata such as slum dwellers and informal workers. Albeit the enforcement mechanism of informal economy is pervasive in India, the question of informal workers and their access to public space has tended to be neglected. Furthermore, slums are perpetually circumvented in the urban planning and governance processes. This is only exacerbating with the nuances of India's national urban schemes and smart city mission despite the contestation to cater the infrastructure. Moreover, this research attempts to lodge the phenomenon of co-location in the limelight, "the actual spatial proximities between affluent and poor at living spaces and public spaces" in Hyderabad city. Ergo, this study gazes into the spatial proximity and spaces of encounters between rich and poor to better design and plan the public spaces to stimulate the informal economy and accommodate the needs of informal workers and their capacity to move in space in Hyderabad city. The empirical study will be conducted as a proof of concept to locate spaces of encounters between rich and poor by digital methods using a smartphone app and GPS trackers.

## Questions

To support my claim based on my life experience as a burgess of Hyderabad city, a literature review, and empirical study, the following are the questions narrated through my thesis:

- How do social injustices produce and shape spatial injustices viz. dichotomies of slums and affluent localities and contestation of governance planning process in it, including the role of planners and architects?

- How the notion of actual spatial proximity and spaces of encounters between urban elite and urban poor at living spaces and public spaces be understood, captured, synthesized, and mapped systematically with its intricacy at multiple dimensions interms of urban experience?

- How can the local knowledge and spaces of encounters be used to better design and plan the public spaces to stimulate the informal economy for the well-being of home-based workers and street vendors? Meanwhile, accommodating the needs of informal workers and their capacity to access and navigate in space?

## Introduction

Poverty is as old a subject for Indian thinker's as the idea of India itself (Karen Coelho and Anant Maringanti, 2012:1). Understanding of poverty has always been shaped by the dominant ideological currents of the day (Karen Coelho and Anant Maringanti, 2012:1). According to Damien and Rafi, poverty in India is visible to the naked eye of anyone who tries to understand it. Furthermore, Urbanization is perceived to be tied with urban poverty manifested through several ways like the explosion of slums, a swift expansion of the informal sector, the casualization and underdevelopment of labor, and enormous pressure on infrastructure (Satpal Singh 2006:2).

Socio-economic inequalities created the spaces of resistance called slums also known as Indian Bastis. Yet again it is explicit that "The underlying cause of urban slumming appears to lie not in urban poverty but in urban affluent (Verma, 2002:2)." Plus, the fact remains that most of the poor people live in slums and most of the slum-dwellers are poor (Victor S. D'souza, 1979:3). In the words of Gautam Bhan "The Bastis Images of the slum need little introduction. Temporary, fragile, and vulnerable housing materials, the absence of sanitation, waste, and sewage services, the poverty of the residents, and the overwhelming density of the "slum" can be conjured up by even those that have never actually been to one". As well they transcend and challenge conventional
understandings of the dichotomies of planned-unplanned, formal-informal, and legal-illegal (Gautam Bhan, 2013:4).

So far most of the literature on poverty emphasizes an inverse relationship between poverty and economic growth (Kulkarni, Varsha S and Raghav Gaiha, 2018:5). Additionally, Incidence of poverty in India has been highlighted by several economists a few of them consist of Prof. Amartya Sen, Jeanedreze, Suresh Tendulkar, and N.C. Saxena to quote a few (Ankuran Alok, 2020:6). Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has described economic growth as a crucial means for expanding the substantive freedoms that people value (DFID, 2008:7). Urban form today is fundamentally governed by the economic forces at play in a city.

## Slum contestations in space: Informal Economy, Informal worker and Issues

In most developed countries, there is only one economy. But in India, there are two (Jim Yardley, 2011:7). Since many of the jobless are poor and the fact that poor cannot afford to remain unemployed, the jobs are created by poor themselves (ATM Nurul Amin, 2016:9). The informal sector in India becoming increasingly crucial as it begins to offer millions of people choices for productive employment. (R. Ratnam, S. Thirunavukarasu, 2012:10). Of the informal sector labour force, about 60% live in slum and squatter settlements and of the slum and squatter population, 70% are working in the informal sector (ATM Nurul Amin, 2016:9). This new judicial language regarding slum dwellers is saturated with the rhetoric of illegality (Usha Ramanathan, 2004:11).

The informal economy exists largely outside government oversight as is in the case of slums like Dharavi, without government help or encouragement (Jim Yardley, 2011:8). Ananya Roy (2005:12) argues that urban informality is not, in fact, a “bounded” space or sector at all, but a type of governance. In her words, this is a “new spatial vocabulary of control, governance, and territorial flexibility” (Ananya Roy 2003:13), a mode of the production of space and It is a technique of rule; what Ananya Roy calls a “a spatial mode of governance”. Again space and time are not only objects of contestation but also part and parcel of political strategy (Helga Leitner, Anant Marimganti at el 2007:14). Informal and illegal settlements occupied land that did not belong to them, and hence were most vulnerable and marginalized when it came to accessing urban basic services (Ayona Datta, 2012:15) Now placed both in a space of exception and state of exception, they are perpetual target of state violence (Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer 2005:16,17). As Arundhati Roy openly debates “Ergo: those who cannot consume do not matter” for government sight (Arundhati Roy, 2009:18).

Informal workers, especially street vendors, and home-based workers, confront a wide variety of challenges arising out of the laws and plans that govern their activity (Mathew Idiculla 2022:19). According to Arundhati Roy Informal workers like street vendors are “shadow people who live in the cracks that run between schemes and institutions (Arundhati Roy, 2011:20)”. Unruly working and living conditions of informal sector workers have been reported in the majority of urban studies. Their access to basic amenities is extremely poor (Amitabh Kundu 1999:21). The differences in wealth, power, and inefficient allocation of resources are, after all, strongly correlated (Kulkarni, Varsha S and Raghav Gaiha, 2018:5)

The surveys of micro-level studies found that the main challenges facing the Informal Sector are low productivity, reduced employment rates, underemployed workers, working conditions, life circumstances, and lack of vocational training, etc. (Amitabh Kundu 1999:21). The success of informal enterprises, therefore, may not be contingent on the availability of credit alone.

Despite this burgeoning literature on urban planning and informality, it does not engage much with questions related to informal workers and their livelihoods (Mathew Idiculla, 2022:19). Urban planning institutions and processes should be examined to better understand how informal workers, for example, can live, work, and navigate cities (Mathew Idiculla, 2022:19). Urban planning and governance processes that allow for access to public space are vital for informal workers’ livelihoods (Mathew Idiculla, 2022:19). However, the academic literature on urban planning and public space has tended to neglect the question of informal workers and their livelihoods (Mathew
Idiculla,2022:19). New methodologies of planning need to be considered in order to meet the needs of different occupational groups in the informal economy (Mathew Idiculla,2022:19). Instead of imposing exclusionary master plans, any effort to shape the future of informal economic spaces requires new methodologies (Rajagopal 2015:19). And The role of an urban planner is to “assume a role that ensures equitable distribution of resources among various groups in informal economies” (Rajagopal 2015:19). Zoning categorization, in concert with the planning process, is crucial for the livelihoods of informal workers. While zonal categorizations might be pertinent for home-based workers, it is access to public space that is particularly important for informal workers like street vendors (Mathew Idiculla,2022:19). Therefore, there is a need to gaze into the concept of spatial proximity and spaces of encounters in public space between different social groups.

# Central Argument

## Power of Space: Public space, Spaces of Encounters and Spatial Proximity

There is a relationship between space and social divisions, and that contact between rich and poor people can change understandings of poverty. Space will be seen as not just a place for social phenomena, it is an active factor contributing to their production and interacting with societal and economic factors (Alfredo Mela, Alessia Toldo,2019:22).

## Public space

Public spaces go beyond the typical definition of being an open space (P. Deore, S. Lathia, 2019:23). Most people associate open space with parks, plazas, courtyards, playgrounds, and maidans. However, one of the most significant, yet frequently overlooked. Open public spaces in Indian cities, towns, and villages has always been the street - the space where people interact, celebrate, and assemble. (Nicholas R Fyfe, ed,1998:24). Streets are the public urban paths along which one moves, observes, waits, eats, and interacts (Uday Kumar Vagale 2004, Sneha Mandhan,2014:26). Among all public spaces, streets emerge as the most public (P. Deore, S. Lathia,2019:23). The only open space in the city that effectively belongs to the people (Appadurai, 1987:26). On its streets, India eats, works, sleeps, moves, celebrates, and worships (Appadurai, 1987:26). Streets in India have traditionally been public spaces (Sneha Mandhan,2014:26). Streets are engines of economic activities, social hubs, and platforms for civic engagement. They break socio-economic divides and foster social cohesion (P. Deore, S. Lathia,2019:23). In the words of Arjun Appadurai, "Streets, and their culture, lie at the heart of public life in contemporary India. "Streets are many things: thoroughfares, bazaars, theatres, exhibitions, restaurants. " Streets are 'cohabited spaces', 'life worlds'. These public places become hubs for daily activities, almost close to rituals, where sellers of fruits, vegetables, flowers, food, and household products position their carts at strategic locations along the streets and arrange their stock in the most efficient and pleasing manner possible (Sneha Mandhan,2014:26).

## Spaces of encounters

The fact that study of socio-economic encounters in public space between urban elite and urban poor is circumvented in the structural analysis of poverty of the urban experience of poor, hence is the important dimension that need to be reintegrated in new pathways to alleviate urban poverty. Public places enable people to gather in planned and unplanned ways on nominally neutral ground, to engage with others within the contours of the entire community, and to help foster social cohesiveness (Caroline Holland, Andrew Clark, Jeanne Katz and Sheila Peace, 2007:27). Furthermore, many researchers have given several parameters of social interaction on the basis of their study in public open space. Abbasia et al. (2016); Hajmirsadeghi et al. (2013); Bahmanyar and Cheshmehghassabani (2017); Williams (2005) are some of them studied the social interaction in public open space. Daneshpour and Charkhchian (2007) mentioned invitation, security, utility and activity as the attributes of spatial quality in Public open space. The literature on the geography of encounter has critically highlighted various kinds that such contact might take, ranging from momentary instances of interaction between strangers at bus stops, cafés, or at the school gate to the more routine coexistence of coworkers and neighbors. (Amin, 2002; Hemming, 2011; Matejskova and Leitner, 2011; Valentine, 2008:28). Such encounters happen within neighbourly
streets, parks, local services (e.g. shops) or public transport, but they also transcend the
neighbourhood boundaries. These spaces symbolises sites of sociability and social interaction, thus,
their quality is used to quantity the degree of sociability in public open space (Mehan, 2016:29).

Spatial proximity

This research attempts to lodge the phenomenon of co-location in limelight, “the actual spatial proximities between affluent and poor at living spaces and public spaces” in Hyderabad city. This unveiled into the unique mosaic urban fabric of the wealthy neighborhoods and pockets of slums, in juxtaposition to most western megacities, whereas seclusion between these two parties is rather explicit. It is apparent that despite the colossal indifferences between the affluent and poor, there is no ghettoization atleast spatially. This generates incentives for poor to locate in close physical proximity to affluent colonies as sources of labor and services (Sircar,2021:30). In other words, acts as an enforcement mechanism. Thereafter, manifestation of this socio-spatial dialectic is epitomizing the narrative of "mechanism of sharing" between informal workers such as street vendors and the bourgeoisie in the city.

Indeed, many scholars have observed that the cities of the Global South are markedly different
from their Western counterparts, often with permanent and wealthy colonies within close proximity
to makeshift or poorer settlements (Sircar,2021:30)—but much of this literature is not read in local
context; But the spatial organization of most Indian cities does not seem to respond in the same
manner, even less there is not much literature available on this phenomenon in Indian context nor
written by Indian authors. This enigma generates incentives for poorer residential clusters, as the
sources of labor and service, to locate in close physical proximity to wealthy residential clusters, in
simple terms, spatial proximity between the provider of labor and the consumer of labor acts as an
enforcement mechanism in a universe of largely informal contrasts, causing the poor to settle near
the wealthy in Indian cities (often in the core of the city) (Sircar,2021:30). I argue that the structure
of economic transactions between wealthy and poor citizens in Indian cities generate incentives for
spatial co-location between wealthy and poor citizens. However, given the variegated spatial nature
of the city, it can be understood that very different social groups live in closer spatial proximity, a
reality forged by economic interactions between diverse parts of the urban demography. The co-
location of very different quality of infrastructure in closer proximity is not uncommon in a mixed
space such as Delhi (Sircar, 2021:30) or in Indian cities.

Methods

Prerogative to support my assertion based on life experience as a burgess of Hyderabad city, field research, and a literature review, methods are synthesized into theoretical investigation, mapping at macro and meso scale, empirical study to identify the ‘Actual and potential space share’ by performing a smartphone app-based digital test of real-time tracking and design recommendation to better design and plan the public spaces as a means to stimulate informal economy.

**Theoretical investigation:** The theoretical approach of the study is made through the theory of capitals of social, spatial (Pierre Bourdieu, 1986:31; Edward Soja's 2009:32), Kaufmann's theory of Motility (Kaufmann, 2004:33), and Digital technologies. This prism of social, spatial, and digital capitals formulates the theoretical framework of the study. Theoretical investigations gaze into the Socio-spatial fragmentation state of the art and critical look at planification of the last decade in Hyderabad city.

This theory primarily highlights the central argument of the study: Spaces of encounters and Spatial proximity. And this narrative is supported by Socio-spatial injustices, slums, informal economy, spaces of encounters, and mechanism of sharings published by numerous Indian and world's Nobel laureates.

**Empirical study:** The intent of empirical study is to identify the ‘Actual and potential space share’ plus ‘Informal worker capacity to move in space’ by manual surveys and digital survey by performing a smartphone app-based digital test of real-time tracking by using GPS tracker devices. Using the snowball sampling technique, 50 residents will be curated for this study that includes the focus groups of 25 informal workers (Street vendors and Home based workers) and 25 affluent
(upper middle class and rich) based on their spatial and occupational value at meso scale study area of Jubilee hills in Hyderabad city.

<figure><img src="image_208.png" /><figcaption>Fig1: Process explanation of the empirical study in the study site of Hyderabad City, India.</figcaption></figure>

1. **Informal workers as agents:** 25 informal workers such as street vendors and home-based workers (hereafter agents) will be selected using the snowball sampling technique in the meso scale study site of Jubilee Hills locality in Hyderabad city.

2. **GPS Tracking of agents:** GPS tracking devices will be supplied to the selected 25 agents to monitor their travel behavior and stop by public spaces for a period of one week.

3. **Mapping the stop-by spaces of agents:** Synthesizing the stop-by spaces and travel routes of 25 agents at the meso scale map.

4. **Interviewing the rich:** The result of the by-space spaces and travel route map of 25 agents will be presented to the 25 rich individuals in the study site and asked to mark the spaces they ever crossed or stopped by. Additionally, manual survey methods such as semi-direct interviews, movement maps, behavioral mapping, and transect walks will be conducted with 25 rich participants to reinforce the precision of the stop-by or crossing spaces.

5. **Mapping the Spaces of Encounters:** Spaces derived from both digital surveys and manual surveys will be analyzed to locate the spaces of encounters between the sample of 25 informal workers(agents) and 25 rich individuals.

6. **Readings by design and interpretations:** The Spaces of Encounter will be read through design at the micro-scale and design recommendations to better design and plan the public spaces as a means to stimulate the informal economy.
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# Social Relations and Landscape Transformations: Settling practices of Garhwali community

*Zeba Amir*

OSA, KU Leuven

Prof. Bruno De Meulder, Prof. Kelly Shannon

Expected thesis defence: October, 2024

Zeba.amir@kuleuven.be

The paper focuses on the interconnectedness of nature and culture in Himalayan settlements which has traditionally guided landscape transformation in the region. It employs the approach of 'relational landscapes' to argue that landscapes reflect and are constituted social processes. It presents a landscape analysis by studying 'practices of landscape transformation' within the village, the agricultural and the forest landscapes which together constitute a Himalayan settlement. The study is situated in Massau village cluster of Dudhatoli region in Uttarakhand, India. From the case-study, local ways of landscape making are foregrounded to discuss the broader entanglements of forest, agriculture, and settlement in the Himalayan context. The paper argues for a reconceptualization of nature-culture understanding as a necessary step for transition towards resilience and sustainable future for the region.

## Introduction

In Dudhatoli region of Himalaya, the steep mountain slopes have been transformed into agriculture terraces. Rising from the valleys, these terraces traverse the complex geography of the Garhwal spurs, in winding contours, to reach the forested peaks. The landscape is a vertical forest and agriculture mosaic which has been constructed through generations of (social) labour of the Garhwali community [fig. 1]. The Garhwalis cross the forest and agriculture landscapes daily through subsistence practices of agriculture, forest lopping, grazing, seasonal foraging/gathering. These practices are intergenerational and through repetition blur the distinction between forest and agriculture, village and wilderness, extending the social domain across the landscape. As such the landscape and settling within it, is characterized by an interplay of ecological as well as socio-cultural processes.

<figure><img src="image_209.png" /><figcaption>Figure 1: The village of Massau located in the valley interlinked with agricultural and forest landscapes on the mountain slopes. Source: Photo by author.</figcaption></figure>

In post-dualist tradition of nature-culture studies, this socio-ecological interplay is understood as ‘relationality’ (Escobar, 2018). Phillippe Descola, Bruno Latour, Arturo Escobar among others have shed
light not only on the interconnectedness of the natural and cultural worlds for communities across the
world but also the possibility of coexistence of multiple worlds. Escobar refers to these multiple worlds as
the ‘pluriverse’ that involves multiple ways of being, doing and knowing (Escobar, 2018). Descola, on the
other hand, recognizes two conceptions of the world— “*the one that sees nature as an animate twin of society, the
other conceives it as the set of phenomenon occurring outside the realm of human action*” (Descola, 1994). Descola points
out that the mutually exclusive nature of these worldviews can be problematic as that rarely occurs in
practice on the ground. This is particularly the case for Garhwali people whose world relies on both
worldviews – a case of ‘shifting ontologies’ (Escobar, 2018). While on one hand they engage in ‘socialization
of nature’ by shaping it through their socio-cultural practices, on the other hand they limit human
action/engagement through ‘divination of nature.’ In both cases however ‘relationality’ is at the basis of
settling with nature, where either process of socialization or divination do not consider nature as a discrete
object but rather subject in a social relationship. We question if and how this conceptualization of nature
can help in building a specific understanding of spatiality in Himalayan contexts. Works of Gadgil, Guha
and Rangan, focus on ecological ingenuity linked with material and social practices of the Himalayan
communities (Guha, 2000)(Gadgil and Guha, 1993)(Rangan, 2000). Rangan’s work contextualises forest
dependencies in Garhwal within relationships of ecological change, socio-economic processes, and power
structures. She highlights how Garhwal has been transformed both by ecological processes and human
activity. Recent works of Radhika Govindrajan on ‘multispecies entanglements’ in Himalayan societies
provide us a (re)fresh lens to look at how humans as well as more-than human elements are included in
their environments and co-construct it (Govindrajan, 2018).

The paper contributes to this discourse by studying the intersection of social production of nature and
landscape transformations. Through the notion of ‘relational landscapes’ it attempts to highlight that the
construction of Himalayan landscape is not only physical but has a social aspect which are not limited to
relatedness amongst the humans. To this end, different settling practices are studied arguing that landscape
reflects and is constituted by social relations. This will show us that for the Garhwali community nature
and society exist as an outcome of their mutual interaction. This understanding is necessary to guide the
transformation for addressing the contemporary social and ecological challenges of the region. The paper
presents a landscape analysis of a site that lies in a micro watershed of eastern Nayaar river (which consists
of 6 villages/settlements) in Dudhatoli region. The analysis draws on fieldwork, participative observation,
followed by interpretative mapping and drawing. The first part of the paper discusses the physical and social
aspect of agricultural, forest and the village landscape. In the second part, the evolution of the nature-
culture relations. It highlights emerging practices and relationality that impacts settling. The paper
concludes with ideas on reconceptualization of nature-culture approach to address future spatial and
ecological challenges.

Practices of landscape transformation

Garhwal region in Uttarakhand, located in the central Himalaya, is a mosaic of varied ecological landscapes (with elevations ranging from 300m to 8000m approximately)— the Bhabhar, Siwaliks and Doons, the Middle/Lesser Himalaya, the Greater Himalaya. These ecologies have supported (and simultaneously limited) human occupation as they have for more-than-human and extra-human(divine) ones. Unique modes of subsistence and settling exist in sync with the physiological and ecological conditions (Shankar, 2014). The geography of the middle Himalayas in Garhwal (1000m to 3500m) – deep river gorges, steep slopes, complex spurs – allowed for remote settlements dispersed in a valley and ridge system. These settlements primarily rely on the mixed broadleaf forests for their subsistence needs. Traditionally, the settlement is in the middle of the mountain slopes with cultivation shifting seasonally between the valley and the slopes, while the ridge remains forested. Larger valleys may even contain two settlements on the slope, one lower in the valley usually considered the mainstay - *Talla* and other closer to the forest – *Malla*, to shelter seasonal herders and livestock who travel to the forest pastures on higher peaks. The village, the agriculture terraces and the forest together form the typical Himalayan settlement in Garhwal. The following section analyses these three landscapes, the physical and social aspect of the subsistence practices that impact them.
## Site

The site is a wide valley dotted with settlements surrounded by the vast biodiverse expanse of the Dudhatoli Forests. The study will focus on the villages of Massau *Gram Sabha* (GS)<fnref n="1" /> which are embedded in one watershed. The GS has 6 villages/settlements, namely Dhara Massau, Pajiyana, Rajbatta, Massaau, Sassau and Jandariya [fig. 2]. The GS has a total population of approximately 1300 people. The site is mainly inhabited by Brahmin, Rajput and Harijan castes which are all primarily cultivators. In case of Massau GS, the prevailing questions of urbanisation in Himalaya concerning large infrastructural development, tourism, economic and spatial expansion are not directly present. However, like in many other Himalayan context, the expansion of rural roads has provided access to transport and market, influencing people to embrace lifestyles and habits of urban consumption. Growth of paratransit networks and service provisions, such as financial/market provision in Jagatpuri or administrative services in Bungidhar (3km and 10km away from site, respectively), are indicative of emerging urbanities in the region, which do not necessarily operate within traditional frameworks. The consequent social mobility, changes in lifestyle and shifting power relationships influence Massau GS as well and provide it a place in the emerging urbanisation within the region. As traditional frameworks find themselves in new circumstances, the emerging practices and shifts in the landscape can also be understood as ‘urbanism’ within the purview of relational production of space (Negi, Thakur and Ali, 2016).

<figure><img src="image_210.png" /><figcaption>Figure 2: The villages of Massau rely on the ecological richness of the Oak forests of dudhatoli which provide forest produce and water for subsistence. Source: Elaborated by author from Google Earth Pro satellite image.</figcaption></figure>

## Subsistence Agriculture

Forest based subsistence agriculture is the dominant form of subsistence and settling. As the availability of arable land and productivity is low, a form of mixed cropping and fallow system is utilized. Under intense cultivation, soil fertility and productivity are maintained via use of leaf manure - forest leaves (mainly from oak) composted with cattle dung and urine. The traditional mid-slope settlements are linked with forests on the ridges, with organic and nutrient matter flowing down to the agricultural terraces below. The

<footnote n="1">¹ *Gram Sabha* refers to a legal general assembly of all adult people living in a village or a group of villages. Here it is used to indicate the spatial cluster of the six villages in the general assembly of Massau.</footnote>
exchanges carried out between the forest and agricultural landscape, via the farmer or the cattle, makes the mountain slopes into an agro-ecosystem.

While these landscapes are interlinked in practice, they are segregated into simplified land-use categories of forest land and agricultural land for development and planning purposes. However, agriculture goes beyond use and transformation of land. The Garhwali community often expresses an indebtedness to the dieties, ‘prakriti’ or the natural balance, and ancestral spirits who embody the landscape and ensure cultivation of the land. This way, agriculture in Garhwal has a social/mythological relation beyond the relation of physical appropriation. Through fieldwork, we observed that the practice of subsistence agriculture signifies local relations and social order as reflected in the traditional definitions of the agricultural landscape in contrast to the single land-use/consumption classification of ‘agricultural land’. In the analysis, 30 different types of definitions were identified [tab. 1] [fig. 3].

<table><caption>Table 1: Local definitions of the agricultural landscape which the community uses to identify and associate with the landscape. The agricultural terraces locally called ‘pungda’ are known by these names. For the community the landscape is defined by its physical, ecological aspect as well as by collective memory of events, ancestors, social association, religious significance. This makes the process of landscape transformation a socio-ecological process. Source: Elaborated by author</caption><thead><tr><td></td><td>Landscape</td><td>Literal translation</td><td>Spatial characteristic</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>Dhabreda</td><td>Shifting land</td><td>Steep slopes with loose and rocky top soil</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Simar</td><td>Swampy area</td><td>Agricultural terraces with seasonal water sprouts that create swampy areas, usually used by cattle for resting</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Rikhdu</td><td>Bear slope</td><td>Slopes frequented by bears in the past</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Kaakdhal</td><td>Uncle's slope</td><td>Terraces on slope associated with a specific ancestor</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Mali sain</td><td>Upper open area</td><td>upper fields of the valley, with shallow slopes and wider expanse</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Tali sain</td><td>Lower open area</td><td>lower fields of the valley, with shallow slopes and wider expanse</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Auji Dhang</td><td>Rocky slope</td><td>Slopes closer to the water spring in the valley with massive rocks</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>Khal Dhang</td><td>Grass slope</td><td>Slopes where 'khal' a local grass species grows</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>Sheela</td><td>Cold place</td><td>Slopes under shadow, hence colder and less productive</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>Kandua</td><td>With thorn</td><td>Fields with a local shrub species with thorns</td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>Pasrua</td><td>(unavailable)</td><td>(unavailable)</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>Banela</td><td>Near Banela - water source (Also Sera)</td><td>Irrigated fields, lower in the valley close to a water source</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>Diphbala</td><td>Place where gods land or dance</td><td>Wider fields with gradual slope</td></tr><tr><td>14</td><td>Timla Faini</td><td>Ficus Auriculata (tree) stairs</td><td>Terraces where a Timli tree is located. The tree has medicinal and nutritional values for the community and is considered auspicious</td></tr><tr><td>15</td><td>Gaumundi</td><td>Cows' seat</td><td>Shaded terraces close to the spring in the valley</td></tr><tr><td>16</td><td>Dumkhai</td><td>Valley of the low caste Doms</td><td>Low lying fields in the Valley, cold and unproductive</td></tr><tr><td>17</td><td>Phakrela</td><td>(unavailable)</td><td>(unavailable)</td></tr><tr><td>18</td><td>Ganmli Chauri</td><td>Village temple</td><td>Where village 'Chauri' or temple is located</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>Bedu</td><td>Ficus palmata Forssk (Bedu tree)</td><td>Fields with Bedu trees</td></tr><tr><td>20</td><td>Lohitu</td><td>(unavailable)</td><td>Fields with specific soil, used for smearing wall surfaces</td></tr><tr><td>21</td><td>Dankoi</td><td>(unavailable)</td><td>Fields near the market</td></tr><tr><td>22</td><td>Baghjiba</td><td>Of leopard</td><td>Slopes frequented by leopards</td></tr><tr><td>23</td><td>Bhangdu</td><td>Cannabis/hemp slope</td><td>Slopes where cannabis grows, on high altitudes and ample sunlight</td></tr><tr><td>24</td><td>Malgadu</td><td>(unavailable)</td><td>Terraces on high altitudes, less productive</td></tr><tr><td>25</td><td>Phabela</td><td>(unavailable) (Also Ukhir)</td><td>non irrigated</td></tr><tr><td>26</td><td>Santithan</td><td>Abandoned fields</td><td>(unavailable)</td></tr><tr><td>27</td><td>Dandu</td><td>(Fields near) Pastures</td><td>Terraces closer to the forest fringe and forest pastures, cultivated seasonally</td></tr><tr><td>28</td><td>Malal Ghat</td><td>Cremation grounds</td><td>(unavailable)</td></tr><tr><td>29</td><td>Faini Dhar</td><td>Stepped stream</td><td>Steep terraces near a water stream</td></tr><tr><td>30</td><td>Ragwat</td><td>(unavailable)</td><td>(unavailable)</td></tr><tr><td>31</td><td>Ransal</td><td>(unavailable)</td><td>(unavailable)</td></tr></tbody></table>
<figure><img src="image_211.png" /><figcaption>Figure 3: The mosaic of village, agriculture, and forest landscape. The agricultural landscape is embedded with varied meanings established through social relations. Source: Elaborated by author.</figcaption></figure>

Some of these definitions are based on geological and ecological attributes of the landscape (such as *Sheela*, *Khal Dhang*, *Baghjiba*) which are crucial for adapting or manipulating it for subsistence. The terrain, slopes and orientation, sunlight and climate, soil suitability, water are all deciding factors for occupation in the mountains. Most households in the community cultivate terraces in the valley (*Sain*) or on the higher slopes close to the forest (*Dandu*) or also have irrigated (*Banela*) or non-irrigated (*Phabela*) fields, in order to utilize the seasonally varying qualities of the landscape. As it creates a fragmented pattern of the terraces, households must negotiate access to the resources and the terraces themselves. The making and upkeep of the terrace requires cooperation between neighbouring cultivators which may occupy the lower, upper or adjacent terrace; for example, the maintenance and repair of the retaining wall of a terrace is a concern of the household that cultivates the upper terrace. In this way labor and responsibility are spread out over the landscape and each inhabitant find themselves engaging with the landscape as a socio-ecological system rather than just a piece of land.

Other definitions such as, *Dipthala* (terraces where gods dance) or *Dumkhai* (terraces of the low caste community *Dom*) indicate the reciprocal effect of the nature-culture relationship in the Garhwali way of occupying the land. While the practice of agriculture transforms the land based on ecological logics and creates a social order in its process. The definitions of *Dipthala* or *Dumkhai* show us how social structures are used to gain/limit locational assets and resources. *Dipthala* terraces in Massau village, are large open terraces. Their location on the ridge of a low spur is highly coveted due to ample sunlight, closeness to the water springs of the valley, and gradual slope. By associating the location with gods, it is claimed by the higher caste inhabitants. Similarly, the lower caste *Doms* of the community are restricted to the shadowed, cold and unproductive slopes of the *Dumkhai*. The climate and geology of these slopes supports a local species of bamboo – *ringal* which the *Doms* craft into baskets used for carrying manure. In the region, the lower caste communities are called ‘shilpkars’ or craftsmen engaging in different crafts such as basket making, smelting and ironing, stonework etc. indicating their limited access to cultivable land and also their assumed history of hunting/gathering as aborgines. The limitations on forest practices have perpetuated their dependency on (higher caste) cultivators for subsistence. The collective experience of socially
constructing the agricultural landscape is shared across generations and results in sense of obligation and care towards the landscape. Stengers describes this sense of obligation as ‘belonging’ functioning in a particular syntax, in case of Garhwalis, the social structures define actions of different practitioners and their own way of relating to the landscape (Stengers, 2005).

## Forest

In the state of Uttarakhand, almost 95% of forest land is state owned as Reserved forests (69.86%) and Protected forests (26.01%) which also include the community forests as per Indian State of Forest Report 2019. The community forests are harvested for subsistence needs and managed by the community under surveillance/support of the forest department. The six villages in the study have access to two types of community forests – each village has a civil forest<fnref n="2" /> and a shared forest called the *Van Panchayat*<fnref n="3" /> forest. The shared Van Panchayat Forest is open for use throughout the year and is the primary source of green leafy fodder, fuelwood. The village forest however is open for harvesting only in spring and is preserved or saved for crisis or emergencies. The different administrative categories of forest thus govern different rules of behaviour. The nearby Reserved Forest of Dudhatoli and its pastures are accessible seasonally for the traditional herders of the region. Additionally, each household also maintains a ‘pet forest’ close to their homes to fulfill fodder and timber needs. These forest landscapes are linked with notions of owning/belonging, based on shared values and practices on one hand (Pfaff-Czarnecka and Toffin, 2011) while on the other hand they are results of exploitative state impositions of territorial and resource control (Haeuber, 1993).

## Lopping and Grazing

Forest lopping is a daily practice, except for winter when the livestock relies on dried grass reserves. In summer and spring months, the monolithic and seemingly amorphous forest is approached each morning by the women of Massau GS. Within the forest, women – sometimes accompanied by few cows and goats, tend to mutually agreed upon parts. They climb the trees with help of a rope and hack away the oak branches to the ground. The process of piling up oak branches, segregating into leafy fodder and wood and tying up to be carried back eventually clears up the forest ground and creates recognizable terraces. Within the season the practice is rotated over different parts and shifted altitudinally creating contoured definitions within the forest mass. The practice of lopping morphologically and ecologically transforms the forest landscape [fig. 4]. As the women spend 4-5 hours lopping in the forest, they often engage in loud chit-chat across the trees, laughs, and even singing. As such the forest has a twin-side of a social space for the women more than just a resource gathering place.

## Water

There's a variety of traditional hydrological structures employed by Himalayan communities, such as ponds, tanks, locally called ‘chappris/chaals’, which harvest underground water seepage (naulas), springs (dharas), and rainwater (Rawat, A.S. and Sah, R., 2009) [fig. 5]. As in other Himalayan contexts, most of these traditional structures in Massau GS are being replaced by the modern systems of water distribution. For example, in Sassau the traditional *chals* lie defunct at the forest fringe, while long lines of metal pipes now bring the water from the forest springs into a concrete water tank from where it is distributed to the households. Each village in Massau GS, has built their own tanks to tap water source from within their village forest. Apart from consumption, springs and mountain streams are also considered important for religious worship and emotional well-being of the community as the traditional water structures were often linked with temples (Chauhan 2010). Divination was a way to safeguard resources and to associate with the landscape. Constructing and upkeep of these water landscape was a common affair making them integral part of the settlement. The contemporary concrete tanks, constructed by immigrant masons of the plains however are purely utilitarian and have nothing sacred about them. As opposed to the traditional water landscapes with social importance, the contemporary water landscapes are desolate spaces [fig. 5].

<footnote n="2">² Civil forest - civil forest. They were also called *Soyam* as they were areas of poorest soil quality and considered ‘wastelands’ where nothing grows.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ *Van panchayat*</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_212.png" /></figure>

Figure 4: Lopping of the Oak trees in the spring season impacts the forest ecologically and morphologically. As lopping is done by women, this impact is gendered, the interpersonal relationships of women guide this transformation. Source: Photo by author.

<figure><img src="image_213.png" /></figure>

Figure 5: Traditional water structures of Garhwal versus contemporary structures.

## Sacred Groves

Religion is highly important in defining Garhwali identity and in making of the landscape, as settling in a particular site is often religiously sanctioned by the deities. In Massau GS, for example the ancestors had identified the places where gods had landed and settled their village. In local belief, the ancestors were
guided by the deities in the process of settling – which begins with setting up of a temple for housing a village/local deity, followed by siting the settlement and the agricultural terraces. For Garhwalis, religious beliefs and practices are fundamental ways of engaging with the environment. The landscape is sprinkled with several small shrines. Some shrines are powerful domains of the deities while others mark historical events, ancestral linkages, important peaks, water sources, trees or hold other local meanings. The religious aspect of the landscape is thus intertwined with the physical and the social aspect.

The *Ma Kalinka* shrine in Sassau is of regional importance, every six years a ceremonial animal sacrifice is performed for the prosperity and stability of the region. The site consists of an altar under an ancient oak tree and relatively wider terraces around it, located on the ridge of the Sassau village. Together with the ancient shrine of the spring (which lies to its west), the *Kalinka* shrine forms a sacred landscape between the forest and the settlement [fig. 6]. It is an intermediate landscape of patches of forest and agricultural terraces, shared between gods and humans. Similarly in the valley village of Massau, the temple of local deity (*Sapteshwar Mahadev*), located at the confluence of two water streams, serves as a threshold between the human and natural elements (in this case water).

<figure><img src="image_214.png" /><figcaption>Figure 6: The religious landscape serves as an intermediate landscape between the village of Sassau and the forest.
Source: Elaborated by author.</figcaption></figure>

## The Village

In the GS, there are four typical settlement typologies associated with the physical aspects of the landscape– the ridge settlement (Massau and Sassau), the valley settlement (Dhara Massau), and the mid-slope settlements (Pajiyana, Rajbatta on southern slope and Jandariya on northern slope) [fig. 6,7].

Massau is the oldest settlement in the GS. It is located on a narrow ridge of a small spur. Despite being on the northern slopes, it receives ample sunlight and has two water streams surrounding it. The agricultural terraces of the settlement are located on the southern slopes of the watershed. Due to the limited space on the ridge, Massau has expanded on some of these agricultural terraces in the valley. This cluster is now known as the village of Dhara Massau. For similar reasons, the ridge settlement of Sassau is now expanding at the roadside (at the break of slope) away from the original settlement. While Dhara Massau utilizes the abundance of water and soil fertility of the valley, the expansion of Sassau hopes to utilize the growing traffic and material flows on the valley road that connects the towns of Pithsain and Bungidhar and is further connected to National Highways 309 and 109. The expansion of Sassau consists of a primary school that serves the six villages of the GS and three convenience shops which also serve as (adhoc) taxi/bus stop
for the growing para-transit services. The convenience shops are supplied with goods from Ramnagar, a
city in the foothills located 160km away from the site.

These new operations while tied to logics beyond the local conditions and relations, are emerging factors
in guiding local social and spatial transformation. The road itself becomes the parking point for the taxis in
the early morning hours, a playground at noon and reverts to being a parking for the returning taxis at
night. The simple acts of using privatized transport or buying products from the convenience store are
indicators of higher social status. They reflect the communities' aspirations for an urban lifestyle. De Lauwe
shows us that emerging aspirations often seek to crystallize into images before being realized in life (de
Lauwe, 1964). In case of Massau GS, the association of buying manufactured goods or using taxis serves a
symbolic purpose and in line with the myth of roads as 'urbanization' prevalent in the region. This spatial
transformation also impacts social mobility. For example, one of the new convenience shops of Massau are
owned by a *Bhandari* family, upper caste but not the highest caste of *Brahmans*, who have gained power
through capital accumulation and changed their social status by engaging in commercial operations.

<figure><img src="image_215.png" /><figcaption>Figure 7: Settlement configuration of Massau (valley settlement) and Pajiyana (mid-slope settlement). Source: Elaborated by author.</figcaption></figure>

Changing relations with the landscape

For the Garhwali community, the social meaning of the landscape established through practice is equally
important as its physical aspects. Typical of indigenous land-based practices, the collaborative
management and occupation of the landscape and its natural resources inculcates a sense of attachment
and care that persists through time and space. The sense of attachment plays out at different scales:

- At personal level, for example in case of the ‘pet forests’ or ‘pet trees’ which are taken care of by
households across generations.

- At interpersonal level, for example in the case of women the forest becomes a gendered space of social expression.

- At level of the community, for example in case of the agricultural landscape which is socially constructed through collaborative effort.

- for the society at large, for example in consecration of the forest and shrines which are of regional
importance.

These multiple scales of attachment, show multiple ways in which landscape is socially constructed through
practice. In line with place-making theories, the practices of landscape transformation thus can be seen as
a socio-cultural activity of settling. Landscapes constructed with attachment and care, inculcate a sense of
patrimony or stewardship, an important factor for the persistence of these practices. The sense of patrimony
can be further understood in the description of forest as ‘dharohar’ or heritage by the community, in the
practice of ‘pet forests’ and ‘pet trees’ as inheritance. As attachments go together with autonomy (Latour,
1999), local systems of governance/institutions (e.g., *panchayati*<fnref n="4" /> system or the forest *chowkidar*<fnref n="5" /> system) are established through persistence of these practices, to minimize conflict and ensure optimum resource use are used to minimize conflict and ensure optimum resource use. This makes the process of physical use of the landscape dynamic and iterative process based on internal relationality of the community.

When reflecting on their relationship with the forest, the community shared socio-cultural and religious practices to communicate the importance of forests in their lives, but at the same time they used administrative distinctions of Civil Forest, *Van Panchayat* Forest and Reserved Forest. While the community conserves their own village forest and uses it with strict restriction and limitations, they don't show a similar conservationist attitude towards the *Van Panchayat* Forest or the Reserved Forest. This indicates a process of detachment from the landscape/forest produced because of colonial expropriation and territorialisation.

The colonial land settlement strategies for the first time imposed legal ownership for the purpose of revenue collection suppressing the collective and shared use of resources. The focus on incentivised agricultural expansion, commodity production for export by East India Company contorted the social means of production for subsistence into means of capital. The East India Company blatantly disregarded the traditional forest dependencies and restricted local access and use in favour of commercial forest exploitation. This was later followed by the Imperial Forest department who continued to expand territorial control over Himalayan forests and its resources. The restrictions on movement within the landscape under colonialisation translated into disruption of the social constitution of landscape. In the village forests, which were allowed to be managed by the communities themselves, the limited autonomy contributed to the continuation of relational ways of practice. As such the village forests became ‘*hamara jungle*’ or our forest as opposed to the Reserved forests which became ‘*janglad ka jungle*’ or forests of the (forest) department where the traditional practices were banned. These distinctions, the sense of attachment and detachment, persist even today and play an important role in landscape transformation and occupation. An example is the development of public works, such as the high school of Massau or construction of the rural roads, for which the community prefers to divert state forest land rather than their own agricultural or village forest lands. In this case, the landscape or the forest does not only have an ecological dimension but also a socio-political one embedded within it, and which if disrupted can cause the sense of stewardship to degrade.

The contemporary development in the region is increasingly influenced by growing markets and capital flows. The traditional ways of being through practice are now transforming into ways of being through production and consumption, which in turn transforms the community's relation with the landscape and with nature. In Massau, a new practice of landscape making has emerged – boundary wall construction. It is a building and construction activity under the employment guarantee scheme of MGNREGA, which a scheme to ensure minimum living wages and employment in the rural areas of India. Due to limited opportunities of employment, most of the employment under MGNREG is directed in building and rebuilding boundary walls between forest lands and revenue lands. Under the scheme, the traditional practices of landscape making, such as building village paths, temples or water structures formerly constructed collaboratively by the community, are now converted into paid employment. As the physical boundaries are made more visible within the landscape, the historical segregation and limitation on movement and occupation within the landscape are ideologically re-enforced. The act itself, does not allow for personal, interpersonal, or communal relations and reduces the landscape to its physical dimension. Despite efforts for livelihood improvement, schemes like MGNREGA fail to confront the contingent socio-spatial challenges. It separates the process of landscape construction, from settling by making it an exogenous means of earning daily wages.

Conclusion

In Garhwal settlements and landscape reflects social relations entangled with historical, local, and regional contexts. Through the notion of relationality, the paper identified different interpersonal and collective ways the community interacts with their environment. By identifying local definitions of the landscape, the paper pushes for a nuanced reading of the landscape. It highlights the multifunctionality and dynamism of

<footnote n="4">⁴ *Panchayati Raj* – a system of local rural governance, historically based on customary norms and beliefs of the community, later exploited by the British to impose new legislations on revenue and land-use.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Forest *chowkidar* or forest guard is selected by the village for surveillance of the village forest. This guard is either a volunteer or proposed by the forest council, who is paid by each household either with monetary compensation or with grains.</footnote>
settling within the landscape through sociability, which has been historically suppressed through simplified and rigid administrative understanding of the landscape as employed by the contemporary land-use and planning tools. As remote rural regions like Dudhatoli become increasingly intermingled with national or global networks of power and capital, the settlements suffer from speculative development. In lack of any specific urban visions, such a process is guided by negotiations between community, local governance and beaurocrats, making relational readings of landscapes necessary for understanding the community's evolving relation with nature and avoiding its essentialization.

**Bibliography**

Descola, P., 1994. In the Society of Nature: A Native Ecology in Amazonia. Cambridge University Press.

Escobar, A., 2018. Design for the Pluriverse: Radical interdependence, autonomy, and the making of worlds. Duke University Press.

Gadgil, M. and Guha, R., 1993. This fissured land: an ecological history of India. University of California Press.

Govindrajan, R., 2018. Animal Intimacies: Interspecies Relatedness in India's Central Himalayas. University of Chicago Press.

Guha, R., 2000. The Unquiet Woods. [online] Available at: <https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520222359/the-unquiet-woods> [Accessed 19 June 2021].

Haeuber, R., 1993. Indian Forestry Policy in Two Eras: Continuity or Change? Environmental History Review, 17(1), pp.49–76. https://doi.org/10.2307/3984890.

de Lauwe, P.-H.C., 1964. Aspirations, images guides et transformations sociales. Revue française de sociologie, 5(2), pp.180–192. https://doi.org/10.2307/3319797.

Negi, R., Thakur, K. and Ali, S.S., 2016. Contoured Urbanism: People, Property and Infrastructures in the Indian Himalayas. Urbanisation, 1(2), pp.134–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/2455747116677393.

Pfaff-Czarnecka, J. and Toffin, G., 2011. The Politics of Belonging in the Himalayas: Local Attachments and Boundary Dynamics. [online] New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.4135/9788132107729.

Rangan, H., 2000. Of myths and movements: Rewriting Chipko into Himalayan history. Verso.

Shankar, P., 2014. Himalayan cities: Settlement patterns, public places and architecture. Niyogi Books.

Stengers, I., 2005. Introductory notes on an ecology of practices. Cultural studies review, 11(1), pp.183–196.
# Countering the Ongoing Metropolization Process and Neoliberal Logics : Experiences of Dwelling and Cohabitation in the New Neighborhoods of Ain El Aouda, Morocco.

Salma Belkebir

Affiliation: Sasha Research Center (architecture and humanities), Faculty of Architecture La Cambre-Horta, ULBruxelles

Supervisor: Ludivine Damay (Sasha, ULBruxelles)

Expected thesis defence: Winter 2024

Email: Salma.belkebir@ulb.be

## Abstract

This communication stems from a doctoral thesis conducted since November 2018 in collaboration between the Sasha Laboratory (Architecture and Human Sciences) at ULBruxelles and the National Institute of Planning and Urbanism in Rabat, Morocco. Using four scales of analysis (domestic space, neighborhood (block), district, and city), its objectives are to understand how the peri-urban neighborhoods of Ain El Aouda (a former rural municipality located 30km south of the capital Rabat) are experienced by its residents, particularly their experiences of living together and their relationships with the city and the metropolis of Rabat.

This article will primarily focus on one of the four case studies, specifically the socio-spatial experience of the residents (their relationships with the neighborhoods) and their spatial appropriations of domestic space. The research methodology involved a series of comprehensive interviews (Kaufmann, 2014) (between 15 and 18 per neighborhood), an in-situ observation protocol, as well as a commented inhabited architectural survey describing the material transformations carried out by the residents.

## Local Context : Urban Mega-Projects in Rabat and the Ongoing Process of Metropolization

Administrative capital of the Kingdom, Rabat has been an emerging metropolis focused on the international stage since the early 2000s, marking the ascension to the throne of King Mohammed VI. The aim was to change its image as a purely "administrative" city by initiating a process of modernizing its infrastructure and implementing large-scale urban development and economic projects.

A process of metropolization has been set in motion, resulting in a growing transformation of its urban and social landscape. This includes the launch of major urban development and beautification projects, depopulation of central areas, and an increase in the speed and frequency of movements of former slum dwellers, among others. Additionally, there has been a reconfiguration of its economic functions, with a growing focus on the tertiary sector of the local economy. Most significantly, there are emerging dynamics of social and spatial fragmentation, evident through the proliferation of urban expansion projects and the establishment of new towns. These fragmentary processes are particularly observed in the new urban fringes of the Rabat-Salé-Témara conurbation.

Due to the rise in real estate prices in the city center, these peripheral territories attract an increasingly significant population and host facilities with significant urban nuisances that have been relocated from the central areas of the capital, such as wholesale markets, slaughterhouses, and transportation facilities, among others. Located about thirty kilometers away and containing large public land reserves, these metropolitan peripheries are the receptacles of large-scale social housing projects, primarily targeting vulnerable populations with limited financial resources (transferred slum populations, low-income households in search of more affordable housing, etc.) (Harroud, Belkebir in Abdelhak & De Miras 2022).
<figure><img src="image_216.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.1] Mohamed VI tower, the tallest tower in Africa, from « Besix.com ».</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_217.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.2] Zaha Hadid's Grand theatre, from « akt-uk.com ».</figcaption></figure>
Study Area : The municipality of Ain El Aouda

<figure><img src="image_218.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.3] Map of Skhirat-Témara prefecture, from « Nkhili,H » ,2023.</figcaption></figure>

Located 30km south of the
administrative capital Rabat,
Ain El Aouda is a former rural
municipality created in the
1930s by the colonial power. It
falls under the jurisdiction of
the Skhirat Témara prefecture.
Since the early 1970s, it has
experienced a massive influx of
populations, primarily from
rural areas due to drought
waves affecting Morocco.
However, since 2004, with the
ease of mobilizing state-owned
lands, migrations mainly come
from cities such as Rabat,
Témara, Salé, as part of the
"Programme Villes Sans
Bidonvilles" (Cities Without
Slums Program). Additionally,
people from other cities in
Morocco are also drawn to Ain
El Aouda, highlighting
differentiated residential
trajectories of residents who
come for employment
opportunities, property
ownership, or seeking a better
living environment close to
nature (Ain El Aouda also
benefits from a microclimate).

<figure><img src="image_219.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.4] The survey sites in Ain El Aouda, « elaborated by the author », 2023.</figcaption></figure>

The neighborhood that will be the focus of this communication is the Sidi Larbi, a residential development located in the southern part of Ain El Aouda.
Relationships with neighborhoods and spatial appropriations of « home » : A case study of the
Sidi Larbi neighborhood

The analysis of the collected materials was based on a protocol that combined variables related to both social and spatial aspects : 1) settlement logics (Chamboredon, Lemaire 1970 ; Grafmeyer, Authier 2015 ; Cayouette-Remblière 2020), 2) residential trajectories (Authier & al. 2010 ; Bacqué & al. 2010 ; Lelévrier 2007), and 3) materialities (spatial position, typomorphology, access to public amenities/proximity and basic social services).

The failure of the equalization project : The end of the myth
of social mixing

The Sidi Larbi New Urbanization Zone (ZUN) is considered the largest resettlement operation in Ain El Aouda. The housing development was launched in 2006 by the public operator Al Omrane as part of the national program "Villes Sans Bidonvilles" (Cities Without Slums). Located in the south of Ain El Aouda, it is bordered by the Zaer road to the east and the Annassr housing development to the south. It was integrated into the sectoral development plan of the municipality in 2007.

Spanning nearly 128 hectares, the integrated hub of Sidi Larbi was designed to accommodate 3,366 lots : 2,250 R+1 lots for the resettlement program (67%), 787 lots for social housing and equalization (33%), as well as nearly 37 facilities. The initial plan aimed to create a place of social mixity, bringing together middle-class households, economically vulnerable populations from neighboring rural douars (Chtab, Al Fokra, and Chmicha), and a range of public facilities, basic social services, and commercial spaces to ensure economic viability.

However, the sale of lots intended for equalization did not succeed, undermining the myth of cohabitation and social mixing. As a result, the population composition of the development shifted towards individual and collective household preferences, in addition to the existing resettlement program.

<figure><img src="image_220.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.5] The programming of Sidi Larbi operation, From Al Omrane</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_221.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.6] The planning phase of the operation Sidi Larbi, from « Al Omrane, 2015 »</figcaption></figure>
The settlement of the neighborhood began gradually in 2007 with the influx of residents from neighboring rural douars: Chtab, Al Foqra, Chmicha. These residents were allocated 60m2 plots of land that they purchased from Al Omrane and had to self-construct with the assistance of an architect. The Sidi Larbi operation has also experienced some slippage and diversion, as demonstrated by other relocation/resettlement projects in Morocco (Hauw 2004). Some households in this category either purchased an apartment in buildings constructed by private developers or acquired plots from previous beneficiaries of the resettlement program.

<figure><img src="image_222.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.7] Plots constructed by former residents of the douars Chtab and Al Foqra, « from the author », 2019.</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_223.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.8] Plots Housing lots for new residents (outside of the douars) « from the author », 2021.</figcaption></figure>

The analysis of the conducted interviews reveals indicators that allow for the identification of certain patterns. The first highlight is the trajectory of category 1 : the former residents of the douars Chtab, Al Foqra, and Chmicha, not all of whom were born in these slums. The majority of interviewed household heads explain that at some point in their residential trajectory, they decided to become homeowners by buying a shack in these douars. The burden of high rent also motivated this choice. Whether former tenants in Rabat or residents of neighboring rural communities near Ain El Aouda (Rommani, Zhiligua), acquiring a shack is the first step towards a certain "stability," albeit relative, that guarantees access to more decent housing at a certain point within the resettlement/relocation programs launched by the state. Family dynamics (marriage, family conflicts) also influence the residential trajectories of residents in this category.

Mr. M, 50 years old, is originally from the south of Morocco but lived in Rabat before coming to the douar Chtab. He state, « My name is Mr. M.S, I am a merchant, but I used to work in the construction sector. I came to Ain El Aouda in 2000 and lived in the douar Chtab for 9 years before being resettled. I am originally from Kelaat Mgouna, the city of roses. I left my home at the age of 12 to work. Before that, I lived in the J5, Massira 2, and Taqqaddoum neighborhoods. My last residence was in Témara (Massira 2), but I couldn't afford the rent anymore, which is why I bought a shack in the douar Chtab » (M, 50 years old, merchant, 2020).

The other categories of residents came to the Sidi Larbi neighborhood primarily from Rabat and other cities in Morocco for various reasons: socio-professional reasons, such as working in Ain El Aouda in
industrial, educational, or entrepreneurial sectors. However, the choice of Ain El Aouda was motivated by the presence of a network of family and friends in the region. For households coming from neighboring rural municipalities (Zhiliga, Rommani, Brachoua, Nkhila, etc.), the decision to move was driven by the desire to be closer to the city and provide their children with better educational opportunities, as many rural municipalities lack middle schools and high schools. However, the choice of Sidi Larbi was also influenced by financial constraints, as the cost per square meter in the neighborhood is relatively low compared to other areas in Ain El Aouda.

Lastly, some residential trajectories in the neighborhood were the result of chance and the desire of certain households to live in a city with a microclimate.

Former resident in Salé, Fatéma followed her sister to Sidi Larbi : « I am F, I am 34 years old, and I am married with two children. I have been in the neighborhood for 7 years. Before, I worked at a daycare center in Salé (Al qarya), and here, I am the director of a daycare center and I have the ambition to open another one in the Annassim neighborhood. I am also the director of the "Al Jayl Al Jadid" association and the "Manara" association, which work for the benefit of autistic children [...] I came here thanks to my family. My sister is a homeowner here, so I came to settle down and start my project » (F, 34 years old, daycare director, 2022).

*Moving to the neighborhood: between uncertainties, socio-economic constraints, and the challenge of acclimatization*

The settlement in the Sidi Larbi housing development for category 1 residents (coming from the douars of Chtab, Chmicha, and Al Foqra) took place in several stages : a lottery operation distributing the lots purchased from Al Omrane. The municipality provided a standard plan, and the self-construction of 60m2 lots began. However, since the authorities did not wait for the completion of the construction work before demolishing the douars, the residents had to either rent in other neighborhoods of Ain El Aouda or rebuild a shack next to their plot of land. This situation caused several effects, including fear, uncertainty, early responsibility of children during the construction phase, and instances of aggression.

« I had to build a shack there, and I was afraid because there was no electricity or anything. You come next to your plot to set up a shack, and you find yourself searching for water when there are few people around. Some people fled elsewhere to rent while gradually building their homes. So you find shacks here and there, and there's this fear just before moving in [...] many people were attacked because their shacks were left unattended ». - S, 35 years old, phone repairer, 2022

For residents from other categories (not originating from the douars of Chtab and Al Foqra), living in the Sidi Larbi housing development is perceived as a disillusionment. They were taken aback by what it meant to live in a neighborhood inhabited by a "lower-class" social group, which, furthermore, was considered unsafe.

« Here, the poor people are in need and face a lot of problems. The majority of them got married and had children without a marriage certificate. It means that I haven't progressed by coming to live next to people who are beneath me ; it's like I have taken a step back ». K, 49 years old, seamstress, 2022.

*A marginalized and under-equipped neighborhood*

The initial project for the Sidi Larbi housing development had planned for 37 facilities, but only a health center, a women's shelter, a mosque, a daycare center, a youth center, and a primary school have been completed (see figure). Sidi Larbi also has a few local shops, two cafes, and saw the construction of the first public space in the neighborhood in 2021.
<figure><img src="image_224.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.9] Facilities in the Sidi Larbi neighborhood « elaborated by the author », 2021.</figcaption></figure>

Sidi Larbi remains one of the least developed neighborhoods in Ain El Aouda, and the fact that it has only one primary school forces the children and youth of the neighborhood to attend schools, middle schools, and high schools in other neighborhoods of Ain El Aouda. As a result, they have to travel long distances due to the neighborhood's peripheral location in relation to Ain El Aouda. This issue impacts the education of the young people, who are also not closely supervised by their parents.

The neighborhood does not have a public bath (hamam), green spaces, and it is far from public transportation facilities due to its relatively peripheral spatial position in relation to Ain El Aouda. Residents have to take triporters to reach the transportation station located in the center of the city (across from Doukkala commercial avenue), which represents additional financial costs for populations that are already socio-economically vulnerable.

S. speaks of Ain El Aouda as if he doesn't really belong to it, as if the isolation of his neighborhood doesn't make him feel like part of the city. He says, "If you want to buy something or reach the main avenue, you don't think that you are in Ain El Aouda. Instead, you think about taking transportation to reach Ain El Aouda because what is available in the center is not found in this neighborhood."

On the other hand, regarding other facilities and basic social services in the neighborhood, the presence of the health center does not guarantee adequate healthcare services for the population of Sidi Larbi. Furthermore, despite the presence of the youth center, which has been closed since 2020 due to the arrival of Covid, according to Abdeali, "Cultural activities are almost nonexistent in the neighborhood. We have a youth center, but it is closed. It's something that hurts because you see that the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) has spent a lot of money on this facility, but it is not open. The young people in the neighborhood used to frequent it, and I also saw some friends who had studied with me go there" (A, 28 years old, building technician, 2022).

Whether they are originally from the douars or from elsewhere, these residents want to leave Sidi Larbi by any means possible, but many cannot, so they stay because they have no other choice, relying on other resources such as family and neighbors for integration.

Sidi Larbi is not recommended for those looking to settle in Ain El Aouda. F., who came from Salé to settle in Sidi Larbi and open her daycare, recounts, "Everyone has the same idea here. When you take the bus, wait at a station, or go to an administrative office, you often hear that people from Sidi Larbi are difficult and that the neighborhood should be avoided. Once, a woman wanted to rent a place and was directed to Sidi Larbi, but as soon as she arrived here, everyone tried to dissuade her. In fact, my neighbor
decided to rent her apartment and move to Taqaddoum with her children. In the beginning, you could be peacefully settled at home and hear loud banging on the door, sometimes with stones, but since the COVID pandemic, it has gotten a little better".

Residents' appropriation of their homes & portrait of Khadija :

The appropriation of the new housing in the Sidi Larbi neighborhood highlights a first dichotomous reality : that of former residents of douars (category 1) who are relieved not to live in shanties anymore but who struggle to take ownership of their new homes. They explain this by the impossibility for some, who do not have sufficient economic means, to complete the self-construction of their houses. These houses remain for several years in a state of bareness and dilapidation: lack of doors and windows, unfinished plastering, no paint, and sometimes even posing a safety threat to residents as some houses do not have handrails on the staircase. D, a former resident of douar Chtab, expresses her opinion:

"It's really complicated to build a whole house. I have constructed it, but there is no renovation inside or outside. Just the plastering, the bricks, and then you add the doors and windows." (D, 56 years old, unemployed)

The second point that makes the appropriation difficult in the Sidi Larbi neighborhood is the size of the lots granted to households, which is around 60m2. According to the residents, it does not meet their space needs and is too narrow to accommodate all members of the extended family.

"The family consists of several members, and 60m2 is not sufficient. It's not like other neighborhoods, we feel that we have been shortchanged because Ain El Aouda is huge, so the plot of land could have easily exceeded 60m2, do you understand what I mean?" (A, 28 years old, civil engineering technician, 2022).
<figure><img src="image_225.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_226.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_227.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_228.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.10, 11, 12 13] Interiors of homes belonging to residents from the douars « elaborated by the author », 2021.</figcaption></figure>

As you can see in the photos above, the interior condition of the houses reflects the socio-economic difficulties of some households and also influences their ability to fully appropriate their homes in Sidi Larbi. Images 2, 3, and 4 show the arrangements made by residents within their domestic space to accommodate changes in the family unit. This particular house belongs to Khadija's neighbor, whom I will profile later, and during the visit, she explained that they had to reconfigure the entire floor to accommodate one of their children who got married. Moving out was not an option for them as they couldn't afford to buy or rent elsewhere.

For residents in the other categories (non-douar inhabitants), the appropriation of their homes is not as much of a problem since they have completed the construction of their houses. Some rent out a floor
while others face other issues such as the stability of the ground on which their house was built. However,
this category primarily struggles with integrating into the neighborhood, as we discussed earlier.

The facades of the houses above belong to this category and one can notice a clear difference compared
to the first category : the houses are completed and the materials used are of higher quality (paint and
cladding, wrought iron enclosures)

<figure><img src="image_229.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.14] Houses built by the new residents
« elaborated by the author », 2021.</figcaption></figure>

Profile of k.

K. arrived in the Sidi Larbi neighborhood of Douar Chtab in 2010. Married and a mother of three children, she belongs to the category of vulnerable residents who make up the majority of the neighborhood. The interview took place in the living room, which was open to the sitting area where her bedridden husband sat. She had placed mint tea, pastries, bread, and olive oil on the table before her neighbors joined us. Even before I started asking her questions, she began the interview by saying :

"Dear sister, I'll be honest with you, the bank is making us sick, it's jeopardizing our future because they want to sell our house. They have listed it on the judicial sales website because my husband is sick. Everyone you see here is poor [...]. Just tell me, where will we go if it gets sold? We have suffered for many years in this shack [berraqa], like bananas in a greenhouse. We bought it in 1999, but I am originally from Massira 2 (Témara). We used to rent there and we didn't have our own place, so we bought it, but we have suffered a lot." (K, 49 years old, unemployed, 2020).
<figure><img src="image_230.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.15] The sales location for cleaning product at khadija's. « elaborated by the author », 2021.</figcaption></figure>

She primarily relies on donations from the neighborhood after her husband's work accident on a construction site, which occurred nearly two years ago. To help herself, she also sells cleaning products displayed on the open window of a room overlooking one of the main streets of Sidi Larbi.

Like many former residents of Douars Chtab, Al Foqra, and Chmicha, K is facing the threat of eviction. She says, "The bank still holds the title [...], all our documents are still with them, we have nothing, only God. They are waiting for us to finish repaying the loan before issuing us the title." Her neighbor sitting right beside her adds, "It was my father who paid off my loan at the bank, he partnered with me and had a 50% share. But when he passed away, my brothers and sisters demanded their shares [...]. Now the court has made its decision and they are asking me to leave my home, otherwise they will forcefully remove me."

A few minutes later, another neighbor enters, and K. says, "She is the woman who takes care of my husband at the neighborhood health center, the truth is if any of us need medication, she doesn't hesitate to bring it to them." Discussions continue with Khadija and her neighbors about what is lacking in Ain El Aouda, according to them, there is a need for specialist doctors, dermatologists, psychiatrists, and health centers that provide medication, not to mention the transportation issues.

According to these women, meeting spaces are becoming scarce in the neighborhood. The women's qualification center supported by the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), where they used to attend literacy classes, has been non-operational for a year. The youth center has also closed its doors since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. One of them states, "There are no gardens, so we gather outside our doors. Even the mosque is closed." Finally, these neighbors spoke to me about the strong bond that connects them and the solidarity that helps them cope with the difficult living conditions in Sidi Larbi. Khadija adds :

"I was away from my house for two months, and it was my neighbors who were there. I don't know how I could ever thank them. They were the ones who did the laundry, cooked meals for my children. The kindness I found in my neighbors, I did not find it in my own family." (K, unemployed, interview, 2020)

After her neighbors left, I stayed alone to talk with Khadija about the interior organization of her house and the modifications she had made. She told me that she had not followed the plan authorized by the municipality and provided by Al Omrane.
<figure><img src="image_231.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.16] Typical floor plan pf Khadija's house, 'From Al Omrane' 2021.</figcaption></figure>

Based on the plan provided by Al Omrane for self-construction purposes, I reconstructed the original plan and attempted to understand, based on K's account, the material transformations she made when building her home.

By changing the arrangement of the stairs, K. was able to create a space underneath for a toilet and a shower. Additionally, the original plan had the living room at the entrance, but Khadija decided to turn it into a sales area for cleaning products. Instead of a bathroom, "Bit El glass" (a sitting room) was created. She tells me, "You know, where we are sitting right now, that's where the shower was supposed to be." This space is the most used in the house; it's where she receives the neighbors, watches television, and shares meals with her family. However, it was omitted from the initial plans provided by Al Omrane.

In the new spatial arrangement, the former bedroom has become the living room, now positioned opposite the sitting room. The current bedroom has taken the place of the kitchen in the original plans. As for the kitchen, it has found its place in the courtyard, which Khadija had to cover with corrugated sheet metal. While the courtyard was originally conceived in the initial plans by Al Omrane as a source of light and ventilation due to the adjoining plots, this element was "sacrificed" by Khadija to gain more space.
<figure><img src="image_232.png" /></figure>

Légende :

1 COU

2 CUISINE

3 SDB

4 WC

5 ch. à Coucher

6 SALON

<figure><img src="image_233.png" /></figure>

Légende :

<figure><img src="image_234.png" /></figure>

ENTRÉE

<figure><img src="image_235.png" /></figure>

TROITOI'R

1 CUISINE

2 ch. à COUCHER

3 SÉJOUR [Bit Lglass]

4 SALON

5 W.C

6 Hall [WEST EDGAR]

7 local de VENTE

// N1 toyEN

[Fig.17] Ground floor plan approved by the municipality,
« Elaborated by the author », 2021

[Fig.18] Ground floor plan modified by Kh., « Elaborated by the author », 2021
<figure><img src="image_236.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.19] Underneath the staircase, K. has positioned the toilets, as her house does not have a shower « Elaborated by the author » 2021.</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_237.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.20] The new kitchen, which has talekn the place of the courtyard « Elaborated by the author » 2021.</figcaption></figure>

The new kitchen better meets K's needs. It is more spacious and provides additional storage space for utensils. This premise reinforces the importance of the kitchen in the interior organization of the domestic space among the residents of the Sidi Larbi neighborhood. However, this new interior rearrangement deprives the bedroom and the living room of natural light. To compensate for this, a small opening has been placed in the middle of the wall facing the room that overlooks the street. The need for natural ventilation and lighting is evident, which is why the residents leave the front door open during the day. The issue of privacy inside the house is also questioned due to the absence of doors and partitions between rooms. Moreover, the living room is shared by the children and the parents and also serves as a sleeping area. In this case, K's husband sleeps in the living room with their three children while she stays in the bedroom.

<figure><img src="image_238.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.21] The new living room is illuminated by a small opening that overlooks the space where cleaning products are sold, « Elaborated by the author » 2021.</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_239.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.22] The new bedroom does not have natural lighting. Separated from the kitchen by a curtain, it benefits from the lighting coming from the courtyard, « Elaborated by the author » 2021.</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_240.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.23] The front door remains open throughout the day to provide lighting and ventilation to the house, « Elaborated by the author » 2021.</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_241.png" /><figcaption>[Fig.24] K's unfinished house reflects the precariousness of a majority of households coming from the douar's, « Elaborated by the author » 2021.</figcaption></figure>

K's house is not finished, like nearly 70% of the lots in Sidi Larbi. Only one floor out of two is completed, and the exterior facade, as shown in the photo below, is generally not painted. Sometimes, as is the case here, even the plaster is not applied. In terms of interior design, the absence of openings (doors and windows) and handrails on the stairs is very common, especially among former slum dwellers.

In addition to posing a danger in terms of use, this situation complicates the spatial appropriation of "home" in Sidi Larbi for the population living in these precarious conditions. It is therefore quite relative because, on one hand, by deviating from the initial plan, the domestic space is transformed to better meet the daily needs of the residents. But on the other hand, the households' economic insolvency, leading to the non-repayment of credit expenses to the bank, results in them being dispossessed of their assets, which are put up for judicial sale. Ultimately, these residents are threatened with eviction at any time, and "home" becomes the "property of the bank," as affirmed by a majority of the respondents from the Douars Chtab and Al Foqra.

However, despite the aforementioned conditions, observations in Sidi Larbi demonstrate that it is constantly evolving and that residents continue to reshape their homes, albeit without adhering to spatial and architectural norms. Each person does it in their own way, based on their current financial means, personal tastes, and preferences, and within a timeline that allows for noticeable distinctions in Sidi Larbi neighborhood (image X) between those coming from the Douars and those coming from outside Ain El Aouda.

## Conclusion

We have seen how the failure of the equalization project in the Sidi Larbi settlement limited the settlement of other population categories and ultimately confined the neighborhood to the resettlement of the Chtab, Al Foqra, and Chmicha rural areas. However, the reality on the ground has shown that other categories of households, with multiple individual and collective logics, have joined the neighborhood in recent years for professional, family, and socio-economic reasons.

Regarding the residential trajectories of Category 1 (coming from the rural areas), although households perceive the transition from the rural areas to the settlement as a form of upward social mobility, this experience is not without constraints, making the appropriation of the neighborhood by these households quite controversial. As I demonstrated earlier, settling in the Sidi Larbi neighborhood has weakened their socio-economic situation because they now have to pay for additional expenses that they did not have in the rural areas: water and electricity bills, as well as monthly bank loans for a large segment of the population working in the informal sector. The dream of becoming homeowners has been doomed to failure for a majority of residents who are threatened with eviction by banks. For other categories coming
from areas other than slums (outside the rural areas), "shock" and "surprise" characterized some of their perceptions of their residential trajectories when they settled in the settlement, making their adaptation quite complicated and leading some to regret their choice of the neighborhood. These perceptions are fueled by the stigmatization of the neighborhood and the negative image conveyed by both residents and non-residents of the neighborhood.

The image of the Sidi Larbi settlement is also constructed based on a material reality, which is its marginal spatial position in Ain El Aouda, far from central areas and public transportation, the absence of public facilities and amenities, leisure spaces, and the failure of services, particularly the health center and the neighborhood mosque. This situation has led some households to leave the neighborhood and return to their former place of residence because living in the neighborhood was seen as a real decline, both for themselves and for their loved ones, whom they wished to see progress in a better environment. For others, staying in the neighborhood is not a choice but an obligation because they cannot go back.

Finally, the analysis of the case study has demonstrated, on the one hand, the residents' ability to adapt and modify their domestic space. These new arrangements better meet their daily needs. However, their precarious socio-economic situations make it almost impossible for these households to complete their homes. These houses remain in a semi-finished state for several years, also posing a threat to the residents' safety (lack of handrails for the staircase, uncovered reinforcement of the structure). Can we then say that this precarious and poorly inhabited situation that characterized them when they lived in slums continues to perpetuate in these new homes in Ain El Aouda ?

## Bibliography

- Abdelhak, K., & De Miras, C. (2022). Territoires et création de valeurs. L'État et la dynamique des acteurs au Maroc. (Vol. 2).

- Hauw, D. (2004). Les opérations de relogement en habitat collectif à Casablanca. De la vision des aménageurs aux pratiques des habitants.

- Kaufmann, J.-C. (2011). L'entretien compréhensif (3e éd). A. Colin.
III.a
*Between soils and sub-soils :*
*Mining landscapes*

*Towards desealing as a widespread situated practice* (p.372)

Broggini Federico, Roma3 (IT)

*Urban soil assessment: exploring constraints and environmental benefits of soil transformation* (p.378)

Bossard, Alexandre, UCLouvain (BE)

*Formation, evolution and future of an architectural type – the mining habitat in northern France*

(p.396)

Niemann Sebastian, UCLouvain (BE)

*Landscapes of Migration. Displacement and the ecologies of urban ruins in mining settlements. The case of Limburg, Belgium* (p.408)

Zani, Jacopo, ETH Zurich (CH)
# Towards desealing as a widespread situated practice

Federico Broggini

Università degli Studi RomaTre
Annalisa Metta, Marco Ranzato
Expected thesis defence: December, 2024
federico.broggini@uniroma3.it

This contribution aims to critically examine the assumptions and conceptions about de-sealing actions according to the main European strategies on soil care in the context of the ecological transition.

It will be argued that desealing is not a matter of quantity, but rather a tool to improve the environmental quality of desealed soils, enhance sealed surfaces functioning and activate social inclusion processes. In this sense desealing should be always conceived as a situated and spatial action, that varies depending on the contexts. In order to explore this potential aspect of de-sealing this contribution focuses on two case studies of policies, Ontharding Program in Flanders, with a special regard to GreenWithGrey systemic project, and Dessert Program in France, both investigating de-sealing actions as a tool to fertilise soils enhancing and experimenting new relations between different soils and the bodies that inhabit them: in few words a tool for coexistence.

## Transition: a matter of soil politics

In a famous article for the magazine Casabella in 1986, Bernardo Secchi reflected on urban design, proposing to shift attention “from the building to the ground, to the surface area between buildings that cannot be denied or reduced to a technical space” (Secchi 1986 p. 136). Secchi reflected on the need to articulate open space in order to qualify it and thus make it available to perform several functions, several activities, to act as a support. The Italian urbanist pointed out the *soil project* above all as a strategy of modifying the existing. Secchi's proposal is now more relevant than ever, not only concerning the spatial relevance but also according to its intrinsic ecological value. Indeed, soil is a complex ecological system living in its thickness, in its dialogue with the subterranean and atmospheric envelope. Soil is an environmental resource which need to be regenerated and fertilised as far as possible, since plants and animals' life depend on it, thanks to the reabsorption of solar radiation, the storage of carbon, the containment of the overheating of the earth's average temperature and the water cycle regulation capacities (Pavia 2019).

In the context of climate change, human beings are forced to make a systemic transition with the main objective of reducing carbon emissions, thereby containing the global temperature rise whose impacts are well known, while limiting and containing the social inequalities produced by the current production system of unlimited growth (Krähmer, Cristiano 2022). These efforts affect every aspect of our daily lives: mobility, manufacturing, technology, energy production, the food system, waste management and others, all intertwined and inseparable. In this perspective soil plays a fundamental role, as it lies at the intersection of all these aspects (Mantziaras, Viganò 2016).

Along this trajectory, political unions, states and metropolises have developed visions and strategies, to foster ecological transition and imagine new futures, in which soil is a central focus. The results are tangible in the numerous policies and programmes implemented in recent years. These operations make clear the relevance and at the same time the need to rethink urban and territorial design through soils (Barcelloni Corte, Boivin 2022).

## Conceptions of de-sealing in European strategies about soil

In recent decades, within the European Union, there has been a proliferation of programmes and policies that focus on soil and its protection, such as the No Net Land Take by 2050 (European Commission 2016) or the Guidelines to best practice to limit, mitigate, compensate soil sealing (European Commission 2012). They lay the foundation for limiting soil consumption, defined as “the loss of agricultural, forestry and other semi-natural and natural land to urban development and other artificial land. This includes areas sealed by construction and urban infrastructure, as well as urban green areas and sports and recreational facilities” (European Commission 2006).

The mentioned programs have the merit of looking at soil as a non-renewable fragile resource that needs care and a key player in the health of ecosystems: there will be no transition without including soil in any future planification (European Commission 2021). At the same time, however, they place the human-soil relationship within a conservative and protective dimension, in which man and his
activities, especially urbanisation, are inhibited or stigmatised, exasperating the dichotomy between culture and nature. Moreover, this perspective places the focus predominantly on natural and agricultural soils, to the exclusion or neglection of urban sealed soil. Thus, the infinite number of roads, squares, roundabouts, pavements, car parks, that occupy the space we inhabit daily is trivialised into irreversibly consumed soil.

Certainly, the extensive use of sealing materials, of which asphalt is the protagonist, poses non-negligible ecological problems: soil sealing and the consequent modification of the water cycle, decreased infiltration capacity, more frequent flooding risks, increased heat island phenomenon, reduced carbon sequestration capacity, decreased fertility. Soil sealing diminishes or negates the relationships, interactions and qualities that characterise living soil. For these reasons, asphalt is today a stigmatised and rejected material, the embodiment of urbanisation's ills (Ambrosio and Metta 2019). At the same time, impermeable surfaces have a fundamental value for humans, as they allow everyday life to take place, from the transportation of vehicles and goods to recreational and leisure activities. Considering asphalt, as well as all impermeable materials, an integral and active part of the soil is an indispensable step in order to rehabilitate them and to imagine new ways of coexisting and interacting with these materials (Zardini 2003).

Among the strategies proposed by policies and programs to contrast soil consumption, desealing is gaining relevance. Desealing consists in the removal of sealing surfaces and the possible strategies of fertilisation of sealed soil, with the objective of enhancing both in a perspective of co-existence between apparently distant and irreconcilable elements. The desealing action is able to restore an effective connection to the subsoil, alleviate flooding, encourage vegetation and contain heat islands, and make spaces initially conceived as monofunctional available for a variety of urban practices. Furthermore, desealing, instead of being conceived as a mere practice of compensation, should be understood as an action of valorisation that does not end with the removal technique but continues in the practices of care and fertilisation of the de-sealed soil: man becomes an actor in the creation and formation of soils (Richter 2019), within a multi-species community made up of inter-dependent relationships, in which he is recognised as a capacity for care. The value that de-sealing can bring lies in its ability to induce processes of transformation from mono-functional sealed soil to soil as a community (Puig de la Bellacasa 2017). This contribution aims to present two case studies of regional strategies that propose de-sealing as an operational tool to improve spatial, ecological and social qualities of urban spaces respectively in Flanders and France.

## The proeftuinen ontharding: how to address de-sealing on a regional scale level

Flanders ontharding is a movement launched by the Flemish government in 2018 following an initial desealing forum. This was followed by two calls - September 2018 and April 2019 - for project proposals on de-sealing that should contribute to a better spatial quality of our environment. In order to start these projects, Flanders is investing over 10 million euros in 44 *Proeftuinen Ontharding*, which were selected together from 450 project proposals from both calls by an expert team [fig.1]. These 44 pioneering projects or pilot gardens for water management are now all active for desealing the space in Flanders (Departement Omgeving 2020). The pilot projects are not only motivated to move towards realisation, but are also supported by a multidisciplinary group of experts on design, legal and financial issues and communication. Because while remove sealing materials may seem simple at first glance, in reality the opposite is true. De-sealing is part of a necessary transformation of built-up space. Therefore, it is often related to strategies of densification, reuse, interweaving, which are worked out in conjunction with demolition of vacant buildings, deletion of residential expansion areas (Stas, Van Maecke 2022). This makes desealing a complex task for which the simple solutions usually do not fit. Therefore, desealing requires the development of a new practice on site. In this way, the Living Labs contribute to reducing the rate of sealing in Flanders and making our region more climate-robust through concrete softening on the ground, but also through joint knowledge building and sharing on how to make softening possible and how we can realise and support new desealing activities (ibid.).

Although the de-sealing of impermeable surfaces is not yet an established transformation practice to reactivate soil as an environmental infrastructure, the projects of the Ontharding programme in Flanders describe a systemic approach oriented towards its dissemination on a regional scale. Ontharding is a transitional programme, defined as a fundamental change in structures, culture and
practices (Grin et al. 2010 p. 109 citing Loorbach and Rotmans 2006) and which needs the participation of public and private actors and percolating between levels, disciplines and roles in order to be realised (Departement Omgeving 2020).

<figure><img src="image_242.png" /><figcaption>[fig.1] The first *Proeftuinen Onthardings* generation in 2018: 22 projects, from Departement Omgeving</figcaption></figure>

## GreenWithGrey: a multi-level and systemic de-sealing project

GreenWithGrey, one of the systemic projects of the Ontharding programme, explores whether and how desealing industrial areas without affecting production can reduce hydraulic risk and improve Flanders' water cycle. Industrial platforms are an economic resource for Flanders, but due to the extent of their paved surfaces, they generate an enormous amount of surface runoff and their extension fragments the territory, negatively affecting the continuity of ecological networks. The project, coordinated by LATITUDE Platform in consortium with two local universities UCLouvain and KULeuven, brings a systemic reflection and explores both potential physical transformations of existing industrial platforms and hypothetical forms of coalition between local and regional actors. To do so, GreenWithGrey considers the polycentric and multi-scalar composition of actors involved in water management in the region (Knieper and Pahl-Wostl 2016). In ideally following the flow of water, which, generated by yards and roads covered with asphalt, concrete, and other sealing pavements, flows to sewage systems, and from industrial platforms to draining water bodies, a multitude of stakeholders are intercepted: industrialists, private platform administrators, public and private building contractors, sewage and drinking water agencies, surface water managers, and public institutions (municipal, provincial, and regional). The GreenWithGrey project is developed in the form of a collaborative design process between the research team, various government agencies and local and regional actors. It is a tool for negotiation and learning between local actors who are in a position to realise the transformation and provincial and regional actors who, by dealing with the legislative level, are in a position to trigger it. As a living laboratory, GreenWithGrey conducted three main collaborative actions.

First, a ten-day action workshop involving GreenWithGrey researchers, an international group of male and female students, some industrialists, public technicians and experts. Working in the field - an industrial platform in Vilvoorde, a municipality adjoining the Brussels Capital Region - they designed minute interventions as a translation of broader reflections at the scale of the plot, the platform and the sub-basin, and to test pavement tools, material resistance to tools, their consistency and the workforce required. This collaborative and transformative moment also allowed GreenWithGrey to become known, to clarify possible strategies, and was an opportunity to bring together some possible transformation actors.

The information gathered in the field was used to guide the analysis and design of a series of spatial desealing configurations oriented towards the separate management of rainwater at the scale of the
industrial plot, its timing and its reuse where possible [fig.2]. Finally, a concluding round table discussion with a number of institutional figures from Flanders - representatives of public land management and development agencies and water networks - provided an opportunity to present and debate the updated configurations of the various considerations gathered during the bilateral meetings, tested in two hypothetical projects for two different platforms in Flanders, one on infiltrating soil, the other on soil with low infiltration capacity, and accompanied by assessments of the impacts of the hypothesised des sealing on the regional water cycle.

In order to stimulate change on different levels simultaneously, the outcomes of the systemic project have been collected in a series of online pamphlets, each imagined to return a specific aspect of the project and to communicate to a specific arena of actors.

The project takes a strategic posture to define new competences, new management and governance configurations. In GreenWithGrey, the project endeavours to outline new intersectoral coalitions and connectivities, to propose alternative spatial organisations of the existing reinterpreted in its most recurrent elements, to encourage and support the social production of cooperative places for the de-pollution of industrial areas or decisive portions of them with respect to water management and the qualification of open space.

<figure><img src="image_243.png" /><figcaption>[fig.2] GreenWithGrey: spatial configuration of des sealing intervention on an hypothetical industrial platform, from Latitude Platfrom for Urban Design and Research</figcaption></figure>
## Dessert project: starting from the context, thinking about the process

The Dessert project, that stands for DEsimperméabilisation des Sols, Services Ecosystémiques et Résilience des Territoires, is a project started in 2021 and funded from ADEME in the context of the call for proposals MODEVALURBA. It is coordinated by University of Lorraine/INRAE - LSE Laboratoire Sols et Environnement and includes the following partners: Agrocampus Ouest-EPHorBAGAP, AMU (Institut d'Urbanisme et d'Aménagement Régional) - UMR Telemme, SCE, Wagon Landscaping, D&L Enromat, Plante & Cité. Dessert has five main objectives: analyse characteristics, functions and services provided by urban soils, making a comparative state of the art for sealed and desealed soils; defining a set of desealing methods that try to encompass the most of the possibilities; assessing the effectiveness of desealing in terms of urban renaturation, based on feedback from desealing projects; implementation and monitoring of laboratory experiments to optimise desealing processes; implementation and monitoring of pilot sites over time; development of a multi-attribute tool to assist in the design of urban soil desealing projects. The project starts its enquiries from the awareness that the consequences of sealing on soil properties are well known, but conversely very little work has yet been done to assess the potential for re-functionalisation of soils, in particular through their desealing. The objective of the Dessert project is to better understand these issues and to develop operational tools for the actors involved in these processes and projects by producing an operational guide, which makes use of existing situated projects as the various intervention of Wagon Landscaping (Wagon Landscaping 2022) as Asphalt Jungle, Jardins des Joyeux and others [fig.3]. Although the project is still in full development, it is interesting to note the comprehensive approach to urban soils that includes sealed surfaces: in this sense, knowledge of sealed soils and their compositions and behaviours is crucial. Secondly, the project clearly focuses on the effects of desealing. The Dessert project does not consider desealing as a mere technical action as an end in itself, but by focusing on the previous condition and afterward effects of the action, it understands desealing as an intrinsic process of transformation of the existing.

<figure><img src="image_244.png" /><figcaption>[fig.3] Desealing project Boerenhol [Park]ing in Courtrai, form Wagon Landscaping.</figcaption></figure>
Bibliography

Barcelloni Corte, M., Boivin, P., 2022. Soils in Transition. OASE, 110, 177-186

Departement Omgeving et al. 2020. *Proeftuinen Ontharding Werkboek*. Bruxelles: Departement Omgeving.

European Commission, 2006. *Urban Sprawl in Europe: The Ignored Challenge*. Report No 10/2006. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities; Luxembourg. [pdf] Available at: http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eea_report_2006_10

European Commission, 2012. *Best practice to limit, mitigate or compensate soil sealing*. [pdf] Available at: https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/54d2e010-4fc4-4962-9113-1e7d574f4a46/library/bd461b84-c2ab-47d5-b2ae-2ca3e833c808

European Commission, 2016. No Net Land Take by 2050?. [pdf] Available at: https://catalogue.unccd.int/650_no_net_land_take_by_2050.pdf

European Commission, 2021. *EU Soil Strategy for 2030 Reaping the benefits of healthy soils for people, food, nature and climate*. [pdf] Available at: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/eu-soil-strategy-2030_en

Knieper, M., Pahl-Wostl, C. 2016. *A comparative analysis of water governance, water management, and environmental performance in river basins*. Water Resources Management 30, 2161–77.

Loorbach, D., Rotmans, J., 2006. *Managing transitions for sustainable development*, in Olshoorn, X., Wieczorek, A. J. (ed.) *Understanding Industrial Transformation: Views from Different Disciplines*. Dordrecht: Springer.

Mantziaras, P., Viganò, P., 2016. *Le sol des villes*. Genève: Metis Presses

Metta, A., 2022. *Il paesaggio è un mostro*. Roma: Deriveapprodi.

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Pavia, R. 2019. *Tra suolo e clima. La terra come infrastruttura ambientale*. Roma: Donzelli Editore.

Richter, D., 2019. “Game Changer in Soil Science. The Anthropocene in soil science and pedology”, in *Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science*, n. 183, pp. 5-11.

Secchi, B. 1986, Progetto di suolo. *Casabella*, 520-521, pp. 19-23.

Stas, M., Van Maecke, C., 2022. Desealing as a multifold action. OASE, 110, 187-193.

Puig de la Bellacasa, M., 2017 *Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds*, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, USA.

Wagon Landscaping, 2022. *Airport Garden / Asphalt Jungle*. in A+U, n. 622, pp. 82-87.

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# An Interdisciplinary Framework for Evaluating Urban Soil Transformation

*Alexandre Bossard*

UCLouvain, LOCI-LAB

Supervisor: Chiara Cavalieri, UCLouvain, LOCI-LAB

Expected thesis defence: 06, 2026

alexandre.bossard@uclouvain.be

In the field of urbanism, the question of the soil is being recognised over the last years as a key to the transition toward more resilient cities. This paper presents a methodology to analyse the impacts and constraints of soil transformation, by classifying soils according to their unsealing constraints and to the improvement of the water cycle potentially achieved by their transformations. This methodology calls upon different disciplines, such as urbanism, hydrogeology and pedology, to allow a decompartmentalised and ‘hybrid’ analysis of soils in the urban system.

Urban soils are analysed as a three-dimensional system, composed of different strata: (a) the soil cover, defining if the soil is sealed, built-up or unsealed; (b) the soil itself, the stratum filling the function of hosting life if this function is not threatened by human activity; (c) the subsoil, the hydrogeological structure and its role in many urban functions. Based on the existing literature, the interactions between these strata are then studied to highlight different categories of urban soils, according to the constraints and impacts of their transformation.

The case of the Brussels-Capital Region is studied, as this region is facing multiple challenges related to its soil: from pollution inherited from its industrial past to major water dysfunctions resulting from urbanisation and increasingly revealed by climate change. Soil remediation, projects of green spaces and soil unsealing are also multiplying in Brussels, but generally without any monitoring of their environmental benefits and often at a high environmental cost: using energy intensive remediation technic, requiring the reconstruction of artificial soils (technosols), generating exports of polluted soil...

The purpose of this paper is to explore a classification of Brussels' urban soils, based on a three-dimensional approach, to favour transformations based on soil assessment. Thus, this work aims to draw attention to repercussions of urban soil transformation, both from an operational point of view and from an environmental perspective.

## Introduction

The question of soils in urbanism is a growing field, as shown by the numerous publications on this subject [fig. 1]. This interest stems from a better understanding of the nonrenewable nature of soils – at least on a human time scale – and of the many crucial ecosystem functions performed by soil (European Commission and European Soil Bureau, 2005; Hazelton, Murphy, and CSIRO Publishing Staff, 2009; Cavalieri, 2019; Vialle, 2021; Viganò and Guenat, 2022). These functions are strongly threatened by soil consumption which remains important: the artificialisation of soil represents 711km2 on average per year in Europe, between 2012 and 2018 (European Environment Agency, 2019).

A better understanding and consideration of urban soils therefore seem essential to address environmental issues and enable cities to cope with ongoing climate change. To address the complexity of urban soils, a hybrid approach between several disciplines – such as pedology, hydrology, life sciences, etc. – is necessary. This paper proposes to further explore these interdisciplinary links, with the aim of better understanding the interactions between the soil, the soil cover and the underlying geological strata.

This interdisciplinary understanding of urban soils aims to address the gap in the assessment of the positive and negative impacts of soil transformation at a district and city scale. The presented evaluation framework is designed to promote a more comprehensive consideration of soil in urbanism and urban projects, in line with the vision of a city adapting to nature, and not controlling it (McHarg, 1969; Barles, 2010). The need for such an approach is grounded in the analysis of the existing literature.

Within the structure of a PhD thesis, this article is an exploration of the existing literature ('Hybrid Approach of Soil') and an attempt to highlight the contributions of the various disciplines to the question of urban soils ('At the Crossroad of Different Disciplines'). This paper also goes further by trying to represent through mapping these disciplinary contributions, and their interrelations, in the Brussels-Capital Region Territory ('A Complex and Interrelated System').

The research presented in this paper was conducted within the context of the 3Dcit-is research project, funded by Innoviris. The PhD thesis is therefore taking this research as a starting point to further explore urban soil and underground questions.
## Hybrid Approach of Soils

The need for a better consideration of the complexity of the soil system in urban projects has recently a particular echo in the face of environmental concerns. Understanding urban soils, and their complexity, requires a hybrid approach, gathering knowledge from various fields. This chapter aims to examine the existing literature in urbanism related to soil and to position this article within the current knowledge base. To achieve this, we have conducted a review of publications on this topic and categorised them into seven themes or approaches, which we will elaborate on in the following sections.

### Review and categorization of relevant urbanism literature on soils

Aligned with Bernardo Secchi's observations (Secchi, 1983), the disconnection between soil and the city has been highlighted more recently by Dehaene and Vandermaelen (2022). There is therefore an urgent need to valorise urban soils and to adapt urban projects – and architecture – to the soil (Meulemans and Labat, 2016; Viganò and Guenat, 2022). This approach is in line with the concept of a nature-based urbanism, working with nature and not against it (McHarg, 1969; Barles, 2010). An increased emphasis on soil can also lead to the reestablishment of links between elements of the fragmented city (Secchi, 1983) through the continuity in soil and in green infrastructure (Gali-Izard et al., 2022).

This disconnection between cities and their soils is especially problematic in the face of climate change and our entry into the Anthropocene (Mantziaras, 2016). The ecosystem functions (or services) of urban soil and the consequences of their dysfunction on the city are the basis of the work of many authors [fig. 1]. Cities are now compelled to rethink their approaches to soil functions, such as vegetal production, climate regulation, carbon storage, water management and biodiversity preservation (Havlicek, 2016; Cavalieri, 2019). The soil's crucial function of regulating the water cycle and storing rainwater through infiltration is particularly significant in dealing with extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent with global warming (De Bondt and Claeys, 2008; Kuzniecow Bacchin and Recubenis Sanchis, 2022). The concept of living soil – soil that can support life and fulfil its ecosystem functions – is therefore becoming increasingly important in urbanism (Barcelloni Corte and Boivin, 2022).

Many of these ecosystem functions of soil are currently being relegated outside cities (Dehaene and Vandermaelen, 2022). Food and plant production are being pushed outside of urban areas, as is the function of the soil as a recreational space. This renders the city heavily reliant on its hinterland for soil functions as well as soil itself, as soil fluxes to and from the city are significant. To enhance urban resilience, it is therefore necessary to rethink these relationships and to envision a more circular system (Meulemans and Labat, 2016). This analysis raises important questions about urban development models. 'Inward urbanisation', which aims to build the city on itself to avoid urban sprawl, has the side effect of increasing the pressure on urban soils which are not yet urbanised (Vialle, 2021; Barcelloni Corte and Boivin, 2022; Dehaene and Vandermaelen, 2022; Viganò and Guenat, 2022). Therefore, the externalisation of soil functions (food production, carbon sequestration, water infiltration, ...) outside the city increases, endangering the urban ecosystem. The compact city model is therefore criticised for its lack of consideration for urban soils.

Preserving the living soils that still exist in cities and rehabilitating dysfunctional soils through unsealing is seen as a solution by many authors [fig. 1]. Unsealing does not necessarily require major intervention to rebuild artificial soils (technosols) as life can reinvest soils autonomously (Bee and Clément, 2022). However, unsealing cannot replace soil preservation, as natural soils are the result of a very long process of pedogenesis (Mantziaras and Viganò, 2016). The European no net land take policy, which aim to end soil consumption in Europe by 2050 (European Commission, 2011, 2021), is in line with this goal, as are the 'Stop Béton' and 'Bouwshift' movements at the Belgian level (Labo XX+1, 2021).

The preservation of living soil goes hand in hand with soil care, as soil is a dynamic element in perpetual transformation (Vialle, 2022). Soil care practises – as well as soil care actors, such as farmers – have been overlooked in cities. Giving more importance to the voice and expertise of soil care actors in urbanism therefore enables a better consideration for living soils (Dehaene and Vandermaelen, 2022). Soil care could also consist of a minimal intervention, emphasising care rather than control of the soil, allowing for a more autonomous natural development (Bee and Clément, 2022). This approach is in line with the criticism of the priority given to heavy technological solutions (Barles, 2010), which often lead to side effects, requiring in turn another technological response. This effect is perfectly illustrated in water management, where "plus de tuyaux signifie donc plus de tuyaux" [more pipes means consequently more pipes] (Barles, 2010). The relationship to soil is a complex issue of "social relations and regulations" (Raffestin, 1989). Projects such as Super Terram (BRAL, ULB and 51N4E, 2023) investigate this relationship by exploring urban soil management and
governance practices through participatory experiments. Such initiatives have the potential to provide
insights into effective soil care practises and to promote sustainable soil management in urban areas.

Finally, soil also serves as a valuable historical archive of the city by preserving traces of past constructions
and land uses, while revealing the continuity between these historical elements and the contemporary city
(Pinon, 2016). The study of the evolution and transformation of urban soils (Barles, 1993; Ripoll, 2016; Vialle,
2021) allows a better understanding of the impact of human activities on soils, which in turn can be used to
improve soil management strategies.

Positioning the current study within the existing literature

This paper aims to address the gap in the assessment of the positive and negative impacts of soil
transformation at a larger scale, the scale of the Brussels-Capital Region. This objective is derived from the
literature review presented above. Thus, ecosystem functions, especially the role of soil in water
management, are studied in an attempt to identify where unsealing would have the most significant impact.
This approach is also inspired by McHarg's vision that "the distribution of open space [as well as urban
planning in general] must respond to natural process" (McHarg, 1969, p. 65). This author also highlights the
work performed by nature for humans, pioneering the concept of ecosystem services (McHarg, 1969, p. 55).
In regard to unsealing, the approach of a limited intervention in the transformation of soils is preferred, to
avoid environmental side effects that may result from overly intrusive and technical transformation. This
choice is also based on the need to rethink the interactions between the city and nature: moving away from
a strategy based on the control of nature with the help of technology, which has shown its limits (Barles,
2010). This approach is also in line with the objective of circularity and the aim to minimise the dependence
and impact of the city on its hinterland.

With the emphasis on the interdisciplinary nature of the soil issue, we will now move beyond urbanism
literature to explore what other disciplines can contribute to the understanding of soils.
<figure><img src="image_245.png" /></figure>

1. Mantzaras, Panos. « Le sol des villes, un projet critique pour l'Anthropocène ». In Le sol des villes: ressource et projet. VuesDensemble. Genève: MétisPresses, 2016.

2. Secchi, Bernardo. « Progetto di suolo », 1983.

3. Havlicek, Elena. « Le sol urbain : surface inerte ou capital naturel ». In Le sol des villes: ressource et projet, par Panos Mantzaras et Paola Viganò, 19-35. VuesDensemble. Genève: MétisPresses, 2016.

4. Pinon, Pierre. « Une archeologie du sol urbain ». In Le sol des villes: ressource et projet. VuesDensemble. Genève: MétisPresses, 2016.

5. Ripoll, David. « Du caillou roulé au ciment coulé: métamorphoses du rèvement de sol à Genève (19e-20e siècles) ». In Le sol des villes: ressource et projet. VuesDensemble. Genève: MétisPresses, 2016.

6. Meulemans, Germain, et Tibo Labat. « Le chantier comme enquête : ce que les sols des villes font à l'architecture ». In Le sol des villes: ressource et projet. VuesDensemble. Genève: MétisPresses, 2016.

7. Tosi, Maria Chiara, et Stefano Munarini. « "Standard" Soils ». Oase, n° 110 (2022).

8. Dehaene, Michiel, et Hans Vandermaelen. « Waking up in the Land of Urban Agroecology: Lessons in Modesty for Urbanism ». Oase, n° 110 (2022): 43-52.

9. Viganò, Paola, et Claire Guenat. « Our Common Soil ». Oase, n° 110 (2022): 53-66.

10. Gali-Izard, Teresa, Luke Harris, Cara Turett, et Bonnie Kate Walker. « We, the Roots among You ». Oase, n° 110 (2022).

11. Trumpf, S., et I. Valin. « The TAL-L or Taxon / Archive / Lab Library: Soils for the Regeneration of the Urban Landscape ». Oase, n° 110 (2022).

12. Vaille, Antoine. « Downscaling Urbanism to the Fine Grain of Urban Soils : Another Look at the Urban Footprint ». Oase, n° 110 (2022): 115-23.

13. Bee, Michele, et Gilles Clément. « Soil as Space of Indecision ». Oase, n° 110 (2022).

14. Kuzniecow Bacchin, Taneha, et Isabel Recubenis Sanchis. « Soil, Planning and Climatic Crisis in the Dutch Upper Delta ». Oase, n° 110 (2022).

15. Barcelloni Corte, Martina, et P. Boivin. « Soils for Transition: Towards an Urbanism of "Living Soil" ». Oase, n° 110 (2022).

16. Stas, Michaël, et Carmen Van Maercke. « Desealing as Multifold Action ». Oase, n° 110 (2022).

17. BRAL, ULB, et 51N4E. « Super Terram, table ronde », 2023.

18. Cavalieri, Chiara. « Soil From Conservation to Modification 'No Net Land Taken' in Flanders », 105. Jakarta: International Forum on Urbanism (Faculty of Architecture TU Delft), 2019.

19. De Bondt, Kevin. « The Forgotten Connections between Groundwater and Urban Water Management Policies ». Thèse de doctorat, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2017.

20. Vaille, Antoine. « Our Common Soils: West Lausanne Urbanization as Anthropedogenesis, A Section through the Spaces and Tunes of Urban Soils ». PhD thesis, École Polytechnique de Lausanne (EPFL), 2021.

21. European Commission. « Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe (No. COM(2011) 571) ». European Commission, 2011. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52011DC0571. European Commission. « Soil Strategy for 2030, Reaping the Benefits of Healthy Soils for People, Food, Nature and Climate », 17 novembre 2021. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52021DC0699.

22. Labo XX+1. L'urbanisation du 20e siècle dans et autour de Bruxelles. Exploration de la zone sur base de douze questions urbaines. Departement Omgeving, avec Perspective brussels, Bouwmeester Maitre Architecte, Team Vlaams Bouwmeester. Bruxelles, 2021.

23. Barles, Sabine. « La pédosphère urbaine le sol de Paris XVIIIe-XXe siècles ». École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, 1993.

24. Barles, Sabine. « Systèmes urbains et événements climatiques extrêmes ». Événements climatiques extrêmes : Réduire les vulnérabilités des systèmes écologiques et sociaux, 1 janvier 2010.

25. McHarg, Ian L. Design with Nature. New York: Natural history press, 1969.

<caption>[fig. 1] Mapping of the literature, elaborated by the author.</caption>
## At the Crossroad of Different Disciplines

To evaluate more concretely the constraints and benefits of soil transformations enabling the increase of living soil in the city, this study seeks a better understanding of soils in various disciplines. The objective is therefore very concrete: to develop an analysis which will help with the development of soil-sensitive urban projects and urban planning, while not denying the needs of the city (in terms of housing, productive spaces, etc.) and the constraints which soil transformation represents.

### *Disciplinary terms*

Soil is an ambiguous term (Havlicek, 2016; Vialle, 2021). Its meaning differs depending on the discipline or profession: for example, the farmer considers the soil as a source of nutrients for crops, the engineer considers it as an element of support or stability (European Commission and European Soil Bureau, 2005) and the ethnologist will study the cultural representations associated with the soil (Vialle, 2021). We will focus here on the main disciplines studying soil in order to understand the different vocabularies used and attempt to highlight the interrelations between the different approaches.

Pedology, which is the science of soils, is more specifically interested in the process of soil formation – pedogenesis –, soil functioning and soil classification (Blake et al., 2008; Séré et al., 2010; Vialle, 2021; IUSS Working Group WRB, 2022). In this discipline, soil is considered as an accumulation of layers, called horizons, resulting from the interaction between the atmosphere, the biosphere and the geosphere (European Commission and European Soil Bureau, 2005). Soil horizons are used to define soil classifications and, although the definitions of horizons may vary in different parts of the world [see fig. 2], the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) (IUSS Working Group WRB, 2022) provides a globally standardised soil classification.

Geologists are mainly interested in the parent materials, i.e. the consolidated strata beneath the soil [fig. 2]. The classification used by geologists is based on the age of the different strata – chronostratigraphy – which are thus classified according to their era, epoch, age, etc. (Cohen, Harper and Gibbard, 2022). A lithologic classification – based on the nature of the rocks – also provides information about the structure of the strata (Devleeschouwer et al., 2018): strata could be formed by clay or by sand, for example. These lithologic properties have an important impact on the groundwater system, as sand strata are generally permeable, allowing a better water circulation than clay strata (De Bondt and Claeys, 2008).

The links between these strata and groundwater are studied by a branch of geology: hydrogeology. This branch provides a classification of geological strata according to their permeability: (1) aquifers, permeable geological layers where water can therefore circulate easily, (2) aquitards, low-permeability strata where water circulation is difficult, and (3) aquicludes, which describes impermeable strata (Sethi and Di Molfetta, 2019; Bruxelles Environnement, 2020b). The position of groundwater in the superposition of geological strata is also analysed: groundwater could be confined, i.e. located between two impermeable strata and therefore cannot be recharged on site by rainwater, or, conversely, unconfined (Peeters, 2010; Nakić et al., 2017).

The study of urban soils requires a hybrid approach between these disciplines. Indeed, concepts such as soil composition (pedology) or groundwater cycle (hydrogeology) cannot be dissociated in an urban environment from the issue of land use (urbanism).

### *Soil cover impact*

Soil sealing is described as one of the main threats to soil in Europe (Commission of the European Communities, 2002) as well as in Brussels (Centre d'Ecologie Urbaine et al., 2020) and its impacts are transversal to the disciplines mentioned above. Soil sealing leads to irreversible soil degradation and dysfunction (Groupement d'intérêt scientifique sur les sols, 2011; Cavalieri, 2019). The water cycle is critically altered by soil sealing, leading to flood risks and pollution of surface and groundwater (Labo XX+I, 2021), as well as heat island phenomena (Poelmans, Van Rompaey and Batelaan, 2010).

The hydro(geo)logical balance is destabilised as sealed soils increase runoff and prevent infiltration, consequently affecting the recharge of aquifers [fig. 4, top]. The groundwater system is also impacted in the opposite direction by the decrease of evapotranspiration, and thus the lowering of water extraction from the underground by vegetation (Poelmans, Van Rompaey and Batelaan, 2010; Ungaro et al., 2014). The buffer function of the soil of absorbing water during heavy rains and releasing it during drier periods is therefore compromised.
## Urbanism

### Pedology

<figure><img src="image_246.png" /></figure>

Other horizons are also defined according to reference literature: H¹ or P¹ horizons; same as horizon O but saturated with water during long periods. L₁, L₂, W horizons²; respectively ice, subterranean sediment, water, L₃, F, H³, F'³ horizons; respectively fresh lager, fermentation layer, humification layer, transition horizon between E and B.

### Geology ⁸

<figure><img src="image_247.png" /></figure>

### Hydrogeology ⁹,¹⁰,¹¹

<figure><img src="image_248.png" /></figure>

1. Havelton, Pam, Brian Murphy, et CSIRO Publishing Staff. Understanding Soils in Urban Environments. Victoria, AUSTRALIA: CSIRO Publishing, 2009. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lh/udouvainhe/detail accession/docID=656450, p.20

2. National Committee on Soil and Terrain. Australian Soil and Land Survey Field Handbook. CSIRO Publishing, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1071/9780436097117, p.149

3. IUSS Working Group WRB. World Reference Base for Soil Resources. International Soil Classification System for Naming Soils and Creating Legends for Soil Maps. 4e edition. Vienna: International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSB), 2022, p.225

4. Guidelines for Soil Description. 4th ed. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2006, p.67

5. « Soil Atlas of Europe ». Luxembourg: European Commissions, 2005, p.10

6. Cananache, A., J. L. Viniti, et J. Munteanu. Elsevier's Dictionary of Soil Science: Definitions in English with French, German, and Spanish Word Translations. Elsevier, 2006.

7. Mathieu, Clément, et Jean Lozer. Dictionnaire encyclopédique de science du sol. 2e édition. Paris: Tcc & Doc Lavoisier, 2022.

8. Cohen, K.M., D.A.T. Harper, et P.L. Gibbard. « ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart 2022/10 ». International Commission on Stratigraphy, 2022. www.stratigraphy.org.

9. Bruxelles Environnement. « Hydrogéologie », 14 avril 2020. https://environnement.brussels/pro/gestion-environnement/gere-les-bâtiments-les-les-sites/hydrogéologie.

10. Peeters, Eak. « Groundwater and Geochemical Modelling of the Unconfined Brussels Aquifer, Belgium ». KULeuven, 2010

11. Serbi, Rapandrea, et Antonio Di Moliffetta. Groundwater Engineering: A Technical Approach to Hydrogeology, Continuous Transport and Groundwater Remediation. Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20516-4.

[fig. 2] Glossary of disciplinary terms. Terms used in pedology, geology, hydrogeology and urbanism are described and illustrated here in a schematic and simplified way. The order, thickness and horizontality of the different strata are only for ease of understanding: in real situations, not all layers are present nor horizontal. Elaborated by the author.
## Urban Soils

Urban soils are highly anthropised. These anthroposols, which are composed of varying thickness of artificial backfill, cover all cities that are several centuries old (Barles, 1993, p. 49). The importance of the transformation of these soils, as well as past soil uses, can be the cause of contamination (Région Bruxelles-Capitale, 2020). The state of soil pollution and the suspicion of contamination are documented in Brussels (Bruxelles Environnement, 2020c). Depending on the parcels' contamination, different studies and treatment processes are required (Bruxelles Environnement, 2010, 2021).

## Influence of geological strata

Urban soils are supported by geological strata, which structure influences the rainwater infiltration and retention capacity (Brito et al., 2006; De Bondt and Claeys, 2008). Indeed, an impermeable clay stratum close to the soil surface represents a barrier to water infiltration [fig. 4, center]. The presence of a shallow water table is also an obstacle to infiltration, as water saturated strata cannot absorb additional rainwater (D'Aniello et al., 2019).

Aquifer vulnerability study – a branch of hydrogeology investigating the risk of contamination of aquifers by surface pollution (Foster, Hirata and Andreo, 2013) – highlights the influence of soil cover and geological strata permeability on the dispersion of contaminants (Palmer and Lewis, 1998). The risk of groundwater contamination and pollutants dispersion increases in parallel with the water recharge capabilities of aquifers, i.e. the more permeable soil cover, soil itself and geological strata are, the higher the dispersion risk is (Machiwal et al., 2018). The geological structure therefore plays a role in the risk of pollutant dispersion [fig. 4, center]. Low permeability clay strata (aquicludes) tend to block the vertical dispersion of pollutants, while permeable strata (aquifers) facilitate the transport and dispersion of contaminants (Santi, McCray and Martens, 2006).

## Underground constructions impacts

This hydrogeological system becomes more complex in urban areas due to the presence of many underground constructions. These constructions represent obstacles to infiltration and groundwater flows (Attard et al., 2017). Underground constructions are equipped with different technical solutions to deal with risks of flooding and pressure from groundwater [fig. 4, bottom], as the ballasting and waterproofing of underground structures or the draining of groundwater to avoid pressure (Attard et al., 2016). The Brussels metro is thus equipped with groundwater draining systems allowing groundwater to cross the constructions [fig. 3]. These technical solutions can alter groundwater levels, and also impact groundwater quality and temperature (Attard et al., 2017).

The modification of groundwater flows by underground constructions and their technical infrastructure can also results in the dispersion of contaminants [fig. 4, bottom]. Ballasted structures tend to lead to more local dispersion of contaminants, while draining infrastructure transports contaminants over larger distances

(Attard et al., 2017). In addition, the construction materials used for these underground structures can also be a source of contamination (Chae et al., 2008).

<figure><img src="image_249.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 3] Draining infrastructure of Brussels metro, from CIRB archives.</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_250.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 4] Diagrams describing disciplinary contributions, elaborated by the author.</figcaption></figure>