Urban Open Spaces and Legislation

Ar. Nanditha Nagaraj

Bye-laws, Encroachment, ,Environmental and ecological functions, Infrastructure, Intentional/ Incidental open spaces, Legislation, Recreation.

Open spaces in an urban context are the lungs of the city; they are the feeders and lifeline in the urban scenario. They cater to human requirements in many ways playing a major role in overall health and human well-being. Do all cities have open spaces? If yes, are they being equipped properly to serve the purpose? Is there a particular manner to get maximum benefit to the cities’ ecology? In this paper, an attempt is been made to answer these questions in detail. The categories of open spaces available in the cities, the conditions in which they are available, the hierarchy of these open spaces, the importance of these spaces, how should we consciously accommodate such open spaces in the master plan?  How these spaces are treated? What are the implications of not having open spaces, and the repercussions of the same on the ecosystem? How the existing open spaces are treated, how beneficial it is to have open space in the urban context, this how environmental and ecological function improves. The “right to live” policy for human well-being has to be provided to give the dignity of life. To provide this, every state government and local bodies work together by establishing some set of rules, regulations, certain strategies, bring in infrastructure by identifying the stakeholders, and they are developing these open spaces to provide the dignity of life to the citizens.  Not only can that, having well-maintained open spaces act like a structure and symbolic icon of the city or the layout. In this paper, a case study on Bengaluru city open space analysis is being made, and in detail the of Impacts, usage, pollutions, and types, general issues, Analysis and short comings, Identified and solved issues, amendments and policies, Concerned Authoritie who are responsible for creating and maintain these open spaces, the proposed policies, an overview and conclusion.