Revitalising urban backwaters : an examination of strategies in making neglected water bodies as urban waterfronts

Abstract

Water conceives the power of life on earth; it represents and symbolizes the existence and the continuity of life. Man as a living animal, has an enormous dependence on waters; he is deeply bounded, wrap and woof with the qualitative and quantitative living aspects of waters. Its highly varied qualities act and react on human sense and ensure its power over man. Above all, it is the soul of all lives on earth. The presence of waters, was the powerful motivation and the peaceful inspiration for the emergence and the continuity of human settlements on the world, especially true in the situation of cities exist in the history. Many of the great cities were emerged as a result of the intimate relationships of man with the waters and the powerful fascination of waters towards man. In that sense, waters are the souts of cities. The radically changing economical, political, and social structures brought about the enigmatic issue; the haphazardness into the living structures, and can be highly experienced especially in urban entities. The exceptionally varied dimensions of this complex issue, delivered enormous amount of unfavorable, inhumane spatial forms into the living cores thus making the living entities most unlivable spatial entities for human habitation. The rapid urbanization took place in the recent years, have further exaggerated the problem, and be predominantly significant along waterways in cities. These inhumane spatial features ultimately identified as a physical feature with negative spatial characteristics named as Backwaters. This peculiar urban feature was a vandal transformation of Waterfronts as souls of cities to wards Backwaters the lost souls of the cities.