RETHINKING URBAN PUBLIC SPACES FOR CLIMATE CHANGE. Adaptation strategies for Surat (India)

Undoubtedly, cities and their population are expanding and growing worldwide, exacerbating the vulnerability of these urban centres to the amplified effects of climate change. In this epoch of rapid urbanization in which urban growth is inevitable, there is a need to create balance in the urban environment where people and nature can co-exist. Cities are key which produce the challenges but at the same time, they also concentrate on grasping the opportunities to deal with these present issues. Nevertheless, urban planning plays a significant role in addressing climate change effects and adapting cities by implementing various strategic planning actions and measures towards carbon neutrality as well as supporting collaborations among different stakeholders, aiming towards more sustainable and resilient cities. To deal with these topics, it is necessary to start looking at the micro-urban scale, which can have a significant impact on the larger scales. The present thesis aims to discuss how urban public spaces can play a significant role in the urban environment in supporting cities to adapt to climate change. Redesigning public spaces under the lens of climate change at the local scale will help address more significant global issues. Fostering downscaling from a global scale to urban areas can help bring about larger positive changes. Applying this concept to rethink the public spaces to deal with climate change will lead to global sustainability and to the transition to a greener city. To frame how urban planning can be successfully implemented in the designing of the public spaces, different successful case studies of the urban public spaces from different contexts of the world are studied, specifically, 44 projects of effectively designed public spaces from various cities of Europe, Asia-Pacific, Nort/Latin America, and the Middle East. Further, these case-studies were analyzed with the help of a comparison matrix through different criteria, Including the year of construction, geographical location, the spatial scale of the project, types of climate impact addressed as well as their methodologies. Research was also made on the primary types of climate impact being addressed in these projects and main climate impacts focused on current trends of planning were identified (Namely, (I) Thermal comfort, (II) UHI Mitigation, and (III) Stormwater Management), along with detailed analysis of 5 case studies having different contexts, scales, and the issues addressed, to recognize as well as extracting important design strategies to deal with these issues. As a part of the design proposal, the city of Surat located on the western coast of India was analyzed based on its ongoing climatic issues and current climate change adaptation practices. Finally, some public spaces were identified to be studied and to examine their vulnerability and exposure towards different impacts of climate change. To conclude, the knowledge acquired from the theories and case-studies of the research were applied to redesign the identified public spaces in the city to activate it for the climate change supporting the Surat city to adapt to the effects of climate change and make it more sustainable and resilient.