Repurposing Peri-Urban Spaces in Delhi

Sustainable development is linked with issues like inflexible land use, fragmentation, and deterioration of natural systems. Peri-urban regions have become a hotspot for hybrid economies, while on the same hand urban centres have put increasing pressure on natural resources of these areas. This study throws light on how indiscriminate land use conversions give rise to social exclusion. Social exclusion leads to environmental degradation, which in turn affects the livelihoods and resilience of communities. As a result, an argument is made if the same kind of master planning should be followed or a different purpose should be given to these lands? A proposal has been made as an amalgamation of the research and the technique of ecosystem services mapping. This approach consists of understanding the socio-economic relationship with the ecosystem, the trends and patterns, the study of ecological layers, and cluster network analysis. Through this, an alternative zonal plan is created with ecosystem services as the base layer, which supports agricultural services based on alternative economies. The conceptualisation of this research takes root from the possibilities of giving an enhanced meaning to the peri-urban areas of cities and the inclusion of ecosystem services within city planning.