Greening Ahmedabadcreating a resilient Indian city using a green infrastructure approach to investment

Ahmedabad is the commercial centre of the Indian state of Gujarat. With a population of 5.1 million, it is subject to a range of socio-economic and ecological pressures which influence how the city's landscape is planned. In 2013, the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) released a second draft of the 3rd Development Plan for the city. This document outlined how the city plans to strategically deliver built infrastructure, as well as, enhance its landscape through green infrastructure (GI). Utilising ecological networks the plan explores the value of integrating landscape projects to facilitate a spatially functional landscape resource base. This paper evaluates the transition from the rhetoric of the Development Plan to delivery. Drawing on commentary from local stakeholders, it reflects on the form that GI is taking, and asks whether projects such as the Sabarmati Riverfront are meeting both the strategic, and more localised socio-environmental needs of the city.