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--- research_report_sanjeev-shankar [2008-04-11 14:59] – sanjeev
+++ research_report_sanjeev-shankar [2008-04-11 16:10] – sanjeev
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 As stated before the intent of this research is to explore the urban gardening and permaculture trends at a global level and to further explore new ways to establish links between urban realms, its inhabitants and ecology. In the process, the project aims at redefining our relationship with the city and our vision for its future. It attempts to question our prevailing belief system which places nature as an object, to be //viewed, manipulated, commodified and sold//.
-This phase of the project has the following objective:
+This phase of the project has the following objectives:
   * On-line and literature survey of state of the art in urban gardening and permaculture (global perspective)
   * On-site research and comparison of urban gardening in the Benelux and India
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 Some of the reasons for this project are given below:
   * The uncontrolled growth of cities has had a devastating impact on ecology
   * By the end of 2008, half the world's population will be living in cities for the first time in history. (according to UN report)
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 === Permaculture ===
-Permaculture is an integrated, interdependent, evolving, multidimensional and creative design response to a world of declining energy and resource availability with emphasis on design processes drawn from nature. It is about values and visions, and design and systems of management that are based on holistic understanding, especially of our bio-ecological and pychosocial knowledge and wisdom. It is particularly about our relationships with, and the design and redesign of, natural resource management systems, so that they may support the health and well being of all present and future generations.
+Permaculture is an integrated, interdependent, evolving, multidimensional and creative design response to a world of declining energy and resource availability with emphasis on design processes drawn from nature. It is about values and visions, and design and systems of management that are based on holistic understanding, especially of our bio-ecological and pychosocial knowledge and wisdom. Permaculture also reflects the ongoing evolution of our knowledge systems and can be intepreted to any area which might benefit from such holistic design theory and practice. Human settlements, business enterprises, political and economic systems, learning environments, health field and child rearing can be some of these areas.
-Permaculture also reflects the ongoing evolution of our knowledge systems and can be intepreted to any area which might benefit from such holistic design theory and practice. Human settlements, business enterprises, political and economic systems, learning environments, health field and child rearing can be some of these areas.
-’PERMACULTURE’ was originally coined in the mid seventies by two Australians, David Holmgren and Bill Mollison, to describe the design system pioneered as a response to what they, and many others globally, saw as serious challenges to the survival of all of us. Originally derived from the words ‘PERMAnent agriCULTURE’, permaculture has gone beyond it’s roots in looking at strategies to create sustainable food growing methods to become a worldwide movement encompassing all aspects of how we as human beings can live harmoniously in relation to our Earth and it’s finite resources and create a PERManent CULTURE. Permaculture, today has multiple defintions, but one that is particularly useful might be- "To create sustaianble human habitats by following nature's patterns". This thought is clearly manifested in permaculture as a system of gardening but also as the worldwide network of individuals and groups and further in permaculture as a counterculture.
+For more on this topic please see [[history of permaculture]]
-For many, the Permaculture focus on land and natural resource management is complimentary to the industrial focus of the "green tech" optimists, but there are differences. Permaculture:
-  * gives priority to using existing wealth to rebuilding natural capital, especially trees and forests, as a proven storage of wealth to sustain humanity into a future with less fossil fuel.
-  * emphasises bottom-up "redesign" processes, starting with the individual and household as drivers for change at the market, community and cultural level
-  * more fundamentally, was predicated on the likelihood of some degree of collapse and breakdown in technology, economics and even society, which is not envisaged or designed for by the "green tech" optimists but is a current reality for many people around the world.
-  * sees pre-industrial sustainable societies as providing models that reflect the more general system design principles observable in nature,and relevant to post-industrial systems.
-The assumptions on which permaculture was originally based were:
-  * The environmental crisis is real and its magnitude and impact directly threatens our survival.
-  * The ongoing impact of golbal industrial society and human numbers on biodiversity would be far greater than has ever been.
-  * Humans are subject to the same scientific laws which govern the entire universe including the evolution of life.
-  * The inevitable depletion of non-renewable fuels will see a return to general pre-industrial systems dependent on renewable energy and resources.
-Further, insofar as permaculture is an appropriate response to limitations on use of energy and natural resources, it will move on from its current status as "alternative response to environmental crisis" to the social and economic mainstream of the post-industrial era. Whether it will be called permaculture or not is a secondary matter.
-==Permaculture Principles==
-Permaculture is a wholehearted adaptation to the ecological realities of decline and offers us a graceful and ethical descent. The process for providing for people's needs within ecological limits requires a cultural revolution. We appear to have little time to achieve ths revolution and in this context, the idea of simple set of guiding //design principles// which have wide, universal application is attractive. The following principles are slogans which act as a checklist when considering complex options for design and evolution of ecological support systems.
-  - Observe and Interact
-  - Catch and store energy
-  - Obtain a yield
-  - Apply self-regulation and accept feedback
-  - Use and value renewable resources and services
-  - Produce no waste
-  - Design from patterns to details
-  - Integrate rather than segregate
-  - Use small and slow solutions
-  - Use and value diversity
-  - Use edges and value the marginal
-  - Creatively use and respond to change ((Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren))
-Now, in a situation of descent, //ethics// become indispensable and through their culturally evolved systemic nature lead us to create a more inclusive view of who and what constitutes "us". The three broad maxims or principles which cover these are given below:
-  * Care for the earth
-  * Care for the people
-  * Set limits to consumption and reproduction, and redistribute surplus
-How one inteprets the principles listed above and implements them is open for refinement and improvisation. One has to take responsibility and see problems as opportunities, or problems as the solution. Every element here serves multiple functions and every function is served by multiple elements. Using these principles we can come up with a design that is in line with our regenerative world.
 ==Urban Permaculture==