Environment

Degradation

Air Water Urban

Bio-diversity
pollution pollution Waste

Social
Living & Governance Public Job
Cultural
Natural & Right to health & Opportuni-
Vibrancy &
Environment the city safety ties
inclusion

Quality of
Everyday Life
What does Sensing Local do?

Sensing Local: Our Approach

The company has been conceived to work horizontally across scales and disciplines, drawing
on sector specific knowledge as needed, so that issues, their causality, as well as actions and
repercussions to the larger system are visible and accounted for holistically.

At the macro scale, the organization’s work involves development of Strategy, Action Plans, Public
policies etc, to help build frameworks for long term and inclusive decision making that counter
uncertainties at this level.

While at the micro scale where the volatility of the on-ground realities challenges feasibility and
success of interventions, the organization’s work involves piloting of potential solutions where a
key focus is on making them user centric, participatory and future proof.

To make the efforts at the top and bottom scale of governance more effective, the organization
has also found the need to operate at the third scale - the meso scale, sandwiched in the
middle. This is where negotiations are triggered, open data and democratization of knowledge is
prioritized and consensus/co-creation frameworks are built.
What is the context of the organization’s
work?
Context of working in Indian cities

Indian cities are developing rapidly in a highly unplanned manner with little oversight of how
actions in the present will impact the future of the city. The development process is a mix of both
slow to realise, large scale infrastructure coming in to support urban expansion and a plethora of
fast paced everyday development by individuals, community groups, other private players where
the magnitude of the latter far overshadows the former.

Current process of city making making: role of urban planning

Planning remains a key domain that can provide frameworks to guide development in the city.
However, most formal planning work is happening through 3 different agencies -
• In the form of master plans that remain largely un-implemented and ineffectual against the
more sporadic market forces at play.
• By different government departments working in their own silos, guided by bureaucrats,
politicians and often even self-appointed civic leaders where their decision and priorities often
share their respective half lifes
• By consultancy agencies, in support of government projects where the ‘project brief’ is
paramount. So issues that are difficult to deconstruct, investigate and projectize, continue to
plague the city as roadblocks.

To add to the mix is the the informal planning happening by communiy groups, NGOs, CSR efforts
that are working tirelessly to fill the gaping void left by the formal system, fixing what government
otherwise should.
Urban Poverty

MACRO • Policy and budgetary shift to tackle poverty in the city

• City as a welfare institution: Developing new financial and development models to
realise affordable access to basic human services as ‘commons’ (water, shelter,
food)

MESO • Framework to assess urban vulnerability - using multiscale and multisector datasets

MICRO • Urban vulnerability framework tested using 1 NGO data (Selco Foundation)
• Test framework with 10 other organizations - developing the data forms, maps,
analytics etc.
• Creation of a ‘LIVE’ online framework adoptable by any organization where local
and global datasets are regularly updated, making sense of trends at multiple
scales and their impact on policy/onground efforts. This is to also enhance peer to
peer learning and collaboration amongst organizations working with communities
in poverty.

IMPACT

Recognition in the NGO:

• Vulnerability assessment for an area/city of working is critical for effective interventions to improve the
lives of communities in poverty; This cannot be done by one single NGO, instead it requires a network
of NGOs to work together.
• Oral data archives is bound to be lost or dependant on singular people so there is a need for systematic
digitization for respond to the rising uncertainties on ground. There may also be an over emphasis on
qualitative data over quantitative data since the latter is often hard to find.
• Many of the existing datasets in a single organization are not in similar format, thus making it hard to
compare data sets or share them.
Water Management

MACRO • Koramangala Challaghatta Valley Action and Investment Plan - Rejuvenation of

Lake system
• Re-imagining the rajkaluve from a network of toxic drains to canals (Potential offsets
to be in terms of public spaces and urban environment)

MESO • Water Lab

• Varthur Website - Democratize knowledge about varthur lake and create a consensus
framework for scientific understanding of the lake eco-system, its needs, solutions
needed to fix the current challenges and what future the many diverse stakeholders
could work collectively towards.

MICRO • Strategic Action Plan and DPR for Varthur

• SPV for Lake Rejuvenation
• Wetland system design for Varthur
• Circular water Action Plan - Construction of STPs and drainage system linkages for
the rapidly urbanizing varthur region
• Design for Varthur lake front: Developing a new approach to urban lake front,
accomodating diverse engagements with water that make the lake culturally,
environmentally and economically integrated in the urban ecosystem
• Socio-economic study of the varthur area - impact of polluted water on public health
through borewells and through food growing in the region, community’s access to
water supply and its financial costs

IMPACT

• Creating a single access point repository - aggregating all the diverse data sets and perspectives
about Varthur lake, its issues and solutions in one place to empower the local stakeholders and create
consensus for action
• Determining roles of diverse stakeholders
• Shed light on the deep governance issues that are the critical hurdles in lake rejuvenation efforts
Waste Management

MACRO • City Strategy

1) Micro plan for Waste management
2) Training manuals
• Digital city database
• Organization structure for the SWM cell + Roles and responsibilities of SWM
officials
• SWM Policy for the city (including EPR policy)

MESO • SWM Manuals: 1) System Overview - Introductory manual for all stakeholders to
get an understanding of the city’s SWM system, city goals, challenges etc // 2)
Ward Level Manual Working manual - Ward level data sets and data collection
format for ward committees, AEES, Corporators for reporting and assessment of
the city system.
• Toolkits for in-situ SWM
• SWM website - democratization of information and engagement
• Waste Living Lab

MICRO • Interventions for better management and efficiency of the SWM system
1) Biometric system for attendance and payment
2) Control Room (concept note)
3) Sanitary waste management (concept note)
• Circular Economy model for the city: 1) Countering the NIMBY effect -
Upcycling Cafés in DWCC in every neighbourhood // 2) Revamping waste
management of market areas
• Framework to aid adoption of sustainable system of SWM by BULK Generators
(BGs)
• Evaluating the most suitable options for regional facilities for Waste to Energy in
the state

IMPACT

• Capacity building and streamlining of the governance structure in the city government
• Facilitating new opportunities for private players to bring innovative solution to make the SWM system
more efficient - Sweep Smart, Control Room by IDECK
• Methodologies deployed have resulted in more participatory and Data based decision making
• Greater effort to planning forward, nor just day to day fire fighting
Air Quality

MACRO • City level Strategy to reduce air pollution (as part of CAP-B)
• CAP-B: Developing the structure required to run an organization tackling air
pollution at city level

MESO • Frameworks
AQ Platform (concept design)
Good Air (concept app)
Governance and Management of the Environment and Nature services
• Conferences
Open Data Camp; Connect Karo; PHFI; Global Partnership Summit
• Events
Open Street Day; Open Houses (1 - V)
• Tools
Emission footprint mapping
Surveys - Health, Perception, Behavior
Pulmonary Function Tests
• Framework to develop the city portal for CAP-B, to engage diverse stakeholders in
tackling air pollution

MICRO • BENGALURU: Community based study on neighbourhood level air quality (BTM)
- how to measure hyper local air pollution, its causes and impact on public health
• MANGALURU: Understanding the severity of air pollution through a study of 12
sites in the city, causes of the pollution and its impact on public health
• CAP-B Phase 2 engagement - Developing city projects to assess and reduce air
pollution on ground

IMPACT

• Influence the public discourse around air pollution in the city and its impact on the city, focussing
particularly on who is most vulenrable in the city
• Greater recognition of embeddedness of the role of urban planning and city design in influencing air
quality in the city by affecting behaviour leading to contribution or exposure to air pollution.
• Increase in need for community based engagements to understand localised air pollution and its
impact based over ambient measurements. Also shifting focus on perception and behavioral trends of
people while considering effectiveness of solutions for mitigation of air pollution.
Legibility and Way-finding

MACRO • System of Signage for the city

MESO • Framework to build a signage network for a place

MICRO • Indiranagar Neighbourhood wayfinding system

• Cubbon Park Way-finding and Navigational Information Signage system
1) First full map of the park
2) History of the park as well as its monuments and statues
3) Flora Fauna in the park
4) Brail map
5) Navigational maps for the culturally rich surrounding areas of the park
• K R Market & Metro Station- Way-finding and Navigational Information Signage
system
1) Histories of the old city area
2) Urban Management of the area
• Signage system for a city level Exhibition Center

IMPACT

At Cubbon Park:
• Reduce the chances of someone getting lost
• Faciliate greater discovery and appreciation of the park, things to do, and its historicity
• Creating a space for community programmes to be visible to others in the park or wanting to visit the
park
• Shedding light on existing assets of the park, its inherent value - paving the way for new engagements
in the park by citizens and community groups
Rur-urban Ecology

MACRO • Strategy for district level afforestation

MESO • Framework to assess quality of public spaces to be applied to do the following:

1) Audit existing usage and design // 2) Creation of new public spaces or revamping
existing one restructuring programmatics

MICRO • Dharwad - Design of the regional park; defining new green buffer around the region
• Dharmasthala - Redesign of the river water front and amenities for pilgirms
• Smart Village Plan - Haragadde Village cluster

IMPACT
Public Health

MACRO • National level School Rating system

MESO • Framework to evaluate walkability in neighbourhoods

• Framework to audit neighbourhoods for condusiveness for recreation by children

MICRO • Understanding the relationship between obesity in school going children and the
design of the neighbourhood that makes it conducive for walking and other forms
of recreation (quality and proximity of recreation spaces to be in question here)
Inclusively

MACRO • Framework to assess of public spaces and institutions for differently abled users
• Toolkits to deploy solutions in-situ

MESO

MICRO • Disabled friendly Park

• Revamping Orphanage - Putting food at the centre for creating home and
community
• Making Cubbon Park Disabled friendly