IGCS postdoc Christoph Woiwode conducted two more workshops in the Sustainability Workshop Series for the Katchipattu Nook near Chennai on 15th and 25th May. Dr. Woiwode says:

“These sessions are tailor-designed for the learners of our self-learning space and build on each other, using explorative and experiential learning approaches to nudge the ingenuity and creativity of the kids aged between 6 to 16.

The second workshop was designed by IGCS intern Maria-Sofia Caputo, a psychologist graduate from University of Saarland. Besides generating a wonderful learning spirit and ambitions among the learners, potentials and opportunities for contributing to community development in the village are also explored. Thus, we had a fantastic arts exhibition of posters depicting favourite and likeable places as well as disliked and ugly spots, we calculated our ecological footprint and discussed how it is related to resources and carbon emissions. A field visit to the village pond helped to understand its relevance and why it is being littered. The second day concluded with crafting flower pots from plastic bottles to plant seeds and plants to beautify the Nook learning space.

We are grateful to the entire Nook team in Katchipattu for their support and the wonderful work they do every day. We shall keep you posted on the workshops to follow!”

5th Indo-German Dialogue on Green Practices:

“Genus loci – Locality matters”: Embedding sustainable transformation in local contexts

Dates:  13th – 15th October 2023

Place: Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, South India

Convenors: Dr. Christoph Woiwode, IGCS at IIT Madras, in collaboration with F5Green Foundation, Tiruvannamalai

After a break of three years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are planning to launch the 5th iteration of the Indo-German Dialogue on Green (Urban) Practices (IGD).

This year’s focus is on place specificity and how locality matters for sustainable development. embedding sustainable transformation in local contexts in terms of their cultural, social, ecological, economic and other dimensions. We acknowledge that there exist different worldviews in India and across India and Germany. Can we identify those to explore how sustainability is brought to live in place specific contexts? This can be an endeavour to make more explicit, by becoming more aware, the underlying worldviews and values of our actions. In doing so, how can we connect locality to the worldviews and values to also probe critically what kind of transitions may be needed? And how dies the regeneration of urban places or more generally how does ‘place-making’ happen?

If you want to register please click here (https://forms.gle/jBWenCBDdjiMv5B2A)

There is no registration fee!

As part of the India-EU Partnership, this workshop took place on 17 – 18 April, focusing on river rejuvenation, especially Chennai’s Cooum River. It was a pleasure being invited to join the EU Delegation for a talk on “Potentials of Adaptive Capacity for River Rejuvenation in Chennai: A socio-ecological Systems perspective.” The two-day event saw representatives from the Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department and several research institutions, like Anna University in Chennai, interacting with experts from the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, and Germany. A wide range of relevant topics was discussed, including potential solutions covering nature-based approaches, governance and participation, groundwater and traditional water management systems, and the relevance of the current review for the third master plan of the Chennai metropolitan region.

For more information, you can read the full article at: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/water-resources-department-looking-for-technical-support-funding-from-eu/article66767495.ece

Dr. Christoph Woiwode, Resident Visiting Faculty in the IGCS Landuse Area at IIT Madras, is now a part of a consortium of ten faculty members establishing an interdisciplinary Research Centre at IIT Madras in “Water and Sustainability.”

In its initial phase of three years, the starting financial endowment of the center will be close to 600,000 Euros for the establishment of its research program with a focus on achieving water, carbon, and nutrient circularity in urbanizing transformations. Dr. Woiwode will be co-leading with Prof Chella Rajan on the socio-political component of water and land-use governance to provide research about the water-food-energy nexus.

A core methodological design approach of the center is applying a transdisciplinary research design within the framework of real-world/living labs to produce solution-oriented and relevant outcomes toward sustainable and climate-resilient urban agglomerations in the Global South. This builds on previous research carried out on periurbanization in Chennai.

The Nook project will have an exhibition of works done by the learners so far this Sunday.