Saima Musharrat - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Saima Musharrat
International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters
Disaster science is increasingly incorporating interdisciplinary methods and participatory resear... more Disaster science is increasingly incorporating interdisciplinary methods and participatory research techniques. Yet, traditional higher education programs remain focused on lecture. More examples of educational efforts that meet the needs of future researchers and practitioners to foster collaboration across disciplines and with communities are needed. This paper describes one such effort that included three projects co-designed and co-led by university students, faculty, and community residents to address flooding challenges in socially vulnerable neighborhoods. This paper provides an overview of the educational programs, the three projects, and the feedback from graduate and undergraduate students who helped initiate these efforts, and discusses the benefits and challenges for similar interdisciplinary and participatory educational programs. Benefits for students include increased interdisciplinary dialogue, improved science communication, increased research participation, real-wo...
Socially vulnerable populations are often concentrated in flood vulnerable urban areas, resulting... more Socially vulnerable populations are often concentrated in flood vulnerable urban areas, resulting in multiple cultural, economic, and ecological issues. Sunnyside, a 4096 acre historically African-American community in Houston, Texas, faces the issues of flooding hazards, high percentage of vacant lands, and low quality of life. Sixteen vi
Sustainability
There is a growing and critical need to develop solutions for communities that are at particular ... more There is a growing and critical need to develop solutions for communities that are at particular risk of the impacts of the nexus of hazardous substances and natural disasters. In urban areas at high risk for flooding and lacking proper land-use controls, communities are vulnerable to environmental contamination from industrial land uses during flood events. This research uniquely applied a series of landscape pzerformance models to evaluate such associations including (1) the Green Values National Stormwater Calculator, (2) the Value of Green Infrastructure Tool, and (3) the Long-Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment Model. This paper presents a framework for combining landscape performance models, which are often only individually applied, to evaluate green infrastructure impacts on flood mitigation and pollutant transfer during flooding events using the Sunnyside neighborhood in Houston, Texas, USA, as a case site. The results showed that the plan reduced the risk of flooding, decrea...
![Research paper thumbnail of Designing Public Space With[out] Public Participation?A Study on Hatir Jheel, Dhaka](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/48525222/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](In a developing country like Bangladesh where the practice of urbanism is merely seen as either s... more In a developing country like Bangladesh where the practice of urbanism is merely seen as either successful or miscarried milestones set by the government rather than an inclusive design process, it's not a surprise that the projects are often devoid of people's active involvement. However, the importance of including the users a space is designed for is undisputable, particularly from the perspective of New Urbanism concept advocating for 'citizen-based participatory planning and design' process. Public spaces are the urban connectors and points of reference in a city, thus rendering the design process as a better-suited opportunity to reflect the desires of its denizens. This paper investigates the unseen opportunities of public participation in sketching out the public spaces of Dhaka, taking Hatir Jheel as a case study. Hatir Jheel is a lake designed with the vision of connecting the existing traffic network to ease the congestion, retaining water, repelling pollution and illegal settlers along the waterbody and reinvigorating the urban activities on the waterfront. Despite having every potential to be an all-encompassing public urban design project realized from people's aspirations, Hatir Jheel doesn't live up to the expectations of becoming one. With the research question in mind 'What role can public participation have in designing public spaces?', this topic is explored in four sections, (1) literature review of the role of inclusive and participatory process in urbanism illustrated with two case studies in two different contexts, one in Belgium and another in Nepal, (2) public space as seen in the context of Dhaka, (3) the frequent breach between the above-mentioned concept and the reality, exemplified through the case study of Hatir Jheel and finally through these steps, (4) the paper aims to look for the recommendations for developing a toolkit to make participatory process in designing public space possible in developing countries. The paper concludes that in introducing the citizen engagement in the developing countries, public spaces can act as starting points and the planners should take the role of advocating and mediating people's needs.
International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters
Disaster science is increasingly incorporating interdisciplinary methods and participatory resear... more Disaster science is increasingly incorporating interdisciplinary methods and participatory research techniques. Yet, traditional higher education programs remain focused on lecture. More examples of educational efforts that meet the needs of future researchers and practitioners to foster collaboration across disciplines and with communities are needed. This paper describes one such effort that included three projects co-designed and co-led by university students, faculty, and community residents to address flooding challenges in socially vulnerable neighborhoods. This paper provides an overview of the educational programs, the three projects, and the feedback from graduate and undergraduate students who helped initiate these efforts, and discusses the benefits and challenges for similar interdisciplinary and participatory educational programs. Benefits for students include increased interdisciplinary dialogue, improved science communication, increased research participation, real-wo...
Socially vulnerable populations are often concentrated in flood vulnerable urban areas, resulting... more Socially vulnerable populations are often concentrated in flood vulnerable urban areas, resulting in multiple cultural, economic, and ecological issues. Sunnyside, a 4096 acre historically African-American community in Houston, Texas, faces the issues of flooding hazards, high percentage of vacant lands, and low quality of life. Sixteen vi
Sustainability
There is a growing and critical need to develop solutions for communities that are at particular ... more There is a growing and critical need to develop solutions for communities that are at particular risk of the impacts of the nexus of hazardous substances and natural disasters. In urban areas at high risk for flooding and lacking proper land-use controls, communities are vulnerable to environmental contamination from industrial land uses during flood events. This research uniquely applied a series of landscape pzerformance models to evaluate such associations including (1) the Green Values National Stormwater Calculator, (2) the Value of Green Infrastructure Tool, and (3) the Long-Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment Model. This paper presents a framework for combining landscape performance models, which are often only individually applied, to evaluate green infrastructure impacts on flood mitigation and pollutant transfer during flooding events using the Sunnyside neighborhood in Houston, Texas, USA, as a case site. The results showed that the plan reduced the risk of flooding, decrea...
In a developing country like Bangladesh where the practice of urbanism is merely seen as either s... more In a developing country like Bangladesh where the practice of urbanism is merely seen as either successful or miscarried milestones set by the government rather than an inclusive design process, it's not a surprise that the projects are often devoid of people's active involvement. However, the importance of including the users a space is designed for is undisputable, particularly from the perspective of New Urbanism concept advocating for 'citizen-based participatory planning and design' process. Public spaces are the urban connectors and points of reference in a city, thus rendering the design process as a better-suited opportunity to reflect the desires of its denizens. This paper investigates the unseen opportunities of public participation in sketching out the public spaces of Dhaka, taking Hatir Jheel as a case study. Hatir Jheel is a lake designed with the vision of connecting the existing traffic network to ease the congestion, retaining water, repelling pollution and illegal settlers along the waterbody and reinvigorating the urban activities on the waterfront. Despite having every potential to be an all-encompassing public urban design project realized from people's aspirations, Hatir Jheel doesn't live up to the expectations of becoming one. With the research question in mind 'What role can public participation have in designing public spaces?', this topic is explored in four sections, (1) literature review of the role of inclusive and participatory process in urbanism illustrated with two case studies in two different contexts, one in Belgium and another in Nepal, (2) public space as seen in the context of Dhaka, (3) the frequent breach between the above-mentioned concept and the reality, exemplified through the case study of Hatir Jheel and finally through these steps, (4) the paper aims to look for the recommendations for developing a toolkit to make participatory process in designing public space possible in developing countries. The paper concludes that in introducing the citizen engagement in the developing countries, public spaces can act as starting points and the planners should take the role of advocating and mediating people's needs.