Alpa Nawre, Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Florida, presented the second lecture in the inaugural year of the Landscape Architecture Magazine (LAM) Lecture Series at the American Society of Landscape Architecture (ASLA) Headquarters in Washington, D.C. on September 7, 2017.
In her lecture, titled “The Ecologies of Resource Management: Water as A Development Tool in Rural India,” Nawre discussed the ways in which water resource management, viewed from a landscape perspective, can feed into development efforts and become a more potent agent of social change.
“The topic is very timely as we’ve seen that too much water, like with our recent hurricanes, makes it difficult to manage,” UF Department of Landscape Architecture Chair Tina Gurucharri stated. “And not enough water is also devastating when dealing with wildfires and drought.”
Gurucharri also mentioned that water management is even more of an issue in developing countries where lives are more precarious.
“I am honored to have been invited to lecture at the ASLA Center for Landscape Architecture in Washington, D.C.” Nawre stated. “Landscape architects can contribute greatly towards resilient water management through the design of landscape infrastructure, particularly in developing countries, where the scarcity or excess of water can be a matter of life or death.”
According to LAM’s website, the Landscape Architecture Magazine Lecture Series brings together design professionals, educators and thinkers in conversation around provocative issues in the field of landscape architecture.
Just as water sustains communities, its scarcity can severely distress them, particularly their most vulnerable members.
Nawre, a landscape architect, urbanist and architect, joined the Department of Landscape Architecture at University of Florida as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2017. Nawre holds a Master in Urban Design from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, a Master in Landscape Architecture from Louisiana State University, and a Bachelor in Architecture from NIT, Raipur, India.
She is a recipient of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Award for Excellence in Design Studio Teaching, the Dumbarton Oaks Mellon Fellowship in Urban Landscape Studies, and is a current Landscape Architecture Foundation Fellow for Innovation and Leadership.
Her lecture and conversation with LAM Editor Bradford McKee, is available for public viewing at: https://www.facebook.com/landscapearchitecturemagazine/videos/10159286020625542/.
