Re-naturing cities through water-centric development: Evaluating a canal restoration project in Narayanganj City, Bangladesh

The concept of ‘re-naturing cities’ promotes nature-based solutions for sustainable urban design; one of those being water-centric development with networks of blue (water bodies) and green (vegetation areas) aims to generate urban areas that support economic growth, strengthen social cohesion, and restore degraded ecosystems. Projects are implemented to revitalize urban water bodies with multifunctional areas. This study focuses on water-centric development projects to evaluate the success of ‘re-naturing cities’ in achieving sustainable goals.

This research analyzes a part of a canal restoration project of Narayanganj City, Bangladesh, to investigate the development process and understand its effectiveness in achieving sustainable goals. The study employs multiple qualitative tools for capturing users’ views (emic analysis) and researchers’ views (etic analysis). The combined understanding identifies that the project focuses primarily on adding an aesthetically pleasing element to the urban fabric, overlooking multiple socioeconomic and ecological possibilities of living with water.