Water, Mobility & Heat

This program examines infrastructure justice in climate-stressed cities. Chennai’s water crises and heat vulnerability provide a lens for studying groundwater depletion, tanker economies, transport inequities, and urban heat islands.

Students engage in spatial mapping, service-journey documentation, and climate-resilience analysis. Field visits explore water infrastructure sites, public transit systems, and neighborhood cooling interventions.

In Bengaluru, students analyze governance innovation ecosystems and accountability mechanisms in urban service delivery.

The culmination is a comprehensive Infrastructure Justice Brief with maps and policy recommendations.

Students will:

Map distributional inequities in water and mobility systems.
Analyze urban heat exposure across socioeconomic gradients.
Conduct participatory service-journey documentation.
Evaluate infrastructure governance and accountability systems.
Produce an evidence-based infrastructure justice brief.

Environmental Engineering

Public Policy

Geography

Public Health

Sustainability Studies

Data Analytics

Chennai Water & Transport Contexts

Bengaluru Governance & Innovation Ecosystems

Day	Location	Academic Engagement	Learning Emphasis
1	Chennai	Arrival; seminar: Climate-stressed urban systems	Framing
2–3	Chennai	Methods lab: service-journey mapping; heat & water vulnerability mapping	Toolkit
4	Chennai	Seminar: Water governance & groundwater depletion	Systems analysis
5–6	Chennai	Fieldwork: transport routes, tanker water systems, heat exposure mapping	Distributional impacts
7	Chennai	Stakeholder dialogue: municipal & community actors	Institutional lens
8–9	Bengaluru	Comparative module: governance innovation & accountability tools	Institutional comparison
10	Bengaluru	Policy clinic: data platforms & urban equity	Accountability
11	Chennai	Infrastructure justice drafting lab	Translation
12	Chennai	Peer review & revision	Academic rigor
13	Chennai	Presentations; departures	Closure