Student studios

The Infrastructure Planning Programme at CEPT University offers studios on preparing urban infrastructure plans and infrastructure project development. Typically, the studio exercise involves preparation of a city water and sanitation plan for an urban local body, covering the sub-sectors of water supply, sewerage (both sewered and non-sewered options), storm water drains and solid waste management.

The aim of these studios is to develop amongst students, an understanding of basic concepts of institutional, technical, financial and stakeholder analysis for citywide water and sanitation service delivery. Students also learn to apply plan formulation processes and tools and techniques of project identification for service performance improvements. The studios also explores emerging approaches such as climate resilient cities, water sensitive urban design and integrated urban water management.

The guiding principles for this academic exercise include: spatial equity, access for the poor, sustainability (financial, institutional, environmental and technical) and integrated service delivery. The first stage in the studio exercise is to assess the infrastructure status in the city including key spatial, technical, financial and institutional gaps in service delivery. In the second stage, students identify options and actions for performance improvement. Based on these, detailed studies are taken up to prioritize critical infrastructure in the city and students develop a plan and implementation strategy.

These studios have been led by Prof Mona Iyer from Faculty of Planning, CEPT University. The faculty and team from the Center for Water and Sanitation have contributed to these studios over the past 10 years. In addition, the research reports and data at C-WAS have been used and referenced by students across various studio exercises.