November 14, 2025: The IFLA–Asia Pacific Regional Congress 2025 opened in Mumbai on Friday with a sharp focus on how India’s fastest-growing urban centres, including Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, and Pune, are confronting the ecological pressures created by continuous development.
Hosted by the Indian Society of Landscape Architects (ISOLA) at the Jio World Convention Centre, the Congress brought together global and Indian practitioners to discuss this year’s theme, “Growth Paradox – Reimagining Landscapes.” Speakers noted that large metropolitan regions are expanding without corresponding ecological safeguards, resulting in fragmented open spaces, rising urban heat, stressed water systems, and heightened flood risk.
Rakesh Parmar, an industry expert, said the challenge for cities like Mumbai is not growth but “growth that disconnects built development from the ecological systems that support it.” He added that real-estate markets increasingly recognise the long-term value of landscape continuity in mitigating urban heat and infrastructure stress.
A number of speakers through the morning sessions pointed to rapid densification, fragmented open spaces and pressure on natural drainage pathways as key areas requiring structural policy attention.
Participants drew parallels between national LULC (land-use land-cover) trends and the development trajectory of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), which continues to densify through transport corridors, coastal reclamation, and peri-urban construction. Speakers emphasised that ecological continuity, critical for drainage, groundwater recharge and heat mitigation, is increasingly disrupted by linear infrastructure, land reclamation, and piecemeal zoning.
Dr. Anju John, Architect, observed that real-estate decisions often get locked in before ecological assessments are fully understood. “Urban expansion in the MMR has advanced faster than the environmental data needed to guide it,” she said. “Development is inevitable, but without ecological intelligence built into planning frameworks, cities risk amplifying their own vulnerabilities.”
This theme echoed across multiple sessions that discussed rising flood sensitivity, the strain on water networks, and the narrowing margin for error in high-density coastal cities.
A key presentation examined three decades of landscape change in Kerala’s Chaliyar River Basin, reporting long-term reductions in forests, waterbodies, and agricultural land—a pattern researchers said parallels constraints emerging in Mumbai’s peripheries. Another study highlighted the unrealised potential of 31 abandoned quarries in Pune, which remain outside formal planning frameworks despite their ability to function as micro-watersheds or public open spaces.
Ar. Shivali Lalbige noted that integrating these overlooked landscapes into metropolitan planning could ease pressure on conventional real-estate zones. “Cities expand into every available parcel, but seldom pause to evaluate which lands should perform ecological functions rather than commercial ones,” she said. “A landscape-first approach can stabilise microclimates and reduce risks for surrounding developments.”
The Congress will continue through the weekend with discussions on coastal systems, resilient infrastructure, urban forests, and policy mechanisms relevant to high-growth regions like Mumbai and neighbouring cities.
