Main entry:

Acciavatti, Anthony, author.

Title & Author:

Ganges water machine : designing new India's ancient river / Anthony Acciavatti ; editing by Aleksandr Bierig and Duncan Corrigall.

Edition:

First edition.

Publication:

San Francisco, California : Applied Research + Design Publishing (ar+d) , [2015]
©2015

Description:

5 unnumbered pages, 402 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (some color), plans, facsimiles ; 30 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 389-397) and index.
Foreword / Rahul Mehrotra -- Preface -- Introduction -- Part 1 Survey of the Ganges. Theater -- Topographic monumentality -- Global river basins -- Monsoon -- Behemoth -- Vapors -- Tools -- Part 2 Constructing the Ganges water machine. Super-surface -- Ganges canal -- Opening ceremony -- Enchantment -- Models -- References -- Divisions -- Super-passages -- Rajbuhas -- Public Works Department -- Revolution -- Defects -- Lower Ganges canal -- Heroism -- Drain -- Debt -- Decentralization -- Part 3 Himalayan dreams. Super-surface -- Survey -- Crisis in slow-motion -- Liberation -- Poets -- Tubewells -- Stations -- Explosions -- 1966 -- Family planning -- HYVS -- Implementation -- Schemes -- Part 4 Changes of state (Allahabad to Varanasi). Regional capital -- Allahabad -- Celestial-terrestrial microcosm -- Magh Mela -- Kumbh Mela -- Open territory -- Transects -- Narainpur Pump Canal -- Varanasi.

Summary:

Beyond the dense urbanism of Mumbai (Bombay) or the IT centers of Bangalore and Hyderabad lies the Ganges River basin - today home to over one-quarter of India's billion-plus population - a space historically defined by a mythological constellation of terrestrial sites imbued with celestial significance. Not only is it one of the most densely populated river basins in the world, but it also undergoes dramatic physical changes with the onslaught of the wet monsoon, where over one-meter of rainfall occurs in the span of three months.This book focuses on the intersection of these two observations. It is an atlas of built and unbuilt projects designed to transform the river into a giant water machine.Since the middle of the nineteenth century, this mythical watercourse has functioned as a laboratory to test and build a new civilization around the culture of water. Jointly authored by people and nature, the Ganges River is today a monstrous water machine in which the entire basin became a workshop of human-made experience, defined by a hydrological system best described as a supersurface: a surface engineered from the scale of the soil to the scale of the nation. Everything from diffuse urban projects and green revolutions to colossal public works programs and architectural transformations constitute the genesis of the Ganges Water Machine. Whether to thwart massive peasant uprisings or to redirect monsoonal rains to productive ends, never before has a river that inspired the realization of unbelievable architectural and infrastructural projects received as little scrutiny as the Ganges river basin.Reaching through the very heart of some of India s most densely populated cities, small towns, industrial zones, sacred sites, and mountainous forests, Ganges Water Machine by Anthony Acciavatti, composed of eight years of field and archival research, explores and theorizes the people and infrastructures that shaped this territory. Ganges Water Machine is an atlas of the enterprise to make the Ganges River basin into a highly engineered landscape: it reveals the narratives and explanations that allowed engineers and planners to realize fantasies previously only imaginable on paper or in myth.

ISBN:

9780982622612 (hardcover)
0982622619 (hardcover)

Subject:

Regional planning Ganges River Valley (India and Bangladesh)
Watersheds Ganges River Valley (India and Bangladesh) History Designs and plans.
Water resources development Ganges River Valley (India and Bangladesh)
Agriculture Ganges River Valley (India and Bangladesh) History.
Urbanization Ganges River Valley (India and Bangladesh)
Aménagement du territoire Gange, Vallée du (Inde et Bangladesh)
Bassins hydrographiques Gange, Vallée du (Inde et Bangladesh) Histoire Dessins et plans.
Ressources en eau Exploitation Gange, Vallée du (Inde et Bangladesh)
Agriculture Gange, Vallée du (Inde et Bangladesh) Histoire.
Urbanisation Gange, Vallée du (Inde et Bangladesh)
Agriculture.
Ecology.
Regional planning.
Urbanization.
Water resources development.
Watersheds.
Gestion des ressources en eau Gange, Vallée du (Inde)
Agriculture Gange, Vallée du (Inde)
Urbanisation Gange, Vallée du (Inde)
Ganges River (India and Bangladesh) History.
Ganges River Valley (India and Bangladesh) History.
Ganges River (India and Bangladesh) Environmental conditions.
Ganges River Valley (India and Bangladesh) Environmental conditions.
Gange (Inde et Bangladesh : Fleuve) Histoire.
Gange, Vallée du (Inde et Bangladesh) Histoire.
Gange (Inde et Bangladesh : Fleuve) Conditions environnementales.
Gange, Vallée du (Inde et Bangladesh) Conditions environnementales.
Asia Ganges River.
Asia Ganges River Valley.
Gange (cours d'eau) Inde Histoire.
Gange (cours d'eau) Bangladesh Histoire.
Gange, Vallée du (Inde) Inde Histoire.
Gange, Vallée du (Inde) Bangladesh Histoire.
Gange, Vallée du (Inde) Environnement.
Asie Gange (cours d'eau)

Form/genre:

Architectural drawings.
History.

Added entries:

Bierig, Aleksandr, editor.
Corrigall, Duncan, editor.
Mehrotra, Rahul, author of introduction.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 292126
Call No.: BIB 236167
Status: Available