Inclusive Blue-Green Public Open Spaces: Learning from Tansen, Nepal

This chapter examines how participatory and gender-responsive planning and design can help safeguard and upgrade of urban wetlands, so that they become inclusive and climate-resilient public open spaces in Nepal’s rapidly growing secondary cities and municipalities. The study uses the Cities 4 Women: Inclusive and Climate Resilient Urbanization in Nepal project, implemented by United Nations organizations and hosted entities, as the institutional context for analyzing Kamal Pokhara, a public open space in Tansen Municipality adjacent to a wetland. It examines how physical conditions, governance arrangements, and user perceptions influence the realization of blue-green infrastructure benefits. A mixed-method case study design was applied, combining (i) policy and document review, (ii) structured user/community surveys, (iii) key-informant interviews, and (iv) participatory tools, including community mapping, safety audits/urban walks, and co-design workshops. While qualitative data were analyzed through thematic coding, quantitative responses were summarized using descriptive statistics. The findings show that the community strongly recognizes wetlands as important for flood regulation, microclimate moderation, cultural practices, and daily recreation, while also expressing concern about declining water quality, encroachment, inadequate lighting, and limited universal access. The process produced site-specific co-design interventions that combined wetland production, including safeguarding water bodies, native planting buffers, and runoff management, with public-realm upgrades such as accessible paths, seating, wayfinding, and safety measures. The research concludes that incorporating wetland-sensitive design into the habitual practices of municipal planning, along with sustained community stewardship and the coordination of different agencies regarding maintenance and water governance, can deliver combined benefits of equity and climate-resilience.