Public open spaces in Crisis: Appraisal and observation from metropolitan Kathmandu, Nepal

There is an emerging debate in the literature of urbanism that public open space is in crisis in the cities of developing countries due to the increasing trends of urbanization and in-migration. With the significant growth of the urban population and rapid expansion of the city, the land demand for housing and other infrastructure development is very high. The high rate of urbanization due to which encroachment, high speculation, use change, etc. are the major reasons for decreasing public open spaces. There are many inferences that public open spaces are decreasing in Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) as Tundikhel; an important public open space located in the heart of Kathmandu is decreasing in its size and has changed in its use over time. At present, KMC does not have a sizable public open space for emergency uses such as evacuation, relief, recovery, and reconstruction during the catastrophic hazards. Analysis of historical imagery and the changing patterns of land use reveal that the decreasing trends of open spaces may lead more vulnerable to the city as it does not have public open space for disaster management in an emergency need. Moreover, it may have adverse impacts on sociability and well-being as people do not get space for public life activities.


INTRODUCTION
Public open space is a place that is not closed or blocked up and provides access to people for enjoyment, social gatherings, organizing political events, religious, sports, commercial activities, and is controlled and managed for the public interest (Madanipour, 2003;Wooley, 2003). that underpins many social, ecological, and economic activities, and are essential to the healthy functioning of urban life and environment (RECPHEC, 2016;UN-Habitat, 2018). These spaces are valuable for urban residence as it provides commonplace for recreation, health enhancement, developing social networking, and enhancing peoples' well-being. There is increasing debate among the academicians that public open spaces are the essential assets of urban life. But with a rapidly increasing population causing a high growth rate of urbanization has been demanding more land for housing, infrastructure development in the cities of developing countries which has led to decreasing public open E-mail: krishnadhading@gmail.com.
Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License spaces. Evidence reveals that public open spaces in the cities of developing countries are very limited which may result in limiting public life as people do not get space for public interactions, recreations, and organizing public events (UN-Habitat, 2018). Cities in developing countries are facing a public/open space crisis. High population growth and in-migration leading to urbanization in the cities like KMC are the major causes of decreasing the public/open space. So discussions about urbanization and land-use trend are pertinent to present how these impact in diminishing public/open space in KMC.
Urbanization refers to the process of growth in the proportion of the population living in urban areas with the structural shift in employment from agriculture to nonagriculture pursuits (Sharma, 2003). The structural shift which is expected in urbanization is always in question in the contexts of Nepal's urbanization process. As the government declared 293 municipalities in the process of the promulgation of the new federal constitution in 2015, most of these municipalities are still having a reliant base of an agricultural economy. Rural areas are converted into urban areas which are lacking not only the basic infrastructures but are lacking employment in other sectors and heavily dependent on agriculture. Due to which migration still exists between towns and regions from the less potential towns to high potential towns and cities (Devkota, 2018;Suwal, 2014). Kathmandu Valley (KV) is still a potential destination of migrants as it poses a high opportunity for employment, education, and better services there. Due to this, potential cultivable lands are converting into built-up forms leaving no proper public open spaces for recreation and sociability. Furthermore, such a scenario has posed many implications associated with the society linking it with well-being, disaster risk reduction, and the environment.
Kathmandu valley is one of the highest populated, and it has been rapidly expanding its settlement areas from the core to its fringes. Valley's urbanization is highly dynamic in its spatial pattern, complex in its nature, and expanding built-up areas from the core to its fringes converting agriculture land use into urban use (Thapa, 2009). Development in the valley was taking place with uncontrolled infill development and individual housing in the past. Some planned development initiatives have been ongoing in the later stages to make cities reasonably healthy and sustainable with some provisions of open spaces. However, with increasing population inflow in the valley, land value is highly increasing due to which there is high pressure on open space including the agriculture field (KVDA, 2015;Thapa, 2009). Due to its rapid urban expansion, public/open spaces are decreasing in such a way that the government now does not get public land for public infrastructure development in the city. It has also been corroborated that in case of a catastrophic disaster hit, the government would not get essential open space for treatment, emergency relief, rescue, and recovery in Kathmandu.
Despite the conversion of agriculture land into built-up form, there is a trend of decreasing available public land for different uses in Kathmandu. Studies show that Tundikel, a public open space of the heart of Kathmandu has been decreased almost half in the past 60 years in the name of different uses (Shrestha, 2018). Evidence shows that use change, uses transformation, encroachment, etc. are the major reasons for the loss in pubic open space. Similarly, the encroachment of river corridors and some public open spaces in the inner part of KMC is due to the increasing trends of squatter settlements (DUDBC, 2010). Increasing squatter settlements may cause of decreasing public open spaces in Kathmandu. This paper explores urbanization trends and rapid urban expansion in the valley and in KMC to assess how these processes affect to decreasing public/open space and its implications.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This research paper is based on a review of existing literature on open space, urban development, migration, and urbanization of Kathmandu Valley and KMC. Population censuses from 1981 to 2011 and other published secondary data were collected through different sources. Some map data were collected from published and unpublished articles and theses. Data from various institutions such as National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET), Kathmandu Valley Development Authority (KVDA), Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) were collected, and reviewed and found out the urban expansion pattern in the valley and KMC. Historical images were collected by Google Earth's historical images and archive data of secondary sources. Similarly, the latest, land use map of KMC was prepared by using the latest Google Earth images in the GIS environment and then further analyzed with image interpretation methods. The GIS data then overlaid with KMC's previous GIS dataset, 2011 to get changes in urban development trends and patterns to see how changes are occurring to threaten the public/open space. Likewise, empirical data such as research findings and excerpts were used to interpret on encroachment, uses change and transformation of the open area into built-up form. All the data were thoroughly categorized, interpreted, and then analyzed to get the intended objectives. The details of the methods for collecting data and analysis are presented in Figure 1.

Kathmandu Valley and KMC: Brief overview
Kathmandu Valley comprises three districts namely Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur together which cover an area of 899 km 2 , whereas the area of the Valley is 721.87 km 2 . The Valley encloses the entire area of Kathmandu and Bhaktapur districts and 50% of Lalitpur district. Geographically, the valley is situated between 27°31′55″ to 27°48′56″ North Latitude and 85°11′11″ to 85°31′52″ East Longitude. The valley comprises 18 units of municipalities (2 Metropolitan Cities and 16 Municipalities) with some portion of Bagmati and Konjyoson Rural Municipalities of Lalitpur district. The valley extends from 1,425 m in its lowest height to 2,732 m highest height. Kathmandu Metropolitan City is the federal capital city of Nepal which is located in the central part of the valley. It is not only the capital of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal but it is the historic, political, commercial, cultural, and tourist center of the country (EMI, 2010). The city is the urban core of the Kathmandu Valley with a total area of 50.67km 2 . It is situated at an average altitude of 1,350m above sea level. The city is located at 85°19'14"

Urbanization trends in Kathmandu Valley
Urbanization is taking place rapidly with a share of 62.6% of the urban population in the total population of Nepal (MoFAGA, 2017) that has been found to increase from 4.88% in 1991 to 62.6% in 2015. The Kathmandu Valley is the most populated urban region and one of the fastest-growing urban agglomerations in South Asia (Muzzini and Apericio, 2013) which has a huge impact on the social and economic pattern in the valley. At present, the Valley accounts for 24.11% of the total urban population of Nepal with a share of 36.06 in KMC (MoFAGA, 2017) alone in the Valley's urban population. Table 1 shows the urbanization trend and urban growth rate of the KV. In 1981, there were only 3 municipalities with 77,038 population in the valley. After 10 years in 1991, the total number of municipalities in the valley reached 5 with a total of 1,105,379 population. The population of the valley increased by 871,932 with an annual growth rate of 5.3% in 2011 even though the number of municipalities was only 5. The growth rate increased by 5.89% in 2019/2020. During the state restructuring in 2015, the number of municipalities in the valley increased by almost four times with a total of 18 municipalities (including two metropolitan Cities). Inmigration is one of the reasons for the increasing population trend in the valley as it is the most common destination of inter-district current migrants as nearly 38% of current migrants go to the central hill, out of which 34% are based in the three districts of KV (Suwal, 2014).

Urbanization trends in KMC with compare to other urban areas
The population of KMC has been increasing rapidly over the past ten years. In-migration towards the city is increasing due to the income and employment opportunities, available urban facilities and services, and of course being the Federal Capital City of Nepal. Likewise, boundary readjustments at different times also played a role in the increase of the city's population. KMC is one of the major destinations of migrants as it has several potentialities to cater to migrants' populations here in different economic sectors. As a result, KMC's population has grown by about 48% over ten years (2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019), from 975,453 people in 2011 to 1,442,271 people in 2019 (CBS, 2011;World Population Atlas, 2020). Historically known as Newar settlement (Slusser, 1982;Malla, 1978;Kirkpatrick, 1969;cited in Subedi, 2010), KMC is the most densely populated city in Nepal with a density of 132.34 person per hectare which is higher compared to the aggregate urban population density of all the cities of Nepal recorded at only 3.77 persons per hectare (Subedi, 2010;Muzzini and Apericio, 2013).
Historical trends of population growth in KMC have been observed comparing it with KV and the overall urban population of Nepal. The highest growth rate among the censuses 1952/1954 to 2011, census 1991 poses the highest one with 7.91% of the annual growth rate. After 2001, the growth rate is slightly dropping down but its share in the valley's population is also shrinking from 67.5% in 2001 to 39.2% in 2011 which implies population concentration is slightly shifted towards nearby towns of KMC. However, after state reconstruction during the implementation of the Federal Constitution of Nepal, there were drastic changes in local government bodies, and the number of municipalities in Nepal reached 293. Now the share of the urban population in the country reached 62.7% and its share in the population of the valley decreased to 24.11%. The demographic situation and trends of population growth of KMC is presented in Table 2.
The unprecedented population increase in Kathmandu over the last few decades is not only due to a higher rate of natural increase but also due to a high level of inmigration and immigration in the valley (Subedi, 2010) and KMC. Being Federal Capital, KMC is the central attraction for services and economic opportunities that contributed to in-migration. Expansion of built-up areas Ishtiaque et al., 2017). KMC experiences a high rate of and rapid conversion of agriculture land into built-up is caused by massive rural-to-urban migration (Rimal, 2011; in-migration with people coming from municipalities and districts outside of the valley (EMI, 2010). As there was 975,453 population in the 2011 census, it has now reached to 1,442,271 and it is projected to be 1,855,000 by 2030 (Muzzini and Apericio, 2013). Among the major causes of increasing rural-to-urban migration in the valley in general and in KMC in particular, are job searching, easy lifestyle, education/training, natural disaster family reasons, political reason in the area of origin. This is obvious that such external migrants are mainly concentrated in KMC as the migrants mainly choose to work and livelihoods (Timalsina, 2011), business, schooling, and diplomatic purposes. Though there is an increasing trend of migrants' priority at nearby towns of KMC in the later years (Subedi, 2010), there is still a huge bulge of migrants who choose to migrate because of the high probability of getting jobs.

Land use change in KMC
The scenario of land use changes over 40 years reveals that the built-up area in KMC has been increasing tremendously. Evidence shows that there has been a significant land-use change in KMC, converting agriculture and open spaces into the built-up form. This significant urban growth and rapid urban expansion coupled with unmanaged settlement development which has led to various socio-environmental challenges (Thapa, 2009; Table 3. It reveals that in 2019 KMC occupies 58.77% area as mixed-use (residential, commercial) whereas only 5.47% area is under cultivation. Similarly, 8.5% area as road, 7.74% area as institutional, 3.22% area as a recreational area. Changes in land use/cover from 1980 to 2019 reveal a huge change with 40% growth in the built-up area whereas cultivation decreased by almost 53%. Changes have also occurred in an open space which decreased by 1.76% in the same period. One of the tools for regulating urban growth is by implementing land-use zoning by-laws. However, the land-use zone as prescribed by building by-laws of KVTDC (2007) with 9 zones such as: 1) Old city zone, 2) Residential zone, 3) Institutional zone, 4) Industrial zone, 5) Protected zone/recreational zone, 6) City expansion zone, 7) Surface transport zone, 8) Airport zone, 9) Sports zone has not been translated into implementations so that the development and urban expansion is haphazard (KMC, 2011;MoUD, 2015). Present land use in KMC is predominantly mixed land use which comprises mostly of combined residential and commercial land uses and there is no specific zone that could be viewed in the ground but poses messy urban growth. Reviewing the urban development and growth trends, it reveals that both the agriculture area and open spaces are decreased both in the valley and in KMC. On the one hand, the land use picture of KMC is a kind of messy that has not been regulated by the proposed land-use zoning, on the other hand, open areas have been converting into built-up forms heading to haphazard urban development that ruins the remaining public open space in the days to come.

Trends of increasing built-up area
Looking at the trends of change in the built-up area of Kathmandu, it is apparent that the growth trend is increasing in the later decades. The different points of

Loss of public open spaces: Ruin to all
As defined above, public spaces are all places publicly owned or of public use, accessible and enjoyable by all for free and without a profit motive (Amanda, 2017;UN-Habitat, 2018), and it contributes to urban residence a place for social interactions and well-being. Public   (Bordieu, 1986). However, looking at the nature of public open spaces, some open spaces are very limited to public access and some others are having more access to them (Low and Smith, 2006). Therefore, accessibility patterns of public open spaces vary according to the types, functions, and uses of public open spaces in the urban contexts vary according to its location, urban forms, and the settlement structures.
Public spaces play a vital role in the social life of urban communities as these provide space for interactions and establishing relations. Society acts as a self-organizing public service with a shared space in which experiences and values are created, shared and interactions among the community people established (Wooley, 2003;Stavrides, 2016;Massey and Massey, 2005). The public places of different scales at the community level can be a place for sharing feelings, experiences, knowledge, physical exercise for improving their health. Moreover, public open spaces in the urban areas provide a place for economic earnings, livelihoods to urban poor in Kathmandu (Timalsina, 2011)  built-up areas in the valley which has now become a central concern of researches, academicians, urban planners, and urban authorities.
There is a tendency that various cities in the world,  Table 5, which reveals that among the available 5.71 km 2 of total open area, 76.5% is occupied by the Nepal government ownership including the government office coverage areas. About 51.6% of total open spaces are identified as useable in case of emergency need. The distribution of open spaces is presented in Figure 7. There is evidence in Kathmandu that public land has been converted into built-up infrastructures as many public areas have encroached. River corridors; both Bagmati and Bishnumati rivers, Tundikhel, Koteshwor area have encroached for different uses. River corridors are mostly encroached by the informal settlements whereas the decrease of Tundikhel was mainly because of expansion of road, uses changes (Dasharath Rangasala, Army headquarter in the past and conversion Khulla Manch into buss park recently) whereas the decrease of Koteshwor temple area is due to encroachment by a school and government office (Tiwari, 1989;Poudel, 2017)     Hence, public spaces are the assets for cities to create sociality to give a feeling of togetherness among the community people through interaction, establish relations between space and people, recreation and well-being, people's health improvement, public gathering and social networking, safer place for sheltering during and after disasters (MoUD, 2015;KVDA, 2015). However, decreasing such invaluable open spaces may result a number of problems in Kathmandu making cities chaotic, disaggregated, less sociability, and environmentally vulnerable (Joshef Rountree Foundation-JFR, 2019). Social life in KMC is squeezing sociability as there has a decreasing trend of social gatherings, interactions, and networking among people. Decreasing the public realm is one of the causes as people have losing public spaces to gather, talk, and enjoy sharing a common informationsharing platform. Therefore, such a crisis of public open spaces may degrade the sociability and community wellbeing in dense cities like Kathmandu.
The empirical research findings as excerpts on decreasing public open space in KMC have been cited in Box 1. It reveals that Tundikhel, one of the important public open spaces located in the heart of KMC is reduced by almost half as the spaces have been converted into institutional uses for Nepal Army and event management (Sharma, 2019;Chitrakar, 2020 andChhetri, 2020). Similarly, a part of Tundikhel (Khulamanch) now has been converted into a bus park operation as another uses. Previously the old Buspark, located nearby Tundikhel is now has been going to convert into a modern multi-story building that is now under construction by Kathmandu Metropolitan City. It means KMC itself is converting the public open spaces into various uses. These open spaces would be useful to accommodate the whole population in the past but today all these open spaces have been converting into the builtup form or have been changed into other forms which indicate public open space diminishing in KMC. This will ruin public life activities in KMC by limiting people in daily public life activities.

Conclusion
The significant growth of the urban population in KV and KMC leads to diminishing the public open space. The rapid expansion of the cities in the Kathmandu Valley is high due to the high demand of land for housing and infrastructure development to increased population. Now, there are all the local bodies within the valley as urban areas with 18 municipalities including two metropolitan cities that cover almost 24.11% of the total urban population of Nepal. KMC, being the Federal Capital of Nepal, has been attracting the migrant's population for employment, education, and other diplomatic purposes to live in. The increasing population on the one hand has led to converting the open area into built-up forms and on the other hand, it has been increasing pressure on the available public open spaces for different uses. As a result, the public open space is in the stage of vanishing in KMC.
The high rate of in-migration and urbanization due to which encroachment, high speculation, use change, etc. are the major reasons for decreasing public open spaces in Kathmandu. Tundikhel; an important public open space located in the heart of Kathmandu is decreasing in its size and has changed in its use over time. Data shows that in 2019 KMC occupies 58.77% area as mixed-use (residential, commercial) whereas only 5.47% area is under cultivation. Changes in land use/cover from 1980 to 2019 reveal a huge change with 40% growth in the built-up area whereas the cultivation area decreased by almost 53%. The lost cultivated land is converted into a built-up form. Changes have also occurred in the public open space which decreased by 1.76% in the same period. At present, KMC does not have a sizable public open space for emergency uses such as evacuation, relief, and recovery during the catastrophic hazards. Moreover, it may have another dimension of impact at the community level that decreasing public open space has adverse impacts on sociability and well-being. Hence, the growth trends of KMC suggests that open spaces exist today will no more available for future generations. Therefore, it is recommended that concerned authorities need to plan effectively to protect the available public open spaces not only for protecting the city environment but for better management of risk and disaster and creat public life activities in the society.