Public open spaces are the heart of our cities, parks where our children play, squares where communities gather, urban forests for recreation, and streets that connect us. As our urban centers grapple with dual pressures of rushed urbanization and a changing climate, these important spaces are at risk. The floods that overwhelm our streets and the heatwaves that make our parks and squares unusable are not just infrastructural issues but also a social concern. They expose the deep-seated inequalities in how our cities are designed, and they demand a new approach, one that is resilient and inclusive.
Public open spaces enhance the quality of life. UN-Habitat highlights the role of green public spaces in improving mental health, encouraging physical activity, and enhancing overall health and well being of urban communities supporting mental health, promoting social cohesion, and enhancing community engagement. A growing body of research confirms that urban green spaces disconnected from nature face both physical and mental stress. A study published in PMC demonstrates that green spaces help reduce pollutants and noise, while providing visual stimulation and buffering stress. Therefore, urban green spaces are not just aesthetic features in the city, they serve critical physiological and psychological functions.
The climate crisis demands reimagining our urban landscapes. This is not about building higher walls against rising waters. It is about working with nature, giving it room to grow and function, not against it.
As an architect, urban planner and designer, a large part of my career is dedicated to reintroducing nature into urbanscape. My work – from shaping disaster risk governance with the Government of Nepal to designing public open spaces for Kathmandu Metropolitan, and leading gender-responsive and climate resilient infrastructure projects with UNOPS – has been driven by a simple conviction: a public open space that is safe and functional for women sets the foundation for a city that works better for everyone. To build the cities of the future, we must design public open spaces that are both resilient to climate and responsive to the diverse needs.
Under the Cities4Woment project urban parks are designed and developed not just as green spaces, but as essential infrastructure. The team designed public open spaces ranging from neighborhood parks and city parks to wetlands, river corridors, streetscapes to markets. These spaces double as retention ponds to absorb floodwater, harvest and recharge rainwater, incorporate rain gardens along the streets and parking lots to replenish groundwater and create urban forests that cool our neighborhoods and purify our air. We use natural materials with a low carbon footprint, deliberately avoiding excessive use of concrete. We encourage natural materials and indigenous technology. These nature-based solutions that we use, and advocate are not just technically sound but help create beautiful, livable, and ecologically balanced environments.
However, a climate resilient space is not truly successful unless it is also inclusive. As highlighted in the Cities Alive, cities have historically been designed by men catering solely to their needs, failing to meet the daily needs of women, caregivers, and marginalized groups — resulting in spaces that lack empathy, inclusion, safety. Cities Alliance emphasizes when public open spaces are designed together with women to meet their needs both physical and social barriers are reduced helping open social-economic opportunities for everyone.
Through the work for the Cities 4 Women: Inclusive and Climate Resilient Urbanization in Nepal project, we are actively dismantling this legacy. Leading with a participatory process, bringing women and community to the design table. The answers to community needs, especially those of women and girls, are often simple but transformative: better lighting along pathways, clear lines of sight, accessible pathways for strollers, wheelchairs and crutches, inclusive toilets, waterspouts and benches, shaded spaces to beat the heat, spaces for small-scale economic activities, to name a few.
By integrating these gender-responsive features, we are not just building infrastructure, we are building safer and more inclusive communities that offer opportunities and provide confidence. Inclusive design process we advocate, rooted in gender equality and social inclusion, where community ownership is never an afterthought. Guided by the Ministry of Urban Development, supported by the European Union and the Government of Finland, UNOPS, UN-Habitat and Cities Alliance, are implementing the project in 7 municipalities. The project embedded an urban planner to each of the project municipalities.
In a field often dominated by male voices, I’ve learned that inclusive and resilient design is not just about technical expertise—it’s about listening. Listening to women who don’t feel safe in parks, children who need space to play, elderly seeking shade and rest, and communities longing for connection and dignity.
On the occasion of Women in Engineering Day , it is critical to recognize women’s perspectives as not just valuable but also essential. Women experience cities differently —more likely to be pedestrians, to use public transport, and to care for children and elderly relatives. These lived experiences inform a more holistic and empathetic approach to design. By leading multidisciplinary teams, mentoring young professionals, and advocating for policy change, women engineers, designers and planners are ensuring that the cities are designed and built for everyone to thrive.
Hence, the path forward requires collective commitment. City leaders, planners, designers and engineers must adopt a truly participatory and gender-responsive design process. And we must all champion the women in this field who are forging a new vision for urban life.
Let’s build cities where every park, every plaza, and every street are testament to our commitment to a future that is sustainable, equitable, and resilient for all.
