Environmental Justice and Smart Environmental Governance: Reimagining Urban Ecological Commons in Bengaluru
Acceptance: 13/07/2026
Published: 23/08/2026
Abstract
Bengaluru's transformation from India's celebrated "Garden City" into a rapidly urbanizing metropolis has been accompanied by the systematic depletion of its interconnected lake systems, historically the ecological and hydrological backbone of the region (Nagendra, 2016; Ramachandra, 2023). This paper extends an ongoing sociological inquiry into the relationship between lake depletion, air quality degradation, and urban environmental change by situating Bengaluru's ecological crisis within the broader conceptual terrain of environmental justice and smart environmental governance. Building on the premise that urban lakes function as ecological commons — shared resources sustaining both environmental and social equilibrium (Ostrom, 1990) — the paper argues that their degradation is not merely an ecological failure but a manifestation of institutional fragmentation, weak accountability, and unequal distribution of environmental risk (Ranganathan, 2015; Sen & Nagendra, 2021). Drawing on Environmental Sociology, Environmental Justice Theory, Urban Political Ecology, and Ostrom's Commons Theory, the paper develops an integrated framework to explain how urbanization, governance failure, and social inequality intersect in the loss of Bengaluru's ecological commons. It further examines the emerging discourse of smart environmental governance — digital monitoring, data-driven regulation, and technologically mediated citizen participation — not as a technical solution but as a governance instrument whose outcomes are shaped by questions of access, representation, and accountability (Meijer & Bolívar, 2016; Kitchin, 2014). Adopting a qualitative research design grounded in document analysis, policy review, and thematic synthesis of peer-reviewed and institutional literature, the paper critically interrogates whether smart environmental governance can meaningfully advance environmental justice or whether it risks reproducing existing exclusions under a veneer of technological modernization (Cardullo & Kitchin, 2019; Datta, 2015). The paper's contribution is an integrated governance framework that positions participatory legitimacy, institutional accountability, and social inclusion as preconditions for smart governance to serve, rather than undermine, environmental justice — extending Environmental Sociology's engagement with digital governance discourse in rapidly urbanizing cities of the Global South.
Keynote: Environmental Justice; Smart Environmental Governance; Urban Ecological Commons; Environmental Sociology; Urban Political Ecology; Bengaluru; Lake Depletion; Sustainable Urban Futures
Author Name:
Dr. Om Singh & Cyril Prabhu J
Pages:
94-110
DOI Number:
10.5281/zenodo.22064620
Keyword:
Environmental Justice; Smart Environmental Governance; Urban Ecological Commons; Environmental Sociology; Urban Political Ecology; Bengaluru; Lake Depletion; Sustainable Urban Futures
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Writer Name
Dr. Om Singh & Cyril Prabhu J
Pages
94-110
DOI Numbers
10.5281/zenodo.22064620
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