climate resilient cities: vulnerability profiling of twenty indian cities

Chapter 16Climate Resilient Cities: VulnerabilityProfiling of Twenty Indian Cities

Jyoti Parikh, Geeta Sandal and Priyank Jindal

16.1 Introduction

India is the second most populous country in the world (PRB 2011). Its populationhas increased by more than 181 million during the decade 2001–2011 (Census ofIndia 2011). Correspondingly the urban population in India has increased from286.1 million in 2001 to 377.2 million in 2011 (NIUA 2011). It is expected that by2026 the urban population in India will reach 534 million (38 %) (Chetan 2009).The rapid expansion of Indian cities, driven by increase in population and urbandevelopment has expanded the already existing gap in demands and supply ofnecessary infrastructure services (Mundu and Bhagat 2008). This inefficiency ofurban systems hinders their ability to adapt to climate change and affects the citiesresilience to climate change. This creates a negative feedback loop where climatechange resilience becomes progressively more difficult because of existing inade-quacies. An increasing concentration of population, coupled with extreme events,results in high damages to assets, interruptions in business continuity, loss of livesand displacement of populations. It further enhances economic and social vulner-ability of the urban system and possibly results in its collapse, as has been seen inMumbai in 2005 and more recently in New York City.

16.1.1 Climate Variability in India

Indian annual mean temperatures showed a significant warming trend of 0.51 °C forthe 100 year period 1901–2007 (Kothawale et al. 2010). Accelerated warming hasbeen observed during 1971–2007, mainly due to intense warming in the recent

J. Parikh (&) � G. Sandal � P. JindalIntegrated Research and Action for Development, New Delhi 110 017, Indiae-mail: [email protected]

© Springer India 2016S.M. Dev and P.G. Babu (eds.), Development in India,India Studies in Business and Economics, DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-2541-6_16

351

decade. Mean temperature increased by about 0.2 °C for the period 1971–2007,with a much steeper increase in minimum temperature than maximum temperature.Most parts of India show a warming trend, except in the north western parts of thecountry where a cooling trend is observed. Pockets in India with the highest rainfallare generally those receiving orographically induced rainfall caused by forced moistair ascent over mountain slopes during active monsoon situations. Western Ghatsand northeast India receive such rainfall.

During the Indian monsoon, Rajeevan et al. (2008) showed that extreme rainevents have an increasing trend between 1901 and 2005, but the trend is muchstronger after 1950. Sen Roy (2009) investigated changes in extreme hourly rainfallin India, and found widespread increases in heavy precipitation events across India,mostly in the high-elevation regions of the north western Himalayas as well asalong foothills of the Himalayas extending south into the Indo- Gangetic basin, andparticularly during the summer monsoon season, between 1980 and 2002. Alongthe monsoon trough region also, more than 500 mm rainfall has been recordedwithin duration of 24 h.

The sea level along the Indian coast has been rising at the rate of 1.3 mm/yearand this is expected to continue. Further projections indicate that the frequency ofcyclones is likely to decrease in the 2030s, with increase in cyclonic intensity(INCCA 2010). With increasing climate induced risks, Indian cities are furtheraffected as they lack effective storm water drainage systems and face problems dueto unplanned development and often encroachments due to building on naturalareas and drainage systems. This increases incidences of flooding.

There have been unprecedented floods of high intensity and flash floods in manycities in the last decade, particularly in coastal cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata,Kochi, Visakhapatnam, Surat and Puri. This affects the poor the most especiallythose who live in slums or are located in low lying areas especially in Mumbai andKolkata where most of the slums are located in ecologically fragile areas. There is aneed to conduct assessments of likely climate change impacts for cities to reducethe vulnerability of their services and their residents to these impacts. Therefore,many of the decisions for sustainable and climate resilient development of urbanareas require information on climate change risks to their systems and services.

16.1.2 Scope and Background of the Study

While developing a city level approach for the National Mission on SustainableHabitat (NMSH) a question was raised: “How many cities in India are vulnerable toclimate change and in what way?”. The genesis of this study lies in this question.India has more than 400 cities in 2011 and climate informed development is neededbecause urbanization in India is accelerating and cities need to be sustainable andresilient.

Due to diverse physiographic and meteorological conditions, cities in India areexposed to additional risk due to climate induced extreme events such as flood,

352 J. Parikh et al.

droughts, heat and cold waves. The varying intensity at varied geographical scalesand degree of exposure with increasing concentration of population coupled withthe extreme events, result in high damages to assets, interruptions in businesscontinuity, opportunity losses, loss of lives, displacement of populations, which isfurther enhanced by economic and social vulnerability and reduced the capacity ofthe urban system and services to adapt to climate variability and change.

Twenty representative Indian cities from fourteen states were selected for thisstudy based on their location and other characteristics such as population densities,geographical diversity, infrastructure services status and initiatives by governmentetc. The selected cities are shown in Table 16.1 and Fig. 16.1.

The main objective of this study was to develop vulnerability profiles of cities byhighlighting exposure to various risks and hazards. Urban renewal interventionshave been suggested in order to strengthen climate resilience of India’s urbancentres. This analysis shows that the resilient cities are those that have sustainableinfrastructure, efficient governance and informed and capable citizens. This studyshows trends across cities and the problems with the approach to their development.

16.2 Methodology

Urbanization itself is a significant factor for India, in terms of both, an opportunityto continue its accelerated economic growth, and on the other hand, a challenge to aforeseeable climate resilient future. To understand and analyze climate resilientmeasures for India’s urban centres, a framework has been designed based on fourthemes ‘Hazard- Infrastructure-Governance-Socio-economic characteristics(HIGS)’ which are determined on the basis of cities characteristics like location,economic and geographical significance, to determine the exposure to the hazards,populations, urbanization trends, basic service level and the managing authorities.The severity of impacts from climate extremes depends not only on the extremesthemselves but also on exposure and vulnerability of populations (Fig. 16.2).

This study uses the vulnerability definition of the IPCC (2007a, b) as its basis,where vulnerability is “the extent to which climate change may damage or harm asystem”, and “depends not only on a system’s sensitivity, but also on its ability toadapt to new climatic conditions”. The study has also considered the IPCC (2012)definition where vulnerability is “the propensity or predisposition to be adverselyaffected”. It aims to establish a methodology for climate vulnerability profiling ofIndian cities on the basis of types of risk, exposure to elements, sensitivity andadaptive capacity.

Climate change is an additional stress that only healthy and sustainable cities candeal with. That is, even under normal circumstances, cities need to be fully func-tioning first. Once that is achieved, resilience would be created, especially whereclimate impacts may be mild. In others, stronger and specific action, going beyondsustainability would be required, especially for coastal, riverine and mountainouscities.

16 Climate Resilient Cities … 353

Tab

le16

.1Selected

cities

S.No.

City

Popu

latio

nin

2011

(inmillions)

Location

S.No.

City

Popu

latio

nin

2011

(inmillions)

Location

1Greater

Mum

baiU

A18

.4Coastal

11Vishakh

apatnam-G

VMC(M

C)

1.7

Coastal

2Delhi

UA

16.3

Riverine

12Thiruvananthapu

ram

UA

1.7

Coastal

3Kolkata

UA

14.1

Coastal

13Srinagar

UA

1.3

Hill

4Chenn

ai8.7

Coastal

14AllahabadUA

1.2

Riverine

5Bengaluru

UA

8.5

Mixed

(arid)

15Jodh

purUA

1.1

Mixed

(arid)

6Hyd

erabad

UA

7.7

Riverine

16Bhu

banesw

arUA

0.9

Mixed

(arid)

7Ahm

adabad

UA

6.4

Mixed

(arid)

17Dehradu

nUA

0.7

Hill

8Su

ratUA

4.6

Coastal

18Sh

illon

gUA

0.4

Hill

9Indo

reUA

2.2

Mixed

(arid)

19Hardw

arUA

0.3

Riverine

10Kochi

UA

2.1

Coastal

20Pu

riTow

nM

0.2

Coastal

NoteUAUrban

Agg

lomeration,

MMun

icipal

Corpo

ratio

n,GVMC

Greater

Visakhapatnam

Mun

icipal

Corpo

ratio

nSo

urce

IRADe(201

2)(D

ataSo

urce

Census20

11)


After a great deal of consideration, it was decided not to use climate scenariosavailable for the 2030, 2050. Adaptation to climate change is an essential part of theemerging strategy required to cope with and manage this pervasive threat though itnot yet received the widespread recognition and public support that it so plainlymerits. Therefore, this study was rooted in the observation that similar climateevents can produce very different levels of socio-economic impacts, depending notonly on the ecological and physiographic setting with the timing of the occurrence,

Fig. 16.1 City location map


but also the resources and agility of the societies to respond to climate impacts. Thedegree of impacts depends on how a particular natural event interacts with a specificecosystem and characteristics of the society affected. The level of economicdevelopment; adequacy of basic services provided; demographic characteristics andstructure; and socio-economic factors like livelihoods of its members and educationlevels generally determine how vulnerable or resilient an affected population is,along with resources available for adaptation, especially through governmentinitiatives.

There are linkages between climate change and sustainable urban development,including urban disaster mitigation programmes, improved water and sewage net-works as well as ecological and environmental protection programmes. TheHazard-Infrastructure-Governance-Socio-economic characteristics (HIGS) frame-work that evolved during this study presents a holistic approach for sustainableurbanization of Indian cities. The methodology provides flexibility to converge datawithin these four variables—hazards and extreme events, infrastructure services,governance and socio- economic characteristics. The interplay of the four variablesis of importance to understand priorities and proximate causes of increased climaterisks in Indian cities. There are hydro-metrological stresses on cities and they are

Fig. 16.2 HIGS framework for climate resilient urban development


identified through observed trends (number of occurrences). Social and economicalvulnerability have been analyzed through a study of populations, growth rate, sexratio and literacy. Multiple risks due to inadequate basic services such as watersupply, sewage network, solid waste management, storm water drainage systems,transportation, energy and housing were also examined. Governance was consid-ered to assess the responsive strategy of cities as well as the institutionalframework.

16.3 Case Studies

Exposure and vulnerability are dynamic that vary across temporal and spatial scalesand depends upon economic, social, geographic, demographic, cultural, institu-tional, governance, and environmental factors. Hence to understand the vulnera-bility of the cities, a multi dimensional approach is required. Some of the cities inIndia (for example Surat, Ahmedabad, Indore, Delhi and Hyderabad) have evolvedalong the riverside, while others were trade centres along the coast (Mumbai,Kolkata, Chennai, Vishakhapatnam and Kochi). These cities are traditionallyexposed to different natural disasters like floods, cyclones droughts and landslides.Climate change has affected the intensity and frequency of these natural hazardsover the last decades, whereas the large growth of population and its migration inurban areas has led to greater vulnerability of the cities. Twenty Indian cities areselected as case studies to understand and analyze the climate vulnerability andneed for resilient measures for India’s urban centres. HIGS variables are consideredto prepare the vulnerability profiles for each cities, these variables are‘H’ = hazards, ‘I’ = infrastructure, ‘G’ = governance and ‘S’ = socio-economic.

A template was prepared to gather information for these variables and subvariables. For example to analyzing hazards exposure, physiographic/geographicalsetting of the city and past events of natural disasters is considered. In this studythere are eight coastal cities, these cities are prone to flooding and cyclones due toproximity to the sea and low elevations. Over the past decades the frequency oftropical cyclones in the north Indian ocean has registered significant increasingtrends (20 % per hundred years) during November and May which account formaximum number of intense cyclones (Singh et al. 2000).

Other than the coastal cities, there are six riverine cities, three mountainous citiesand three mixed cities (mixed categorized as arid climate). These cities are alsovulnerable to serious flooding, droughts, landslides and cold waves and heat waves.

The social and economical vulnerability have been analyzed by consideringvariables like population, growth rate, sex ratio, literacy and slum population. Themultiple risks due to inadequate basic services such as water supply, sewage net-work, solid waste management, storm water drainage systems, transportation,energy and housing are considered for infrastructure profiling. Governance andinstitutional setup and initiatives are considered to assess the responsive strategy ofthe cities.


The study concludes with the overall picture of the cities in terms of the selectedfour variables. The result shows that the outcome of a high rate of urbanization hasled to the expansion of urban populations into geographic areas, which are fre-quently affected by extreme events and has increased vulnerability of populationsand infrastructure. Besides, inadequate infrastructure has also led to an increase inthe frequency of hazards such as floods and water scarcity. Long term climatechange impacts are expected to increase the vulnerability further. This section alsodiscusses initiatives taken by the state and local level authorities.

16.4 Comparative Analysis

A comparative analysis of the twenty cities was done to overview the cities climatevulnerability and resilience capacities. The evidence from cities advance theunderstanding about the risks posed by climate change in urban contexts and mayhelp to motivate and empower actions across scales to address climate change. Thecase studies are analyzed on the basis of the selected variables in the HIGSframework to assess the overall scenario of the cities and the impact of climatechange on different socio-economic societies and ecological diverse regions. Thedegree of impacts depends on how the natural triggering event interacts with theparticular ecosystems, and the specific characteristics of the society affected. Thisincludes the level of economic development; adequacy of basic services provided;demographic characteristics and structure; and other factors (like livelihoods of itsmembers, education levels, etc.), that generally determine how vulnerable orresilient the affected population is, as well as the resources available for adaptation,especially through government initiatives.

The results show that most cities are exposed to hazards like floods and droughtbut the intensity and frequencies of these hazards has increased over the period oftime, due to inadequate infrastructure and mismanagement. A vulnerability matrix(Fig. 16.3) has been prepared to analyze the cities exposure to natural hazards. Thematrix entails the role of urban services and socio-economic factors in shaping thecities exposure to mishaps. Apart from their classification by location, cities arecategorized on the basis of population; cities with a population of more than 4million are in the A category, cities with populations between 1 and 4 million are inthe B category and cities with a population of less than 1 million are in category C.Infrastructure depicts water supply, sewage, drainage and municipal solid wastemanagement.

Exposure to Hazards The hazards considered in the study are floods, droughts,landslides, cyclone and sea level rise. The city level studies revealed that sevencoastal cities may perhaps be affected by very high cyclonic wind velocities causingsevere damage to tall flexible and sheeted residential and industrial structures. Five


S.N

o.

Cla

ssif

icat

ion

Cit

y N

ame

Hazards Infrastructure

Dro

ught

Flo

odin

g

Lan

dslid

es

Cyc

lone

s

Hea

t / c

old

wav

es

Wat

er s

uppl

y

Sew

erag

e

Dra

inag

e

MSW

Pop

ulat

ion

base

in 2

011

( m

illio

n)

Cat

egor

izat

ion

of

citi

es

on b

asis

of

popu

lati

on

1

Coa

stal

Kolkata Y Y Y Y Y Y Y 141 A

2 Mumbai Y Y Y Y 184 A

3 Chennai Y Y Y Y 8.6 A

4 Surat Y Y Y Y 4.5 A

5 Visakhapatnam Y Y Y Y Y Y 1.7 B

6Thiruvananthapuram Y Y Y Y 1.6 B

7 Kochi Y Y Y Y Y Y Y 2.1 B

8 Puri Y Y Y Y Y Y Y 0.2 C

9

Hill

Srinagar Y Y Y Y Y Y 1.2 B

10 Shilong Y Y Y Y Y Y 0.3 C

11 Dehradun Y Y Y Y Y 0.7 C

12

Riv

erin

e

Hyderabad Y Y Y Y Y Y 7.7 A

13 Delhi Y Y Y Y Y 16.3 A

14 Ahmedabad Y Y Y Y Y 6.3 A

15 Allahabad Y Y Y Y Y Y 1.2 B

16 Haridwar Y Y Y Y Y 0.3 C

17

Mix

ed

Bengaluru Y Y Y Y Y 8.5 A

18 Jodhpur Y Y Y Y 1.1 B

19 Indore Y Y Y Y 2.1 B

20 Bhubaneswar Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y 0.8 C

Categorisation of cities on basis of population

> 4 million = A

1-4 million. = B.

<1 million = C

Fig. 16.3 Vulnerability matrix


cities including Surat, Greater Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram are prone tocyclonic winds. Flooding and water scarcity is a problem faced by most of the citiesand there have been unprecedented floods events of high intensity and flash floodsin many cities in the last 10 years especially in coastal cities such as Mumbai, Surat,Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Kochi and Puri. The hill cities are exposed to flash floodscoupled with landslides.

Figure 16.4 gives an idea about the relative exposure to hazards in twenty cities.The analysis shows that most of the cities are prone to multiple hazards, forexample, cities like Kolkata, Mumbai, Trivanthapuram, and Shillong, are exposedto floods, cyclones, sea level rise and water scarcity whereas Dehradun and Srinagarprone to flooding, landslides and cold waves. Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur and Indore—mainly suffer from drought and heat waves, as they are growing at a high rate andthe expansion of concrete structures coupled with arid and semiarid conditions, areexacerbated by climate variability and increase in rainfall and temperature.

Infrastructure services Several infrastructure elements had been studied to ana-lyze the cities status and preparedness for climate change and it was found that not asingle city had 100 per cent coverage of basic infrastructure facilities (water supply,network, solid waste management and storm water drainage). Cities like Allahabad,Bhubaneswar and Mumbai receive more than 180 lpcd of water daily, whileShillong receives only 50 lpcd. Very intense rainfall leading to high runoff levelscan cause soil erosion, which affects the capacity of treatment plants, due to sed-imentation. It also causes damage, especially in the case of flash floods. Surat is theonly city that treats the total sewage generated, while Haridwar and Mumbai havethe capacity to treat 79 and 78 %, of the total generated sewage respectively. Delhiand Kolkata, two of the highest sewage generating cities, have low sewage treat-ment capacity, in Delhi only 33 % of the collected sewage is treated, whereas inKolkata it is only 15 %. Dehradun and Bhubaneswar still do not have any sewage

Thiru

vana

ntha

puram

Vish

akha

patnam

Fig. 16.4 Exposure to hazards. Data Source BMTPC (2001), Kapur (2009), Census (2001–2011)


treatment facility. Cities like Kochi, Chennai and Visakhapatnam generate thehighest per capita solid waste with 0.76, 0.70 and 0.67 kg/day respectively. Urbanhouses are increasing not only due to population growth but also migrationand smaller families that lead to less people per household and hence more housesfor the same amount of population (Tiwari and Parikh 2012).

Governance Government agencies at various levels are taking steps to address therapidly growing challenges in the urban sector in India. The initiatives at state level,mainly City and regional level development plans, water resource management,urban transport, disaster management, and other risk management strategiesdemand large investments. Local governments have taken certain initiatives. Thesedecisions reflect long term development prospects and contribute significantly tothe geographical region. Government agencies at various levels are taking steps toaddress the rapidly growing challenges in the urban sector in India. Initiatives at thestate level such as city level development plans, water resource management, urbantransport, disaster management and other risk management efforts require largeinvestments. Local governments have taken certain initiatives as is the case ofHyderabad. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) hasadopted Environmental Building Regulations and Guidelines (EBRGs) for energyconsumption, water usage, and ecology/geology on site, building materials, sewagedisposal, storm water management, solid waste management, and pollution control.The Green Hyderabad Programme with plantations of 19,366 ha providesco-benefits like better run off, temperature moderation etc. These decisions reflectlong term development prospects and contribute significantly to the geographicalregion.

Socio-economic vulnerability The selected twenty cities were compared on thebasis of their population, growth rate and slum population. These factors determinethe future stress on the cities as well as the coping capacity of people. During thelast decade, population growth rates reduced in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. Statelevel data for 2011 reveal that the decadal growth rate during the last decade wasless than half of that in the preceding decade in the National Capital Territory. Socioeconomic variables depict a high concentration of population in the cities in termsof density per house. Kolkata has the highest number of persons per household(11 persons/hh), followed by Hyderabad and Chennai which have an average sevenpeople per house. Haridwar has an average of two persons per house, whileBhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam have between two and three persons on anaverage in a household. Shillong, Dehradun and Srinagar have lower populationdensities than coastal or riverine cities. The major natural hazards are flash floodsand landslides, caused by sudden heavy rainfall, and cold waves. The inadequatedrainage system and inadequate management of sewage makes it difficult for themto address climate induced risks (Fig. 16.5).


16.4.1 Recommendations

The results of this study facilitate an understanding of likely future climate impactswhile assessing the resilience of the current socio-economical system to thenumerous stresses that are partly related to climate impacts and partly due tofragilities in the system itself. It also addresses the existing knowledge gap amongthe public regarding risks associated with climate change, and particularly thedifference between climate risk and climate vulnerability. Socio-economic devel-opment interacts with natural climate variations and anthropogenic activitiesaffecting climate and increasing disaster risks. For exposed and vulnerable com-munities, even non-extreme weather and climate events can have extreme impacts(IPCC SREX 2012).

Key Observations• All 20 cities covered have city development plans.• 10 cities active in the area of disaster management, which includes Delhi and Mumbai.• 7 cities prone to cyclones, which may cause severe damage to residential and industrial infrastructure, if such event

happens in near future.• Drought conditions prevail in most of the cities covered.• Delhi, Surat, Chennai, Indore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Kochi progressive cities with respect to climate change

context.• Sewage treatment highest in Surat (100%) followed by Haridwar (79%) and Mumbai

(78%). No such facility exists for Bhubaneswar and Dehradun.• Kochi generates highest per capita solid waste (0.76 kg/day) followed by Chennai (0.70 kg/day). Dehradun and

Shillong produce the least municipal solid waste.• Kolkata has the highest population density (11 persons per household) while Haridwar has the lowest population

density (2 persons per household)

Fig. 16.5 Population among twenty cities during census years 2001 and 2011. Source Census(2001–2011)


The outcome of this paper provides evidence that cities can use a combination ofkey institutions, enabling policies and financing options to allow sustainable andclimate resilient urbanization of India’s growing cities. There is a need to advanceunderstanding, motivate and empower actions across scales to address climatechange and facilitate adequate investments with appropriate institutional mecha-nisms within an enabling policy framework in order to improve resilience of India’surban areas. Some recommendations are found below.

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) The reduction of stressors caused by humanactivities will increase the resilience of habitats to the effects of climate change andvariability. Through the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission(JnNURM), cities are being provided with an opportunity to respond and upgradebasic infrastructure services; however, out of twenty cities more than 14 do not havetotal coverage of basic services.

Rejuvenation of water bodies Restoring lakes and urban water bodies will reducethe risk of flooding as they are the best moderators. Sixteen cities have lakes, waterbodies and flood plains. There are only three—Delhi, Surat and Trivandrum—withper capita water supply above 135 lpcd. Trivandrum has a per capita water supplyabove 150 lpcd, the standard benchmark for cities. Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabadand Mumbai have extremely inadequate basic services.

Climate conscious development and spatial planning Development planningthat incorporates climate change and variability is essential and this should apply toinstitutions and governments alike. If climate change and variability are not pro-actively taken into account, the effectiveness of conservation plans will reduce. Theuse of technologies for efficiently managing resources and service quality are fastemerging and viable at city levels. The capacity of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) toafford and use these technologies would determine their ability to deliver stan-dardized service levels. Prioritize a climate resilient agenda: Cities need to identifypriority activities that respond to their urgent and immediate needs for adaptation toclimate change since further delay could increase vulnerability or lead to increasedcosts at a later stage.

Sustainable urban development indicators As this involves measuring andmonitoring of service delivery, it plays a very important role in analyzing a city’scapacity to cope with the climate related hazards and also gives an overview of thecities basic services status. Enhance institutional and policy coordination at the citylevel: It is important that activities are planned and measures undertaken aremainstreamed for maximizing benefits. There are cities that have a high degree ofphysical exposure to climate change and a limited capacity to respond to the chal-lenge of adaptation, for example, hill cities like Shillong and Haridwar. Other cities,with less immediate exposure to impacts from climate change and with greaterinstitutional and financial capacity could work jointly with more vulnerable cities toassist and enhance their technical capacities to address the challenges of adaptation.


Resource allocation Currently, there are no specific agencies or institutions at thecity level that oversee main streaming of sustainable and climate resilient measures;managing climate change knowledge; or disseminating climate related informationto the general public. There also appears to be a lack of coordination amongstakeholders and local agencies. To enhance urban governance there is a need forcentral and state governments to be engaged in a city’s climate resilience agenda forpromoting sustainable development.

16.4.2 Climate Informed Urbanization and EnablingPolicies

The issue of reducing vulnerability and better preparing for future climate hazardswould need such types of analyses presented here to help develop timely andeffective policies and actions. These include infrastructure projects, transport net-works, land use planning initiatives, urban development master plans, which play akey role in underpinning economic development for inclusive growth. Building intimely climate change adaptation measures will greatly enhance the benefits andsustainability of many development initiatives.

A range of development activities can help in reducing vulnerability to manyclimate change impacts. In some cases, however, ‘development as usual’ mayinadvertently increase vulnerability. For instance, new roads might be weatherproofed from an engineering standpoint, even taking future climate into account,but they might trigger new human settlements in areas highly exposed to particularimpacts of climate change, such as coastal zones vulnerable to sea-level rise. Therisk of such maladaptation needs to be alleviated by including potential adaptationmeasures in development policies, plans and projects.

16.5 Concluding Remarks

The challenge of climate change can only be met if cities are healthy and sustainableunder normal circumstances. Their existing infrastructure should be adequate.Efficient and responsive governance should be in place. Their citizens should beeducated, healthy and empowered who are in a position to control their destinies- atleast in normal circumstances. A city that protects itself from storms, floods, droughts,heat waves, and diseases benefits its residents; their environment is better, their healthis more protected, and their economic activities are less liable to damage and dis-ruption. Such cities bounce back against natures’ fury in a much shorter time as wasseen in New York where despite devastation, stock market, metros, power and otherinfrastructure began to function in a few days. In order to have climate resilientdevelopment with positive mark on India’s growing urban centres, the paper isstressing to mainstream climate resilience measures in urban development


programmes and policies as a priority. It is necessary to set up windows to promoteand support research and development, innovation and entrepreneurship throughenabling policy environment like legal and institutional landscape, financial andphysical infrastructure for urban services. Thus well-targeted interventions emergingout of “HIGS” framework have multiplier effects in promoting sustainable andinclusive urban growth.

References

BMTPC (2001) Vulnerability Atlas of India. Building material and technology promotion council(BMTPC). Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India

Chetan V (2009) Urban issues, reforms and way forward in India. Department of economic affairs,Ministry of finance, Government of India 2009. Working paper No.4/2009-DEA

INCCA (2010) Climate change and India: a 4 × 4 assessment-a sectoral and regional analysis for2030, Indian network for climate change assessment. Ministry of Environment and Forests,GoI

IPCC (2007a) Summary for policymakers. In climate change 2007: the physical science basis. In:Solomon S, Qin D, Manning M, Chen Z, Marquis M, Averyt KB, Tignor M, Miller HL(eds) Contribution of the group I to the fourth assessment report of intergovernmental panel onclimate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

IPCC (2007b). Climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. In: Parry ML,Canziani OF, Palutikof JP, van der Linden PJ, Hanson CE. (eds) Contribution of workinggroup II to the third assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change.Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

IPCC (2012). Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate changeadaptation. In: Field CB, Barros V, Stocker TF, Qin D, Dokken DJ, Ebi KL, Mastrandrea MD,Mach KJ, Plattner G-K, Allen SK, Tignor M, Midgley M (eds) A special report of workinggroups I and II of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press,Cambridge, 582 p

IRADe (2012) Background paper on scoping on vulnerability of Indian cities. submitted to MOUD(unpublished)

Kothawale DR, Munot AA, Krishna Kumar K (2010) Surface air temperature variability over Indiaduring 1901–2007, and its a association with ENSO. Clim Res 42:89–104. doi:10.3354/cr00857 (no journal/book etc.)

Mundu G, Bhagat R (2008) Slum conditions in Mumbai—Access of civil amenities. Retrievedfrom http://www.iipsenvis.nic.in/newsletters/vol5no1/page_3.htm

NIUA (2011) Urban India. 31(1)PRB (2011) Population reference Bureau 2011. World Population Data SheetRajeevan M, Bhate J, Jaswal AK (2008) Analysis of variability and trends of extreme rainfall

events over India using 104 years of gridded daily rainfall data. Geophys Res Lett 35(l18707).doi:10.1029/2008GL035143

Sen Roy S (2009) A spatial analysis of extreme hourly precipitation patterns in India. Int JClimatol 29:345–355. doi:10.1002/joc.1763

Singh OP, Ali Khan TM, Rahman, MS (2000) Changes in the frequency of tropical cyclones overthe North Indian Ocean. Meteorol Atmos Phys 75(1–2):11–20

Tiwari P, Parikh J (2012) Global housing challenge-a case study of Co2 emission in India,SPANDREL. The Bi-annual Journal of School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, Issue 5,Monsoon 2012


http://dx.doi.org/10.3354/cr00857

http://dx.doi.org/10.3354/cr00857

http://www.iipsenvis.nic.in/newsletters/vol5no1/page_3.htm

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008GL035143

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joc.1763

climate resilient cities: vulnerability profiling of twenty indian cities

Documents