an-r&r 25 9 04 · 5 see for example livengood, a., and kunte, k., 2012, enabling participatory...

southasiadisasters.net2 November 2014

ABOUT THIS ISSUELOSS AND DAMAGE

Loss and Damage: BeyondNumbersWhen the decision to establish an institutional framework on loss

and damage was made last year at the nineteenth Conference ofthe Parties (COP), Typhoon Haiyan had just ravished through thePhilippines days prior. While Yeb Sano, a delegate from the Philippines,gave an emotional speech on behalf of his country during thenegotiations, humanitarian aid organizations were busy helpingsurvivors and cleaning up the mess the super typhoon left behind. Itwas a clear demonstration that even for a country accustomed to extremeweather events, the Philippines was not well-prepared for a supertyphoon. The devastation was incredible but one can only wonder howmuch worse it would have been if the typhoon had hit Manila instead.

The Asia-Pacific region is an interesting case study in this regard since itis characterized by fast development, expanding cities and high risks totyphoons, earthquakes and extreme weather events. Further consideringmost cities in the region are low-lying and located on a coast, it isexpected that most countries in the region will face serious losses anddamages due to climate change in the future (if they have not already).Yet most governments have been slow to respond, likely in part due toa lack of research and finances. Despite this, organizations such as theAsia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) have startedto support research and capacity building in the region to identifylinkages between disaster risk reduction (DRR), climate changeadaptation (CCA) and loss and damage.

While large uncertainties exist as to the future of loss and damage innegotiations, research on the issue remains paramount since climatechange will continue to test our ability to adapt and respond to climaticevents. As was discussed in Kuala Lumpur at the APN Loss and DamageWorkshop, researchers must ensure that the issue is framed in a waythat supports CCA and DRR research while also ensuring slow onsetevents and non-economic losses and damages are not overlooked.

In an urban setting, measuring impacts therefore should extend beyondcalculations of human loss and infrastructure damages during extremeweather events. In this regard, framing the issue and conducting researchfor assessing and addressing losses and damages will need to be informedby continuous discussions and the development of a new methodology.To a certain extent, doing so will help to support the argument thatgovernments around the world need to devote more to mitigate theiremissions and adapt to future possible climate scenarios so as to avoidlosses and damages in the future.

As ongoing loss and damage research will demonstrate, climate changewill test our ability to highlight our sensibilities to vulnerable societiesand responsibility to protect our environment in spite of our obsessionwith measuring and calculating economic impacts.

– Stephanie Andrei, Researcher,International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Bangladesh

We live in an era of historicallyunprecedented urbanization.

With the influx of large swathes of peopleto cities, the carrying capacity of a lot ofurban systems often gets exceeded. Thispushes a greater number of people underthe column of vulnerability, giving riseto newer risks and exacerbating theexisting ones.

Thus, it is imperative for the post-2015framework for disaster risk reduction orthe HFA2 to provide mechanisms whichaddress the exigencies of urban risks.This issue of Southasiadisasters.netfocuses on the important theme of'Managing Urban Risks in HFA2'. Ithighlights policy discourses andinstitutional mechanisms such asframeworks for city resilience and rapidvulnerability profiling that will helpmanage urban risk.

The important themes focused upon inthis issue range from addressing risk ininformal settlements to the challengesof urban resilience in South Asia; andfrom the need for climate resilient urbandevelopment to the role of governmentsin engendering urban resilience andsustainability. Insightful and incisive,this issue of Southasiadisasters.net isaims to emphasize sustainable solutionsto the challenges of urban risk through arobust HFA2.

– Kshitij Gupta, AIDMI

southasiadisasters.net 3November 2014

URBAN RISKS

Addressing Risk in Urban InformalSettlementsThe importance of addressing

risks posed by climate changeimpacts in urban areas cannot beunderestimated. Urban areasconcentrate people, assets and risks.The large impacts of both rapid andslow onset disasters can be seen asthe failure of urban governments toreduce risks.1 Climate change willincreasingly aggravate manydisasters, if the new risks or risk levelsit brings are not understood and actedon. There are around a billion peopleliving in urban informal settlementsaround the world. They are usuallyparticularly at risk to the impacts ofclimate change because of poorquality housing, lack of risk-reducinginfrastructure and services, and oftenbecause they live on sites exposed toflooding or landslides

The IPCC Special Report on ExtremeEvents states that "a prerequisite forsustainability in the context of climatechange is addressing the underlyingcauses of vulnerability, including thestructural inequalities"2. However,adequate building regulations,universal provision of infrastructureand services, and emergencypreparedness, is often beyond thecapacity or power of local authorities,while appropriate legal and financialsystems, access to insurance, as wellas national strategies for riskpreparedness, may be lacking3. Thus,most low-income urban dwellers facethe 'double vulnerability' ofincreased exposure to climate-related

risks, and limited resources torespond to the risks themselves4.

Addressing risk can be done through"hard" measures such as building orimproving infrastructure, or "soft"measures which focus on social andgovernance-based approaches – or acombination of both. There arealready many examples of residentsof urban informal settlements, lackingprotective infrastructure, taking theirown household-level measures tominimise the impacts of extremeevents before, during and afterevents, such as by building protectivewalls, elevating assets above floodwaters, and rebuilding damagedstructures respectively. There are alsoincreasing examples of collectiveapproaches to minimise impacts,from collective drain maintenance tobuilding elevated walkways.Combined with this can be measuresto build local social safety nets, fromcommunity savings groups toestablishing community funds which

can function as risk transfermechanisms.

To ensure that the risks areadequately understood, residents ofinformal settlements themselves canalso play a role in risk mapping.Processes of settlement and hazardmapping using simple GPStechnologies have been carried outin Indian cities, and used to planupgrading activities. These maps canalso be the basis for opening dialoguebetween the urban poor and cityofficials for upgrading and inhighlighting the particular risks thatneed to be addressed as a priority bythe city government5.

The solutions proposed to addressclimate change impacts may varyaccording to who defines theproblem and who faces the impacts.Thus, individual households andcommunities can take their ownmeasures - however, these need to beenabled and supplemented by robustcity-based disaster risk managementstrategies, including addressinginfrastructure deficits and servicegaps to reduce exposure andvulnerability, and inclusivegovernance systems. Without theseprocesses, the adaptive capacity of acity will remain severelyconstrained.

– Diane Archer,PhD, Researcher, Human Settlements

Group, International Institute forEnvironment and Development (IIED),

UK1 Dodman, D. and Satterthwaite, D., 2008. Institutional capacity, climate change adaptation and the urban poor, IDS

Bulletin 39(4)2 IPCC, (2012), Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation, Summary for

Policymakers, CUP: Cambridge3 See reference 14 Jabeen, H., Johnson, C., and Allen, A., 2010, Built-in resilience: learning from grassroots coping strategies for climate

variability, Environment and Urbanization, 22(2), 415-4315 see for example Livengood, A., and Kunte, K., 2012, Enabling participatory planning with GIS: a case study of settlement

mapping in Cuttack, India, Environment and Urbanization, 24(1): 77-97

Addressing risk can be donethrough "hard" measures

such as building orimproving infrastructure, or"soft" measures which focuson social and governance-

based approaches – or acombination of both.


LOSS AND DAMAGE IN URBAN AREAS

Loss and Damage in Urban Areas: SomeChallenges in South AsiaLoss and Damage as an issue was

introduced in the mainstreamclimate dialogue since the 13th

Conference of the Parties (COP) ofUNFCCC, as a part of the Bali ActionPlan. At COP 18 in Doha, partiesdecided to establish institutionalarrangements to improveunderstanding, strengthencoordination and enhance action andsupport, to be able to address the issueof loss and damage at COP 19(UNFCCC, 2013). The need fornational actions and research wasalso identified to help developingcountries address. In Warsaw (COP19, 2014), institutional arrangementsto address loss and damage werecreated with the establishment of theWarsaw International Mechanism forLoss and Damage (WIM) associatedwith Climate Change Impacts. It aimsto enhance knowledge andunderstanding of approaches toaddress loss and damage; strengthendialogue, coordination andcoherence among relevantstakeholders and enhance action andsupport to address loss and damage(UNFCCC, 2014).

So far much of the debate and thework done by LDCs such asBangladesh has been to deepenunderstanding and provide casestudies on the fact that Loss andDamage is actually happening. Thesediscussions have rather been genericbut at an ecosystem basedperspective. Looking at the issue ofLoss and Damage from an Urbanview point has not been taken up. Theurban economic and non-economiclosses and its impact on population(lives and livelihoods), infrastructure,social (health, education, watersupply and sanitation) andenvironment concerns has not beentaken up at the global discourse. Basic

scoping studies and assessments needto be undertaken to generateknowledge, help in creatingawareness of linkages, institutions,capacities and responsibilitiestowards loss and damage in urbanareas at the national, as well as stateand sub state levels.

As far as the global dialogue isconcerned, it looks like a leap forwardfrom a developing countryperspective. But certain pre requisitesand challenges do remain to beconquered:1. There is no consensus on the

definition of Loss and Damage.Some call it residual loss anddamage (beyond climate changeadaptation and mitigation). It hasmoved to also include slow onsethazards, other than impact ofextreme events. In addition to thedirect economic impact, non-economic losses have also beenfactored in the loss and damageframework.

2. Research and information isneeded on future climate change

impacts and where adaptationand mitigation fail and loss anddamage become evident. Wherethe limits of adaptation andmitigation lie?

3. An important area that has notbeen researched thus far is howto assess and, more importantly,quantify loss and damage. Howdo you measure how much lossand damage has been made –keeping in mind all thecomponent of the abovementioned definitionalcomponents.

4. Will the definition andmeasurement framework toassess loss and damage differbased on ecosystems, rural/urban dynamics and level ofdevelopment within a country?

5. What are the financialinstruments available to addressloss and damage? Is it additionalor what is being offered underexisting climate change funds(green climate fund, adaptationfund etc)

6. How does the internationalmechanism translate at thenational level? What kind ofpolicies and frameworks need tobe developed backed byevidence based research?

While we all gear up for COP 21 nextyear, hope that we have answers tosome (if not all) of the questions. Wehope that sound body of evidence andknowledge is generated to make aconvincing case to support(technically and financially). Variedapproaches to address loss anddamage are researched, understoodand shared among relevantstakeholders for greater buy in.

– Hina Lotia,Director Programmes, Programme

Development Department, LEAD Pakistan

Looking at the issue of Lossand Damage from an Urban

view point has not beentaken up. The urban

economic and non-economiclosses and its impact onpopulation (lives and

livelihoods), infrastructure,social (health, education,

water supply and sanitation)and environment concernshas not been taken up at the

global discourse.


'Addressing Underlying Risks' remains the most inadequately achievedobjective of HFA–1 and, therefore, seeks critical emphasis.

While lessons of recent disasters like Kedarnath flood and Phailin cyclonemooted experimenting local planning dealing Underlying Risks in manypilot projects, leading to fair ideas and approaches useful in ground-levelmainstreaming of DRR and CCA into development, India's recent stride toinstall holistic, pro-active, participatory and planned approach to DisasterManagement are: developing the National Plan for Disaster Management(including prevention–mitigation plan, response plan and capacity building)2013, National Human Resource Plan for DM 2012, and Perspective Planfor NIDM's Strengthening & Expansion 2014 to address the multifacetedand huge demand of DRR capacity development in India and the region.

A clear focus on 'safer and sustainable habitat' on 'climatic changeadaptation, ecosystem approach, livelihoods and local planning integrationwith DRR' envisaged in these documents, attained place in BangkokDeclaration 2014 (adapted in 6th AMCDRR) and foresee to Sendai Declaration2015 and HFA-2.

India's high level delegation to 6th

Asian Ministerial Conference onDRR led by Minister In-charge forDisaster Management put in the tunetowards efficient local planning andpreparedness for greater urbanresilience against disasters in India.It carried a range of lessons frommajor disasters like earthquakes inBhuj, Kucch, floods in Kosi, Leh,Uttarakhand, episodes of drought inKarnataka, Andhra, Bundelkhand, etc.and cyclones like Laila, Aila, Phailin,etc. The 2nd Paradigm shift in disastermanagement to climate changeadaptation based DRR now calls tokeep out towns and cities in the centreof 'habitat safety agenda' not only forIndia but for the region witnessingpace of urbanization.

The Special Report on ExtremeEvents (SREX) of the IPCC in 2011,which was further interpreted forclimatic disasters risks in India inparticular and broadly for South Asia,by NIDM's publication'Environmental Extremes—DRR'2012, can be clearly linked to thefollowing urban climatic disaster types:

(a) Metropolitan cities (urbanflooding Mumbai, Surat, Bhopal,Kolkata, etc.)

(b) Pilgrim cities and towns (e.g.,kedarnath floods, forest fire,landslide, epidemic outbreak,coastal storms and surges, etc.)

(c) Epidemic episodes (Surat plague,dengue, chikungunya, etc.)

(d) Cyclonic disasters in coastalcities, and heavy winds in non-coastal cities (e.g. recentdamaging windstorm in Delhi).

Interestingly, looking from the'disaster vulnerability' lens makesunderstand impact of climate changeon underlying risk factors causingearthquake a devastating disasters aslivelihood, economic resources,occupations and land-stability thatgovern liquefaction, besides houseinteriors and fixtures. Recognizedly,the hydro–meteorological disastersare growing linearly, if notexponentially, due to increasingabruptness and uncertainities inrainfall patterns, winds, thermalepisodes, besides environmentalchanges driven by anthoropogenic

factors – climate change, land-use andlandscape dynamics and loss of urbanecosystem basis. For example,shifting to urban agriculture frompurely rural, degradation of wetlandsand other waterbodies, avenue androad plantations, gardens, besidesurban drainage – sewerage, stormrunoff with redundancy, wastemanagement and disease prevention,and broadly landscape–land–usemanagement, are some of key issuesin urban climatic resilience forprevention and protection of disasters.

Additional dimension is brought bythe impact of geophysical hazardslike earthquake and lack ofmaintenance on infrastructure andamenities, on impending hydro–climatic disasters. This is intensifiedwith growing population pressureexceeding carrying capacity. Incertain cases floating population withuncertainties about in-and-out flowof tourists in tourism towns is alsoimportant in determining disasterrisks. Recent intervention of climateresilient DDMP in Gorakhpur underCDKN project is an example toaddress urban risk in a holisticmanner, However, given newdimensions to risk the approach needsvalue addition.

Taking lessons forward from DelhiDeclaration on CCA–DRRintegration for Resilient Housingadapted on 28th January 2014, whichfed to the Bangkok Declaration 2014adapted during 6th AMCDRR. Whilepreparing for the 3rd WorldConference on DRR at Sendai in March2015, specific attention for making ourcities and towns resilient againstclimatic disaster risks is a key concernglobally and nationally. – Dr. Anil Gupta, Head of Policy Planning

at NIDM, New Delhi, and Coordinatorof Technical Advisory Committee

URBAN RESILIENCE STRATEGIGS

Installing Urban Resilience to Hydro-Climatic RisksNew Delhi to Sendai via Bangkok Declaration towards HFA-2


RECOVERY AND REHABILITATION

The Jigsaw Puzzle of Recovery in DisasterManagementLet's first start with a concise

working definition of 'Recovery'in the context of disastermanagement. Once emergency needshave been met and the initial crisis isover, the people affected and thecommunities that support them arestill vulnerable. Recovery activitiesinclude rebuilding infrastructure,health care and rehabilitation. Theseshould blend with developmentactivities, such as building humanresources for health and developingpolicies and practices to avoid similarsituations in future1.

In the recent past Pakistan haswitnessed a number of disasters andsome of those include KashmirEarthquake – 2005, IDP Crisis – 2009and Pakistan's mega Floods – 2010.The frequent happening of disastersdeveloped a common understandingof disaster management cycleamongst various stakeholders. Therelatively fast pace of occurrence alsopopularized the vocabulary of themanagement process of the disasterand recovery and rehabilitation, aftersearch and rescue and immediaterelief, is one of them. Floods-2010 hitPakistan during the month of Julycoupled with heavy monsoon rains.These rains affected provinces ofSindh, Punjab, Baluchistan andKhyber Pakhtunkhwa which in turndisturbed the Indus River basin. Thetotal economic loss due to floods-2010was approximately 10 billion USD.2

Development brought about by thecolonial regime in India, beforepartition, had four main objectives4:

1. To exploit existing naturalresources to serve the needs ofindustrialization in Britain.

2. To increase agriculturalproduction in response to thedemands of industry anddomestic consumers in Britain.

3. To prevent the development ofan indigenous industrial sectorin India, and limit or destroyexisting industrial activity, and

4. To increase the revenues of theEmpire.

The British enacted a number of lawsin support of their developmentobjectives. As a result, a largepercentage of natural resources, suchas forests, lakes and mines, were takenover from the old feudal order andlocal communities and became theproperty of the colonial state, thusmaking their large-scale commercialexploitation possible. Afterindependence, the government ofPakistan continued most of thepolicies of the colonial state.Government embarked upon majordevelopment initiatives that had far-

reaching environment implications.These developments resulted in thegrowth of commercial agriculture,the creation of new mandi (market)towns, rapid urbanization and a verylarge increase in population. Pakistanhas also seen the development of alarge informal sector in both theurban and the rural areas. And thishad an adverse impact on the naturalresources of the country.

The transport revolution of 70s whenSuzuki pickup replaced thetraditional bull-driven carts, henceincreased outreach, and economicliberalization of 80s, provided themarket forces an opportunity tomake inroads to upgrade thetraditional mode of economy as runby the conventional power broker,the feudal. In brief democratic spellsof the Country, feudal took the roleof legislators. The influential and themarket forces were smart enough torecognize the power of each other.The feudal lords co-opted andpatronized the market by establishingcommercial and industrial ventures

Source: NDMA, PDMAs, GBDMA3

FLOODS — 2010, A BALANCE SHEET

Province Deaths Injure d Houses PopulationDamaged Affected

Baluchistan 54 104 75,596 700,000KhyberPakhtunkhwa 1,156 1198 284,990 3,800,000Punjab 110 262 497,700 6,000,000Sindh 410 1,235 876,249 7,274,250AJ & K 71 87 7,106 200,000Gilgit Baltistan 183 60 2,830 100,000Total 1,984 2,946 1,744,471 18,074,250

1 http://www.wcpt.org/disaster-management/what-is-disaster-management2 (Murtaza)3 (Early recovery plan for the health sector– Health Cluster– Pakistan, 2011)4 This and the next three paragraphs are borrowed from Environmental Repercussions of Development in Pakistan by Arif

Hasan and Amenah Azam Ali, Published by Orangi Pilot Project – Research Training Institute, (OPP-RTI), 1996.


5 Pakistan's military government launched a campaign for political devolution in 2000 that it said was aimed at transferringadministrative and financial power to local governments. The scheme was to strengthen local control and accountability and,according to President Pervez Musharraf, "empower the impoverished".

6 http://arifhasan.org/articles/thar-drought-and-change

on their land and market forcesfacilitated to carry the produce andthe products to the big and smallmarket towns and to theinternational market, swiftly. Itresulted in increased rural poverty,amplified exploitation of naturalresources, out-migration to smalltowns and cities and above all the lostconnectivity between the inhabitantsof the same habitat.

Socially, the barter economy beingreplaced with the cash economyresulted in melting down of thecenturies old caste system – whichdefines the professional occupationof the subjects as well. With theadvent of cash and almost nodependence on exchange method thelower tier tasted their limitedliberation. Though they still remainunder the social pressure of residuesof feudalism but serfdom gotchallenged and less economicobligation was sensed. Themaintenance of communal heritagegot weak and became tragedy ofcommons as the bureaucracytraditionally relied upon communitywork force to maintain theinfrastructure, but the latterdwindled. That resulted in poorupkeep of what earlier deemed

mandatory; from riverine forests toriver infrastructure.

The Devolution Plan of Musharraf in2000s5, caused a saw a see-saw stylepolitical shift in power centres of theCountry and it decapitated anotherimportant actor, the bureaucracy.Though the bureaucratic machineryis used to be ruthless and a vanguardof the state interests, nevertheless,had a systematic structure and usedto be independent of the whimsicalpolitical decision making. TheDevolution Plan made DeputyCommissioner (DC) a DistrictCoordination Officer (DCO) andsubservient to political leadershipand whatever space was available forpublic interests got shrunken and thecommercial interests, as ally ofpolitical establishment, got a furtherboost. This also resulted in theexploitation of natural resources andtampering of natural assets.

According to a research conducted byChurch World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan (CWS-P/A) with thesupport of Christian Aid (CA) onstructural causes of Floods - 2010 theroot causes are the lack of canalcleanings, altered river regimes,poorly managed embankments,

encroached katcha (riverine belt/land) land, construction of elevatedroads along river spill ways andpatronization of deforestation. If thosepointers are correct then the primecasual explanation of destruction isthe collusion of market forces withtraditional power brokers. This factorproved pivotal to convert a naturalhazard into a man-made disaster andhad politicized the entire calamity.Thus, the destruction as caused byFloods –2010, cannot be viewed inisolation from the political history,the uneven economic developmentand profound demographic changesand those needs to be understood onscholarly grounds. Without suchunderstanding any attempt forrecovery and rehabilitation will beputting bandage on the woundwithout curing the wound itself. Howto do recovery and rehabilitation insuch a manner that it can address thecore causes of an occurred disaster isquestion to ponder on by policymakers and disaster managementprofessionals, and as Mr. Arif Hasan– the most celebrated urban plannerof Pakistan – put it aptly "Dole issurely not the answer."6

– Mansoor Raza,Deputy Director, Advocacy andResearch, Church World Service

Pakistan/Afghanistan (CWS-P/A)

The Ministry of UrbanDevelopment (MOUD) of the

Government of India has a policythat focuses on the mobility ofpeople rather than on themovement of vehicles; and oncatalyzing orderly and efficientspatial development towards a"compact city" through"densification" along public

Transport and Crisis

transport corridors-a fundamentaldeparture from the current inefficientretrofitting approach to catch up withuncontrolled urban sprawl.

Recent interventions in India's urbandevelopment focused mostly on basicurban infrastructure and servicesincluding water supply, seweragesanitation, drainage, urban road

resurfacing and junctionimprovements while missing theopportunities in the urbantransport sector.

The joint workshop in Jodhpur wasa good training opportunity for thecounterpart staff and contributed toraising the awareness forstakeholders.

– Mihir R. Bhatt


URBAN RESILIENCE

Pathways to Urban Resilience: Information,Communication and a New Community of PracticeMahatma Gandhi said in the

1940s that city civilisation andvillage civilisation were two totallydifferent things. This argument isnow much harder to make – mediaand telecommunications systemsprovide instant connection betweenmigrant urban workers and theirhome villages. What is indisputable,however, is that we are becoming apredominantly urban species.According to the World Bank, within15 years 60% of humanity will bebased in urban areas. Furthermore,rural populations have no monopolyon exposure to risk: for instance, theFifth Assessment Report of the IPPCidentifies the threats that climatechange poses to large urbanpopulations and to the criticalinfrastructure and services thatsupport them.

The IPCC's First Assessment Reportwas completed back in 1990, the yearin which the first ever web browser,WorldWideWeb, was built. Thequarter century since has witnessedan acceleration in urbanization and atransformation in access toinformation and connectivitythrough the spread of the internet andthe mobile phone – the ITU predictsthat the number of mobile phonesubscriptions will exceed our 7.1billion population this year.

The growth of the mobile internet hasalso coincided with significantdevelopments within thehumanitarian system, reflected by therise of the principles of providingagency, accountability, andempowerment to communities as theprimary responders and agents oftheir own recovery. Technologicalchange has created new pathways toputting these important principlesinto practice, and has spawned newcommunities of practice such the

Standby Task Force of digitalvolunteers and the Communicatingwith Disasters Affected Communities(CDAC) Network, which, through theresponses of its members, hasdemonstrated that effective two-wayinteractive communication is anenabler of disaster recovery.

Cities combine much more thandensity of population, and the builtenvironment with their function ascentres of economic activity. Theyalso host media and technologycompanies, key communicationsinstallations, and diverse communitiesthat produce continuous flows of socialmedia. How can we capitalize on thesefeatures to protect our urbanpopulations from the shocks andstresses that will come from climatechange and other hazards? Below arefour elements that should underpin amore comprehensive strategy.

1. Include Information andCommunication in Frameworksand Indicators: Infrastructureintegral to information deliverysuch as contingency for emergencybroadcast facilities andtelecommunications needs to bepart and parcel of resilienceassessment.

An assessment of emergencybroadcast legislation, medialeadership, corporateengagement of media andtechnology agencies and thecapacity of journalists is alsoimportant. The role of committedproprietorial and editorialleadership in facilitating the flowof information in Haiti, forinstance, following the 2010earthquake via radio to thepopulation of Port au Prince wassignificant. Responsible andprepared media leadershipneeds, however, to beunderpinned by journalistsliterate in the key systems thatallow our complex cities tofunction. Significantly, thegroundbreaking City ResilienceFramework recently launchedby the Rockefeller Foundationand Ove Arup includes reliablecommunications throughdiverse and affordable ICTnetworks – and contingency forthem – as one of 12 key indicatorsof resilience to future shocks.

2. Protect Information Systems forMarkets: Urban centres developin the first instance as thelocations of markets.Information is essential tomarket function, and businessmedia are key enablers ofmarket activity and influencersof sentiment. An urban resiliencestrategy needs to include anassessment of how informationservices support marketfunctioning, and whatcontingencies need to put inplace to help them providecontinuity of information serviceto markets, particularly to thosemarkets that supply the mostvulnerable.

Radio station signs for IshinomakCity Emergency FM, central tosupporting information flows afterthe Japan Tsunami.

(Credit : Lois Appleby)


3. Use New Digital Tools but applyOld Principles: new geo-mapping digital tools such asOpen Street Map have beendeployed by the crisis mappercommunity in urban contexts,making significant contributionsto the spatial management ofdisaster response post TyphoonHaiyan. Big and open datacuration are equipping disasterrisk managers with novelinstruments to identify urbanhazards. Social network analysispowered by visualisationtechnology could play animportant role in mapping thevulnerability of themultilayered communities thatcities host. These approaches

need, however, to be backed byprinciples often developed inrural contexts by theorists suchas Paolo Freire, the pioneer ofparticipatory communicationpractice. Specifically, this meansworking with urbancommunities in the process ofcollecting information and withthem in identifying risks togenerate ownership both of riskand of ways of managing it.

4. Build New Communities ofPractice: There is currently nonetwork of practitioners andresearchers dedicated to theinformation dimension of urbanresilience and risk management.In order to develop collective

learning and coordinationmechanisms in this critical area,we need to bring together urbandisaster managers, urbanplanners, researchers, communityorganizations, and humanitarianagencies alongside media,technology and telecomscompanies and the technicalvolunteer community. Creatingnovel alliances of these groupsis the best way to generate the'constructive RNA' that couldmake information andcommunication a key thread, ifnot, the golden thread of urbanresilience.

– Mark Harvey, Founder, Resurgence,Co-Founder, Communicating with DisasterAffected Communities (CDAC) Network

NEW DIMENSIONS OF URBAN RISK

Urbanisation and its Impact on Ground WaterAmongst the basic necessities to

survive, water is the one of themost important. One of the greatestchallenges to cities is rapidlydepleting fresh water sources. Themain sources of fresh water aresurface reservoirs like rivers, lakes,ponds and the other is ground water.Ground water is essentially moreimportant to focus upon as it is themain source of potable water in amajority of regions.

Urbanisation, the process ofexpansion of towns and cities intolarge urban centres is posing a greatchallenge to reserves of groundwater. These reserves are extensivelybeing used to cater the requirementsof drinking water as well as for needsof construction. To meet theserequirements bore wells are beingdug and ground water is beingdrawn out at an irreplaceable pace.The main factors which control thedemand of fresh water are thephysical & geographical situation ofthe urban centre and the economicimportance of it. A city located inrocky or hilly terrain will dependmore on surface water, and an urbandistrict in plains and river basin will

depend more on ground water. Sincethe growth of cities is much higher inplains, the threat to ground waterreserves is much higher.

During the course of rapid urbanisation,some major aspects of environmentalprotection are overlooked to keep upwith the pace of demands. The supplyof potable water in cities is cateredby either municipal supply lines, orthrough bore wells covering somelocalities in the vicinities. People whocan afford to get their personal accessto water dig up their own wells. Butthe other aspect associated withurbanisation is generation ofpollutants. Cities generate variedkinds of waste which are sometimeshighly toxic and dangerous to health.These toxic wastes find their waythrough to the ground water reservesand pollute it. There can be seen asteep increase in the cases of healthproblems related to drinking water.

Another important issue is the processof ground water recharge. The primesource of fresh water in our countryis the rains in monsoon season. Butdue to urbanisation, the percolationareas are depleting and surface runoff

increases. Most of the rain water drainsaway due to concreting and very lessamount of water percolates into theground. Furthermore, the land regulationlaws in our country give the ownerof a property all the rights to useground water. It becomes difficult tokeep a check on illegal extraction.

There are a lot of areas which requireinterventions. Regulating use ofexisting water reserves andmaximizing the retention of rainwater are some of them. Rain waterharvesting should be promoted andcan be enforced as mandatoryprovision in some cases. Surfacerunoff should be checked by creatingproper drain channels and guidingrain water towards recharge pits andlakes. Any new construction takingpace should comply to theseregulations, whether it is a residentialconstruction, or relating toinfrastructure like bridges and roads.The existing sewage structure shouldbe maintained and kept free ofleakages and other deformations.Through these and similar reformsthe rate of ground water use bematched with its recharge capacity.

– Aditya Jain, AIDMI


NEW FRAMEWORK FOR RESILIENCE

A Framework for Rapid Vulnerability Profilingto Build Climate Resilient Urban Development

Background Indian Cities in the 21st century

are facing enormous changes –growing populations, physicalexpansion, and major newinfrastructure investments, shiftinggovernance parameters, andincreasing citizen demand for qualityservices. This growth challengecomes just as impacts of climatechange will become ever moresevere. Increasing temperatures,stronger and more frequent coastalstorms, longer heat waves anddrought, more intense precipitationevents and flooding will furtheraggravate the strains that cities facewith regard to addressing poverty,inadequate services, infrastructuredeficits, and environmental stress.Climate change could also become astrategic economic and politicalconcern as it starts to erode India'seconomic performance and affect thelives and livelihoods of millions ofpeople.

The genesis of IRADe's work lies in aquestion raised at the meeting ofNational Action Plan for ClimateChange (NAPCC) chaired by theformer Prime Minister, Dr.Manmohan Singh while discussingthe National Mission on SustainableHabitat (NMSH), about "How manycities in India are vulnerable toclimate change and in what way?"IRADe approach of the study is basedon the fact that to be climate resilient,a city has to first put itself on asustainable path in terms ofinfrastructure, governance and socio-economic development. Unless thesehave their foundation insustainability, cities cannot handle anew stress such as climate change andbe disaster resilient. The main

objective of this study was to developa rapid vulnerability assessment ofcities by highlighting various riskexposures and vulnerability factors.Study will help policy makers, urbanplanners, city administrators, experts,academics, students and aid agenciesto appreciate issues regarding climatevulnerability of the cities and helpthem to deal with climate changerelated stress and formulateadaptation strategies.

Methodology:To understand and analyze thesemeasures for India's urban centres,

IRADe designed a framework basedon four themes 'H' denotes Hazardsand extreme events, 'I' is for theInfrastructure status, 'G' forGovernance and 'S' for Socio-economic characteristics, IRADenamed it as HIGS. The frameworkcategories the cities on the basis oftheir characteristics like location,economic and geographicalsignificance. To determine theexposure to the hazards, populationdensity, urbanization sprawl, basicservice level benchmark /standardsare included and the institutionalinitiatives and structure are also

Selected 20 cities from 14 states cities for case study.


considered to highlight governancesection. This framework has beentested on 20 cities from 14 differentstates that represent differentdemography and diversephysiographic characteristics andecosystems like 1) Coastal cities –cities along the sea coast, 2) Riverninecities – cities located along the riveror on river delta, 3) MountainousCities, 4) Mixed cities – cities with aridclimatic conditions, it also considerthose cities which are landlockedcities and are not exactly on the riverside or sea coast.

ResultsA vulnerability matrix was preparedfor detailed analysis of the types ofthe hazards that major cities in thecountry are exposed to and the issuesdue to the infrastructure failure thatled to such problems. It helped inunderstanding that coastal cities are

affected by very high cyclonic windvelocities causing severe damage totall flexible and sheeted residentialand industrial structures.

HIGS framework and detailed list of Variables.

Table-1 Vulnerability Matrix- Exposure of the cities

S.N

o.

Cla

ssifi

catio

n

City

Nam

e

Hazards Infrastructure

Dro

ught

Floo

ding

Land

slid

es

Cyc

lone

s

Hea

t/co

ld

wav

es

Wat

er s

uppl

y

Sew

erag

e

Dra

inag

e

MSW

Popu

latio

n ba

se

in 2

011

Cat

egor

izat

ion

of c

ities

on

basi

s of

pop

ulat

ion

1

Coa

stal

Kolkata Y Y Y Y Y Y Y 14.1 A 2 Mumbai Y Y Y Y 18.4 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

6 Thiruvananthpuram 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 Categorization of Cities on the basis of Population

>4 million = A 1 to 4 million = B <1 million = C Y indicates vulnerable

Concluding CommentThe challenge of climate change canonly be met if cities are healthy andsustainable under normalcircumstances. Their existinginfrastructure should be adequate.Efficient and responsive governanceshould be in place. Such cities bounceback against natures' fury in a muchshorter time. In order to have climateresilient development with positivemark on India's growing urbancenters, IRADe is stressing tomainstream climate resiliencemeasures in urban developmentprogrammes and policies as apriority. It is necessary to set upwindows to promote and supportresearch and development, withinnovation and entrepreneurshipthrough enabling policy environmentlike legal and institutional landscape,financial and physical infrastructurefor urban services. Thus well-targetedinterventions emerging out of "HIGS"framework has multiplier effects inpromoting sustainable and inclusiveurban growth. – Dr. Jyoti K Parikh, Executive Director,

and Miss Geeta Sandal, ResearchAnalyst, Integrated Research and

Action for Development (IRADe),New Delhi, India


NEW FRAMEWORKS FOR RESILIENCE

A Lens to Recognise Urban Resilience: The CityResilience Framework

Cities operate in a dynamicenvironment. They are

continuously evolving in response tochanging circumstances, as well asinternal and external pressures,including: resource shortages, disease,conflict and natural disasters. Thiscentury will witness many citiesneeding to overcome additionalstresses arising from rapidurbanization, demographic change,globalization and climate relatedrisks. Historically, some cities havethrived in the face of shocks andstresses, while others have eitherdeclined in stature, or perishedaltogether, either due to physicalcollapse, social breakdown oreconomic deprivation occurringsuddenly or gradually.

A resilient city is a city where there is or are…

1. Minimal human vulnerability: Indicated by theextent to which everyone's basic needs are met.

2. Diverse livelihoods and employment: Facilitatedby access to finance, ability to accrue savings, skillstraining, business support and social welfare.

3. Adequate safeguards to human life and health:Relying on integrated health facilities and services,and responsive emergency services.

4. Collective identity and mutual support: Observedas active community engagement, strong socialnetworks and social integration.

5. Social stability and security: Including lawenforcement, crime prevention, justice, andemergency management.

6. Availability of financial resources andcontingency funds: Observed as sound financialmanagement, diverse revenue streams, the abilityto attract business investment, adequateinvestment, and emergency funds.

7. Reduced physical exposure and vulnerability:Indicated by environmental stewardship;appropriate infrastructure; effective land use

planning; and enforcement of planningregulations.

8. Continuity of critical services: Indicated by diverseprovision and active management; maintenanceof ecosystems and infrastructure; and contingencyplanning

9. Reliable communications and mobility: Indicatedby diverse and affordable multi-modal transportsystems and information and communicationtechnology (ICT) networks; and contingencyplanning.

10. Effective leadership and management: Involvinggovernment, business and civil society, andindicated by trusted individuals; multi-stakeholder consultation; and evidence-baseddecision-making.

11. Empowered stakeholders: Indicated by educationfor all, and access to up-to-date information andknowledge to enable people and organisations totake appropriate action.

12. Integrated development planning: Indicated bythe presence of a city vision; an integrateddevelopment strategy; and plans that are regularlyreviewed and updated.

Those cities that continue to functionand support their people underadverse circumstances areincreasingly described as resilient.But what makes some cities resilient?What made a city like Surat, evolvein response to the challenges arisingfrom its location on a flood plain,including an outbreak of the plague,to become recognised as one of thecleanest and most prosperous cites inIndia? On the other hand, why hasrecovery in Port au Prince, Haitifollowing the earthquake in 2010proven so challenging? Why did themassive 8.8 earthquake inConcepcion, Chile lead to extensivelooting and arson a month later? Weknow that cities comprise of acomplex web of interconnected

institutions, communities andinfrastructure that respond in anevolving way and make the cityresilient to varying degrees. But, canwe define the characteristics thatmake a city more, or less, resilientthan another?

Over the past year, with the supportof The Rockefeller Foundation, a teamfrom Arup has studied thesequestions through both academicresearch and direct engagement withcities. The study relied not only onemerging approaches taken toframing or assessing resilience, butalso on extracting evidence from citiesthat have responded positively andnegatively to the experience of suddenshocks or chronic stresses. This


research led to the development ofthe City Resilience Framework(CRF) which capture show resilienceis understood from the perspectiveof different city stakeholder groupsin different contexts. Uniquely, theCRF provides a holistic articulationof city resilience which recognises theimportance of social dynamicsalongside physical assets. It providesa lens that focuses on the twelvecritical aspects of a city's performancethat specifically contribute to theresilience of a city – as distinct fromother agendas such as liveability orefficiency.

By understanding their inherentstrengths and weaknesses withrespect to resilience, cities can thenensure that their developmentstrategies and investment decisionswill enhance, rather than undermine,the city's resilience.

The three layers of the CityResilience Framework – categories,

indicators and qualities – illustratedin Figure each contribute to a richerarticulation of resilience. It comprises12 key outcome indicators (see the box)that fall into four categories: the healthand wellbeing of individuals(people); urban systems and services(place); economy and society(organisation); and, finally,leadership and strategy (knowledge).A deeper level of articulation isprovided by approximately 50 sub-indicators, each associated with 3 or 4variables that form the basis for eitherqualitative or quantitative

measurement. The variables reflectthe eight qualities that distinguishresilient systems, including:resourcefulness and redundancy,inclusiveness and integration. Thisstructure purposively allowsdifferent cities to adopt differentapproaches to measurement, based onthe availability of data and resources.

The framework was presented at therecent World Urban Forum in April2014 where it was very positivelyreceived, notably by the signatoriesto the Medellin Collaboration forUrban Resilience. This recognises theneed to build a common basis ofunderstanding urban resilienceamong leading global organisations,in order to align global efforts to buildresilience and link this to local actionin cities. Over the next six months weare continuing to develop ourthinking and carry out furtherresearch leading to the City ResilienceIndex which will be published laterthis year. Meanwhile the 100 ResilientCities initiative pioneered by theRockefeller Foundation iscollaborating with us to developassociated tools that can help cities toprogressively understand, baselineand subsequently monitor theirefforts to make their city moreresilient. We very much welcomefeedback and comment on the CityResilience Framework as input to thisfurther work, so please email [email protected].

– Sachin Bhoite, Jo da Silva,and Braulio Eduardo Morera,

Arup, UK

What are rapid assessments for Disaster Risk Reduction and howrapid are they? This is the question AIDMI team is addressing in its

work on urban resilience in small cities in India. Assessments are oftenlengthy, delayed and uncoordinated. The qualitative and quantitativeinformation collide and contradict, and the ways of using assessmentsremain open to the user. How to address these issues? Be in touch if youhave interest.

– Mihir R. Bhatt

Rapid Assessments


ROADMAP FOR RESILIENCE

An Urban Resilience Agenda for India: 5 KeyIssuesInterest in urban resilience is

growing fast. This is because morethan 50 % of the world's populationnow lives in urban areas, and mostcities are located along coasts andrivers-as such, they are highlyexposed to the impacts of climatechange. At the same time, cityauthorities in middle-income andlow-income countries usually do nothave the finances or the technicalknowledge to appropriately engagewith these impacts. This is whypowerful development actors thatinclude DfID, ADB, USAID, the WorldBank and the Rockefeller Foundationare all supporting large initiatives tobuild the resilience of urban areas indeveloping countries to the impactsof climate change

While, it is impossible to provide auniversal prescription of steps forbuilding urban resilience, thefollowing are 5 key issues thatresilience practitioners aiming to helpIndian cities deal with the impacts ofclimate change must keep in mind.

Work across scales and beyond thecity limits: Classic resilience theorydemonstrates that systems are highlyinterconnected therefore it is criticalto understand that building urbanresilience requires a focus on morethan only the city in question. In Indiathis means that actors andorganisations working on urbanresilience need to engage with stategovernments effectively. This isbecause due to incompletedecentralisation and the inadequateimplementation of the 74th

Amendment to the Constitution (thatempowers Urban Local Bodies) bystate governments, city governmentsdo not have the power to effectsubstantial changes in protocols andways of planning that resilience

requires. Secondly, it is cruciallyimportant to understand that theresilience of urban systems iscontingent on areas that lie beyondcity limits. Peri-urban areas need tobe firmly in the sights of thoseattempting to build urban resilienceas these act as ecological buffer zoneswhere, for instance, rivers can floodtheir banks safely avoidingcatastrophic inundation of inner cityareas. Also, this is where the nextphase of urban development willoccur-providing a clear opportunityto ensure that this takes place in aresilient manner.

Engage with a diversity of actors:Indian cities have a diversity ofinstitutions that have a critical bearingon the city's functioning. While eachcity has an Urban Local Body (e.g.municipal corporation) that ischarged with key service deliveryfunctions, many also have para-statalbodies such as 'developmentauthorities' that are charged with keyplanning functions (that can define the

resilience profile of the city) but donot fall under the purview of the ULB.To make matters more complicated,in resource constrained andpolitically complex settings such asmany tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India-civil society organisations can play akey role in building urban resilience.Apart from disbursed authority, theother imperative for engaging witha diversity of actors in enterprises ofbuilding urban resilience springsfrom the fact that conceptuallyresilience operates at the level of a'system'. And a clear understandingof the 'city as a system' can only bederived through deep and sustainedengagement with those engaged indisparate elements of the city'sfunctioning to understandinterdependencies and complex inter-linkages between different sectors.

Think beyond infrastructure:Supporting a vision of resilience asthe 'climate proofing' of criticalinfrastructure is tempting. This isbecause it is easier to monitor, easier

Vulnerable urban communities participate in a resilience planning process,Gorakhpur, India.


to secure political support, it buildson existing systems and for thesereasons, it is also easier to findfunding for it- but this is only part ofthe picture for resilience. Key toensuring the resilience of urbanpopulations is building the innatecapacity of individuals to adapt toclimate change. This innate 'adaptivecapacity' can be built in a number ofways that include ensuring thatlivelihoods become less sensitive toclimate change (e.g. using climateresilient seeds), mainstreamingdisaster risk reduction into schoolcurricula, improving drainage (sothat flood waters are ejected beforethey cause cholera) and so on.

Take politics seriously: We have oftenseen well intentioned resilienceinitiatives that employ sophisticatedanalytics, downscaled projections androbust data-led vulnerabilityanalyses fail because the 'politics' ismissing. It is not easy to get citypoliticians to buy into the resilienceagenda as often this entailsinvestment of political and financialcapital now for an unseen benefit inthe distant future, after the nextelection. Understanding what drives

key decision makers within cities andensuring that resilience is defined asan agenda that will yield immediatebenefits but also reap politicaldividend in an uncertain future is away forward. For instance, it isimportant to communicate howensuring that drainage is improvedis about improving hygiene andsanitation today as well as animportant way for reducing flood risk.

Couple with existing priorities andpolicies: It is critical to understandthat building the resilience of townsand cities to the impact of climatechange is not an enterprise that willdraw resources away from existingimportant development issues but isessentially a lens that will makedevelopment more robust. Thismeans that advocates of urbanresilience must push for improvedlivelihoods but ensure that these arenot climate sensitive; they mustsupport improved water andsanitation facilities but ensure thatthis infrastructure in built using theprinciples of redundancy andflexibility in order to stand extremeevents, and so on. Along withcoupling the resilience agenda with

existing priorities, it is also importantto couple with existing policies.Urban land use policies and master-plans can be an entry point forbuilding resilience (by, for instance,ensuring that economic assets andhousing stick are not located inexposed and risky areas). Funds frompolicies such as the Jawaharlal NehruNational Urban Renewal Mission andthe Rajiv Awas Yojna can all bedeployed in a manner that supportsthe reduction of vulnerability and thepromotion of resilience to a changingclimate. This is all to say thatresilience need not and should not bea stand-alone policy stream.

While resilience initiatives need tobe highly tailored to the individualsocial, economic and physicalconditions of different cities,integrating these 5 key issues inresilience programs will allowpractitioners to ensure that theinitiatives that they are designing andexecuting will have the maximumimpact possible.

– Aditya V. Bahadur, PhD.,Senior Research Officer, Adaptation

and Resilience, Climate andEnvironment Program, Overseas

Development Institute, UK

CLIMATE CHANGE AND CITIES

Urban Uncertainty in India and Climate ChangeMegacities of India like Delhi

and Mumbai are exhibitingtoday what we can call 'urbanizationof poverty' and urbanization ofconsumption'. If on the one hand wefind that more than half of thepopulation in both the cities survivesunder acute poverty then we also atthe same time find that both thesemegacities house today the mostupwardly mobile sections of middleclass and elite populations of India.Resources like water and land,consumables like energy,transportation, buildings, goods andservices etc. are highlydisproportionately divided amongthe different socio-economic groups

residing in Indian megacities. Theresultant pollution, overuse,depletion and exploitation of lifesustaining resources like water,greens etc. are also contributed tovery differently by cities'heterogeneous populace.

Like many other cities, since long agoDelhi and Mumbai gained urbansalience due to their topographies.Whereas the confluence of riverYamuna and extension of the AravaliForest Ridge placed Delhi uniquely,it was the natural creeks with densemangroves around the seven islandsalong with small rivers flowingamidst which helped over time in the

creation of Mumbai as we see today.Among many other things, certaintiesabout their weather pattern andclimatic features helped evolve theurban ecologies of both megacities.

Human induced global warming dueto greenhouse gas emissions isgradually stoking climate changeacross the world. Megacities likeDelhi and Mumbai of developingcountries like India are highlyvulnerable to ensuing climaticdisorder. Such cities are alreadyexperiencing multiple affects. On theone hand these cities are turning intourban heat islands due to their hugelyconcretised landscape where heat gets


trapped and further more their naturalgreens, like Delhi's ridge forest andMumbai's mangrove creeks, whichhelp to absorb the heat, are beingslowly encroached upon by urban'desires'. Massively populated slumsof both cities are constantly exposedto dangers of flooding resulting frommore and more unpredictablerainfall, and alongside not to forgetthe expanding cycles of seasonalepidemics like dengue fever, typhoid,cholera, chikungunya etc. Energyguzzling nature of India's megacitiesis best exemplified if one looks at thetransportation and built environmentof these urban regions. Both, rapidlygrowing private motorized transportand electricity usage in city buildingsare almost totally dependent on fossilfuel based supplies and in turncontribute to GHG emissions. Be itDelhi's river Yamuna or Mumbai'sMithi today are of scant value asdrinking water sources because ofbeing dangerously choked with cities'untreated sewage dumped directlyinto them. Both cities are expandingtheir ecological footprints bydrawing water from distant sources.The landfill sites of both Delhi andMumbai have long back exceededtheir limits and today havetransformed into mountains of solidwaste constantly emitting one of themost dangerous GHG calledmethane.

The above stated certainties oftoday's Indian cities furthercomplicate for us the conundrum ofuncertainties associated with a futureof altered climate. Urban India has toscale up on both adapting to climatechange and mitigating upon causesof global warming. The certainty ofthis dire requirement is faced withmultifaceted uncertainties. Successfulmitigation requires fundamentalscaling down in the lifestyle of therich and middle classes whereasadaptation is the key to make citiesresilient against climatic change infavour of the most vulnerable poor.Will the political economy ofeconomic growth based developmentbecome inclusive for all urbanresidents in future or will it continueto widen the gap between rich andpoor? Moreover, within the matrixof a globalised world economy whatis the scope for Indian cities with theirown complexities to develop aneconomic paradigm which wouldturn them sustainable ecologically?Government of Delhi and MunicipalCorporation of Mumbai in theirefforts to deal with climate changeare mostly inclined towards raisingawareness, developing partnershipswith private sector, publicizingtechnological shifts towards climatesensitive usage of materials andmachines, and encouragingbehavioural changes towards three

Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle). It is ascrucial an institutional uncertainty asclimatic for urban areas whether stateand market led initiatives will be ableto deal with global warming inducedclimate change.

Increasing climatic uncertainty is alsobringing forth our knowledgeuncertainties. Which way(s) to dealwith climate change are gettingprioritized by the key policy/decision makers (why) and what kindof assessments are becoming thedriving forces. The tackling of theissue of global warming is so expertdriven that democratic or consensualways of looking at it are most oftenrelegated. Expertise to resolve such acomplex issue is so given today thateven gauging its impacts on hugenumber of people is being left to bepursued by professionals. Growth ofmedia is today strongly attached toincreasing consumption of goods,products and services within society.Such increasing consumptive patternsof people today, changing them fromcitizens to consumers fuels not justmedia but also the way nationallyand internationally economies aremodeled. Consumption is entrenchedwithin the global warming context.Urbanization is a key constituent inincreased consumption. Can there bea decoupling possible betweenurbanization and consumption in waysto abate climate change and could it bepossible for media to play a role?

Since 2007 more than half of theworld's population has urbanizedand this growing phenomenon has adistinct relation with globalwarming. What type of urbanism isgoing to prevail, especially indeveloping countries, is going toshape the lives of people and ourplanet. And, there seem hugeuncertainties about this trajectory.

– Dr. Alankar** He is a researcher with SARAI, Centre

for the Study of Developing Societies(CSDS), Delhi and is working in the

STEPS Centre Uncertainty from BelowProject

Power plants sitting cheek and jowl by the Yamuna.

Phot

o: S

TEPS

Cen

tre


DRR AND YOUTH

Urban Resilience and Youth

Cities have eversymbolised the zenith

of human development andprogress. They have alwaysembodied the highestachievements andaccomplishments of acivilisation or people.Cities act as gateways to theworld outside and providesuch opportunities andavenues of employment andeducation that cannot befound elsewhere.Historically, India haswitnessed the rise andgrowth of a number of cities. Situatedoften on the banks of rivers, thesecities became flourishing centres ofart and commerce. These factorsmade cities very appealing andattracted people, especially theyoung, to migrate to them from thehinterlands. The trend continues tilldate, in fact, it has shown an increase,as instead of cities having becomeredundant units or losing theirsignificance in the scheme of things,they have become much moreimportant given their global natureand connectedness.

Indian cities, like several cities in thedeveloping world, house hugepopulations, a large proportion ofwhich are youths. This demographicprofile of cities is not only a reflectionof the current national demographicprofile, but is also a result of the massmigration of rural youths to urbanareas. Cities are the oases, the greenerpastures that attract these youngminds, whose attempts at findingwindows of opportunities forthemselves in the rural areas havemet with bottlenecks and dead-ends.Whatever may be the nature ofassociation of youths with urbanareas, as citizens or migrants, the

question of resilience stands as oneof the most important. In thefollowing few lines I shall try tobriefly chalk out the complexities andconnections between theaforementioned terms, urbanresilience and youth.

Considering case two first-migrantyouth will help us expound thedistinction between what urbanresilience means to the two youthgroups and how it relates to each ofthem. When rural youth migrate tourban areas, they do so largely withempty hands, accompanied just by thedream of acquiring avenues fordevelopment. This makes themvulnerable. On arriving in urbanareas, they are often flummoxed bythe very size, diversity and thefunctioning of the city and when theyfind themselves without the adequateknowledge of their rights and dutiesas migrants, they find themselvesunder pressure from all sideseconomic, political as well asadministrative and this is whenresilience comes into the picture.These youths are not resilient to thesechanges and are often unable to dealwith them as they are ill-equipped todo so, which many a times pushes

them into conflictingsituations or onto the wrongside of law.

On the other hand, thisinflux of migrant youthattracts the wrath of urbancitizens, especially urbanyouth, who, though wellequipped to deal with changeintroduced through moderntechnology, are less resilientto the realities of resourceconstraints andinfrastructural overuse.Infrastructural overuse is

itself apocalyptic and leads further tonatural disasters of the type witnessedin Mumbai a few years back, whenthe entire city came to a standstill dueto floods. Resource constraints havealso led to conflicting situations.Interesting to note during the episodewere the initiatives that young peopletook during the crisis in order to dealwith it, which were efficient but alsocut across cultural, economic andother boundaries. These incidents goto show the various ways in whichresilience makes its way into the livesof youths in urban areas. Though thisassociation is largely covert, it iscomforting to know that it exists andit would do us good to educate andtrain our youths such that theirquotidian urban lives are informedby its presence and strengthened andrendered better by it so that they donot fall back upon this association justas the last resort in the face ofcatastrophes, eliciting it out at thevery last moment. Thus, what weneed now is to actively incorporateboth these components, youth as wellas resilience into disastermanagement in urban areas. – Swati Bhattacharya, MSE Candidate,Hult International Business School, San

Francisco California, USA

Whither Urban Resilience and Youth?


Urbanization is an inevitableoutcome of modern civilization.

Tonnies (1957) differentiated betweenrural and urban communities interms of social relationship andvalues. Each and every region isdirectly or indirectly associated withurbanization.

Assam is an important state of north-east India bounded by Bhutan andArunachal on the north; ArunachalPradesh, Nagaland and Manipur inthe east; Mizoram and Meghalaya onthe south; and Bangladesh and WestBengal on the west. The state has anarrow corridor of 35 Km. widebetween Bangladesh and Nepalwhich is the link with the rest of thecountry. Total geographical area ofthe state is 78,523 sq. Km.

Assam's physiography ischaracterized by diverse features suchas flood plains, marshes and beels,scattered hillocks, folded hill rangeand old plateaus. The total populationof Assam was 32.9 lakh in 1901 whichincreased to 146.25 lakh in 1971 and266.38 lakh in 2001.

The growth of urban population beenmeager in Assam. The growth ofurban population in Assam remainssubstantially low as compared to thenational average. In 1901 the urbanpopulation in Assam was 2.34% asagainst 10.85% of all India average.In 1951, the percentage of urbanpopulation increased to 4.3 % in 1951and further to 12.72% in 2001 asagainst the all India level of 17.29%and 27.78% respectively for the someperiod. Thus, urbanization in Assamis very slow, both in hills and plains.

Modernization and urbanization areclosely co-related and modernization

is marked by increasing urbanizationwhich in turn resulted in the spreadof literacy and employmentopportunities. Most of the nations ofthe world have energized their effortsfor rapid industrial developmentwhich has the power to attract moremoney, men and materials for urbancenters. Both the heavy industries andthe small and medium sizedindustries in urban areas attract thepeople from agricultural activities toindustrial activities.

However, urbanization is a naturaloutgrowth of socio-economicdevelopment for proper urbandevelopment in the backward statesof India and the urban governance hasto work sincerely. Urbangovernments today is characterizedby fragmentation of responsibility,inadequate devolution of functions tothe elected bodies, lack of a clear lineof financial resources to them,adherent to outmoded methods inproperty taxation and hesitance in thematter of every user changes .Municipal bodies are to be given allsupport and legislative andadministrative measures to makethem into institutions of localgovernance. Furthermore, capacitybuilding for resources raising andprovision of services are importantwith urban government. Throughthem, the proper development can beascertained of the urban areas ofAssam.

It is clear that urban policy in Indiaand north-eastern states remains inits nature unconscious, partial,uncoordinated and negative. Thenational or regional urban policyspeaks of a balanced welfare,environmental protection in thegrowth centers of urban areas. In this,the administrative, technical,managerial and financial capacity ofurban bodies should be strengthened.

Role of the GovernmentAmong many conflicting ideasgenerated by tradition andmodernization, three basic issuesstand out prominently. First, there isa fundamental issue of desirability orotherwise of urbanization on largescale. Secondly, there is a choicebetween an idealized and highlydecentralized settlement system withthe self-sufficient villages as the basisand opposite of a highly centralizedurban system. Thirdly, in federalpolitical system, urbanization is statesubject.

However, our Governments havebeen adopting various types of directand indirect measures to develop theprocess of urbanization. Theseprocesses include industrialization,formation of new administrativesettlements, establishment of newtrade and commerce centers etc.modern governments have immenseroles for urban development.Modern governments are welfaregovernments with decentralizationand democratic set up. Hence, thepeople's welfare is the main concernfor modern democratic set up. Theperformance of the government ishighly reflected in the developmentof the cities and towns of modernIndia. It is true that urbanization isthe most powerful socio-economic

URBANISATION AND RESILIENCE

Sustainable Urban Development and the Roleof the Government

It is clear that urban policyin India and north-easternstates remains in its nature

unconscious, partial,uncoordinated and negative.


component of modernity. In Indiaurbanization has come to occupy animportant place in economicdevelopment of different regions. InIndia the highest urbanization hasbeen found in the metropolitan areasof Delhi besides Chandigarh,Lakshadweep, Pondicherry andDaman and Diu. In these areas 90percent to 45 percent live in urbanareas. In West Bengal about 27 percentpeople, in Tamilnadu 34 percent, inPunjab 30 percentage, in Kerala 26percent, in Maharashtra 38 percent,in Gujarat 35 percent people live inthe urban areas.

When compared the rest of the World,the level of urbanization is very lowin India. The World as a whole had alevel of 45 percent in 1990 and thehighest level being 85-90 percent inAustralia. It has been estimated thatby the early part of 21st century halfof World population will reside inIndia.

The diversified roles of theGovernments can be mentioned asfirstly, the Government plays the roleof moderator of urban development.Secondly, the Government plays therole of growing agency for modernlarge and strategic industries.Thirdly, government plays the roleof controlling agency of ill anddefective activities occurring insidethe urban areas. Fourthly, bothcooperation and competition shouldbe introduced for better developmentof urban areas. Fifthly, theenvironmental balance should beproperly utilized in urban areas forsustainable and holistic urbandevelopment. However, thedevelopment of commerce and tradegives a new dynamism to rapidurban development.

Suggestive MeasuresThough the problems are increasingwith the growth of urbanization, yeturban areas are increasinglyattractive centers for the modern

people. Therefore, some measureshave to be adopted if we want toremove the urban problems. Some ofthe suggestive measures are asfollows:1. Systematic development of the

fast growing urban centers andplanning programme forcreation of job opportunitiesshould be started by thegovernment with a goal ofsustainable urban development.

2. Regional planning along withcity planning should be startedvery carefully for proper growthand development of our townsand cities.

3. To remove the overcrowdingproblem of the urban areas andto reduce the high pressure onland the industries the concernedagencies should be encouragedto move to backward areas ordistricts.

4. The financial resources of theurban bodies should begenerated through welldeveloped infrastructures in theurban areas so that he people inthe urban areas may bebenefitted by improved services.

5. Private transport along withGovernment Transportationshould be developed properlyfor the people.

6. Pragmatic housing policy shouldbe developed in the urbancenters for proper housingfacilities.

7. Structural decentralizationpolicy should be adopted by theurban government for propercommunity developmentthrough 'neighborhood-actiongroups'.

8. Corruption inside the urbangovernment bodies should beminimized for properdevelopment of the urban areas.

Through these measures, we canexpect the meaningful developmentof urban areas.

To conclude, it can be said that theproblems of urbanization can neverbe solved until and unless strongurban planning and policies areadopted. In this era of developedtechnology, urban facilities should bedeveloped and they should beensured for all people, irrespectiveof their socio-economic status.Modern people's increasingeagerness for the urban life is a goodsign but the approach for sustainableurban development should be startedeverywhere. It is the need of thehour.

– Dr. Budhen Kumar Saikia,Faculty Member, Morigaon College,

Assam

References:i. Bose Ashish, Studies in Indias

Urbanization 1901-1971, 1973 TataMc Grawwill Publishing Co.New Delhi.

ii. Anderson and Iswaran, UrbanSociology, 1953.

iii. Galine v. Sdasyuk, "Urbanizationand the Spatial Structure of IndianEconomy", 1971 (Contemporarymonograph, Census of India)

iv. Sorokin and Zimmerman,Principles of Rural Urban Society,1962.

v. Weber Max "The UrbanCommunity" in the theories ofsociety 1961, New York.

vi. Sovani N.V., Urbanization andUrban India, 1966, AsiaPublishinh House Bombay.

vii. Problem P.N., A study on thesocial effects of Urbanization 1965,Calcutta.

viii. Hauser H.P., World and AssamUrbanisation in relation to EconomicDevlopment and Social Charge1997.

ix. Chand H and Pusri V.K. RegionalPlanning in India (2003) AlliedPublishers New Delhi.

x. Ahuza Ram Social Problems, 2002,Rawat, New Delhi.

xi. Census Reports from 1951-2001and 2011.


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an-r&r 25 9 04 · 5 see for example livengood, a., and kunte, k., 2012, enabling participatory...

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