Rapid climate change is a challenge of the 21st century, displaying increasingly the evidences of highly erratic weather deviations and extreme events all over the world. While climate variability and change is irrespective of locational factors of urban and rural, its impacts on cities and towns are particularly of concern due to concentrations of people and infrastructure in urban centers. The urban areas in the developing world are said to have been more vulnerable to climate change impacts due to their high population growth, increased pressure for resources due to rapid urbanization and the generally weak economic base of the urban local bodies.
During 2000-2008, Asia experienced the highest number of climate-related disasters in the world and suffered economic losses accounting for 27.5% of the total global economic loss. It is projected that more than 60% of the urban population growth will happen in Asia and most of this urban growth will take place in small and medium towns. Besides this Asia has greatest population of people living in low elevation coastal areas, is projected to have severe water shortages by the year 2050 and its cities are struggling with the perennial shortage and demand for infrastructure and basic services given the rapid increase in urban population. Within Asia, 24 per cent of deaths due to disasters occur in India, on account of its size, population and vulnerability. Floods and high winds account for 60 per cent of all disasters in India.
Thus the vulnerabilities are high and multidimensional while their preparedness to climate related impacts is negligible, sometime non-existent. Building climate resilience, therefore, should be a priority for most of these cities. It is opportune moment to think through these calamities and include climate as a concern in the planning practices that we adopt for urban areas in India. Climate resilience would equip cities to withstand climate change related challenges and would prepare cities to withstand extreme climate events for example, timely evacuation and early warning, planning and designing of infrastructure and services to withstand heavy rainfall or floods to name a few.
Urban climate resilience agenda is gaining momentum in the cities all over the world. Cities like Durban in South Africa, Dar Es Salem in Sub Saharan Africa, Rosario in Argentina, London in UK, Surat in India have all started planning for urban climate resilience. And these are not the only ones. The Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) a 9 year long initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation, alone has supported some 30+ cities across Asia to build their climate resilience plans and strategies. The Rockefeller Foundation, in its separate initiative called "the 100 resilient cities initiative" has announced to choose and support 100 cities from across the world and extend support to help them become resilient. The initiative has announced its first 66 cities and Surat, Bangalore and Chennai from India are amongst the chosen cities. Some of the national governments have taken a lead in introducing climate resilience agenda; however, more increasingly cities are taking lead in planning for their climate resilient future.
Indian Government has announced the Smart Cities Scheme where 100 cities will be developed as Smart Cities. This is an opportune moment for bringing in climate concerns into the planning and development of these cities so that these cities are not only smart but 'climate smart'.
(Divya Sharma is Fellow, Center for Research in Sustainable Urban Development and Transport Systems, Sustainable Habitat Division, TERI)
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