Building climate resilience collectively

Source– The post is based on the article “Building climate resilience collectively” published in The Hindu on 15th December 2022.

Syllabus: GS3- Environment

Relevance– Fighting climate change

News– The article explains the issue of climate resilience for our cities.

What is needed for improving the climate resilience of cities?

To facilitate implementation of the climate action plan and enable their integration with other missions, a data-driven approach may be useful.

There is a need to demonstrate urban planning strategies aimed at climate resilience through specific actions and interventions and link them to various finance streams accessible to the urban local bodies. It should be backed by sound data.

Cities need effective and efficient planning instruments that translate master plans into transformative business-ready investment projects.

What is the Urban Sustainability Assessment Framework?

It is a decision support tool of UN-Habitat for municipal commissioners and urban practitioners. It supports the sustainable and resilient urban planning and management of Indian cities.

It enables cities to regularly capture inter-sectoral data and corresponding analysis on urban metrics. In this way, it  helps in monitoring the performance of a city in static and dynamic contexts.

Cities can enhance vertical integration by pulling together the missions’ objectives at the central level, State policies and projects, and local implementation.

What shows the effectiveness of nature based solutions?

Bhopal case– In the case of Bhopal, transportation makes up for 19% of the city’s GHG emissions. Bhopal favours non-motorised transport . But, it provides access to public bike docking stops to only 24% of its population. Only half of its streets have footpaths.

The city has immense potential to reduce its carbon footprint designing shared streets for personal vehicles, public transport, NMT and pedestrians. They can be linked with future economic activity zones and underserved areas.

These streets can also be used for native plant species and groundwater recharge by integrating water-sensitive urban design features with a potential of reducing GHG emissions.

Jaipur case-Jaipur has only 1.42 sq.m per capita of open space against a benchmark of 12 sq.m per person. Residential areas were found to be at least 1.25°C cooler than neighbourhoods with less green pockets. In industrial pockets, the urban heat island impact was greater with temperatures higher by 1.1°C.

Simple yet effective solutions that can increase Jaipur’s resilience include community recharge pits in neighbourhood parks, and increasing permeable spaces along mobility corridors.

What are the components of nature based solutions for climate change adaptation?

The planning approach for building climate resilience needs comprehensive stakeholder participation towards building climate resilience.

Active involvement from various tiers of government, non-governmental, community-based organisations, and academic institutions is desirable at each step.

Movements on the city performance indicators communicate the impact of these interventions to the decision-makers and the community at large.

Cumulative benefits and efficient use of public resources from various central and State missions, and on-ground convergence are parts of this approach.

This evidence-based approach aims at making cities sustainable, resilient and inclusive with no one and no place left behind.