27-28 November, 2018 Hotel Maurya, Patna, Bihar

National Workshop

Urban Climate Resilience:

The Context of River Basins

Urban-Peri-urban-Ecosystems, Inclusive Governance and

Partnerships

Rapid urbanization

is increasing people’s

vulnerability to the impacts of

climate change. More than half

the world’s population today

live in cities, and another 2.5

billion people are expected to

join them by 20501. India too is

urbanising at an unprecedented

rate and with increasing

impacts of climate change being

witnessed across all regions, the

situation is throwing up many

challenges for cities, especially

secondary cities. 1 The Population Division of the Depart-

ment of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations (2018). World Urban-ization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, Key Facts, UNDESA, Retrieved from https://population.un.org/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2018-KeyFacts.pdf

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The eastern India (Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin) is one of the most vulnerable regions in the country with some of the crucial common climate change related issues such as erratic rainfall, increasing minimum and maximum temperature, floods and waterlogging, reducing primary production based livelihoods, rapid rural to urban migration which is for aspirational and economic needs that cities provide being the economic hubs, trans-boundary (India- Nepal-Bangladesh) issues, urban poverty, low development and health indices.

Climate change and extreme weather events in these secondary cities are likely to increase the city’s exposure to hazards and risk. Less obvious is the fact that business-as-usual development practices may also generate complex environmental changes and contribute to increased risk unless these are anticipated and remedial measures are taken. Unplanned residential and commercial development is replacing agriculture and other undeveloped lands, including common property resources and water bodies, around the urban areas, severely impacting the ecosystems and the lives of the people dependent on them. Physical and spatial characteristics of urban areas, socio-economic vulnerability of their citizens, inadequate institutional capacities and environmental challenges are some of the risk drivers that thrive under the complex situation that cities are in. Strategies and policies can be developed to address each of these issues and move towards safe, equitable, resilient and sustainable urban development.

The flagship programmes of the Government of India also aim at making urban areas liveable, sustainable, smart and inclusive and have similar objectives as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) and the New Urban Agenda 2030. However, there is a need for a clear roadmap outlining ways and means for translating these goals into action for promoting sustainable and resilient cities across India, where river basin and nature-based solutions deserve significant considerations in delineating and scaling the lessons of pilot studies focused on governance and partnership approaches.

Over the past decade, Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (GEAG) along with its partners has been working intensively on Urban Climate Change-Disaster Resilience, under the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN), a flagship

programme of The Rockefeller Foundation. In this process, GEAG engaged with city governments and local stakeholders in four intervention cities namely Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Saharsa (Bihar), Jorhat (Assam) and Basirhat (West Bengal) in eastern India in which ‘City Resilience Strategies’ were developed and various pilot initiatives were undertaken for rolling out the key recommendations, besides the policy and capacity building related initiatives. Based on these experiences, GEAG also worked in Patna (Bihar), where ‘City Resilience Strategy’ was developed with a special focus on the vulnerabilities of women and children. Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET)-International has been a technical support partner in this process. National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) has provided policy and capacity development support from time to time which helped in bringing out various research publications and capacity development modules.

About the workshopWith the above backdrop, a National Workshop is being organized by Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (GEAG), National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) and Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (BSDMA) with the support of The Rockefeller Foundation. The workshop will deliberate on inclusive resilience initiatives which can directly and indirectly support climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction and its inter-linkages in the urban context. It will further aim at exploring partnerships and potential areas to scale-up inclusive resilience initiatives in the river basin contexts.

Objectives1. To deliberate on the mechanisms (tools, frameworks,

methodologies, guidelines) for CCA-DRR integration for resilient cities, and in river basin contexts

2. To identify the policies, governance and planning and coordination mechanisms for inclusive resilience

3. To understand and recognise the role of nature-based solutions in urban-peri-urban resilience

4. To understand specific needs of urban poor, especially women, children and disabled for resilient basic services, especially in the context of attaining Sustainable Development Goals

5. To promote networking and horizontal (city-to-city) learning and explore partnership opportunities to scale-up inclusive urban resilience in the river basin environment

1 Climate change and changing thresholds: The context of Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin

The session will focus on the concerns of 650 million people living in the Ganga–Brahmaputra Basin from the perspective of changing thresholds of extreme temperature and rainfall events. There is a growing concern that the changing thresholds of temperatures and precipitation have changed the basin’s runoff characteristics, and thus the water availability in both upstream and downstream areas. Likewise, it is expected that the frequency and magnitude of extreme hydrological events (i.e. the occurrence of floods and droughts) will rise urban flooding, posing serious threats for the livelihoods of the urban poor living in the basin.

2 Urban water resilience and floods: Downscaling CCA-DRR integration

Urban flooding is increasingly receiving attention, particularly in emerging and primate cities. The focus of this session’s discourse will be to apprehend how the concept of Climate Change Adaption (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) integration related practices, technical experiences, tools, methodologies and frameworks can be downscaled at local/ grassroots level institutions to enhance urban resilience amidst changing climatic thresholds.

3 Urban governance: Guidelines on climate change and disaster risk reduction

Climate-resilient pathways are development trajectories that combine mitigation and adaptation to realize the goal of sustainable and resilient development. Further, a strong and efficient governance approach is imperative for addressing the developmental vulnerabilities caused as a result of climate change and disaster impacts and ensuring its sustenance in the longer term. Climate change resilience being a cross-sectoral issue needs a multiagency and inter-departmental approach in addressing this. One of the main limiting factors responsible for this has been the existing urban governance and coordination structures which usually work in silos. Urban local governments have critical roles in building climate change resilience and they need a supportive institutional, regulatory and financial framework for functioning. The status of adoption of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 in different cities/states is also relevant in this direction along with ward-level participatory resilience thinking and budgetary allocations. Also, the participation of vulnerable communities in the planning and implementation of adaptation and governance is emerging as a crucial factor in urban climate change resilience. This session will deliberate on the governance pathways required for

climate resilient development.

4 Nature-based solutions for enhancing resilience

Nature-based solutions can play an important role in reducing the impact of natural disasters (United Nations World Water Development Report, 2018). Ecosystem degradation is the major cause of increasing water-related risks and disasters such as floods and droughts, as a result of climate change, resulting in immense human and economic losses. Green infrastructure and the natural ecosystems in the urban and peri-urban areas surrounding the cities perform significant risk reduction functions by providing buffering capacity to the cities towards strengthening their climate resilience capacities. Combining green and grey infrastructure approaches can lead to cost savings and greatly improve overall risk reduction. This session will deliberate on the mechanisms to upscale nature-based solutions to achieve the agenda for sustainable and resilient development.

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5 Reaching the unreached: Provisioning of resilient basic services

For those who live in slums in the cities, the daily challenges of accessing safe drinking water, proper sanitation facilities, transport services to commute to and from work, regular solid waste collection, and health and education services can be enormous. These challenges are increasingly exacerbated by the impacts of climate change and natural hazards. Residents, especially the poor, are increasingly exposed to the impacts of landslides, sea level rise, flooding and other hazards, increasing risks in already vulnerable communities and impacting health and the spread of disease, livelihoods, and the very limited assets of the poor. Besides, the vulnerable migrant population in the cities also suffer from issues of proper identity leading to a range of problems for their children and family.

City governments are the drivers for addressing these risks by ensuring resilient basic services. Local governments play a vital role in financing and managing basic infrastructure and service delivery for all urban residents. The session will deliberate on the mechanisms for the provision of resilient basic services to the urban poor.

Potential ParticipantsThe workshop aims to create an interface between urban planners, city leaders (elected representatives), administrators, researchers, academicians and think tanks, civil society organizations, policy makers, state and national government officials, multilateral agencies, private sector players, development journalists and community to deliberate integration of CCA and DRR for resilient cities, also considering the role of nature-based solutions for urban resilience.

Expected Outcomes• New avenues for urban resilience: research,

cooperation/partnerships, planning, networking and local implementation of solutions

• Advancing urban resilience on nature-based solutions

• Effective governance for resilience- policies, capacities, finances and inclusion of stakeholders

• Workshop proceedings for policy and evidence-based advocacy- advancing successful replication and up-scaling the identified solutions

Key Contact Persons

National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM)Dr Anil K Gupta, Head - Environment and Climatic DRM

E anil.nidm@nic.in

T +91 11 23438297

M +91 9868207006

Dr Sushma Guleria, Assistant Professor - Environment and Climatic DRM

E sushma.nidm@nic.in

T +91 11 23438292

M +91 9891058701

Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (BSDMA)Mr Ajit Kumar Samaiyar, Senior Advisor - Environment and Climate Change

E ajitsamaiyar@bsdma.org

T +91 612 2522032

M +91 9431453768

Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (GEAG)Ms Nivedita Mani, Coordinator

E geagdelhi@geagindia.org

T +91 11 41667754

M +91 9818037010

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