Building Smarter Cities with resilient infrastructure

National Institute of Disaster Management, in association with AIILSG, Foundation EMDA Southasia and Urban Update, organised the second edition of the training Workshop on “Building Municipalities and Citizen Awareness for Resilient India” on Friday, January 22. Anil Sinha, Former Vice-Chairman, Bihar State Disaster Management Authority; Dr A Sankarankutty Nair, Emeritus Scientist and Programme Director, Centre for Environment and Development; and Amit Prothi, Director, Green Infrastructure Solutions, Global Resilient Cities Network (Singapore), were part of the Workshop’s panel.

Disaster management is a growing challenge owing to the frequent disasters which have hit the health of the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. Disaster mitigation is needed to be incorporated in the public policies of the country and should drive infrastructure development in urban regions of the country. Urban India bears the major brunt of the burden of disaster in India and hence needs urgent attention for building disaster
resilient cities.
Mohanna Manna, Young Professional, NIDM, started the workshop by stating the importance of mitigating disaster risk as India has ranked third in the list of countries recording highest number of natural disasters. The risk is higher in the urban and semi-urban areas due to lack of disaster-proof infrastructure, low-level of planning and high
population density.
Anil Sinha, the first speaker for the Workshop, carried the discussion forward by stating the present situation of the country in handling the disaster risk due to lack of resources and a well-defined methodology. He added that the lack of empowerment and institutional reforms has been at the helm of the problems. Disasters have direct consequences on urban areas and bring various challenges with them. He added that natural disasters are not ‘natural’ in its character as they are derived from the carelessness of people where ‘overlooked’ hazards convert
into disasters.
He said that people are more or less responsible for all the recent occurrences of urban flooding in various parts of the country due to continuation of operation of unregulated construction sites. Definition of disaster talks about the activities which are averse to the environment, whether natural or man-made. Accidents are not seen as a part of disaster in India which is not good as the frequency of road accidents in the country is considerable to the extent that every fourth accident on the road is fatal. He also addressed the frequent man-made disasters in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic, which have been a point of concern for experts. He said, “Disasters due to fire have been the most neglected form of human disasters even when most of states in India have a separate fire act.” He also talked about the institutional structure which has been provided in the DMA, including that at central, state and local level, and said that yet, a dedicated district disaster management plan is not in place in many places. He recommended the setting up of a Municipal Disaster Management Authority with executional powers and jurisdiction to control the disasters with a state-of-the-art database and technology. He also raised the question about the preparedness of Delhi to handle a disaster with a risk of around 10,000 causalities.

He further discussed about the structures of municipal bodies and their architecture which were basically built for the purpose of revenue collection and drainage, among others, but now their scope has increased with the introduction of SDGs, the Sendai Framework, etc. He raised the question about the present situation of these local bodies considering the enlarged scope of these bodies. Talking about Smart Cities, he said that these cities should also be disaster resilient, in addition to them being smart.
Dr A S Nair continued the discussion by talking about the technological methodology that can be used for assessing and mitigating the effects of a disaster. He said that there are various vulnerabilities which aid disaster risk in India such as increasing population, rapid urbanisation, increasing industrialisation, etc. He emphasized on the need to categorise the levels of disasters according to the ability of the local bodies to deal with these disasters. L1 level will deal with the disasters which can be managed at the district level whereas L2 is the level which includes disasters which need the cooperation of state governments. Lastly, L3 level disasters will include events which are too large to be handled by the state machinery and will require the assistance of the central government.
He also pointed towards spatial planning and said that when a plan is formulated, it must be made sure that it has proper representation. He also talked about the urban dilemma as the majority of disasters are related to such regions due to high rate of migration. The city limits of urban centres has been increasing with time which makes them more and more prone to disasters. “Disaster risk of the cities come due to the carelessness of the urban local government and local bodies. In India, urban areas are overcrowded and faces large scale natural and human induced disasters,” Dr Nair said.
He also talked about the objectives guiding policy formulation, which include the culture of preparedness and prevention by central government keeping it on priority, encouraging mitigation based on state-of-the-art technology and mainstreaming disaster mitigation in the developmental process. He advised the ULBs to accept the methodology of 4Rs which includes Rescue, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.
Dr Nair emphasized on the need of capacity building for elected representatives and other officials of local bodies. He said, “Disaster management is a citizen’s problem and a certain amount of awareness is important to fight these incidents. LSGs are equally responsible for providing required help but where were the LSGs when the country was hit by various disasters in 2020?” He also added that preparation of the disaster management plan should be coordinated with the usage of GIS and GPS mapping, and satellite data.
Dr Amit Prothi commented on policy interventions and compliances at local level by saying that three major trends in the 21st century that will add to the occurrence of disasters will be urbanisation, globalisation and climate change. He added that the COVID-19 pandemic also spread to this level only due to globalization as it infected different parts of the world due to continuous travel and contact of people. He addressed the lack of people appointed as Chief Resilience Officers in the administrative structure of different states. These officers are responsible for integrating the risk and resilience strategies in the decisions of the city governments.
Like all the other speakers, Dr Amit also addressed the issue of capacity building, including knowledge regarding disaster and lesser emphasis on peer to peer study. He shared various examples including that of New York where a GIS map showed the trajectory of a flood that hit the city in the year 1992. A flood with a strikingly similar trajectory hit the city in the year 2016, putting a lot more people and infrastructure at risk. He said, “We have to link the points from the earlier disasters to understand the incidents and act accordingly without creating high risk in such geographical areas.” He said that spatial decisions have to be made considering risk factors according to the geography of the area. He added, “That does not mean that living in the area of risk will make you vulnerable. Rather the decision has to be taken regarding the regional risks and we have to avoid the factors which may lead to such risks and we should have an understanding about this.”
He concluded by sharing the innovative example of restoring water sources such as constructing temple tanks. He also cited the example of Rotterdam which has performed wonderfully in the area of water management even when the region is below sea level. Surat is also working to understand the methodology of their management and to develop a structure to manage water effectively.