COMMENTARY

Addressing the Emergent

Disaster Riskscape
in Urban India
Jyotiraj Patra, Komal Kantariya

Recent natural disasters in India

highlight the extent to which
urban systems, associated
structures, and populations are at
greater risk. Cyclone Hudhud and
the floods in Srinagar are clear
indications of an emergent
disaster riskscape that is taking
shape in urban India. This article
highlights the opportunities
across five interlinked domains of
institutions, innovation,
investment, infrastructure and
information to address
this situation.

Views expressed are personal.

Jyotiraj Patra (jyotirajpatra@gmail.com) is
with the International Development
Research Centre, Canada and
Komal Kantariya (komal.kantariya@gmail.
com) is with the United Nations Development
Programme, India.

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isasters derail development processes. Communities and economies very often find it difficult to
cope with and recover from such sudden
shocks. And this is ever more intense and
prolonged in an urban context where
drivers of disaster vulnerability as well
capacities to adapt are diverse and
differential. While hydro-meteorological
hazards, such as cyclones, storms, and
extreme rainfall events, are likely to
become more frequent and intense
because of a changing climate, there has
also been a significant increase in the
level of exposure of our urban soci0ecological systems. The growing body of
scientific evidence, such as the Working
Group II contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2014),
not only points to a changing pattern
of such hydro-meteorological hazards
but also highlights the multiple ways
through which development choices and
planning have increased exposure and
given rise to a new risk regime in our cities and societies.
Disaster risk in urban settings is quite
distinct and is influenced by the processes of urbanisation and other underlying socio-economic and political factors.
Disaster-induced loss and damage in
such situations are significantly high.
The total economic loss in the Jammu
and Kashmir floods has been estimated to
the tune of Rs 1.0 trillion ($16 billion)
and insurance payouts of more than
Rs 9.0 billion ($150 million) (Aon 2014).
These estimates pertain to loss and damages that have been quantified and monetised and do not include the non-economic loss and damage such as erosion
of culture, threat to identity, disruptions
of social cohesion, decline in ecosystem
services and trauma associated with
displacement.
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While urbanisation offers tremendous

economic opportunities and drives a
nations growth, natural disasters and
climate extremes have an impact on
these processes and threaten these
development gains in multiple ways. A
vulnerability analysis of Indias 20 cities
revealed that many of them are prone to
multiple hazards (Parikh, Jindal and
Sandal 2013). Urban development investments and other new initiatives need to
be better informed about these risks. Disaster risks are complex and dynamic.
Disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts in
our cities need to understand these challenges, as well as the opportunities.
There is also an opportunity to move
away from a sectoral approach to DRR
towards an iterative process of learning
and doing things at various levels.
Post-disaster discussions often focus
on the city development plans (CDPs)
and city disaster management plans
(CDMPs), wherever available, and point
to the critical issue of inadequate implementation of safety measures such as
building codes or protection of natural
waterbodies or drainage channels. But
subsequent priorities of reconstruction
and recovery dominate the discussions
where scopes to relook at these plans to
avoid future risk creation and accumulation are very limited.
Indias disaster relief expenses have
gone from $1.1 billion in 2009 to more
than $1.4 billion in 2013 and DRR investments over these periods went up from
$0.5 billion to $0.6 billion (Development
Initiative 2014).
Window of Opportunities
Recent natural disasters and the extent
of loss and damage in our cities needs to
be understood in the present context
where the new government plans to build
100 smart cities across India. These cities
will be built on the four pillars of social,
physical, institutional and economic infrastructures. Sustainability and quality of life
are central to this design (MoUD 2014a).
Smart governance, by breaking down
departmental silos through greater coordination and effective use of information
and communication technology (ICT)
tools, is at the heart of the proposed institutional infrastructure. Although disaster
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(on page 32) is placed within physical infrastructure, its linkages to other infrastructures have been well established in
this design plan. Similarly the Ministry
of Urban Developments (MoUD) urban
and regional development plans formulation and implementation guidelines
(2014) underscore the need for city-level
disaster management plans and other
disaster proofing initiatives (MoUD 2014b).
This dual opportunity of a series of
new initiatives of the government in
India and the ongoing post-disaster reconstruction provides a window of opportunities to further strengthen our
capacities to address the emergent disaster riskscape in a more efficient, inclusive and effective manner. It is against
this background, we suggest five interlinked elements of institutions, investments, innovation, information and infrastructure as key to the design and development of an improved urban disaster risk governance framework.
(a) Institutions: Institutions play a critical role in shaping actions and decisions
at various levels of governance. Various
urban development policies, legislations,
schemes and missions of the Government
of India provide the larger institutional
architecture to govern and manage our
cities. While these overarching policy
provisions look into a wide spectrum of
issues, from urban renewal to local selfgovernment, a space for further institutional renewal and reconfiguration has
emerged because of changing economic
priorities, emerging development needs
and shifting environmental changes.
This space is around rethinking and
learning about the new trajectories of
urban development which is inclusive,
low-carbon and resilient. Opportunities
to relook at the institutional practices,
including decision-making, which could
be reworked to reduce the level of exposure of the development investments
and gains in the city are immense. It is
also about strengthening the capacities
of communities, mostly the urban poor,
and the governance systems to better
anticipate, prepare for and recover from
such disasters.
Disaster management is a state subject
and this is an opportunity to further
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december 27, 2014

strengthen the state disaster management

authorities (SDMAs) and the district disaster management authorities (DDMAs) as
enshrined in the Disaster Management
Act (2005). Enhancing the capacity of
these authorities and the associated systems for better disaster preparedness
and risk reduction planning is essential
as they play a critical role at the local
level. There is a growing body of evidence
on the effectiveness of investments in
and support for institutions and actors at
the sub-national and city levels (Anton
et al 2014). Because of their proximity to
the challenges faced by the city and its
citizens, these institutions and actors
are well-positioned to design and develop context-specific measures and mobilise adequate resources, both financial
and human. The recently released zero
draft of the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction has identified the
leadership and empowerment of local
authorities and communities as one of
the key guiding principles. The Government of Indias decision to revamp and
restructure the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is one such
timely initiative (Yadav 2014), which could
encourage further decentralisation of
decision-making and resources to the
state, municipality and district levels.
Increased engagement of and contribution from non-traditional partners at the
city level such as donors, trans-national
corporations, scientific and research institutes and citizen groups could also be
mobilised at the local level.
Disaster affects all sectors; from power
supply to water and sanitation to health
infrastructure. DRR planning provides an
additional opportunity to multi-sectoral
and interdepartmental coordination,
monitoring and learning. A case in point
is the Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan
(2014), prepared under the leadership of
the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation
(AMC), for reducing heat-related risks at
the city and ward levels.
(b) Innovation: Technology plays a big
role in supporting every other aspect of
city disaster management plan and all
spheres of decision-making associated
with it. Simple and innovative technologies such as mobile apps and ICT-enabled
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platforms for early warnings build the

capacities of authorities and citizens for
better disaster preparedness. Such innovation could also be at the level of infrastructure design, construction, operation
and maintenance in a city. Power infrastructures are most at risk where cyclones and floods are concerned and as
witnessed in Hudhud and Phailin. According to preliminary estimates Andhra
Pradeshs energy department sustained
a massive loss of more than Rs 1,000
crore in Hudhud (TNN 2014). An innovative and smart power distribution network through underground cabling is on
the anvil.1 State governments and municipal authorities can further support
and mobilise an innovation ecosystem
by providing innovators and entrepreneurs adequate institutional support
and space for city-specific innovative
risk assessment and communication
platforms. Microsofts City Next platform
is one such innovation which provides
real-time information to a diverse set of
stakeholders through cloud computing
and mobile technology. Microsoft India
has already identified more than 40
solution areas across eight city domains
and has started its work on the countrys
first smart IT city in Surat.
(c) Investment: Investments in protective infrastructures, risk transfer instruments such as insurance and other social
protection measures protect lives, livelihoods and vital economic sectors. Financial resources very often play a critical
role in ensuring the up scaling and sustainability of best practices. Planning
Commission estimated an infrastructure
investment of Rs 41 lakh crore during
the Twelfth Plan and this offers a trillion dollar opportunity (Deloitte 2014).
But realising this opportunity requires
significant improvements in the existing
investment environment. India has gone
down by two points, from 23 in 2012 to
25 in 2014 in the Global Infrastructure
Investment Index (ARCADIS 2014). Governments efforts in bringing about a
change through affirmative policy measures and initiatives such as the Make in
India programme, which allows 100%
foreign direct investment (FDI) through
the automatic route for townships and
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COMMENTARY

cities, are likely to attract more global

investments and technological know-how.
Micro, small and medium enterprises
(MSMEs), which also employ a large
chunk of the urban population, are at
greater risk. Most of them do not have
timely access to resources and technological know-how to reduce the level of
exposure in their production systems and
value chains. One such example is the
age-old handloom and handicraft sector, one of the prime economic sectors in
Jammu and Kashmir, which was severely
affected in the recent floods.
Investments to build the resilience
of such MSMEs will help to reduce the
impact of disaster and protect the source
of livelihoods for the large section of
urban population dependent on them.
Risk transfer instruments such as insurance and catastrophic bonds have
emerged as innovative market-linked
mechanisms to enhance the capacities of
communities, businesses and states to
quickly recover during disasters. According to AIR, a global leader in risk
modelling, insured losses in cyclone
Hudhud could be bet ween $100 million
to $400 million (AIR 2014). Taking into
account these losses, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of
India (IRDA) is working towards a catastrophic insurance mechanism, including
micro-insurance for the urban poor, in
the country (ENS 2014). City-level opportunities have also been discussed in detail in the New Climate Economy Report
(The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate 2014). Thus, investment
and innovation opportunities to build
resilient cities are many and emerging.
(d) Infrastructure: The state of infrastructure determines the scale of the impact of the disaster and how effectively
vital infrastructures will bounce back
and resume their services in an emergency. Poor and short-term infrastructure planning which are not riskinformed often exacerbate the vulnerability of a system and increase the level
of exposure and multiplies disaster
losses. Floodings in Kedarnath and
Kashmir and cyclones in Odisha and
Andhra Pradesh have highlighted how
vulnerable some of the vital life-saving
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infrastructures such as roads, telecommunication, health, and electricity distribution are. Post-disaster recovery also
helps us to understand and rectify some
of the weaknesses in these infrastructure systems and to work towards
improving others such as forecast and
warning systems and decision-support
systems. International cooperation, through technology transfer and financial
investments, plays a significant role in
many such infrastructure development.
Japan, one of the world leaders in research and development (R&D) in disaster resilient infrastructure development
and the third largest source of FDI for
India, has come forward to build the
capital city of the Hudhud affected state
of Andhra Pradesh (NDTV 2014). While
investments in physical infrastructures
such as road networks, electricity, telecommunication, water supply, waste
management and healthcare are essential, there is also ample scope for rebuilding the eco-infrastructure such as
the green spaces, natural drainage systems, waterbodies and wetlands, most
of which often gets obliterated and encroached. While these are context specific, economic returns from investments in a combination of eco-infrastructures and physical engineering
structures such as embankments and
dykes are significantly higher. A $36.3
million investment in dredging and restoration combined with construction of
levees on the Barataria Basin Landbridge in Louisiana in 2010 has lowered
the risk of flood damage by $5.3 billion
to $18 billion annually (CPRA 2012).
(e) Information: Availability of, accessibility to, and use of real-time information
is key to decision-making. The information needs of stakeholders and agencies
are diverse. And this is all the more critical given the variabilities and uncertainties, including weather extremes that
pose a significant challenge to decisionmaking in a relatively short span of time.
Decision-makers at the local level require a relatively greater degree of precision in terms of forecasts and prediction.
Second, updated information on trends
in demography, development investments, state of the infrastructures, and
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changing patterns of livelihoods and resource use is essential to undertake

timely and effective disaster preparedness and risk reduction measures. While
science can play a big role in this through
climate modelling and projections, the
role of social sciences is even more important to highlight how perceptions,
culture, gender and other socio-economic and political factors influence risk
in a community or system at a given
point in time. The persistent dichotomy
of information producers versus information users does more harm than
good. And we have witnessed the devastating effects of such dichotomy
which results in divergent views, difference of opinions, confusion and chaos.
Academic institutes, research bodies,
private sector, municipal corporation,
community-based organisations and
other development agencies can work
together to develop and update disaster
risk information database. This would
also enhance ownership of the process
as well as the final products such as
the CDMPs.
Disasters offer window of opportunities for course correction and improved
planning. We hope this opportunity is
not missed and we are able to plan our
cities better in light of the emergent disaster riskscape in India.
References
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