Time to build climate-resilient cities: experts

With several major Indian cities often being hit by natural disasters like cyclones, floods and cloudbursts, experts feel it is time India created a national policy structure to build sustainable, climate resilient smart cities. In a World Sustainable Development Summit held in Mumbai, experts focused on the implications of climate change for coastal cities.

In the wake of Smart Cities Mission and AMRUT, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) along with the World Trade Centre organised the Mumbai regional dialogue, a run up to the World Sustainable Development Summit 2016 that carries a theme — Beyond 2015: People, Planet and Progress.

India’s coastal areas hold more than 2,661 towns and 3,827 villages in which over 560 million people (44 per cent) of the population live in coastal states, union and island territories. This number is likely to go up following massive urbanisation trends.

“The images of floods in Chennai and Gurgaon pose a major challenge for sustainability. The way civil society responded was amazing. But the issue is, can we trigger such a response in an organised way ” asked Jayant Banthia, former chief secretary of Maharashtra.

“Smartness is not about technology, but is felt in people,” added G.S. Gill, distinguished TERI fellow and former MD, Cidco. “The resilience of coastal cities lies in taming the regional irregularities,” said Mr Gill.