ACCCRN – City Vulnerability Assessment Report 2
business leaders, privateindustry sector, philanthropic organizations and the media. Climate scientists and development professionals are now sure that the physical effects of climate
change and their consequences will be seen sooner than we anticipated few years ago. However the manifestations, nature and intensity remain uncertain. Pushing for action
especially in an urban environment seeks establishing networks for learning and engagement. Actions and opportunities need to be taken at several levels and across sectors, much before
the range of threats and impacts unfold leaving behind no option to figure out. Partnership development by engaging new and more stakeholders is the key to realize the perception of
response period, address wide range of issuesconcerns and take informed decisions. The city of Indore and Surat has been successful to broaden the conversation of climate change by
engaging a broad range of representatives of the cities leading to formation of new alliances around the issues.
In order to develop adaptation strategyplan for the city, the analysis framework for both the cities suggested detailed vulnerability assessment. This assessment along with sector studies
shall guide the adaptation strategy framework for the City of Indore and Surat. The activities were scheduled in three phases over a time frame of one year Nov 2008 – Nov 2009. The
over arching framework for vulnerability studies was laid through a set of consultation meetings with communitiesstakeholders followed by series of field visits. The assessment
mainly identifies current vulnerabilities and capacities through a unique method of integrationcombination of tool sets. The tool set and methods comprise a set of inter-related
activities of literature review, collection of secondary data, primary surveys and semi- structured interviews of key informants, Infrastructure Services Deficiency Analysis ISDA,
Vulnerability and Capacity Index, Community-Resources-Government-Markets CRGM and series of set of Shared Learning Dialogues SLD iterative meetings with different groups.
This report is mainly divided into four sections: Introduction chapter covers the urban scenario of India, climate change risks in the Indian context, vulnerability issues in urban
areas and introduction to the Vulnerability Assessment Methodology. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 presents an insight to the city and its functions, hydro meteorological risks, capacity and
vulnerability assessment results and adaptation leverage points. Chapter 4 draws in conclusion and way forward.
2 INDIAN URBAN CONTEXT
2.1 Urban growth
The level of urbanisation in India was 27.78 per cent in 2001285 million, which was much lower than the average level of urbanisation in developing countries.
Even though in percentage terms the urban growth in 1991-2001 decade has been somewhat subdued at only
31 percent, more than 70 million persons were added to urban population. Thirty five million plus cities accounted for nearly one third of the urban population. The growth during 1991-
2001 has been mostly concentrated in million plus cities with growth rate more than the national urban growth average with cities like Surat growing at more than 60 while Indore
growing at more than 40 . Urban growth has been adding pressure on resources and infrastructure, which is mostly old and was designed for much lower population and resource
and infrastructure shortages are causing major bottlenecks to growth. There is a lag, often running to decades, between the demand increase and infrastructure building to meet those
demands. Anticipatory planning is severely constrained by shortfall in finance as well as constraints in planning process it self. With the result, even large programmes and funds like
JNNURM can only meet part of the past demands.
ACCCRN – City Vulnerability Assessment Report 3
The existing infrastructure available in the cities unable to cope with the existing population pressure is stretched even more now with the expansion of the city limit areas. The growth of
industries and of late the service sector in the country have put an immense pressure on the local bodies to expand the city limits. Surat is one of the best examples having expanded the
city limits areas in 2006 from 112 Sq.km to 326 Sq.km. In case of the strategic metropolis, which are now potentially full to their capacity, are following up with the expansion of the
city limits but under separate administrative units; more prominent examples being National Capital Region NCR in case of Delhi and Navi Mumbai in case of Mumbai. The expanded
city limits too have to depend on the core of the city to meet the basic infrastructure demands. Moreover the human resource for these industries also comes from the core city area
followed by the gradual shifting towards the periphery as the infrastructure needs are catered to e.g. middle income population, and sometimes more abruptly e.g. low incomemigrant
population. Analysis of the older metropolitan cities and the new metropolitan cities in the country reveals that the core population is actually decreasing in the older ones except
Bangalore while in the newer ones it is the core which is growing in density Bhagat, 2005
2.2
Resource Context - Urban Metabolism dependence on external resources
Water is indispensable ‘stuff’ for maintaining the metabolism, not only of our human bodies, but also of the wider social fabric. The very sustainability of cities and the practices of
everyday life that constitute ‘the urban’ are predicated upon and conditioned by the supply, circulation, and elimination of water.
Erik Swyngedouw The concept of an urban metabolism provides a means of understanding the sustainable
development of cities by drawing analogy with the metabolic processes of organisms. The parallels are strong: “Cities transform raw materials, fuel, and water into the built
environment, human biomass and waste” Decker et al. 2000. The metabolism of an urban area is an interconnection of space, urban infrastructure and material inflows which are
dependent on external resources – mainly energy and water. Urban metabolism can be defined as “the sum total of the technical and socio-economic processes that occur in cities,
resulting in growth, production of energy, and elimination of waste” Kennedy et al. 2007. The metabolism of an ecosystem involving the production, via photosynthesis, and
consumption, by respiration, of organic matter is often expressed by ecologists in terms of energy. A few studies of urban metabolism have focused on quantifying the embodied energy
in cities, while others have more broadly included fluxes of nutrients and materials, and the urban hydrologic cycle Kennedy, 2007
2.3 Constraints on water supplies and natural resources
