'Poor, marginalised bear brunt of climate hazards'

THE REPORT RECOMMENDS A SOCIAL ANALYSIS BY MAPPING PRIMARY, SECONDARY AND OPEN-SOURCE GOVT DATA AND CONSULTING ALL STAKEHOLDERS

- Jayashree Nandi

A new tool to assess climate hazard and vulnerability that takes into account the socioeconomic and political impact on people in Indian cities has found that it is the poor and marginalized that bear the brunt, according to a new report to be released on Monday.

"We have been trying to understand how to downscale vulnerability assessment to communities," said Lubaina Rangwala, lead author of the report titled "Climate Resilient Cities: Assessing differential vulnerability to climate hazards in urban India".

"For example, we know Mumbai faces coastal risk because of sea level rise, but many assessments assume the entire coast will be vulnerable," Rangwala said. "However, the impact on the Koli community will be very different compared to big real estate on the coast."

Landslide preparedness workshops were conducted in Mumbai after an assessment of landslide-prone locations and slum settlements in the city showed that over 70% of Mumbai's landslide-prone areas fall within informal or slum settlements, the report said.