26 August 2021 at 17.00-18.30 (India time)

This Roundtable brought together a panel of experts and key stakeholders to discuss the risks faced by India’s cities in the context of climate change and other uncertainties, and how to respond to them.

The main objective of this Roundtable was to work with the participants to co-create a better understanding of future risks to India’s coastal cities.

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The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) underscores the perils of inadequate infrastructure in coastal metropolises. AR6 highlights the compounded climate extremes that would result in urbanised coastal landscapes facing heavy precipitation in conjunction with “extreme sea level events.”

Severe sea-level events that previously occurred once in a century, are now likely to occur on an annual basis. In Mumbai, cascading factors such as extreme rainfall, mass-urbanisation, an impermeable concretised landscape, and sea-level rise will increase the severity of flooding, impacting the city’s most vulnerable populaces and the ecosystem services that they depend upon.

The TAPESTRY project explores how transformation may arise ‘from below’ in marginal environments with high levels of uncertainty. We look at transformative alliances between actors (local communities, NGOs, scientists, and state agencies) that seek socially just, and ecologically sound alternatives based on local people’s plural understandings of what transformation entails. These ‘patches’ of transformation have the potential to grow, influence, and merge with others.

The main objective of this Roundtable is to work with the participants to co-create a better understanding of future risks to India’s coastal cities.

Panel:
Chandni Singh, IIHS Bangalore
Hitesh Vaidya, National Institute of Urban Affairs
Mahua Mukherjee, IIT Roorkee
Mihir Bhatt, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute
Sridhar Balasubramanian, IIT Bombay
S. Janakarajan, MIDS, Chennai
NC Narayanan, IIT Bombay
Krishna Achuta Rao, IIT Delhi

Stakeholders:

Mami Mizutori, Head UNDRR
E. Ravendiran (IAS), Current GST Commissioner, Former Secretary, MPCB
Lahuraj Mali (IAS), Director, Disaster Management, Government of Maharashtra
Naman Gupta, State Project Manager, UNDP India
Sunil Panchbhai, Secretary, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, India
Aarti Soni, Scientist Mumbai Zonal Centre, CSIR NEERI

See also

21 August 2021: Panel event – ‘Through the Eyes of the Kolis – A Reflection on Mumbai’s Past, Present and Future’

Exhibition: Through the Eyes of the Kolis

Exhibition: On Extraction and Debilitating Livelihoods

This roundtable is one of a series of events convened by the TAPESTRY project.