Cities must preserve natural infra to survive climate change crisis

Climate change is real and cities have a big role to play in surviving and addressing this crisis.

Last week, Gurugram was engulfed by a massive dust storm. Winds blowing at 40-50 kmph covered the city with a layer of sand. If you think this was freakish, think again because around the same time Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh were seeing temperatures around the 50°C-mark while Jammu & Kashmir was witnessing snowfall and Mumbai was facing torrential rains. All this happened in the same week. Climate change is real and cities have a big role to play in surviving and addressing this crisis.

Last week, Gurugram was engulfed by a massive dust storm.(Pardeep Pandit/HT Photo (Representational image))

Cities may currently occupy less than 2% of our planet’s surface but house more than half of the human population. They use 75% of the resources to create 70% of global GDP, but also emit the same amount of carbon. However, urbanisation is not over. In fact, it is growing and will continue to grow. The planet’s urban population is expected to rise to two-thirds by 2050. Therefore, how we respond to the challenge of urbanisation will be critical to the future of our planet.

Since the conversation around urban development revolves around infrastructure, let me highlight three infrastructure choices that cities can make to avoid a climate crisis.

Preserve Natural infra

Forests, water bodies and open spaces, etc are now being recognised as ‘natural infrastructure’. They conserve and enhance the ecosystem, which provides immense benefit to the human population. The city of Philadelphia, back in the 19th century, acquired as much as 9,000 acres of natural area to address the issue of water supply. To address the issue of sewers overflow during storms, the city is now looking at mass tree plantation, permeable roads and green roofs to absorb water and reduce surface run-off. Why? That’s because it would cost the city anywhere between ₹1.5 lakh crore to ₹3 lakh crore less than addressing the issue of urban flooding through the conventional approach—building more sewer lines.

A similar approach can also be adopted in Gurugram by preserving the Aravallis. Therefore, projects like the road through the Aravalli Biodiversity Park should not only be stopped and scrapped, but the government should actively invest in restoring degraded forest land, among other ‘natural infrastructure’.

Integrate Grey infra

Grey Infrastructure is referred to the traditional manmade infrastructure such as roads, water supply systems, drainage, etc. Most of the time, such infrastructure is developed without taking into account the natural infrastructure provisions. This not only results in excessive cost, but also out of context projects. The best results would come when grey infrastructure is integrated with green or natural infrastructure.

For example, in Vietnam, the government is now looking to develop mangroves as the first line of defense against sea surges and typhoons. Mangroves in combination with manmade sea dikes provide not only the best possible solution to a diminishing coastline, but it’s also much cheaper. In Gurugram roads are built by clearing the entire right of way, i.e., cutting trees to accommodate cars. However, the street can also be developed by accommodating trees. This will not only help the environment but also provide mobility to non-motorised road users.

Develop Resilient infra

Climate change is real, and so is its impact. Therefore, it is important that the infrastructure is climate-resilient. It should be able to safeguard itself and the region from the current and future repercussions of changing climatic conditions.

For example, the northwest English city of Lancaster has come up with a new building code which requires all the new single-family houses to include a 1-kilowatt solar power generation system. In addition, the city has improved its permit process so residents can easily obtain the licence required to add a solar panel to their existing homes.

In Gurugram, even a slight downpour causes the failure of traffic signals. But the city can overcome this by investing in all-weather solar signals. Yes, they will be costly, but their overall environmental and economic impact is also very high. Similarly, innovations such as porous bitumen should also be tested, especially in parking areas.

There is growing evidence from climate change advocates that the change in atmospheric conditions have and will continue to result in extreme weather events. Therefore, it is important for cities to plan resilient infrastructure and conserve their local environment.

We need to realise that we are living in a world where the unexpected will happen and extreme weather condition will reoccur. Therefore, cities should be ready on two counts—planning and preparation. It’s time to look at urbanisation beyond the parameters of economics, employment or politics; building cities should be seen as an opportunity to address the climate crisis.

This is where cities like Gurugram are hugely important because the bulk of the infrastructure is yet to be built. Therefore, if our governments can make the right choices we can surely avoid getting ‘locked in’. We may like it or not, but the battle for climate change will be won or lost in cities.

@amitbhatt4u (Amit Bhatt is the director- integrated transport, WRI India