Urban Liveability and Resilience Challenges

The discussion around India's major cities—Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai—often overlooks the differences in the security they offer their residents during extreme weather events. This discrepancy highlights a broader issue in defining "modern" urban life, as recent floods in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines demonstrate.

Global Urban Indices

• UN-Habitat City Prosperity Index: Considers productivity, infrastructure, quality of life, equity, environmental sustainability, and urban governance.
• Global Liveability Index: Scores cities based on stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education, and infrastructure.
• City Resilience Index: Evaluates cities on resilience to shocks, including infrastructure, environment, health, and well-being.

These indices acknowledge various factors important to urban welfare but fail to provide a coherent measure of a "developed" life in an era of climate extremes.

Recent Flood Events

• Sri Lanka: Cyclone Ditwah caused flooding and landslides, killing over 400 and displacing thousands.
• Indonesia: Cyclonic storms led to floods and landslides, heavily affecting Sumatra.
• Thailand: Southern regions, including Hat Yai, experienced historic rainfall and significant flooding.
• Philippines: Typhoon Kalmaegi resulted in deaths and displacement in the Visayas region.

Flaws in Urban Indices

• Exclusion of secondary cities that absorb risks from rapid urbanization and climate change.
• Indicies often focus on capital regions and do not account for the infrastructure capabilities against modern environmental challenges.
• Public officials prioritize visible projects like metro lines over critical infrastructure maintenance, affecting risk management.
• City-wide averages in indices misprice risk and shift it to vulnerable populations.

Implications for Urban Planning

• Investment decisions are influenced by indices, often overlooking essential infrastructure like drainage and housing stability.
• International aid prioritizes cities with existing planning capabilities, sidelining those needing urgent adaptation support.
• Media and professionals adopt global standards, embedding biases into urban development practices.

This analysis underscores the importance of broadening the criteria for assessing urban life to include resilience against climate extremes.