Climate Change and Urbanisation: Building Resilience in the Urban Water Sector – A Case Study of Indore, India, 2011.
Pacific Institute
This report is the outcome of research in Indore carried out by the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET) and the Pacific Institute, supported by TARU, over a period of three years. The purpose of this research was to understand the complex dynamics of the water sector, to investigate the needs of urban water managers and ultimately to suggest strategies and tools that can help these managers meet ever growing needs in the face of climate change and increasing water insecurity.
Over three years, we conducted literature reviews, downscaled climate models for Indore, performed a vulnerability analysis and conducted intensive stakeholder engagement through one-on-one discussions, focus group disscusions (with the formal sector, private providers and households) and Shared Learning Dialogues (where all sectors were brought together). We also conducted a survey of households and private water vendors to understand these two sectors in greater depth. The project team then brought together the research findings to suggest a set of resilience strategies and process tools that could assist managers in better managing and planning future water supply.
The four-step resilience planning process that we conducted in Indore can serve as a model for other communities integrating climate impacts into planning. The steps are (1) scoping to identify emerging problems; (2) synthesis and localised analysis of climate information; (3) vulnerability assessment focusing on the systems, the likely stresses on those systems due to climate and other change processes and the highly differentiated groups that depend on these systems; and (4) identification of potential strategies for building resilience.
