How climate-resilient urban development can address environmental and social concerns
Can urban development be understood simply in terms of investment, smart cities, and flyovers? Why is climate-resilient urban development important for India’s economy? Can it help address the environmental and social concerns arising from rapid, uneven urbanisation?
School children and residents wade through waterlogged streets at the Sangam Vihar after heavy showers in the capital on Monday. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal) — Ritwika Patgiri
Every year, as the monsoon hits Indian cities, the urban landscape is affected by widespread disruption, waterlogging, flooding, and traffic jams. Recent rains in Delhi have resulted in large amounts of water accumulating faster than the city’s drainage network can manage.
In Guwahati, a city heavily affected by flooding even after short spells of rain, concerns over waterlogging are increasingly shaping the real estate market. The paradox of frequent flash floods in Bengaluru, alongside depleting groundwater reserves, reflects major failures of urban design and fragmented governance. These cases reveal the environmental dimensions of urban infrastructure, design, and planning.
India's Cities Are Drowning — And They're Also Its Growth Engine
Urban planning and environmental challenges
Fast-paced growth in urban areas of India is also accompanied by various issues of urban crises, including inadequate infrastructure, weak urban planning, informality, and social divisions. Professor Ananya Roy has argued that India’s urban planning regime itself is an “informalised” entity in her article, Why India Cannot Plan Its Cities: Informality, Insurgence and the Idiom of Urbanisation (2009).
This suggests that urban planning often operates through selective deregulation, legal ambiguity, uneven enforcement, and exceptions. Such practices are seen as giving the state flexibility over land and other resources while simultaneously producing unequal patterns of urban development. This framework may be useful in understanding how such planning processes can contribute to serious environmental consequences.
Bengaluru is seen as a particularly striking example. Experts argue that unabated urbanisation, deforestation and the loss of green cover, encroachment on lakes and drains, and inadequate attention to the conservation and regulation of floodplains of water bodies have increased the threat of floods.
Once known as the “City of Lakes”, Bengaluru experienced a significant decline in its lakes. The unchecked urbanisation that contributed to the decline in lakes has been a critical factor behind the growing vulnerability of the city to floods.
Examples of “living with water” resilient strategies
These challenges have become more urgent, with the impact of climate change becoming undeniable. Monsoon variability has also increased in recent decades, along with a rise in extreme rainfall events. As of 2020, around 35.1 million people were exposed to floods globally, compared with 28.1 million in 1970. As a result, cities have been forced to adopt climate-resilient strategies.
The case of Rotterdam in the Netherlands merits a mention here. With over 80% of the city below sea level, flooding has been a major challenge for it. However, Rotterdam built the Benthemplein Water Square to capture floodwater from the surrounding area and then gently drain it away. The water squares are public spaces that also function as drainage infrastructure to collect and store water during periods of intense rainfall.
Such “living with water” resilient strategies are also witnessed in cities like Copenhagen in Denmark and Hamburg in Germany. In the US, coastal cities like New York and New Orleans have also adopted flood-resilient strategies.
How urban infrastructure slows India’s growth story
According to the Economic Survey of India 2026, urban infrastructure like housing, mobility, sanitation, and waste management are major factors in slowing India’s growth story. The Survey notes that “India’s cities are not merely places of residence but function as critical economic infrastructure.
“Density and proximity generate agglomeration economies that raise productivity, deepen labour markets, and enable innovation. The economic role of cities is therefore central to India’s growth trajectory.”
According to an estimate by the World Bank, India’s urban spaces will accommodate 600 million people by 2036 or 40% of the country’s population, compared with 31% in 2011. These urban areas are also estimated to contribute 70-75% of the GDP by 2030, up from 62-63% in 2009-10.
Gig economy and the changing face of urban mobility
Further, new forms of work with the emergence of the gig economy have also transformed the ways in which urban development and infrastructure are understood. This is particularly visible in public transportation and mobility.
Data show that national highway expansion has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.54% between 2009 and 2019. In the same timeframe, the number of registered vehicles has grown from 114.95 million to 295.8 million at a CAGR of 9.91%.
However, the growth of public transport vehicles like buses shows a downward trend. In 2011, two-wheelers and cars, jeeps, and taxis formed 85.4% of the total vehicle population, while buses formed 1.1%. In 2020, the share of two-wheelers and cars, jeeps, and taxis increased to 87.97%, while the share of buses declined to 0.67%.
The case of Delhi is also interesting in understanding urban transportation in India. According to data by the Planning Department, about 94% of registered vehicles in the city are privately owned, while 3% of the vehicles comprise auto-rickshaws, taxis, buses, and other passenger vehicles as of 2018.
How urban challenges are intensified for poor, women
The growing reliance on private vehicles indicates that public transport couldn’t keep pace with the rapid urbanisation and the growing demand for affordable and accessible transportation. This affects the urban poor, particularly women, disproportionately.
Subsidised public bus fares often constitute a significant burden for the poor, particularly in smaller cities. Limited access to affordable public transportation also affects women’s mobility, with some of them walking to work.
Data from the World Bank show that 45% of women in India walk to work, compared with 27% of men. While private vehicles often provide greater mobility for men, women often rely on safe and affordable public transportation.
Climate change has further exacerbated these urban challenges. For instance, extreme events like heatwaves and floods can directly affect the livelihoods of gig workers, who already remain vulnerable to lack of safe and clean drinking water and sanitation facilities in the absence of permanent workplaces.
How climate risks increase vulnerabilities of informal workers
Informal settlements and workers face similar vulnerabilities. Urban slums struggle with inadequate access to clean drinking water, sanitation facilities, and proper housing. Women in such informal settlements are more likely to spend a disproportionate amount of time collecting water.
The vulnerability extends to other informal workers like domestic workers, street vendors, and construction workers. Research shows that slum dwellers are 32% more likely to settle in floodplains than people with adequate housing.
Further, the share of slum dwellers is very high in flood-prone areas. In cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata, the urban informal workers remain more likely to be displaced in times of floods and more prone to heat waves.
Towards climate-resilient urban development
Hence, urban development cannot be understood simply in terms of investment, smart cities, and flyovers. The expansion of India’s urban infrastructure has been uneven and not inclusive. A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs has recommended the constitution of a High-Level Expert Committee to assess urban infrastructure, financing, governance reforms, and capacity-building imperatives till 2047. Due attention has also been given to waste management and sanitation measures.
Building climate-resilient cities is also important for India’s economy, which is increasingly focused on urban growth, the gig economy, and persisting informality. According to the Real-time Most Polluted Cities in the World 2026 rankings, 21 out of the 25 most polluted cities are located in India. Therefore, climate-resilient urban development needs to be prioritised in policymaking, with required attention paid to green cover, ground water level, and flood-resilient strategies.
Existing initiatives, like housing for all and promotion of sanitation, contribute to reducing vulnerabilities to climate-related events. However, in terms of infrastructure, development, and planning, Indian cities have a long way to go. While roads and flyovers are important, development has to take into account the cost of environmental damage.
Post read questions
1. India’s urbanisation has been accompanied by a growing mismatch between the pace of urban growth and the capacity of urban infrastructure. Examine.
2. How do the loss of wetlands, urban lakes and green cover increase the vulnerability of Indian cities to climate-related disasters? Illustrate with suitable examples.
3. What lessons can Indian cities learn from international approaches to ‘living with water’ in addressing urban flood risks?
4. How do heatwaves and urban floods disproportionately affect gig workers, street vendors, construction workers and other informal workers? Suggest measures to strengthen their climate resilience.
5. Can climate-resilient urbanisation simultaneously promote economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability in India? Discuss.
(Ritwika Patgiri is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Economics, South Asian University.)
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