Training on Climate Resilient Cities: An integrated planning and designing approach

The sustainable habitat team conducted an onsite training on “Climate Resilient Cities: An integrated planning and designing approach”. The training was conducted at Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI) from January 31^st to February 3^rd, 2023, and was attended by 26 participants comprising government officials, industry experts, civil societies and academicians.

On the first day of the training, Mr. Rajneesh Sareen started the session by providingan overview of climate change as a big picture to the participants, encouraging them to apprehend the negative repercussions of climatic change on cities in the present and the future. Following this, Ms. Mitashi Singh introduced a variety of initiatives and policy leversin India that involve cities to improve theirability of adaptationand/ordevise mitigative strategies against climatic variations. She talked about the key policy levers of India's Long-Term Low-Carbon Development Strategy and concluded the session with several opportunities to bend the growth trajectory towards climate-sensitive development.The next session by Mr. Sugeet Grover, Dr. Nimish Gupta and Ms. Mitashi Singh combinedly captured the drivers of heat gains, reductions, sources and sinks in an urban area.The session also covered a range of tools and datasets for evaluating each driver's intensity.The day came to a close with Mr. Sugeet Grover delivering a talk on the campus of the Anil Aggarwal Environment Training Institute, explaining how it was meticulously planned, taking into account the site's natural topography, the construction materials, and technologies to mitigate heat gains, thereby minimising the environmental footprint of development.

The second day began with Dr. Nimish Gupta introducing the participants tothe Potential of Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) for urban climate studies. The session comprised an introduction and hands-on session for deriving urban heat centres over cities and detailing the method to capture various drivers of heat.Thereafter, Ms. Mitashi Singh presented the findings of CSE’s case study conducted on-site in Pune, which detailed how various drivers combinedly play a significant role in urban heat gains. The session included a brain-storming session with the participants to understand their perspective on the most significant driver of heat gain. Mr. Rajneesh Sareen then gave severalinstances to illustrate how vulnerability can be evaluated.The lecture encouraged participants to engage in a constructive discussion about how to assess and comprehend vulnerability. The concluding session of the day by Mr. Sugeet Grover explained how passive potentials could be maximized by using district/low carbon cooling systems. The session provided a deeper understanding and addedvalue viaexplanation of several casestudies.

Day three started with Ms. Anannya Das discussing the accessibility of low-income settlements and the challenges low-income groups confront as a result of the expanding infrastructure. The second lecture of the day was delivered by Ms. Moushumi Mohanty and was titled "Electrification of Transport: Planning & Implementation." The presentation gave information on current and upcoming policies pertaining to electric vehicles. Thereafter, an introduction to group exercise was provided to capture the drivers of micro-climatic alterations in urban areas.The participants were divided into groups and were allocated with particular sites in Tijara city andits vicinity.The final session of the day was a group exercise to capture the drivers of micro-climatic variations on the ground. The participants were taken to Tijara city and its nearby locations for collecting in-situ data.

On the last day, Mr. Sugeet Grover spoke on the adequate housing and wisdom to build. The lecture demonstrated evidence of climate change being a key reason for the change in construction materials andtechnologies across Odisha and West Bengal, which has resulted in thermal discomfort. Itprovided a deeper insight intohow thesetechnologies can be adapted to mitigate the negative implications of climate change.Thereafter, Mr. Rajneesh Sareen delivered a lecture on CSE’s analysis to understand accessibility. The training concluded with the participants presenting their findings and inferencesbased on the in-situ data collected, and the knowledge gained during the entirety of the course.The final presentations by the participants resulted in a healthy debate and discussions on how various drivers can alter the micro-climatic condition of cities.

COURSE COORDINATOR

Nimish Gupta
Programme Officer
Sustainable Habitat Programme
CSE, 9056225889
nimish.gupta@cseindia.org

COURSE DIRECTOR

Rajneesh Sareen
Programme Director
Sustainable Habitat Programme
CSE
rajneesh.sareen@cseindia.org