Asian City Climate Change Resilience Network For India  (ACCCRN Project)

A Rockefeller Foundation supported Joint Initiative of GEAG and ISET

(Intervention in Gorakhpur City)  

The Rockefeller Foundation’s (RF) Initiative for Asian Cities seeks to establish network of Asian cities in order to improve their understanding, coping up capacity, prepared ness and recovery from projected climate change impact. Cities are under acute probability of being impacted by climate change due to dramatic transformation as economic growth and urbanization tends to increase the vulnerability of residents and enterprises to climate risk.  The primary purpose of the RF’s initial analysis is to leveraging policy incentives and investments funds to pool and manage risks; improve infrastructure, services management and preparedness strategies; and increase urban resilience. 

This initiative has been taken up initially in three cities of India - Indore, Surat and Gorakhpur. GEAG is the lead partner in Gorakhpur city. Morphology of Gorakhpur city is bowl-shaped that makes it fragile towards flooding and water logging. City has along history of flood and in recent decades, city has felt water logging as an emerging hazard which aggravates the risk of water borne diseases. A combination of pluvial flooding and river flooding is faced by the city.

Possible Climate Change impacts on the city - More frequent floods and temperature impacts are the expected direct risks to the city.A2a scenario indicates a rainfall increase of about 700 mm annually in the basin by 2020 and increasing to about 1000 mm by 2050. An increase of about 1 to 20 C of temperature is expected in this region by 2050. Since Gorakhpur is already an endemic area for Malaria and Japanese encephalitis, the increase in temperature and frequency of floods can worsen the disease spread in the city. Also, water borne diseases can be increased in the city by water logging.

Objectives of the Initiative-

• Facilitating identification and assessment of climate risks in the city

• Support the local city-level advisory body in developing technically sound proposals involving prioritized climate resilience action plan through multistakeholder’s engagement

• Facilitating the development of replicable processes, methodologies and core insights on strategies for adapting to climate change in urban settings through development of a knowledge network involving cities and project partners.