Chennai floods a call for integrating climate action in masterplans

While we are measuring the devastation inflicted on people, the damaged wrecked on flora and fauna also needs immediate attention.

A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate crisis (IPCC) has dire warnings for India which continues to witness unpredictable upheaval in weather patterns and environmental factors. The rising sea level threatens to submerge 12 coastal cities in the country by the end of the century. The cities could be nearly three feet underwater by the end of the century, the climate crisis report has warned. The cities include Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, and Visakhapatnam, among others.

In India there are several megatrends that impact cities, but from an environmental perspective, two of them are the most important. The first one is the devastating effects of climate crisis, which is now a reality. Influenced by the monsoonal climatic system, India, and in particular Indian cities, are starting to witness extreme events of flooding and drought.

The second trend is the rapid increase in urbanisation. Urban growth is an important opportunity from the perspective of development. If cities are managed well, businesses grow, people have better access to services and job opportunities are boosted. We know that 55% of the world population now lives in cities and it is expected that this trend of rural to urban will continue for another 20-25 years. The number of people living in cities will increase by one and a half times - to 6 billion by 2045.

This large looming challenge also presents an opportunity - the opportunity to plan and integrate nature-based solutions (NbS) and build more climate resilient cities.

Chennai is the second mega city in India after Mumbai to prepare its climate action plan in congruence with the Paris Agreement. The city is now planning to integrate the climate action plan into its third masterplan, which will come into force by 2026 and guide the development of the Chennai Metropolitan Area for the next 20 years.

The most opportune time to consider the benefits of nature in creating more sustainable and liveable cities is during the city’s master planning process. And factoring climate can provide resilience, enabling the urban and natural ecosystems to adapt and help minimise damage to life and property as well as maximise ecosystem services. This is much more cost effective than trying to retrofit nature into a city once it is entirely built.

While we are coping with the challenges, we do have with us a solution for the cities such as the greenprint approach which guides us to do just the above.

Greenprint is a four-step framework that has been developed to address the key deficiencies in urban planning and mesh with existing environmental assessments and regulatory approaches. It includes creating a conservation vision, followed by mapping future development in a city and estimating the development’s impact on it and finally, examining appropriate interventions.

Greenprinting’s raison d’etre is that natural habitats provide critical services to urban environments and alternatives development approaches that can accommodate both development and conservation outcomes must be prioritised.

A key component of the Greenprint approach is that it allows the city to envision multiple pathways for city growth and to simultaneously assess consequences of various patterns of growth.

In addition, it supports scenario planning which enable governments, and the public to assess and respond dynamically to an unknown future. Natural infrastructure in cities also provide recreational, health and aesthetic benefits to urban residents.

In Chennai for example, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority is using the greenprint approach to integrate blue green infrastructure - such as rivers, wetlands, coastal areas as well as other pervious surfaces making the city climate resilient - into the city’s third Masterplan.

Chennai won’t be the first city where this will be implemented. Successful examples of Greenprinting have shown results across the world.

In the United States, Santa Clara’s the Bay Area Greenprint supports decision-makers and local stakeholders in determining what areas are of highest environmental value, based on relevant local needs. It is the go-to resource for land use planning and management decisions by a range of government agencies at the local and state level.

In Melbourne, Australia - the approach has led to the creation of an urban greening strategy. Convening metro-wide stakeholders to create a shared vision for sustaining nature.

Back home in India, while Chennai is the first city to adopt Greenprint, it is imperative that other cities also develop custom plans to integrate NbS into their masterplans, especially the larger metropolitan cities that are expected to grow at a faster pace. The Chennai floods are a clarion call for decisive climate action and as Indian cities expand, there is a window of opportunity for course correction, and one that should not be missed, especially when solutions are readily available.

This article is authored by Annapurna Vancheshwaran, CEO, The Nature Conservancy, New Delhi.