Urban Risk and Resilience

Istanbul-based journalists engaged in a thought-provoking conversation about Turkey's eventful year of 2023.

An in-person discussion about how the public can be better prepared to respond to possible catastrophe.

As a nation with enormous bio-diversity, India needs to protect its ecological resources.  As a rapidly expanding economy, however, it cannot ignore the need for infrastructural development. Public awareness, policy interventions, and creative solutions are required for reconciling conservation of wildlife with the need for expanding landscape connectivity through roads and highways.

Studies and design challenges on the features of innovative workplaces have been primarily focused on US and European contexts. In light of this, Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science is partnering with Columbia Global Centers | Mumbai to launch the Urban Works Innovation Challenge – a multi-year collaborative design challenge to boost the current and future potential of the Indian workforce. Supported by the RMZ Foundation, the initiative will address the critical need to transform 21st-century workspaces.

“Outdoor air pollution is the second leading risk factor for mortality in India. Nearly one million lives are lost prematurely in India to air pollution,” said Dr. Alexandra Karambelas, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The Earth Institute, Columbia University. Her lecture at the Center in May drew linkages between energy emissions, air quality and health outcomes and emphasized the need for better monitoring of air quality in India in order to draw up appropriate mitigation strategies.

“Of the 250 million families in India, about 50 million families are still not on the grid,” said Jairam Ramesh, former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha member, speaking at an event organized by the Chazen Institute’s India Business Initiative at Columbia University on January 15 in Mumbai. Per capita electricity consumption in the country is at one-quarter the level it is in China, one-tenth that of Europe and one-thirteenth the level in the United States.

When a team of researchers from Columbia University set out in January 2017 to study the risk of cyclones to the city of Mumbai, the likelihood of the city experiencing a phenomenon that had never occurred seemed remote. When their lead researcher returned in December 2017, Cyclone Ockhi had narrowly passed the city’s coastline, increasing the significance of their work. With a view to bringing research on urban climactic hazards into the public domain, the Center hosted a public lecture on December 12, 2017 by Dr. Adam Sobel.

The risks of climate change and the adverse effects of greenhouse gases can only be mitigated by effective action at the local and global level. Given that urbanization has exacerbated climate risks, cities need to be at the forefront of reform. The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group is one such innovative initiative, serving as a platform for a network of the world’s megacities. The C40 Cities network acts locally – at the level of multiple city leaders such as mayors and municipal commissioners.

Municipal solid waste has tripled globally since 1950 and is expected to be six times greater by 2030. So, how will global cities manage their ever-increasing mounds of waste? One thing that clearly emerges from years of research is that we need to put an end to open dumping. Evidence for this argument was presented by Athanasios Bourtsalas, Adjunct Professor at the Earth and Environmental Engineering Department, Columbia University, and the Manager of the Earth Engineering Center at Columbia University.

Extreme climate events are on the rise globally, raising concerns about the future of coastal cities. Enabling cities to become resilient to climate-induced changes has emerged as a priority in local and global agendas. As part of an ongoing initiative to build knowledge on Urban Climate Resilience, the Center organized a round-table discussion, bringing together scientists and urban experts, to assess the potential risks of a catastrophic flood in Mumbai due to a tropical cyclone-driven storm surge.

Amidst climate change threats and geopolitical struggles, can nations afford to take an isolationist perspective in determining their energy policies or is global thinking and interdependence the way for a sustainable and stable future? What are the latest trends in global oil and natural gas markets and what implications do these have for countries like India? A panel discussion on this issue was organized by the Mumbai Center featuring energy experts from Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at the India Merchants Chambers on December 1.