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Hazard Risks and Social Vulnerability in Urban India

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Spatial Diversity and Dynamics in Resources and Urban Development

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Abstract

In 2001, approximately 28 % of India’s population was living in urban areas, and this figure is expected to increase to 41 % by the year 2030. The ongoing migration of people from rural to urban areas has produced excessive pressure on the cities to accommodate incoming migrants with basic living standards and a safe environment. The necessities of continuing economic growth and consequent increase in population have altered the local environment and expanded the physical boundaries of urban areas to hazardous areas that are at higher risks from environmental hazards and losses. These risks are even more pronounced under the impetus of the changes in the climate. Although economic development and spatial growth of urban areas have changed the local environment and made these places more susceptible to collapse under uncertain environment conditions, trends in growing risks observed in Indian cities show that the problem is equally aggravated by the increase in social vulnerability among the marginal population in urban areas. This chapter proposes a framework to understand the “socioenvironmental” aspect of risks that exist in urban India and their effect on the production and distribution of risks for the marginal population in these cities.

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Notes

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    UNPD (2007). World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision and World Urbanization Prospects: The 2007.

    Revision. Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat.

  2. 2.

    Population more than 100,000 people.

  3. 3.

    Page 359: IPCC (2007b, p. 976).

  4. 4.

    Slum land ownership in Mumbai shows 48 % of slums being located on private land and the rest (52 %) on government land (state, 21 %; municipal, 18 %; state/central, 7 %; railways/airport authority, 6 %). Urban Age 2007. Urban India: Understanding the Maximum City. In Urban India, 47. Mumbai Urban Age.

  5. 5.

    Page 69: Burra (2005, pp. 67–90).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Monalisa Chatterjee

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  1. Monalisa Chatterjee
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Correspondence to Monalisa Chatterjee .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Planning, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA

    Ashok K. Dutt

  2. Department of Geography and Planning, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA

    Allen G. Noble

  3. Department of Geography and Planning, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA

    Frank J. Costa

  4. Department of Geosciences, Missouri State University, West Plains, Missouri, USA

    Rajiv R. Thakur

  5. College of Business Administration, California State University, Sacramento, California, USA

    Sudhir K. Thakur

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Chatterjee, M. (2016). Hazard Risks and Social Vulnerability in Urban India. In: Dutt, A., Noble, A., Costa, F., Thakur, R., Thakur, S. (eds) Spatial Diversity and Dynamics in Resources and Urban Development. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9786-3_13

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