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Assessing Vulnerability and Capacity of Bhubaneswar As a Progressive Smart-City: an Empirical Case Study of Fani Cyclone Impact on the City

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Assessing Vulnerability and Capacity of Bhubaneswar As a Progressive Smart-City: an Empirical Case Study of Fani Cyclone Impact on the City Research Collection Journal Article Assessing vulnerability and capacity of Bhubaneswar as a progressive smart-city: An empirical case study of Fani cyclone impact on the city Author(s): Kawyitri, Neha; Shekhar, Ankit Publication Date: 2021-04-01 Permanent Link: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000456121 Originally published in: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 56, http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101986 Rights / License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International This page was generated automatically upon download from the ETH Zurich Research Collection. For more information please consult the Terms of use. ETH Library International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 56 (2021) 101986 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijdrr Assessing vulnerability and capacity of Bhubaneswar as a progressive smart-city: An empirical case study of Fani cyclone impact on the city Neha Kawyitri a, Ankit Shekhar b,* a Malaviya Centre for Peace Research, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India b Department of Environmental Sciences System, ETH Zurich, Switzerland ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: This study aims to assess the vulnerability and capacity of Bhubaneswar, India’s first smart-city, to the most Vulnerability recent extremely severe cyclonic (ESC) storm ‘Fani’ which ravaged the city on May 3, 2019. After 2 weeks of its Capacity impact, this study conducted a household survey in the central part of Bhubaneswar city (comprising of different Social & human wards), where smart-city projects were implemented and ongoing. Survey questions categorized into Social & Financial Human, Financial, Physical, and Smart-city factors and their corresponding indicators were chosen through Smart-city Natural disasters literature review and some modified based on local conditions. A total of 22 vulnerability and 40 capacity in­ dicators were used to calculate the vulnerability and capacity index. The result indicates that overall capacity overweighs the overall vulnerability in the central part of the city during the Fani cyclone. Specifically, the city was more vulnerable based on Financial factors, whereas more capable and smartly prepared for the cyclone in the context of Social & Human factors, Physical factors, and Smart-city factors. The study indicates the mitigating impact of the smart-city project in the central Bhubaneswar city area and applauds the step taken by the gov­ ernment for preparation during such an extreme event. The realizations of these results will help the government to further improve its disaster management plan with important infrastructural modification highlighted in this study. 1. Introduction (IFRC), defines vulnerability as “the diminished capacity of an individ­ ual or group to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact Climate is changing since the origin of the Earth, but the recent of natural or man-made hazards”. On the other hand, capacity refers to climate change significantlyaffects the ways of living in the community “all the strengths, attributes, and resources available within a commu­ [1,2]. Climate change is enhancing the intensity and frequency of nat­ nity, organization, or society to manage and reduce disaster risk and ural disastrous events (e.g. severe cyclonic storm), which will have strengthen resilience” [14]. adverse effects on socio-economic development and living communities Many studies have assessed the vulnerability of the eastern coastal [3]. The eastern coastal regions of India have been frequently affected regions of India including the state of Odisha (see Ref. [15,16]. The by cyclones originating from the Bay of Bengal such as Phailin in 2013, analysis and ranking of the various coastal districts in Odisha predom­ Hudhud in 2014 [4,5]. It is essential to understand the origin and inantly vulnerable to cyclone and floods have been undertaken by development of vulnerability for managing disaster risk effectively [6, building a vulnerability index [17]. “An alternative approach have been 7]. Recognizing and measuring disaster risk and vulnerability before and developed for identifying vulnerable areas based on cluster analysis” after a natural disaster are imperious tasks for effective and long-term [18,19]. The analysis of vulnerability over different periods and the disaster-risk reduction [8]. “The vulnerability has emerged as a widely changes in vulnerability of people have been done for the coastal dis­ used concept in global environmental change, disaster risk manage­ tricts of Odisha by focusing on indicators of agricultural growth, infra­ ment, and climate change adaptation” [9]. Many approaches for structure, industrial development, demography, occupational, assessing vulnerability rely on an assessment of capacity as a baseline for geographical, climate variability, and extreme event-related indicators understanding how vulnerable people are to a particular hazard [20]. [10–13]. The International Federation of Red Crescent Climate Change However, the existing literature lacks empirical studies to determine * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Shekhar). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101986 Received 4 June 2020; Received in revised form 6 October 2020; Accepted 22 November 2020 Available online 28 November 2020 2212-4209/© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). N. Kawyitri and A. Shekhar International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 56 (2021) 101986 the vulnerability and capacity of cities, and none for progressive smart indicate the extent to which a system can survive the impact of an cities in India. Apart from vulnerability assessment of the much focused extreme event. It suggests that people can deal with some degree of coastal rural regions, there is a need for such assessments for urban cities destabilization, and acknowledges that at a certain point the capacity as more people migrate to live in cities. Filling this knowledge gap, an may be exceeded. empirical study to assess the vulnerability and capacity of India’s first progressive smart-city, Bhubaneswar, to the most recent extremely se- 2.2. Smart-city vere cyclone (ESC) ‘Fani’ is presented here. Such assessments are vital for the proper development and evolution of Bhubaneswar as a smart- The smart-city concept emerged from e-governance movements and city. collaboration between technology and companies and government in Bhubaneswar city located in the Khordha district is the state capital Europe and the United States in the late 1990s and early 2000s [36]. A of Odisha. Bhubaneswar was selected as the firstchoice of the Ministry precursor to the Indian smart-city was the embrace of urban e-gover- of Urban Development (MoUD) flagship smart-city project on January nance in the early to mid-2000s. In India, smart cities were seen as a 28, 2016, to build Bhubaneswar as India’s first smart city. While in it’s means to build on the coagulation of state and private sector interest in the fourth year of progress, on May 3, 2019, Bhubaneswar faced an ESC infrastructure-led growth. According to the Ministry of Urban Devel- ‘Fani’. ESC ‘Fani’ is the 10th such cyclone to hit India in the past 52 opment, recognizing the importance of smart cities for the country’s years, and the strongest tropical cyclone to strike the Indian state of development, the Indian government has initiated a smart-city mission Odisha since the 1999 Odisha cyclone [5]. According to the Damage, to provide basic infrastructure to ensure the quality of life, a sustainable Loss, and Needs Assessment (DLNA) report, at least 64 people have been environment, and smart solutions to the current issues in cities. killed by the Fani cyclone and total damage was estimated at 241,760 Smart cities and communities focus on the intersection between million INR, mostly in property damage and the relief in Odisha [4]. A energy, transport, and Information and Communication Technology good proportion of this damage occurred in the progressive smart-city of (ICT), which are also the fields that have received most of the EU’s Bhubaneswar. public smart cities related funding (under the Horizon 2020 program “smart cities and communities” [67]). The smart-city assessment builds 2. Theoretical background on the previous experience of measuring environmentally friendly and livable cities, embracing the concepts of sustainability and quality of life 2.1. Vulnerability and capacity but with the important and significant addiction of technological and informational components [37]. Six dimensions of smart-city have been Vulnerability is a multidimensional concept associated with different identified in literature i.e. a smart economy, smart people, smart conceptualizations [21]. The vulnerability concept was introduced as a mobility, smart governance, smart living, and smart environment [38]. response to pure hazard-oriented perception of disaster risk in the 1970s According to the World Cities Report 2016, cities should focus on but the concept has been changed now by the engagement of the po- creating a just environment to ensure justice and equity for improve- litical and structural causes of vulnerability within society [22]. During ment in our quality of life and also for sustainable development and the 1990s many works of literature on vulnerability
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