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Manuscript Details Manuscript number IJDRR_2018_530 Title Urban Disasters Beyond the City: Environmental Risk in India’s Fast Growing Towns and Villages Article type Research Paper Abstract India is one of the largest and fastest urbanizing countries in the world. While most scholarly attention has focused on the country’s large cities, towns and villages are also experiencing many of the changes that come with urbanization, including significant increases in environmental risk. In this paper we investigate disaster and climate risk in five fast- growing towns and villages in the Darjeeling District of West Bengal. We based our research design on the MOVE Framework, a comprehensive and integrative framework for assessing disaster and climate risk. Based on primary and secondary data collected over a 3-year period 2015-2017, we find that our case communities are characterized by rapid spatial growth and change, a dynamic and challenging hazard context, and low government capacity or action to document, govern, or adapt to risk. In each community we find a fast accumulation of risk in the built environment and economy, which may only be “revealed” after a major disaster. The trends we observe — in physical growth, the transformation of economies and the built environment, the mismatch between governance structures and the challenges of urbanization, and the lack of resources for managing growth — are likely common in other small urbanizing places. Keywords Urbanization; Risk; India; MOVE Framework; Darjeeling; Landslide Corresponding Author Andrew Rumbach Corresponding Author's University of Colorado Denver Institution Order of Authors Andrew Rumbach, Gretel Follingstad Submission Files Included in this PDF File Name [File Type] Rumbach Follingstad Urban Disasters Beyond the City.docx [Manuscript File] To view all the submission files, including those not included in the PDF, click on the manuscript title on your EVISE Homepage, then click 'Download zip file'. 1 2 3 Urban Disasters Beyond the City: Environmental Risk in India’s Fast Growing Towns and 4 5 Villages 6 7 Andrew Rumbach1 & Gretel Follingstad2 8 9 Acknowledgements 10 11 The authors gratefully acknowledge research assistance from Rohan Rao, Izabela 12 Petrykowska, Bryan Sullivan, Vivek Mishra, Aachal Tamang and Juanita Mukhia. This study 13 was made possible by a grants from the Office of Research Services at the University of 14 15 Colorado Denver and the DigitalGlobe Foundation. 16 17 Abstract 18 19 India is one of the largest and fastest urbanizing countries in the world. While most scholarly 20 attention has focused on the country’s large cities, towns and villages are also experiencing 21 many of the changes that come with urbanization, including significant increases in 22 environmental risk. In this paper we investigate disaster and climate risk in five fast-growing 23 24 towns and villages in the Darjeeling District of West Bengal. We based our research design on 25 the MOVE Framework, a comprehensive and integrative framework for assessing disaster and 26 climate risk. Based on primary and secondary data collected over a 3-year period 2015-2017, 27 we find that our case communities are characterized by rapid spatial growth and change, a 28 dynamic and challenging hazard context, and low government capacity or action to document, 29 govern, or adapt to risk. In each community we find a fast accumulation of risk in the built 30 environment and economy, which may only be “revealed” after a major disaster. The trends we 31 observe — in physical growth, the transformation of economies and the built environment, the 32 mismatch between governance structures and the challenges of urbanization, and the lack of 33 34 resources for managing growth — are likely common in other small urbanizing places. 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 1 Assistant Professor, Department of Urban & Regional Planning, University of Colorado Denver, USA. 51 Corresponding Author. 52 2 PhD student, College of Architecture and Planning, University of Colorado Denver, USA 53 54 55 1 56 57 58 59 1.0 Introduction: India’s Urban Transformation Beyond the City 60 61 Over the past 30 years, urbanization has transformed countries across Asia. From 1990-2014, 62 the population living in Asian cities rose by more than 1 billion, historic growth that will continue 63 for decades (Ellis & Roberts 2016). Urban growth in India reflects these regional trends; in 2011, 64 31.2% of the country’s population (377 million) was classified as urban.3 By 2050, the United 65 Nations estimates that India will add more than 300 million new urban residents, to global cities 66 like Delhi and Mumbai as well as hundreds of “secondary” urban centers with populations over 67 500,000. 68 69 There is another story of urbanization in India, one that is unfolding outside of cities. Across the 70 71 country, villages and towns are experiencing many of the changes that come with urbanization, 72 from shifts in economic activity to higher population densities and transformations of the built 73 environment. The growth in census towns, settlements that are classified as urban in the census 74 but still governed as villages, is illustrative of these trends. The number of census towns tripled 75 from 2001-2011 (from 1,362 to 3,894), accounting for 29.5% of the country’s total increase in 76 urban population (Pradhan 2013; Samanta 2014; Jain 2017).4 India is also experiencing 77 substantial in-situ urbanization, the transformation of rural settlements into urban places without 78 major geographical migration (Jain 2017, citing Zhu 2004; Pradhan 2013). 79 80 81 Urbanization in rural places in India brings distinct challenges. Government capacity to manage 82 development, which is limited in many cities, can be non-existent in many towns and fast- 83 growing villages (Kundu, Bagchi & Kundu 1999; Rumbach 2016b). There is also a distinct lack 84 of fiscal resources available to help towns and villages manage growth. As a whole, India has 85 some of the lowest spending on urban planning and infrastructure in the world, at just 1.1% of 86 GDP (UN-Habitat 2016, p. 11). Development schemes that aim to expand and improve urban 87 infrastructure and housing, like the 50,000 crore rupee ($8 billion) Atal Mission for Rejuvenation 88 and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), do not extend to rural communities. 89 90 91 These trends in urbanization have also led to a substantial increase in environmental risk, from 92 natural hazards and climate change related disasters (Nicholls et al. 2008; The World Bank 93 2012). Numerous studies have documented the factors contributing to increasing disaster risk in 94 large Indian cities, such as inadequate infrastructure (Revi 2005), increasing exposure (Joerin et 95 al. 2012), deficits in hazard and vulnerability related data (Rautela 2016), and a lack of 96 adequate housing and basic services, especially for the urban poor (Ranganathan 2015; 97 Rumbach 2017). Others have demonstrated potential pathways for disaster risk reduction and 98 99 urban climate adaptation through improved planning, infrastructure investment, and policy 100 101 3 As Mukhopadhyay et al. (2016) point out, India is the only country in the world that uses population, 102 population density, and economic character together to define ‘urban,’ a strict set of criteria that leads the 103 country to classify populations living in urban conditions as rural (2). As a point of comparison, the World 104 Bank’s agglomeration index (AI), developed to provide a consistent measure of urbanization across 105 countries, estimates that India is actually 52% urban, a substantial different from the country’s own 106 Census estimates and what Mukhopadhyay et al. describe as India’s “hidden” urbanization. 4 A census towns is defined as an area with more than 5,000 people, a population density of at least 400 107 per square kilometer, and an economic base where more than 75% of the male main working population 108 is engaged in non-agricultural pursuits (Census of India 2011). 109 110 111 2 112 113 114 115 learning (Revi 2008; Mukhopadhyay & Revi 2009; Chu 2016). Yet, few studies have looked at 116 117 the growth of urban environmental risk in fast growing towns and villages. In this paper we ask, 118 how is India’s urban transformation beyond the city shaping disaster risk? We approach this 119 question through a mixed-methods study of towns and villages in West Bengal, one of India’s 120 fastest urbanizing states. 121 122 2.0 Understanding Risk: The MOVE Framework 123 Our main conceptual tool for understanding disaster risk is the MOVE Framework (Birkmann et 124 al. 2013), a comprehensive and integrative framework for assessing vulnerability, risk, and the 125 various actions people and communities make to mitigate, cope with, and adapt to those threats 126 127 (Ibid., 193). The framework does not provide specific risk assessment methods or defined 128 indicators (Birkmann et al. 2013, 207). Instead, it captures the key place-specific factors that 129 produce vulnerability and its “thematic dimensions” (physical, social, ecological, economic, 130 cultural and institutional) (Ibid. 199) and efforts to govern risk or adapt to changing conditions. 131 The holistic nature of the MOVE framework makes it well-suited to diagnosing risk in places that 132 are generally understudied and undertheorized in the disaster studies literature. Instead of 133 presupposing that the fundamental dynamics of vulnerability and risk in fast-growing towns and 134