Climate Resilience in Built Environment
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A thematic track on "Climate resilience and built environment" was organized under the aegis of "The GRIHA Summit 2015" on March 12, 2015 at Stein Auditorium, Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
The session deliberated on the need for sustainable, inclusive and climate resilient cities. The chair of the session Prof Chetan Vaidya highlighted the role of environment and municipal laws as important instruments for achieving climate resilience in built environment. Mr Kalpit Ashar presented the case study of flood resilient housing design in Gorakhpur. Mr Bijay Singh highlighted the issues related to flooding in the city of Gorakhpur and suggested measures for building resilient housing structures. They also emphasized on the need for local capacity building of local masons and builders. Mr Mahesh Rajasekar spoke about the urban heat island effect and gave examples of mitigation measures like various rooftop technologies that were developed by TARU for Surat and Indore. He also discussed how various building materials can be used for achieving thermal comfort. Mr Sohan Hatangadi shared lessons learnt from Vizag after the Hudhud cyclone and spoke about the importance of conserving the coastal ecosystem. The need for unified settlement plans in India for both urban and rural areas was highlighted by Mr Pawan Gupta. He highlighted the various environmental, economic and social benefits of these innovative settlements. Dr Divya Sharma reiterated the need to mainstream climate resilience in planning, policy making, designing, regulations and legislative processes. She also discussed the various government schemes and programs which could be used as potential entry points for introducing various elements of climate resilience in cities. The chair concluded the session by pointing out that the lack of adequate capacity was the biggest challenge in the country and this should be built at various spheres to build and manage sustainable resilient cities.