Policy climates and climate policies: Analysing the politics of building urban climate change resilience

This paper examines the process of building resilience to climate change in urban areas by scrutinising the manner in which initiatives to build resilience interact with the urban policy environments in which they unfold. The urban policy environment is broken into three analytical areas of actors, spaces and discourses. This illustrates the influence of actor networks, epistemic communities and policy entrepreneurs in helping climate change resilience gain traction in urban settings, how discourses attached to Resilience urban resilience are dissonant with those prevailing in ossified Discourses urban policy environments, and the dynamic interaction of interest, agendas and power in decision making that accompanies resilience building processes. The paper applies this framework to case studies of two Indian cities within a major international urban climate change resilience initiative. Using data gathered through a variety of rigorous qualitative research methods, the paper provides insights into the politics of policy processes around urban climate change initiatives. Findings from this study can inform urban development policies and allow resilience project planners to calibrate their efforts to better suit urban policy environments. The paper highlights how issues of politics and power are more significant determinants of such policy processes than conventional, science-led analyses would suggest

Immediate behavioral response to the June 17, 2013 flash floods in Uttarakhand, North India

The 2013 Uttarakhand flash flood was such a surprise for those at risk that the predominant source of information for their risk was environmental cues and, secondarily, peer warnings rather than official warnings. Of those who received warnings, few received information other than the identity of the flood threat. A survey of 316 survivors found that most people\u27s first response was to immediately evacuate but some stayed to receive additional information, confirm their warnings, or engage in evacuation preparations. Unfortunately, engaging in these milling behaviors necessarily delayed their final evacuations. Mediation analysis revealed that psychological reactions mediated the relationship between information sources and behavioral responses. Further analyses revealed that immediate evacuation and evacuation delay were both predicted best by information search and positive affect, but correlation analyses indicated that a number of other models were also plausible. Final evacuation was best predicted by immediate evacuation and, to a significantly lesser extent, household together. Overall, results suggest that the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) should be considered a useful framework for examining household responses to flash floods in developing countries like India. It supports the conclusion that a household\u27s first warning source is a function of two distinct detection and dis- semination systems within a community—an official system and an informal system. However, it fails to capture what pre-impact emergency preparedness entails for rapid onset events in a developing country context. Further research is needed to determine the relative importance of situational and cultural characteristics in producing these observed differences