Decoding urban form resilience and adaptation in flood prone wards of Surat, India: Exploring the duality of public-private discourse

Abstract

Cities in the Global South face amplified consequences of climate change due to rapid urbanization, which is predominantly informal and lacks basic infrastructure and emergency support systems. The worst affected sections are those living in informal settlements, generally located in the city's floodplains. The lack of or lag in the state's response to flood hazards creates a need for urban dwellers to adapt to these recurring disturbances. However, there is limited understanding of the implications of these localized interventions for overall urban resilience and how they interact with state-level adaptation efforts. This study explores two layers of resilience phenomena: urban form resilience and the adaptive response of different stakeholders within the urban form. Taking case study of Surat, a city situated on the western ghats of India, the study assesses urban form resilience and the patterns and costs of adaptation through a Rapid Visual Survey (RVS). The findings reveal that formal urban areas have higher resilience scores, while informal settlements exhibit lower resilience scores but more individual adaptation. Individual households alter their physical form by taking measures such as raising the plinth, raising the porch area, constructing a protection wall on the entrance, and constructing a mezzanine floor to cope with recurring flood hazards. However, the cost of these individual adaptations is significantly high for an adapting household as compared to the per household cost of state-led adaptation. The study provides a context-specific input to the ongoing discourse on collaboration between top-down and bottom-up efforts for a resilient and sustainable urban environment.