Urbanization is closely related to the three dimensions of sustainable development (United Nations, 2019) and the most celebrated phenomenon, of course, is the burgeoning of new megacities with excess populations (Davis, 2006). Urbanisation has resulted in spatial distribution with direct manifestation seen as increase in urban slums. Most megacities are located in developing countries and this trend will continue as several large cities in Asia, Latin America and Africa are projected to become megacities by 2030 (WCR, 2016). The persistent urban issue of mushrooming slums has assumed significant proportions. The mega-trend of urbanisation with emerging slums is an area of concern as also prioritized under the Millennium Development Goals established in 2000 and the Sustainable Development Goals – 2030 agenda. The UN Human Settlements Programme estimates that a billion people, or a third of the urban population in developing countries live in slum. Favelization has been defined as the synonym of urbanisation (Davis, 2006) with burdens associated with growing urban slums.
The impact of climate change is certain and cannot be fully mitigated. According to IPCC, as projected by 2100, about 70 percent of the coastline worldwide are projected to experience sea level change within 20 percent of the global mean. Cities are amongst the most vulnerable areas and urban slums are considered at with high risk and vulnerability with limited capacity to prevent and absorb. Coastal urban slums in mega-cities such as Jakarta, Mumbai and Dhaka in developing countries faces recurring floods both from extreme precipitation and sea level rise. The high risk and vulnerability of urban poor towards flooding is expressed in the publications of Satterthwaite (2007), Dodman (2010) and Matos Silva (2016) at global scale. In the case of Dharavi, the regional research of Patankar (2015) and Chatterjee (2010), demonstrate that government actions lack to address the vulnerability towards flooding for urban poor. Lack of government’s response to flooding and the challenge put forward by the climate change is forcing to welcome multidisciplinary approaches with significant role of the urban morphology and vernacular adaptation towards building flood resilience.
Acknowledging the risk of flooding, the research aim to develop a framework of elements and measures for the most vulnerable population and urban areas. The publications of Matos Silva (2016) and Garcia (2017) on public space design for flooding forms an example of lexicon or a typology of flood adaptation formulated for developed countries. Until this date, there has been little attempt by policy makers and planners in the understanding of how community participation and public space can be conceptualized in new guidelines or framework of development. The research shall generate a transformative toolkit and a lexicon for urban slum flood adaptation through public space interventions. At global level the works of Barreiros Proenca (2014) and at regional level the works of Shannon (2009), providing for morphological interpretation and typological classification of urban spaces forms the methodological grounding for spatial analysis of this research. The intervention lexicon for flood adaptation will provide to render urban slums resilient to floods.
Objectives
The general objectives of the research are (1) to identify, systematize flood mitigation and adaptive measures pertinent to the design of public space and built elements of urban slums and (2) to present a framework of elements and measures which could assist the process of redevelopment and rehabilitation of urban slums with the capacity to integrate flood adaptation responses in future.
The specific objectives are (1) to establish the significance of local community driven measures as added value for adaptation endeavours, (2) to present an existing framework of measures in the case of Dharavi, Mumbai and (3) to generate a typology/ lexicon of elements and measures to face extreme floods in urban slums through design of adaptive public spaces.