Due to Disaster and Climate Change impact the cities are undergone some sorts of disbalance situations. The Direct impact over the urban amenities causes the living standard of the city residents miserable. To protect the allover city environment Resilient approach will encourage the city governing body to plan efficiently to reduce the vulnerability of the city residents and infrastructure when ever any disruptive situation arrises.

1. Topic:
“City Level Resilient Development And Planning: A Comprehensive
Disaster and Climate Change Management Scenario Over Siliguri
City.”.
Presenter: Nilanjan Bal

2. SELECTED CITY : SILIGURI PART A: IMPACTS OF DISASTERS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
1. INTRODUCTION: The modern society gives every city a unique and growing entity due to this the city grown as a center of different culture oriented giant. As the rapid pace of industrialization,
globalization and urbanization take place over the city area , the pollution and pressure over the lands related problems grows larger day by day, the issues like climate change and disasters are much
concentrated over cities in a form of natural or anthropogenic. Disaster is the sudden event that causes resource losses and disrupt the functioning of the community. Climate change is a change in the
typical or average weather of a region or city. Thus these both are the important issues in the city area and to cope with this issues projects, planning implementation is a very important task for the
governing system within the city. In sake of the betterment of the community living within the city it is very important to resist the problems related to climate change and disaster events. As per
instruction I am now going to discuss the issues and governments steps in case of disaster and climate change within a city I familiar with. I select Siliguri city as my case city and in the next writings I am
going to deal with it. Let first take a quick look on to the profile of Siliguri city;
Chicken Neck Corridor, an important link connecting the states in North East India and the neighboring countries with rest of India. Siliguri is a vital link to the North East of India because there is no
alternative transport mode by land to reach Guwahati (Assam) and ultimately to the rest of the region, other than via Siliguri. Hence the region is also referred as the ‘Doors to Northeast India’.
3. IMPACT OF DISASTER IN SILIGURI: In Siliguri the major events like; geophysical type- earthquake and hydrological type- flood took place from long time but these were not been felt in a disastrous
point of view rather these creates risks over the city area and by these the city designated as a most vulnerable, disaster potential area, on this notion I am just going to high light the disaster potentiality
of this city area.
3.1 EARTQUAKES: Siliguri falls under seismic zone-IV. It is prone to earthquakes and tremor between 6.5 -7.0 on Rector Scale. This is evident from past events of earthquake and the local perception. The
other aspects like epidemics and floods are secondary in the city. According to Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Programme (GSHAP) data, the state of Siliguri falls in a region of high seismic hazard
(seismic zone IV). Historically, this region has experienced seismic activity in the magnitude 4.0-6.0 range. The historical occurrences of earth quakes in Siliguri had found since 1980, 19th November
(Location of epicenter was Gangtok area, Sikkim Magnitude 6.1 tremors felt in Siliguri), in 2011, 18th September Siliguri experienced 6.9 magnitude earthquake which badly affect the public and private
properties, in 2015, 25th April (Location of epicenter Area between the capital, Kathmandu, and the city of Pokhara, Magnitude 4.9, experience tremors, partial damage to structure and one human
causality reported) .
2. CITY PROFILE: Siliguri is located in the Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts of West
Bengal, India between 260 40’41” N - 260 47’32’’N latitude and 880 23’48”E - 880
27’48”E longitude within the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Planning Area(SJPA). There is one
Municipal Corporation (SMC) with 47 wards and 4 Blocks with 22 G.P. It
stretches across the floodplains of the Mahananda River in the foothills of the
Eastern Himalayas in North Bengal, and is surrounded by dense forests in the
northern and eastern sides. The city is strategically located in the area known as PIC 1 : LOCATION MAP

3. PIC 2: SEISMIC MAP: SOURCE CDP
SILIGURI 2041
• Due to the 2015, 25th April Earthquake several
buildings had collapsed in Siliguri and many
buildings were badly damaged and this is due to
lack of adequate provisioning in Development
Control Regulations for ensuring earthquake
resistant buildings.
3.2 Floods: is another natural phenomenon affects
Siliguri city since centuries.
• The rivers like Mahananda, Balason, Jorapani
flows over the city. Mahananda river have had
done several flooding situations in Siliguri.
• In 2012, 18th July in the Northern part of Siliguri
Mahananda river washed away about 700-
meter-long embankment at two places, As a
result some areas within the city was flooded .
Many houses have been submerged; The
National Disaster Management Team was
deployed for the rescue operation. Thousands of
people have been affected and many of them
have been shifted to safer paces. The affected
people blamed the irrigation department for
sheer 'negligence.
• Increasing informal settlement along
ecologically sensitive areas such as River fronts
of Mahananda, Jorapani and Fuleshwari rivers
with inadequate urban basic services including
Solid waste lead to water pollution is another
issue.
PIC 4: Damaged inner security wall of the Siliguri Special
Correctional Home, Siliguri in Darjeeling district of West Bengal
during 2011 Sikkim earthquake ( SOURCE; shekhar Chandra
Dutta a,n , Pertha Sarathi Mukhopadhyay b , Rajib Saha c ,
Sanket Nayak a, “2011 Sikkim Earthquake at Eastern Himalayas:
Lessons learnt from performance of structures”
PIC 5: FLOODING SITUATION NEAR HAKIMPARA 2012, 18TH JANUARY ( SOURCE: TELEGRAPH)
PIC 6: Building collapse at Pradhan nagar, Siliguri during
2015 gorkha earthquake (Source: Ndtv news
article,2015,25th April)
PIC 3: Scouring of the permanent way underneath of the
heritage railway line at the Teendharia landslide along NH 55
between Siliguri and Darjeeling during 2011 Sikkim Earthquake(
Source; EERI Special Earthquake Report — February 2012)

4. 4. IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN SILIGURI: Siliguri experiences a subtropical humid type of climate characterized by three distinct seasons of hot and humid summer, mild winter and intense monsoon.
The summer season extends from March to June. The season is mild with average maximum temperature below 35° C due to the city’s location on the foothills of Himalayas. The hottest days of the season fall
in the months of May and June. The monsoon season extends from mid-June to September, with the heaviest rainfall occurring in the months of July and August. Intense rainfall up to 200 mm per day has
been recorded during this period in the past. The annual average rainfall for Siliguri ranges between 2600 mm to 4000 mm. The difference in precipitation between the driest month and the wettest month is
902 mm. The relative humidity during the monsoons ranges from 80% to 83%. The winter months (December to February) are relatively cool, usually accompanied with dense fog and light rain with average
temperature ranging from 3° C to 15° C. As a growing metropolitan center Siliguri have experienced climate change related issues like massive increase in rainfall and a serious decline of Sun days.
4.1. CLIMATE CHANGE TREND: Siliguri has a hot and humid summer, mild winter and intense monsoon. The
past trends have been observed from the SAPCC of West Bengal. Siliguri falls within the Terai zone of the state,
where minimum temperatures show an increase of about 1.5degree C. In terms of precipitation, there are
distinctive changes in observed pattern of rainfall between 1901 and 2003 in Siliguri, an increase in rainfall in
the pre-monsoon season by +10.5 mm has been observed during the same period, whereas a decrease in
rainfall by -1.7 mm in the winter season has been observed over the same period. In the monsoon season the
increase in rainfall is around 57 mm with the month of July showing an increase of 4.5%. Post monsoon season shows
a drastic decrease in rainfall (-5mm). There is an overall decrease in the total rain in 2008 with respect to 1990 in the Terai
zone (in which Siliguri falls). The decrease is of the order of -8.8%.
4.2. URBAN HEAT ISLAND ANALYSIS FOR SILIGURI: The urban heat island (UHI) is a phenomenon due to which the
pattern of temperatures is higher in urban areas than in the surrounding areas. The major concern related to the UHI is air
pollution. Higher temperatures increase ozone (O3) pollution, because elevated temperatures can trigger the chemical
reactions that form ozone. As per the existing land cover analysis of SMC, 74% of land is under developed area and 26% of
land is under undeveloped area (green cover and water bodies) in the core city. Similarly, 37% of land is under developed
area and 63% of land is under undeveloped area in the newly merged areas. Although a detailed study on micro
temperatures has not been carried out, broadly, the central Siliguri area experiences relatively more temperature due to
high dense developments. This is followed by medium dense zone with water bodies and green cover. The peripheral
areas have low density and experience relatively lesser temperatures.
4.3 Siliguri faces the following climate risks:
➢ Climate Risk 1: Unseasonal rain during the winters will increase and in summers it will decrease, with an overall
increase of short duration high intensity rainfall.
➢ Climate Risk 2: Overall temperatures along with daily maximum and daily minimum temperatures are expected to
increase.
4.4 CLIMATIC IMPACT ASSESMENT OF SILIGURI CITY:
Climate impact assessment of urban systems helps to assess their fragilities with respect to the climate impacts
identified earlier. In Siliguri, the major urban systems that have been identified as fragile and that have been
assessed include: i. Water ii. Sanitation and Sewerage iii. Solid Waste Management iv. Storm Water Drainage v.
Transportation The risks associated with the fragilities of these systems were calculated through a risk
assessment exercise conducted by the Stakeholder Group and Core Team during an SLD:
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
1974 1984 1994 2004 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
DIAGRAM 1: AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF JANUARY AND
JULY(C) IN SILIGURI 1974-2020
JAN JULY
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
Amount
of
rainfall
in
mm.
DIAGRAM 2: AMMOUNT OF RAINFALL(mm) IN SILIGURI
2009-2020

5. URBAN SYSTEM CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT RISK STATUS VULNERABLE WARDS (in case of transportation :
road name is used)
MAPS
Water Supply Increased temperatures lead to increased
demand for water thereby posing additional
stress on the supply system
HIGH 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 14, 15, 21, 22, 25, 26, 28, 30, 33, 34,
35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 44, 47
Increased flooding also lead to greater
chances of groundwater pollution
MEDIUM 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,10, 24, 34, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46
Sanitation and
Sewerage
increase the chances of greater ‘knock-on’
impacts on health and due to increased
temperatures.
HIGH 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 18, 20, 22, 24, 31, 32, 34,
35, 37, 43, 44, 45, 46
In case of increased short duration-high
intensity rainfall events the water logging and
flooding situation in these areas would only
get worse
HIGH 2, 5, 6, 23, 25, 31, 32, 36, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46 47
Storm Water
Drainage
increase the chances of greater ‘knock-on’
impacts on health and contamination of
potable water during flood events that could
be caused by changes in precipitation
HIGH 2, 3, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 18, 22,
27, 29, 30, 37, 43, 45, 46

6. URBAN
SYSTEM
CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT RISK
STATUS
VULNERABLE WARDS (in case of transportation road name
is used)
MAPS
Solid Waste
Management
Increasing temperatures may cause waste to
decompose in open dumps creating health hazards.
HIGH 41, 42
High intensity short duration rainfall will cause flooding
and choking of drains, leading to health impacts and
water logging.
EXTREME 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 17, 23, 25, 24, 31, 32, 36, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46,
47
Transportation Increase in temperature can lead to increased use of
private vehicle in order to maintain comfort, which
may lead to more traffic congestion and increased GHG
emissions.
EXTREME Hill Cart Road, Sevoke Road, Burdwan Road, Bidhan Road,
Kachhari Road, Baghajati Road, Station Feeder Road,
Vivekananda Road, Nivedita Road
Increase in short duration high intensity rainfall in the
future may lead to increased flooding, resulting in
damage to roads etc., thereby leading to increased
maintenance cost and an increase in traffic congestion.
EXTREME Hill Cart Road, Sevoke Road, Burdwan Road, Bidhan Road,
Kachhari Road, Baghajati Road, Station Feeder Road,
Vivekananda Road, Nivedita Road, and most of the local roads
Changing
Climate
Conditions
Assessments Climate Scenario Summary Statements
Precipitation
change
Regional
Assessment
There is a high level of confidence of an expected change of 940±149mm to 1330 ±174.5 mm in rainfall and an
increase in the annual precipitation of 0.3-3% in the North East by the year 2030.There will also be an increase in
intensity of rainfall by 2-12% in the Himalayan region, Northeastern region, Western and North-Western regions
and the Southern Eastern Coastal Regions by 2030.
Supplementa
ry Regional
Assessment
With respect to the 2050s in winters, i.e., October to December, there will be a slight increase in rainfall in
Darjeeling but there will be no change in Jalpaiguri. Precipitation during the monsoon shows no change with
respect to the baseline, but in summers rainfall is likely to decrease.
Temperature
change
Regional
Assessment
There is a high level of confidence of an increase by 1.8±0.8 °C to 2.1±0.9°C in temperature in the North East by
the year 2030 with respect to the 1970s. Minimum temperatures are likely to rise from 1°C to 2.5°C and maximum
temperatures may rise by 1°C to 3.5°C
Supplementa
ry Regional
Assessment
In 2050s, the average daily maximum and minimum temperatures are both projected to rise by 2.2°C across the
State.
4.5 FUTURE TRENDS OF CLIMATE
CHANGE IN SILIGURI CITY
Lastly it can be said that the city Siliguri faces problem related to climate change in
the city provinces. The transportation, GHG emissions are the serious issues. The city
experiences a significant migration trend from core to periphery due to the extreme
pollution in the core area of the city. As we all know that the impact of the climate change
are so prolonged that it can hamper the city's organic entity by destroying its ecological
and resource vibrant reserves, thus the efforts of the governing body in that regards is
very important and in the next pages I would like to elaborate the steps taken by the
governing body in the Siliguri city provinces to make it clean green and vibrant city.

7. PART B: STEPS TAKEN BY GOVERNMENT AGENCIES TO TACKLE DISASTERS AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE CITY
5. IN CASE OF DISATERS:
Disaster Management is a collective term encompassing all aspects of planning for and responding to disaster including both pre- and post-disaster activities, it may refer to the management of both the risks
and consequence of disaster (Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, 2001) Among the various natural hazards, earthquakes are considered to be the most catastrophic one and reducing its disastrous impact
is most difficult due to its unpredictability and its severity. The impact of earthquake hazards becomes more severe in urban areas as compared to rural areas due to population concentration, varying built-
up environment and concentrated economies.
Experiences reveal that till now, in India, the efforts to mitigate the disasters relies only on structural and engineering measures. As far as town planning is concerned, till now, its main role is recognized only
in the post disaster situation in terms of reconstruction and rehabilitation. Its role in a pre-disaster situation i.e. for disaster mitigation is not realized.
Disaster mitigation measures: The Disaster Management Act (DMA) 2005 provides the legal and institutional framework for disaster management in India at the national, state and district levels. In like with
the DMA – 2005, the West Bengal state government prepared the Disaster Management Plan in 2014 with state and district level measures. Siliguri Under the west Bengal disaster management plan in 2014
focused upon the flood and earthquake related strategies and also in the transportation connecting parts it focused upon the land slide related issues.
6. IN CASE OF CLIMATE CHANGE:
In Siliguri due to high concentrations of people, infrastructure and resources, through the anthropogenic activities release the several Green House Gases (GHGs) and the most adverse impacts of climate
change will also likely be in these areas according to the World Bank. In this context, it is of the utmost urgency that a city is able to increase climate resilience to avoid these impacts. Climate resilience is
defined as the capacity for a socio-ecological system to: (1) absorb stresses and maintain function in the face of external stresses imposed upon it by climate change and (2) adapt, reorganize, and evolve
into more desirable configurations that improve sustainability of the system, leaving it better prepared for future climate change impacts. Planning for urban resilience should take into consideration the
activities that release GHGs and propose actions that not only help to reduce the sources of emissions but also help the city to adapt to the challenges of climate change, such as sea level rise, temperature
changes, precipitation changes or extreme events. Siliguri was the first city in India who adopted The Climate Resilient City Action Plan (CRCAP), which was initiated by the Siliguri Municipal
Corporation (SMC) under the CapaCITIES Project supported by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
6.1 CLIMATE RESILIENT ACTION PLAN IN SILIGURI CITY :
6.1.1 Methodology:
the Climate Resilient City Action Plan (CRCAP) for Siliguri has been developed using the Climate Resilient Cities
Methodology. The Methodology is tailor made for Local Governments (LGs), providing step by step guidance for
the development of a Climate Resilient City Action Plan that addresses both, climate change adaptation and
climate change mitigation. This process is based on the premise that climate resilience refers to both climate
change mitigation and adaptation, and linkages therein. The process equips LGs to estimate the GHG intensity
of city activities, assess the climate risks of various systems in the city in the context of urbanization and
vulnerability, identify actions to address existing and forecasted climate fragility and develop an
implementation and monitoring plan, which will not only help the city to adapt to existing and impending
climate change impacts, but will also steer the city’s focus to climate change mitigation measures as well. PIC 7: Hon'ble. Mayor Mr. A Bhattacharya giving speech in a seminar about capaCITIES project in
Siliguri city ( source Twitter handle of capaCITIES)

8. The Climate Resilient Cities Methodology is a 9-step process in 3 phases: Analyze, Act and Accelerate - each
unfolding into three steps - outlining how climate fragility can be assessed and climate resilient options (to achieve
low emissions development and climate adaptive development) can be identified and integrated into urban
development policies, plans and processes. It consists of a wide range of tools and guidance notes to support local
governments to deliver effective local climate action.
6.1.2 GHG Emissions Inventory
GHG emission inventory for year 2012 to 2015 was prepared under CapaCITIES project for Siliguri. The emissions
inventory comprises of two parallel analyses, one for the local government operations and one for all the
emissions within the community determined by the geographical boundaries of the SMC’s jurisdiction.
Community-level inventories include emissions from community activities within the local government’s
jurisdiction. This includes emissions from sources and/or activities from stationary units (residential,
commercial/institutional facilities, industrial), mobile transportation units, waste, and land-use. A community-wide
inventory is a useful planning tool in developing mitigation actions for the entire community.
Local Government operations inventories include emissions from all of the operations that a local government
owns or controls. Sectors included in a local government operations inventory include local government buildings,
facilities such as street lighting, water supply, and municipal vehicle fleet.
TABLE 1 : Projected medium and long term BAU GHG emission scenario
0
1,00,000
2,00,000
3,00,000
4,00,000
5,00,000
2,951,547.88
1,021,197.25
203,918.73
6,105,382.52
7,563.60
Residential buildings
Commercial and
Institutional
Buildings/ Facilities
Manufacturing
Industries and
Construction
On Road Transport
others
DIAGRAM 3: Sector wise GHG emission of Siliguri in 2015-16
PIC 8 : Air quality monitoring screen in SMC Office under capaCITIES project ( source:
https://youtu.be/jzlW2oL8hVA )
SOURCE OF THE DIAGRAM 3 AND TABLE 1 IS “CRCAP”’
REPORT OF SILIGURI, 2018

9. 6.1.3 Harmonized Emission Analysis Tool Plus (HEAT+):
Harmonized Emission Analysis Tool Plus (HEAT+) incorporates the latest technical findings (IPCC, 2006) and is based on the International Local Government GHG Emissions Analysis Protocol (IEAP). It also
incorporates the new international reporting requirements and standards outlined in the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GPC). HEAT+ is the tool used for GHG emissions.
The Harmonized Emissions Analysis Tool (HEAT+) is a specialized on-line application designed to help local governments:
1. Create emissions inventory of GHGs as well as air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, Sulphur oxides, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter;
2. Forecast growth of these emissions for a future year;
3. Evaluate policies and measures to reduce emissions of these pollutants; and 4. Prepare action plans to reduce emissions.
6.1.4 Data Sources and Collection:
The baseline year for this study was the financial year of 2015-16 (i.e. April 2015-March 2016). A full GHG inventory includes emissions from energy, waste, agriculture, forestry and land-use change, the
direct emissions from agriculture, land-use change and forestry sectors have not been included in the analysis as it is not happening with in city boundary. ICLEI South Asia and Siliguri Municipal Corporation
have engaged through meetings and letters with a number of municipal, local and sub-national stakeholders to source the relevant energy consumption data focusing on the large carbon emitters within
the municipal area.
PIC 9 : Air quality Measuring Machine in ward 32 in Siliguri under Climate Resilient city action Plan ( source:
https://youtu.be/jzlW2oL8hVA)
PIC 10 : Water leakages detection procedure Under the Climate Resilient city Action plan In Siliguri city ( source;
https://youtu.be/jzlW2oL8hVA)

10. 6.1.5 RESILIENCE INTERVENTIONS:
Potential Climate Resilience interventions were identified for the urban systems of Water Supply, Sanitation and Sewerage , Storm Water Drainage, Solid Waste Management and Transportation in Siliguri on the basis of
their GHG emissions and climate vulnerabilities. Once the sectoral potential interventions were identified, they were prioritized on the basis of their resilience capacity assessed in terms of their contributions to increased
Redundancy, Flexibility, Responsiveness, Access to information and GHG reduction potential. The interventions were then assessed for feasibility (technical, financial and political) and their impact (short, medium or long term)
through a multi-stakeholder consultation process. As far as possible, the prioritized interventions were linked to existing city plans and schemes so as to determine whether the required interventions can be integrated with little
or no additional resources into existing departmental programs or projects.
There were total 6 core sectors and under these 21 problem sectors were identified. The CAPAcities project has implemented some resilient interventions upon these sectors, I would like to present 1 core sectors
interventions in my following writings;
❖ SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT :
TABLE 2: Prioritized Resilience Interventions for GHG Emission Reduction in Solid waste Management sector.
SOURCE OF TABLE 3 IS CRCAP REPORT OF SILIGURI 2018, UNDER capaCITIES PROJECT.

11. 6.1.6 MAJOR CLIMATE CHANGE RESILIENT PLANNINGS IN FINANCIAL YEAR 2017-2018:
7. CONCLUSION:
As being a very important tourist center and economic center of the north-eastern region, Siliguri faces many environmental, anthropogenic issues from several decades. As the population of the city
continuously rising Conservation and protection of resources like air, land, water, forests, energy and biodiversity, combined with a planned shift to a low or no-carbon economy; maximize uses of
renewables for energy production and improving of energy efficiencies at all levels - generation, transmission, distribution and end uses becomes very important. The municipal corporation of Siliguri
should implement Capacity building for meeting new challenges of climate change and disasters which would, among other things, imply training of manpower (governmental and non- governmental),
launching broad-based awareness programmees, sensitizing all sections of people including students, taking on board communities, institutions, youth groups, women, voluntary organizations and media,
and raising both preparedness and response levels. There fore it is very important to the respective governing body to look the disaster and climate change related issues seriously and modeled some
necessary actions through some plans.
MAJOR SECTORS PLANNING IMPLIMENTATION
WATER SUPPLY Undertake Water Audit System (WAS): Purchase of two acoustic leak searching instruments and train a team of caretakers.
SOLID WASTE Technical assistance plan for assessing feasibility of closing the existing dump site.
Implementation of an integrated SWM system adopting 3R principles (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) in any pilot wards of SMC to set an exemplary model
TRANSPORT Comprehensive transportation survey by traffic experts (Indian and Swiss) for verification and adjustment of the proposed measures in this assessment report - to
speed up the traffic movement - to decongest the roads in the center - to solve the on street parking problem - to solve the on street vending problem - and to
reduce air pollution and emission of GHG in Siliguri.
Road map for implementation and gradual realization of the EMU
• Develop climate action plan (adaptation + mitigation) for Siliguri
• Estimate and prepare greenhouse gas emission inventory for Siliguri