Abstract
India’s urban future is under threat from a changing climate. Evidence over the last twenty-eight years shows an increasing trend in the frequency and intensity of extreme events. With over 300 extreme events, the majority of which occurred since 2005, estimated damages are around US$78.8 billion. There is a significant toll of these extreme events with over 1.33 billion people being affected. Studies on future climate projections indicate that as the frequency and intensity of extreme events increase, cities may experience nonlinear health impacts. In addition to increasing the burden of disease, it will put enormous strain on financial resources as well as health systems. These effects are exemplified in the context of the mega-city, Mumbai. Urban planning choices have left the city vulnerable to flooding and heat waves. There exists a substantial burden of both communicable and non-communicable diseases in Mumbai. A single, unprecedented rainfall event, in 2005, resulted in over 200,000 patients being treated in a single tertiary care hospital of the city. These findings indicate the need for cities to proactively plan for responding to extreme events. There remain significant opportunities to design cities that are resilient to extreme events and to protect the health of people.
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Notes
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EM-DAT. The international disaster database. Available at https://www.emdat.be/, last accessed 22 November 2018.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Ms. Tanushree Garg for her assistance with developing the land-use map for Mumbai.
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Dholakia, H.H., Jalan, I., Garg, A. (2020). Extreme Events and Health in Mumbai, India. In: Akhtar, R. (eds) Extreme Weather Events and Human Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23773-8_24
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