Habitat and Infrastructures: A Localized Approach to Resilience

Abstract

Habitat and infrastructure is central to all the aspects associated with human life and living. While climate change is an all important issue, adaptation of human habitat and the physical infrastructure remains a key challenge to address. The concept of resilient built environment stems from the idea of lessening disaster impacts as well as quickening the recovery process. As hydro-meteorological disasters are likely to increase in terms of frequency and intensity as a consequence of global climate change, vulnerable community needs a more resilient built environment. But all the technically sound options are not viable for communities with resource constraints. This chapter describes how an approach incorporating local knowledge and skills with realizable technical knowhow can help building a better resilient community. Flood and cyclone are considered in this instance. For flood, the concepts elaborated here are yet to be realized. For cyclone, two realized case studies are presented. The core objective of this chapter is to address the importance and usefulness of looking at the “process” of building infrastructure rather than looking at the “product” in isolation. The “process” refers to involving community in the generation of design ideas and also respecting the local knowledge and skills in the construction procedure thus imparting the real sense of ownership to the community. While adaptation to climate change is the concern, such sense of belongingness by the community can help make it better.