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Exploring Curriculum for Integration of Disaster Risk Reduction
and Climate Change: The Case of Planning Schools in India
Anil Kumar Roy
Faculty of Planning, CEPT University, K.L. Campus, University Road, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, INDIA-
380009, e-mail: royanil@gmail.com
Ajith Kaliyath
National Institute of Urban Affairs, 1st and 2nd Floor, Core 4B, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, Delhi
110003, e-mail: ajithkaliyath@gmail.com
Debjani Ghosh
National Institute of Urban Affairs, 1st and 2nd Floor, Core 4B, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi, Delhi
110003, e-mail: dghosh@niua.org
Abstract
This paper explores the existing urban planning curriculum of selected planning schools in India in order to
understand deepening of research, skill formation and the possible change in the pedagogy due to growing concerns
of Climate Change (CC) and Disaster Risk Reductions (DRR) in the urban area. The study selected three planning
schools from three pathways of planning education that exists in India. They are 1. School of Planning and
Architecture (SPA), New Delhi from specialised public funded planning schools under the direct control of Ministry
of Human Resource Development, Government of India; 2. Department of City and Regional Planning, Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur specialised technical training institute emphasising spatial planning
through public funding and 3. Faculty of Planning, CEPT University, Ahmedabad a private University recognised
by an Act of State Assembly of Gujarat Province, India. All three institutes have more than 40 years of history of
planning education in India. The urban planning course curriculum of these three schools have been examined using
content analysis methods. The concerned programme coordinators and head of the departments have also been
consulted to know the general tendency of integration of CC and DRR knowledge into their planning curriculum.
An account of research outreach of faculty members, student’s dissertation and institutional publication in the field
of CC and DRR particularly in urban areas has also been presented to know research outreach with the community.
Skill development and changes in the pedagogy of all the schools have been captured through the content analysis of
their respective curriculum.
The existing literature on planning education across the globe reveals that urban planning education has recognised
the importance of CC and DRR aspects in planning and managing cities. However, Indian planning schools are now
started considering CC and DRR as one of the important components in their curriculum. The content analysis
shows that all the three schools have made efforts to understand and internalize the CC and DRR concepts into their
curriculum. There are also courses (both core as well as elective) that teach about these issues. Amongst the three
schools, it was found that the Faculty of Planning at CEPT University was more deeply engaged through research
and skill development than SPA, New Delhi and IIT Kharagpur. This could be primarily attributed to the short
period (2010 to 2012) during which CEPT had established separate faculty for Sustainable Environment and Climate
Change pooling the resources from Faculty of Planning. It is observed that these institutions have engaged with the
theme and facilitated a moderate level of knowledge exchange with the premier institutions that involved in CC and
DRR in India. SPA, New Delhi has established greater linkages with these agencies mostly located in New Delhi.
The deepening of the content impacting the pedagogy is yet to be taken up by any of these schools.There is a
growing interest in these topics amongst the institutions. It will be very timely for leading agencies engaged in CC
and DRR to step in and enhance the institution's stake and resource base to make visible impacts in cities and towns
in India.
Keywords: Indian Planning Education, Climate Change, Disaster Management, Urban Planning
Curriculam
Note: This paper won the best paper award in the 14 International Congress of Asian Planning Schools
Association held at the Tsinghua University, Beijing, China during 12-14 October 2017.
Introduction
There are emerging discourses around the world about the competency of planners to respond to new
challenges such as climate change and disaster risk reduction. Some of these have called for reform
of the professional practices and updating of the planners’ tools. ''Urban planning has its roots in late
19th century reformism and town design, and this is increasingly inappropriate for current
circumstances'' (Evans, 1993:10). Planning for climate change demands ability to respond to
uncertainty and complex situations. Society and adaptation policy and planning settings face
continuous evolution on a number of fronts, including adaptation technologies, strategies, networks
and structures (Rammel and van den Bergh, 2003). Planners are therefore obliged to deal with a
range of challenging or 'wicked' problems, climate change being just one example of these, albeit
that it has been described as a 'super wicked' problem (Levin et al., 2012:124) resulting in
unprecedented demands of planners. "It is argued that the practice of incremental planning will be
insufficient and that transformations via developing deliberate adaptive pathways will be necessary
which will require planners to develop their capacity for adaptive learning"(Davidson &
Lyth,2012:65).
Citing Kitchen, Poxon (2001:567) commented "it is very difficult to speculate on the future of
planning education without thinking about the future of planning practice". This is very similar to
the views expressed by Hamnett (1999:6) "changes to the programmes of planning education are
inextricably linked to changes occurring in the world of planning practice and reflect to a
considerable extent the continuing efforts of the planning profession to remain relevant. Evans
(1993:14) opined that "town planning is not environmental planning and new agendas need new
approaches which are not restricted by professionalism". In order to retain its strategic significance,
the planning profession needs to develop what Evans (1993:11) called as "cognitive competence".
This view was also expressed by Davidson and Lyth (2012:79) when they stated that "by
incorporating education for climate change adaptation into the core of planning programmes,
planning students are likely to be engaged in some of the most difficult contemporary planning
problems". Poxon (2001:565) has advocated "education of planners needed to change to reflect the
changing nature of the planning activity in practice". UN-Habitat (2009, 185) has identified
sustainability, social equity and climate change as three global challenges that planning schools
around the world need to ensure that they discuss effectively.
"Integration of CC and DRR in the urban context will necessitate rethinking of past assumptions on
urban development, updating city “master plans”; zoning laws and related spatial plans; land use
planning tools and regulations; building and design codes, etc., in light of new climatic knowledge
and based on local risk and vulnerability assessments. All this requires sustained capacity
development (for example training urban planners who will use climate models and scenarios for
urban planning processes)" (Habtezion, S. and Padgham, J,2014:4)
As per the estimates of UN-Habitat, there are 3,351 low-lying coastal cities across the world. Among
the top 10, in terms of population exposed to coastal flood hazard, two Indian cities feature in the list
– Mumbai and Kolkata. While India’s 7,500 km long coastline accommodates more than a 100
million people, fifty-three Indian cities have a population of more than a million (2011 Census) and
25 of these cities are in the coastal states and are at the highest risk of sea level rise and related
coastal hazards due to climate change (TERI, 2011).
Looking at India’s potential risk and vulnerability due to natural and human disaster and climate
extremes events particularly in urban areas, it is essential to assess the existing course contents of
planning schools that imparts knowledge, skills and prepares future urban planners/actors and
practitioners, for making city resilient and safe in the context of climate change adaptation and
disaster risk reduction management.
Aim and objectives
This study aims to assess whether the current curricula in selected planning schools of India have an
adequate coverage of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation tools, techniques and
approaches to equip future practitioners.
The followings are objectives of the study
1. To assess the extent of coverage of disaster risk reduction and mitigation and climate change
related aspects in the planning curricula of the selected schools in India;
2. To examine the deepening of DRR and CC into urban planning research and practices;
3. To understand the institutional capacity and the extent of engagement with other stakeholders
for professional practices related to DRR and CC and
4. To provide policy implications for planning education in India vis-a vis DRR and CC.
Detailed methodology and sources of data
The paper tries to understand the existing course curricula with respect to DRR and CC in the
selected planning schools in India. The selection of planning schools is based on the broader nature
of affiliations- government or private run schools of planning. There are 29 planning school in India
at present and substantial number of them are run by the private organizations (ITPI, 2016).
Amongst these schools there are four pathways of planning education with focused ideologies
reflected into their course curricula. The first pathway is the Schools of Planning and Architecture
(SPAs) that focus on promoting traditional planning practices of physical planning through design
and pragmatic planning tools such as master planning and developmental control regulations. They
are run by the government support system. The second pathway that are also governed by the
government are IITs especially, the IIT Roorkee and the IIT Kharagpur which follow similar
ideology in their respective planning curriculum with dominance of architecture and engineering
solutions to planning problems, while a third pathway emerged with the Faculty of Planning at
CEPT University a quasi-government funded private university that follows MIT and Chicago
schools of thoughts and promotes socio-economic planning along with physical planning and design
oriented curriculum. The fourth pathway, however more recent ones, of planning schools in India are
those private technical institutes which follow prescribed but not mandatory model course
curriculum by All Indian Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Institute of Town Planners,
India (ITPI), respectively, which provide general guidelines for planning education in India.
The first three pathways are established pathways and have considerable history of planning
education in India, hence we have selected three planning schools from each pathways. They are
SPA, New Delhi, Department of Architecture and Regional Planning, IIT Kharagpur and Faculty of
Planning, CEPT University, Ahmedabad.
In order to understand the coverage of DRR and CC in their respective course curriculum, a content
analysis has been done for each school’s curriculum. The content analysis helped us to assess a)
background and basis for introduction of the courses on DRR and CC b) what is the extent of
coverage of disaster risk management and climate change related aspects in the planning curricula;
c) how are they sequenced through the semesters; d) whether or not there is sufficient hands on
application of methods and tools.
An exhaustive list of all the thesis and dissertation being completed on DRR and CC related aspects
at each planning schools was prepared. This has helped us to understand the deepening of research
and professional learning into the DRR and CC related issues. The time line of thesis being
conducted on DRR and CC also provide the clue that DRR and CC are comparatively more recent
issues that have caught attention of urban planning education in India.
Further to supplement our assessment of the review of respective course curriculum, the authors
have conducted consultative meeting with the Deans, Programme Coordinators and Head of the
Departments of urban planning and other relevant departments in all the three schools. This has
supported our understanding of the institutional capacity and professional engagement of these
schools with the practice as far as DRR and CC are concerned. The report further attempted to
provide policy implication for planning education in India with respect to DRR and CC.
Sources of data
The following data were collected from both online and through a single visit to the respective schools:
• Secondary sources of data –planning curricula of selected planning schools, list of thesis and
dissertation, list of research publications and professional works being completed etc.
• Interview and consultations with respective Dean, Head of Department/Programme Coordinators
of the planning schools.
Discussions and Major findings
Institutional Understanding of CC and DRR
The institutional understanding was assessed through review of curricula, interviews with the faculty
members with regard to their professional engagements, research and policy support activities and
outreach initiatives. A Centre for Urban Disaster Studies was also setup at SPA, New Delhi in 2011
as a partnership of the Departments of Urban Planning, Housing and Environmental Planning. The
Department of Environmental Planning has been hosting the ENVIS Centre for Human Settlements
set up by the Central Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change since 1993. The
Department has established a Centre for Climate Change and Human Settlements in 2012 within
SPA. This new Centre was initiated with objectives such as 1) preparation of a comprehensive
database relating to human settlements and climate change, 2) conducting research in areas related
drivers of climate change in human settlements, policy and program integration, economic and legal
dimensions, 3) conducting field studies to document best practices, 4) contribute to the training
needs related to capacity building at various levels in climate responsive human settlement planning
and 5) Inform and provide advisory inputs to local authorities for mainstreaming climate resilient
planning.
While the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning at IIT- Kharagpur recognized the
importance of climate change and related disaster risks in urban planning and therefore has
introduced a subject on Disaster Management as part of elective courses into the curriculum of
Master in City Planning. Besides, there has been intermittent efforts of faculty members and students
to work on the climate change adaptation and disaster related issues through sponsored projects and
thesis respectively. As far as planning studio’s works are concerned, climate change and disaster
risks has seen cross cutting issues in preparation of both micro planning exercise and development
plan preparations as part of the academic work in the first years of Master of City Planning courses.
Faculty of Planning at CEPT University provides greater importance to CC and DRR. It has been
offering a specialization in Environment Planning since 1987 and had also initiated an independent
Faculty of Climate Change for 3 years (2010 - 2012). However, it eventually was merged with the
Environment Planning course. Faculty members are also engaging themselves in the field of CC and
DRR as far urban planning is concerned. The core faculty members have also contributed both in
academic and professional field as far as the CC and DRR are concerned. They are primarily
engaged in articulation, visualization and advocacy in low carbon society and equity planning.
Promotion of sustainable transport and low carbon public transport system are the areas where they
are currently pursuing their professional and academic interests.
Components of CC and DRR in Existing Pedagogy
Since the Department of Urban Planning and the Department of Environmental Planning at SPA,
New Delhi are the two specialisations which offer courses in areas related to CC and DRR, only the
curricula of these departments have been reviewed. It is noted that SPA’s School of Planning offers
other 3 courses – Housing, Transport and Regional Planning as well. Figure 1 and 2 provide
information about the allocation of marks in urban planning and environmental planning as part of the
learning pedagogy.
The Department of Urban Planning offers one core course on ''Environment, Development and
Disaster Management'' and an elective course on "Energy, Climate Change and Urban Development"
both in the third semester. The core course has modules on 1) environment, development and disaster-
interface, 2) disaster which discusses classification, vulnerability, risks, human responses and 3)
disaster mitigation and management which teaches disaster preparedness, integration of disaster
mitigation in spatial planning process and 3) infrastructure for disaster mitigation. The elective course
covers 1) impact of climate change, 2) policies and programmes for climate change mitigation and
adaptation. Both the core and elective courses carry 100 marks each out of the total 4000 marks.
Figure 1: Source: SPA Delhi, (2016)
The Department of Environmental Planning does not offer any course either in CC or in DRR.
However, a detailed review of the curriculum of Environmental Planning shows that it has
incorporated 1) urban climatology, 2) climate change and city planning, 3) clean development
mechanism, 4) climate change protocols and conventions, 5) carrying capacity and 6) environmental
disaster in core theory classes. The environmental design course which covers major share of the
teaching related to climate change carries 100 marks out of 4000 which does not make any significant
impact.
Figure 2: Source: SPA Delhi, 2016
The overall pedagogy focuses on understanding and professional skill development in urban and
regional planning with mobility, provisioning of services and utilities, urban design and infrastructure
developments at IIT- Kharagpur. Climate change and disaster related understanding, application of
tools and techniques as well as approaches in dealing with urban planning problems and solutions has
not been a major concerns of planning pedagogy. This is quite obvious as the Institute has multi-
disciplinary departments which exclusively imparts education, provides training and professional
services on climate change adaptation and mitigation and disaster management. The students of
Master of City Planning (MCP) encouraged to take up elective courses from across the departments at
IIT-Kharagpur. MCP course of the Department follows a very systematic pedagogy in the following
manner:
• Theoretical and practical understanding of spatio-cultural reality through lecture, theory courses
and Planning Studios (1st and 2nd Semester)
• Capacity building in research and practice (3rd and 4thSemester)
Figure 3: Source: Department of Architecture and Regional Planning, IIT-Kharagpur, 2009
Faculty of Planning, CEPT University offers 2 years Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP)
with 5 majors respectively in Landuse Planning, Housing, Environmental Planning, Infrastructure
Planning and Transport Planning. Students are required to earn 80 credits from the 4 semesters of which
substantial focus is given on the studio based learning.
Figure 4: Source: Faculty of Planning, CEPT University
Figure 4 shows the breake up of the total 80 credits. There has been a greater emphasis on the studio
learning which involves hands-on of planning and plan preparation. Students have freedom to choose
topics for their dissertation from multi-disciplinary subject domains in which CC and DRR are recently
being taken up seriously. Besides there are many courses related to CC and DRR being offered at the
Faculty of Planning, CEPT University. Table 1 provides the list of the subjects on CC and DRR.
Table 1. Subject List: CC and DRR, Faculty of Planning, CEPT University
No.
Subject details
1.
Name of the subjects
Climate
change and
cities I
Disaster
Management
Culture Climate
and Built
environment
Introduction to
Climate Change
2.
Theme
CC
DRR
CC
CC
3.
Eligibility (Master’s/
bachelor’s)
Master’s and
final year
Masters only
Master’s and
final year
Master’s and
final year
bachelor’s
bachelor’s
bachelor’s
4.
Core/elective
Core
Elective
Elective
Elective
5.
Credits
2
2
2
2
6.
Duration(in one week)
2 hours
2 hours
2 hours
2 hours
Source: Faculty of Planning, CEPT University, 2016
There are four subjets on CC and DRR that are offered at the Faculty of Planing. They are of core and
electives in nature and being offered to both the Master and Bachelor students. In order to promote cross
learning of multidisciplinary subjects like CC and DRR across the university, these subjects are open to
the other faculties of the University as well.
Deepening of CC and DRR into Planning Research and Practices
Faculty member’s involvement in the CC and DRR research
This study has identified intellectual activities within the planning schools and the key outputs as an
indicator of the degree of engagement with CC & DRR by the core faculty members. Hence, a list of the
publications, conference presentations, trainings and other learning events of SPA, New Delhi is
presented below (see Table 2) .
Table. 2: Knowledge Products and Learning Events in CC & DRR during 2005-15
Activities/Intellectual
Contributions
International
National
Publications
1
2
Conference Presentations
2
11
Conferences organised/
2
6
Conferences attended
4
8
Trainings Attended
1
0
Trainings/Lectures Organised
Nil
2
Awards/Recognitions
1
2
Source: SPA Delhi
It suggests that reasonable efforts have been made by the institution to engage and contribute to the
discourse. While there is a reasonable involvement in external activities, internalisation of the idea
within the institution has not completely happened. It is observed that the number of learning events
led by the institution, publications and international exchanges are inadequate to influence learning
and reproduction of ideas especially when it is a new area of scholarship in the domain of CC and
DRR.
It has been observed that a visible level of research underpinning through planning thesis both at
MCP and Doctoral Studies at IIT-Kharagpur, has happened as far as the CC and DRR are concerned,
however, given that long history of planning education, planning thesis work done exclusively on the
CC and DRR application, compared to other two planning schools, is less at the Department
compared to other two schools. The faculty members involvements in CC and DRR research and
practice are limited to the following details (see Table 3).
Table 3: List of Research Paper in CC and DRR by the Faculty Members
Year
Title of the paper
Author
CC
DM
National/International
2011-12
Climate Change and the
Issue of Sustainable
Urbanism
Chattopadhyay,
Subrata
1
NCHF Journal, Special issue on
the occasion of World habitat
Day Vol. XXIV, No. 3-
4, (2011)
Appraisal of policy for
industrial hazardous waste
infrastructure
Das, A.,
Mazumder,
T.N. and
Gupta, A.K.
1
(ICFIF 2011)
Integrated Strategy for
Reduction of Earthquake
Hazards
H. Banerji and
B.K.
Sengupta,
1
ABACUS (Vol.5,No)pp 43
(2010)
Seismic-Resistant
Investigation of Multi-
Storey Building by
Response Spectrum
Method
Bhattacharya,
S.P. and
Chakraborty,
S.K.
1
International Journal of
Acoustics and Vibration 16 (1),
(17-22). (2011)
Vulnerability Assessment
using Hazard Potency for
regions generating
Industrial Hazardous Waste
Arup Das, A K
Gupta, T N
Mazumder
1
Journal of Hazardous
Materials Vol.209–210,
P308- (2012)
2010-11
Seismic Performance Based
Architectural Design
Guideline for Multi-storied
Apartment Housing.
Bhattacharya,
S.P. and
Chakraborty,
S.K.
1
Annual International Journal on
Architectur
e, Conservation and
Urban Studies, ABACUS, 5(1),
(23-29). (2010)
2006-
2007
An Approach to
Vulnerability Assessment
for Tropical Cyclones: A
cases study of the Coastal
Districts of West Bengal
Taraknath
Mazumder,
S.K. Dube,
Arup Das
1
ITPI Journal Vol. 3, No.
4 (2006
Source: Dept. of Architecture and Regional Planning, IIT-KGP, 2016
There has been consistent involvement of the faculty members and students in research and
publication in the field of CC and DRR at the Faculty of Planning, CEPT University. Followings are
the recent research and professional works of the faculty members that are directly related to CC and
DRR application in the field of planning.
Table 4: List of Research/Consultancy Projects by Faculty Members, CEPT University
No
Project title
Sponsored Agency
Year
1
Climate Change Adaptation Plan in Industrial
Estates of Gujarat
GIZ, India office, New
Delhi
2011
2
Low carbon mobility in India and the challenges of
Social Inclusion
UNEP
2012
3
Low carbon city: A guidebook for city planners
and practitioners
UNEP
2013
4
Collaborative Programme to Study the Impacts of
Climate Change on Human, Natural and Spatial
Environments in Gujarat
Ministry of Earth Sciences,
Government of India
2011-2014
5
Training Module for Climate Change Adaptation
GEC, Govt. of Gujarat
2011-12
6
Climate Change Resilience Prioritization
CDIA, Manila
2012-13
7
Building Disaster Risk Reduction in Urban
Development Planning, Training Programme for
the state level official
GIDM, Government of
Gujarat
2012-13
8
State of Air Environment in Gujarat (2012)
GEC, GoG
2012
9
Preparation of Training Modules for Climate
Change Capacity Building Programme for
Academicians, Govt. Officials and Industries in
Gujarat, under a MoEF funded program.
2012
10
Impact of Global Warming on Disaster Pattern in
Gujarat.
Gujarat Ecological
Education and Research
Foundation, Government of
Gujarat
2013
11
Climate Change and Vulnerability of Coastal
Settlements in Gujarat.
Ministry of Earth Sciences
(MoES), Government of
India
2014
Project Proposal Submitted to various agencies
1
Comparative Study of Carbon Footprint of Low
Rise Buildings with Larger ground cover vs High
Rise Buildings with Smaller ground cover.
Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd.
2013
2
Urban transformation in a changing climate – key
drivers for resilient and low carbon cities
(CLIMTRANS)
Grant application
submitted to the Research
Council of Norway
2012-13
3
Rethinking ‘climate resilient cities’: multilevel risk
governance and transformative urban politics in
BRICS (RETHINKCLIMATE)
Grant application
submitted to the Research
Council of Norway
2012-13
Source: Faculty of Planning, CEPT University, 2016
Graduate Students involvement in the CC and DRR research work
The studdents of graduate studies at all the three schools have been exposed to the research activities on
CC and DRR through their dissertation programmes. The comparative list of thesis of all the three
selected schools are presented below. It is observed that SPA, New Delhi and Faculty of Planning, CEPT
University has completed more number of thesis on CC and DRR related issues. Given the long history
of SPA, New Delhi and Faculty of Planning, CEPT University, the student’s esposure to the CC and
DRR research areas are not so very impressive. It has also been observed that most the thesis related to
DRR and CC are of recent period, which is obvious that the discourse on CC and DRR are also of recent
relevance in the international literature. Compared to these two schools, Department of Architecture and
Regional Planning, at IIT-K has a very poor score as far students thesis work on the CC and DRR are
concerened (see Table 5).
Table 5: The number of Master’s thesis submitted on the issues of CC and DRR
Sl. No
Theme
Number of Master’s Dissertation/Thesis from inceptions
FP, CEPT
University
SPA, New
Delhi*
Dept. of Architecture
and Regional
Planning, IIT-Kg
1
Disaster Management
Components (DM)
22
25
4
2
Climate Change –
Adaptation, Mitigation and
Action plan (CC)
18
15
1
3
CC+DM
1
5
0
4
Total
41
45
5
Note* The figure includes Six Doctoral Thesis as well.
Sources: Respective Departments of SPA, New Delhi, FP CEPT University and IIT-KG.
Institutional Capacity to Incorporate CC and DRR into Planning Curriculum
A review of the qualifications of faculty members in the Department of Urban Planning and
Environmental Planning at SPA, New Delhi shows that there are only four faculty members (1 in
Urban Planning and 3 in Environmental Planning) who have training and experience relevant to CC
and DRR. Both the departments invite external experts from organisations such as NIDM, NIUA,
TCPO, BMTPC, UNDP, DST and Climate Group. Being located in Delhi, it is easier to reach out to a
large pool of external experts. However, the role of an external expert is limited to sharing knowledge
through random interactions whereas institutional memory and integration of the knowledge through
revision of pedagogy can only happen when there is a large pool of expertise within the institution.
This can also be one of the factors that has resulted in a relatively smaller share of student research in
CC and DRR. However, there are alumni members who have secured positions in policy making
(MoEF&CC and T&CPO), research organisations such as NIDM and TERI as well as leading
consultancy organisations. They act as an important group of people who contribute to the knowledge
exchange between the School and the expert agencies in CC and DRR. Their success influences the
planning students positively.
There is a reasonable institutional capacity of the Department Architecture and Regional Planning,
IIT-Kg, which has enabled it in providing education, advisory and consultancy services and engage
with the students and faculty in conducting research in CC and DRR. Some of the Faculty member’s
publications are evidence of their serious engagement with CC and DRR related aspects that directly
or indirectly impact urban development. However, apart from a single subject module on the Disaster
Management as an elective subject, there has been a general lack of application of climate change
tools and techniques in planning course curriculum at the Department at IIT- Kg.
Faculty of Planning, CEPT University has compartively better institutional capacity as there are
designated faculty members leading the Environmental Planning Specialisation, with desired
qualifications and training in CC and DRR. However, environment and sustainability is well
integrated into the existing curriculum across the 5 specialisation, yet, CC and DRR have not been
very well integrated into the courses and studios curriculum. While environmental planning
specialization has somewhat helped in mainstreaming the CC discourse into the studios and the
courses, DRR has not been mainstreamed yet in any of the specialisation. CC and DRR have
internationally been considered important ideas, but how it can affect urban policies and be included
in practice is not clear at present in India. This uncertainty is also reflected in attitudes of faculty
members in incorporating CC and DRR into the curriculum.
Intuitional Collaborations for mutual learning in CC and DRR
The SPA, New Delhi recognises the value of partnering with other institutions contributing to the
intellectual discourses or policy interventions. The results of the past collaborations are evident
through increased academic and non academic outputs and visibility. These partnerships were
discussed in the section dealing with urban labs/studios. There were opportunities for faculty and
student mobility within the country and occasionally internationally too. The participation of Prof.
Sanjukta Bhaduri in the international conference on “Scientific Challenges in implementing
Integrated Disaster Risk Management in a Changing World”, held in Kyoto (2009) and Prof.
Mahavir's participation in the International Conference on Responding to Climate Change: UK-Indian
Perspective held at QU Belfast, UK (2012) were such opportunities. Based on the previous
experiences and institutional preferences, a list of key stakeholders were drawn through consultations
with the faculty members (see Figure 5).
Figure 5: SPA Delhi Identified CC & DRR Stakeholders
In the recent past, SPA through the Department of Urban Planning and Environmental Planning had
international exchanges with Tokyo University, Japan and Queen's University Belfast, UK. Currently,
there are no exchange programmes. Since CC and DRR is an area of international interest, academic
or non academic partnerships that can enrich the intellectual discourses within the School will help
promoting scholarship and creating more visible activities within the School. The Department of
Urban Planning had partnered with Kyoto University, Japan and Municipal Corporation of Greater
Mumbai to prepare a Community-led Disaster Management Plan (2000-13). During the year 2006-07,
the Department of Environmental Planning collaborated with FES, Germany to organise National
Workshops in five Indian cities on Environmental Management of Tsunami affected areas.
The Department of Architecture and Regional Planning, IIT-Kg has limited collaborations with other
institutes engaged in CC and DRR. Inter-school joint studio work has been initiated with the School
of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. Summer and Winter Schools are possible platform through
which exchange of faculty and students takes place between and amongst the planning schools in
India. The department has in-house summer and winter schools in which 3-4 weeks short courses are
offered.
There is a regular exchange programme between National University of Singapore (NUS) and Indiana
University, USA with this department where faculty and students are pursuing their respective
programme of studies in urban planning and CC and DRR. A recent MoU has been signed between
the department and a Japanese Institute for carrying out joint studies in CC and DRR.
The following institutions have been identified by the Faculty of Planning, CEPT for the academic
and professional engagement in CC and DRR. Figure 6
Since, Masters in Urban and Regional Planning programme at CEPT is just for two years, to build in
an exchange programme is difficult as the student who opts for the exchange programme with
international universities for a semester or two will have to repeat the time spent at the exchange
programme back in CEPT University, as there is no mechanism for credit transfers with other
institutions. The Summer and Winter Schools however provide an option for initiating short course
based exchange programmes with other national and international institutes.
Challenges and Opportunities
SPA, New Delhi
Since curriculum plays a critical role in shaping the academic programme and student activities in the
School, it is essential that CC and DRR issues are integrated adequately in the curriculum. The
curriculum for Urban Planning was last updated in 2010 whereas in Environmental Planning, it was
updated in 2008. Since the School will introduce credit based system from 2017, the curricula of all
departments will be reviewed and updated during 2016. This gives an opportunity to incorporate more
detailed elements related to CC and DRR in the new curriculum. The lack of adequate number of
faculty members with training and experience in CC and DRR is another institutional challenge.
With respect to the inclusion of CC and DRR into planning curriculum the evidences suggest that the
School has long ago realised the merit of integrating CC and DRR into the curriculum. There have
been various efforts to internalise critical ideas and promote learning through introduction of relevant
topics. However, it appears that all these were reactive in nature as there does not seem to have
coherent strategy or thought leadership which has promoted this internally and within the institutional
networks. The actions taken in the past were good enough to create awareness among planning
students and planning fraternity about the challenges and opportunities related to CC and DRR.
However, since there is a serious shortage of trained human resource and scholarship on the spatial
contexts of resilience in Indian cities, the institution needs to take a more proactive role.
Department of Architecture and Regional Planning, IIT- Kharagpur
Planner’s role is limited while providing the solutions to the CC and DRR, however there is a larger
scope in the field of habitat management and transport planning where CC and DRR related aspects
can be incorporated in the overall urban planning education, says Prof. Somnath Sen, programme
coordinator of MCP at the department. The environmental planning programme of the department
particularly in its studio or laboratory work focuses on the CC and DRR from time to time as a
regular academic exercise. There is a an initiative call SUSTAINABILIA in which environmental
planning programme tries to include CC and DRR related aspects of human settlement into planning
education. However these are not sufficient knowledge for serious incorporation of CC and DRR
into planning curriculum. There is a need for capacity building in this field as fas as planners’ ability
to deal with CC and DRR in urban areas are concerned. A short term course on CC mitigation and
adaptation as well as DRR for faculty member and doctoral students would be helpful in
strengthening the urban planning courses at the department. With the new challenges of CC and
DRR urban area are becoming much more vulnerable and a serious lack of capable urban planning
professionals has been felt during the recent times. Hence, capacity building and education of CC
and DRR is needed for the urban planning professional. Financial constrains sometime comes in the
way in providing training and capacity building progrmame for the teaching staff.
Faculty of Planning, CEPT University
Challenges are manifold in incorporating CC and DRR into planning curriculum and taking the
agenda of National Mission on Climate Change forward. There are financial constrains in funding of
capacity building in the related field of CC and DRR of existing research scholars and faculty
members, as MURP programme is now completely self-financed programme at CEPT University. It
is expected to mobilise the fund for capacity building in this regard in the medium to long run. As far
resources such as access to information, data base and open sources software of CC and DRR are
concerned, they are inadequate due to lack of funding. The research activities exclusively on CC and
DRR are not being promoted or encouraged in-house due to want of external support. Some of the
consultancy projects and research work related to built-environment, climate change and disaster
risk have been done as and when there was funding available. However, there is a huge potential to
develop expertise and promote CC and DRR with the support of Environmental Planning
specialization at the faculty. The faculty members are from multi-disciplinary background, hence
they can be encouraged to take up the challenges of CC and DRR at urban and regional scale.
The stakeholder identified by the Faculty of Planning including the vast pool of alumni of Faculty of
Planning are potential agencies to be engaged with, in order to streamline the CC and DRR into
planning education. There has been revision of planning course curriculum from time to time to
incorporate the relevant domain knowledge that will enhance the overall development of planning
education and profession at large. Previously, a Board of Studies which would review every 4th or
5th year still continues. The Board of Studies consists of expert from the field of environment and
related domain, working professional and alumni with vast experience in the subject. While a lot of
changes have occurred since 1987, the main thrust area with which it started in 1987 and still
continues is the Environmental Development debate which got converted into Environmental
Planning. Now a lot of Climate Change and Disaster related issues have been integrated. A number
of studios have also focused on CC and DRR. Besides environmental planning specialization, the
other specialization especially transport planning, infrastructure planning, landuse planning etc. are
also encouraging CC and DRR related aspects to be included in the planning education. Topics like
low carbon mobility, green infrastructure, urban heat island, disaster management and city, smart
and resilient cities etc. are being included into the regular curriculum of all these specialization
through electives and core courses.
Conclusion
The review of the evidence based informations and discussion with the faculty members suggests that
SPA Delhi has recognized the importance of training planning students in the areas related to CC and
DRR. While there had been some earnest efforts to address this, it has not resulted in a systematic
integration of this area within the School's educational and research activities. There is also a need to
ensure that the integration happens at the pedagogical level and trainings ensure students go through a
combination of measures that can give them both theoretical knowledge as well as transferable skills.
The consultations with the faculty members as well as the students highlight the need for more
application oriented modules.
The above discussion revels that there has been a better understanding of importance of CC and DRR
in planning education and training at the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning at IIT,
Kharagpur. It is also very evident that there is a sufficient institutional capacity to deal with the CC
and DRR related topics at pedagogy level. CC and DRR has been the cross cutting ideas in both the
theory and laboratory courses. Besides, a full-fledged elective course on Disaster Management is an
indication of the fact that CC and DRR issues are taken seriously and has been embedded in the
curriculum of MCP. However, internalization of climate change and disaster related risk and
vulnerability at planning curriculum level will need more time. The student engagement with CC and
DRR related topic by taking up thesis project has not been encouraging given the institutional
capacity that is better in handling such topics. The focus of planning education at master degree level
in the department has been by and large concentrated on the basic core issues of planning such as
urban basic services, urban infrastructure, environmental planning, transport planning and housing.
The tools, techniques and some of the methods through which CC and DRR can be embedded into the
urban planning education is possible, provided there is a strong national urban agenda that enables
integration of these into the planner's tool box.
With the rising concern of climate change and disaster risk and their resultant impacts on society both
in urban and rural areas, Faculty of Planning, CEPT University have developed a better understanding
of these concerns and has been trying to include the conceptual understanding, tools and techniques to
visualize and internalize these risks to the society through planning education and professional
practices with the help of in-house capability and external support. However, there have been isolated
efforts by individual faculty members and specialization to incorporate the CC and DRR in planning
curriculum. The efforts so far in dealing with the concerns of CC and DRR have been reactive
whenever, there are opportunities of support from the external agencies. The faculty faces various
challenges in incorporating CC and DRR due to lack of technical and financial capability in
consolidation of learnings in the areas of CC and DRR that can be mainstreamed into the planning
curriculum. The multi-level engagement of the faculty with other stakeholders as far as CC and DRR
are concerned, has to some extent influence the planning pedagogy. Climate modeling, community
adaptations, low carbon mobility etc. are included in planning courses. There is a need to consolidate
these efforts and bring CC and DRR as the cross cutting elements of planning curriculum at the
Faculty of Planning. This will be possible with support of the stakeholders identified and regular long
term collaborations with the like-minded institutes and agencies working in the field of CC and DRR.
Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely acknowledge support of UNDP, India office for conducting this research. Sincere
thanks to the Director Mr Jagan Shah, of National Institute of Urban Affairs for providing valuable
suggestions during the field work and hosting the two workshops for discussion on the study. Authors
sincerely express their gratitude to all the reviewers of the study report, especially Dr Ashok Kumar, Prof.
Shrawan Acharya, Prof. Minakshi Dhote and others who provided their valuable suggestions to improve
the content and intellectual standards of this study.
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