Urbanization coupled with the lack of space has led to soil sealing and encroachment upon stream ... more Urbanization coupled with the lack of space has led to soil sealing and encroachment upon stream corridors in many cities the world over. This has caused not just the degradation of the riparian ecosystem, but has also increased the frequency and intensity of flash flooding. India is one of the countries worst affected by urban floods. To manage flood risk, especially in the case of rain-fed urban streams, not just the government but also the public needs to be engaged in the management of the stream corridor. In this context of flood risk management, the resilience concept is increasingly being applied. It revisits some fundamental notions conventionally associated with viewing and managing floods, beginning by acknowledging that floods are natural and unavoidable, and resilience, not stability is the desirable quality. This research aims to study how governance attributes like public participation can enhance flood resilience. To this end, relevant literature on resilience and governance has been studied followed by a study of the events surrounding the flooding of the Ramnadi stream corridor in Pune city through policy analysis, data derived from documents and maps, and through semistructured interviews with stakeholders like locals, experts, activists and civic authorities. Categorization and meaning interpretation of relevant data has enabled an analysis of the governance structure for the Ramnadi corridor using a causal loop diagram. The nodes, linkages and feedback loops in this diagram have been studied to understand how public participation affects resilience characteristics. Findings of this investigation along with draft recommendations for specific actors were presented to stakeholders in a validation workshop. Implications of the results on the theories of flood resilience, governance and public participation have been examined which has enabled their analytic generalization. General policy recommendations have been based on this. Subsequently, recommendations which promote systems approach based public participation and systems thinking in the governance of social-ecological systems have been made.
Urbanization coupled with the lack of space has led to soil sealing and encroachment upon stream ... more Urbanization coupled with the lack of space has led to soil sealing and encroachment upon stream corridors in many cities the world over. This has caused not just the degradation of the riparian ecosystem, but has also increased the frequency and intensity of flash flooding. India is one of the countries worst affected by urban floods. To manage flood risk, especially in the case of rain-fed urban streams, not just the government but also the public needs to be engaged in the management of the stream corridor. In this context of flood risk management, the resilience concept is increasingly being applied. It revisits some fundamental notions conventionally associated with viewing and managing floods, beginning by acknowledging that floods are natural and unavoidable, and resilience, not stability is the desirable quality. This research aims to study how governance attributes like public participation can enhance flood resilience. To this end, relevant literature on resilience and governance has been studied followed by a study of the events surrounding the flooding of the Ramnadi stream corridor in Pune city through policy analysis, data derived from documents and maps, and through semistructured interviews with stakeholders like locals, experts, activists and civic authorities. Categorization and meaning interpretation of relevant data has enabled an analysis of the governance structure for the Ramnadi corridor using a causal loop diagram. The nodes, linkages and feedback loops in this diagram have been studied to understand how public participation affects resilience characteristics. Findings of this investigation along with draft recommendations for specific actors were presented to stakeholders in a validation workshop. Implications of the results on the theories of flood resilience, governance and public participation have been examined which has enabled their analytic generalization. General policy recommendations have been based on this. Subsequently, recommendations which promote systems approach based public participation and systems thinking in the governance of social-ecological systems have been made.
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Papers by Nakul Gote