Climate change induced disasters and highly vulnerable infrastructure in Uttarakhand, India: current status and way forward towards resilience and long-term sustainability

ABSTRACT

The mountain state of Uttarakhand constitutes a part of the North-western Indian Himalayan region and is inherently vulnerable to natural disasters. It is witnessing faster melting of glaciers and increased occurrences of disasters like cloudbursts, flash floods, landslides, landslide/glacial lake outburst floods, rock–ice avalanches, and debris flows. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of the influence of changing climate on the occurrence of natural hazards. It assesses the status of two major rapidly developing infrastructures in the state (viz., hydropower plants and transportation network) under climate variability. Detailed causative analysis of two major disaster events (in Kedarnath and Chamoli in 2013 and 2021, respectively) and associated destruction is presented to understand the vulnerability of infrastructure and communities to hazards. Based on the challenges identified, a unique two-fold framework is proposed, and recommendations are articulated for building resilient and sustainable mountain infrastructures and communities in the region.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• Indian Himalayas
• natural hazards
• resilience
• sustainable mountain infrastructure

Acknowledgments

We express deep gratitude and sincere thanks to the Department of Water Resources Development and Management (WRD&M), IIT Roorkee, for providing a conducive environment and resources to conduct the research work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the manuscript in the form of tables.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from the public, commercial, or not-for-profit funding agencies.

Notes on contributors

Gagandeep Singh

Gagandeep Singh holds a Ph.D. degree in Water Resources Development from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India. He is a civil engineer and also holds an M.Tech degree in Civil Engineering with a specialization in Remote Sensing & GIS from the National Institute of Technology Warangal, India. His research interests include Natural Hazards, Flash flood Risk, Vulnerability and Susceptibility assessment, Flood Modeling, Disaster Risk Reduction, and the application of Remote Sensing & GIS in Water Resources.

Ashish Pandey

Prof. Ashish Pandey is Bharat Singh Chair Professor of the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India, and the Head of the Department of Water Resources Development and Management, IIT Roorkee. He holds B. Tech. and M. Tech. (Gold Medal) from JNKVV, Jabalpur followed by a Ph.D. degree from IIT Kharagpur. His research interests include Irrigation Water Management, Soil, and Water Conservation Engineering, Remote Sensing and GIS Applications in Water Resources, etc. Currently, Prof. Pandey is the Executive Vice President of the Indian Water Resources Society (IWRS) and Chairman, Institution of Engineers (Roorkee Local Centre). He has trained about 1000 + senior-level scientists/engineers under 37 various capacity-building programs from India and Afro-Asian Countries. He has also served on several National Committees of the Govt of India. He is the recipient of several national and international fellowships/awards and honors.