Gauging urban resilience for risk-informed governance and disaster risk reduction in Srinagar city

The present study aims to assess the resilience of the city using a scorecard developed by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). The scorecard comprises 117 indicators under 10 broad elements of resilience. The study design was implemented through a participatory approach, capturing the perception of 300 stakeholders on the selected parameters, to derive inferences about the resilience status of the city. With an obtained score of 284 out of 560, our assessment suggests that the city is experiencing a chronic resilience deficit with noticeable weaknesses in the system components at different levels, lacking the required capacity to withstand shocks from extreme events.

The findings indicate that DRR efforts are largely response-centric in Srinagar city. In order to bring attention of policymakers towards frail components of the urban system, it is essential to understand their levels of resilience. This process guides policy makers in building the resilience of different sectors and adopting a proactive approach in DRR. The perspectives of community members may provide valuable insights in resilience assessment process; however, their opinion is rarely recorded or considered by policy makers and relevant government agencies. As a result, DRR initiatives often fail to deliver desired results. The participatory approach adopted in the present study provided an idea about the level of resilience in different sectors and how resilience is being perceived by local experts and people