David Simon, Professor, Royal Holloway, London, at a session on ‘Climate-resilient urbanisation’ on the Kerala Urban Conclave in Kochi on Friday (September 12, 2025). | Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT

With the worldwide sea degree rising by between 0.5 metres and 1.1 metres by the tip of the century, resilience towards tsunamis, hurricanes, and monsoon seasons must be elevated, urged David Simon, Professor, Royal Holloway, London.

Speaking at a session on ‘Climate-resilient urbanisation’ on the Kerala Urban Conclave right here on Friday, Dr. Simon famous that constructing resilience couldn’t occur at anybody scale, and that coalitions wanted to be constructed within the political panorama to handle the difficulty collectively. Mr. Simon is among the lead authors of IPCC AR7 Special Report on Climate Change and Cities.

M.G. Rajamanickam, Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management, who inaugurated the session, famous that climate-resilient planning was important for Kerala.

The State has very restricted developable land. Departmentalisation is among the greatest hurdles for any type of built-in planning. Kerala wants built-in planning and nature-based options, he urged.

Y.V.N. Krishnamurthy, lead member of the Kerala Urban Policy Commission, chaired the occasion.

David White, Director, Advocacy and Communications, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure; Joy Elamon, Member, Kerala State Disaster Management Authority; Abhilash S., Director, Advanced Centre for Atmospheric Radar Research, Cochin University of Science and Technology, and Suraj Shaji, Director, Urban, Local Self Government division, spoke.

Mr. White famous that by 2050, eighty p.c of Kerala could be urbanised. The fast fee of urbanisation is predicted to see round 70% of the world’s inhabitants residing in city areas by 2050.

Published – September 12, 2025 11:07 pm IST