New global ranking says 3 of India’s biggest cities are among the world’s least climate-resilient
How well a city can withstand climate disasters may depend not only on how exposed it is to floods, heat, drought or wildfires, but also on how prepared it is to deal with them. A new ranking of 72 of the world’s largest cities has placed several South Asian cities among those facing the highest residual climate risk, with Ahmedabad and Hyderabad featuring near the bottom of the list.The ranking is based on an analysis by geospatial AI company AlphaGeo. Its Climate Risk & Resilience Index looks at both a city’s physical exposure to climate hazards and the adaptation measures in place to reduce their impact.Ahmedabad was ranked as the least resilient city among the 72 cities studied, followed by Hyderabad. Kolkata ranked 6th in the category.According to AlphaGeo, the six highest-risk cities in its analysis were all in South Asia. The company said these cities combine high physical exposure with relatively limited adaptation compared with the scale of the risks they face. Other cities included Multan, Dhaka, Lahore, Faisalabad, Karachi, Chittagong and Taipei completed the bottom 10.As per The New York Times, the report assessed six major physical risks: inland flooding, coastal flooding, heat stress, drought, wildfires and hurricane winds. It then considered how effectively cities have adapted to these risks, including through early warning systems, governance, policy measures and infrastructure such as flood barriers and drainage systems. The resulting resilience-adjusted risk score is intended to show how much of a city’s underlying climate exposure is reduced by adaptation measures. A lower score indicates greater resilience.
Chicago ranked most resilient
At the other end of the ranking, Chicago was identified as the most resilient major city in the study. It was followed by Addis Ababa, Melbourne, Barcelona, Ankara, Buenos Aires, Paris, Istanbul, Bogotá and Nairobi.Chicago’s position was attributed partly to its relatively low exposure to certain hazards, including hurricanes, as well as investment in infrastructure. One example cited in the report is the city’s Deep Tunnel project, a large-scale system designed to help manage flooding and water pollution.The analysis also found strong adaptation performance in several Chinese cities. Beijing, Tianjin, Shenzhen and Shanghai were among the cities with the highest adaptation rates, meaning they had made substantial reductions in their physical climate risk through adaptation measures.
