City Landscape View

Launch of the documentary on ‘Chennai – A Global South Metropolis in the Peri-Cene

International conference: CHALLENGES TO DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND RESILIENT HABITAT
At the CENTRE FOR DISASTER MANAGEMENT STUDIES, April 5-6, 2022

As the human population increases, so does the pressure for urbanization…. Around the world, metropolitan regions are haphazardly “sprawling” past their effective borders and into the sub-optimal peri-urban areas. The planet has entered the ‘Peri-cene’ phase – a new global human-environment system shaped by peri-urbanization.

The Indian city of Chennai shows many challenges, with a combination of climate risk, socio-economic divisions and disruptions, and sub-optimal governance. Here the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability (IGCS) at IIT Madras has focused on three critical areas – water, land use, and governance – in collaboration with the University of Manchester and KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm) on the global project Peri-cene.

Around the world peri-urban settlements suffer the impacts of climate-driven weather extremes – cyclones in South East Asia, wildfires in Australia, riverine flooding in China. On the positive side, there are many examples of peri-urban resilience, via novice solutions or “adaptive pathways”, with transformational agro-ecology, natural flood management or eco-tourism. With peri-urban land areas around the world now doubling every 24 years, there is an urgent need to steer the peri-urban towards resilience and sustainability. But this raises challenges both for science and for policy.

Program:

PERI-CENE: FILM SCREENING & ROUND TABLE: April 5th

  • 4.30-6.00 IST
    ‘Urbanization, Disaster Risk Reduction & Adaptive Pathways: Chennai in global context’


4.35: Introduction & global context: disaster management in the ‘peri-eco-urban Anthropocene (chair: Joe Ravetz, University of Manchester)


4.40: Introduction to the film & the Peri-urban Initiative (Christoph Woiwode, IGCS, IITM)


4.45: Screening: Chennai – a global south metropolis in the global peri-cene


5.20: panel responses: Dr Loraine Kennedy, French Institute Pondicherry: Prof. Ismu Rini Dwi Ari, University of Brawijaya: Dr Lakshmi Ragajendran, University College London:


5.35: open discussion – challenges & ways forward


5.55: wrapping up & next steps: (Prof. Chella Rajan, IGCS, IITM Chennai).
The film is also available on “Chennai – A Global South Metropolis in the Peri-Cene”
Any queries & comments: joe.ravetz@manchester.ac.uk

Cover Photo Credits: Chait Goli: https://www.pexels.com/photo/bird-s-eye-view-of-city-during-dawn-2093323/