Published Paper Details:

The Himalaya is the most densely populated and rapidly urbanizing mountain on the planet. In recent years, it has experienced rapid urban growth, which is mostly unplanned and unsystematic manner. The study aims to interpret and analyze the emerging risks of unplanned urban growth under climate change with a case illustration of the mountainous region of district Nainital, Uttarakhand Himalaya. Besides interpreting secondary data, the study employed comprehensive socio-economic surveys and empirical field observation methods. More recently, rural areas located far away from fast-growing urban centres have also come under the process of rapid urbanization, mainly owing to the growth of tourism. Consequently, the size, area, number, and complexity of urban settlements in the Himalaya have increased dramatically, resulting in the expansion of urban processes as well as an increase in the intensity of urban land use within towns. Moreover, due to an increase in the frequency, severity, and intensity of extreme weather events, climate change has stressed urban ecosystems. These changes are making urban ecosystems and their peri-urban zones highly vulnerable to a variety of climate change induced natural hazards, such as flash floods, slope failures, landslides and livelihood insecurity affecting mainly poor and marginalized sections of the community. These changes have increased the vulnerability of nearly 55% of the urban population to flash-flood, slope failure and landslides in Himalaya under climate change. It is therefore, highly inevitable to evolve effective land use policies and integrate socio-economic equality and environmental justice into urban development policies particularly in view of the emerging threats of climate change.