Rapid urbanisation is increasing exerting such a tremendous pressure on land that it is causing communities to squat on environmentally unstable areas such as steep hillsides prone to landslide, by the side of rivers that regularly flood, or on unstable ground that is prone to subsidence. Thus, urban communities are increasingly living in RISKY conditions, being exposed to disaster events such as floods, earthquakes, collapsing building, fires and even the virtual collapse of civic infrastructure services. In most cases, the brunt of such events is borne by the economically weaker sections of the community. There is also the insidious risk, often ignored, of continuing disaster: of communities maintained in poverty by the constant setback of ongoing disasters. Such events damage lives and livelihoods, perpetuating long-term poverty, and ultimately undermine any effort to improve vulnerable urban settlements that hope to be sustainable. Long-term reduction in vulnerability can be achieved with the adoption of practical and community-centered risk mitigation measures within existing urban planning practices.

Yet, the adoption of risk reduction measures is not even considered in local level planing practices. It has traditionally been perceived as separate discipline, usually not associated with mainstream urban planning. To address these issues, the initiative sought to develop, refine and test a methodology, which combined Risk Assessment with Action Planning, in urban communities vulnerable to disasters and environmental degradation. The technique incorporated the identification and rapid implementation of sustainable risk reduction measures that can be incorporated into existing urban practice.

Measures are aimed at improving environmental conditions, strengthening existing community structures and improving shelter and infrastructure. Utilizing the action planning methodology ensures a crucial activity: of involving in the decision making key factors - community, governmental authorities and NGOs - towards the development of truly sustainable measures.

Delhi was chosen as one of the case cities, the other being Ahmedabad, since a considerable proportion of its population lives in marginal settlements with limited infrastructure services. These communities are exposed to grave risks manifested in diseases, loss of livelihood, shelter and sometimes, even life. The project focussed on two such communities in Delhi - one in the old walled city area, and the other, a squatter settlement in the Yamuna riverbed. Both areas represent highly degraded living conditions.

It was intended that simple yet effective risk reduction measures would be introduced with the objective of reducing the vulnerability of the community, and increasing their capacity for varying degrees of protection of their lives and livelihoods.

The project is sponsored by the Department for International Development of the British Government, and is being implemented in Delhi by the Centre for Development and Emergency Planning, Oxford Brookes University, UK, the National Centre for Disaster Management, IIPA, New Delhi and Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS), New Delhi . A similar component of the project is being implemented in Ahmadabad in association with the Disaster Mitigation Institute, Ahmadabad.

The Yamuna River -Bed Squatter Settlement in Delhi Squatters in Delhi are a post-independence phenomenon. Squatting on public land which is devoid of basic infrastructure created problems at the very outset itself - water-logging, poor sanitary conditions, noise pollution, and smelly surrounding. The nature of materials used for building houses and storage of inflammable recycled material have made these settlements extremely sensitive to fire hazards. In the pset 40 years, the squatter population in Delhi has increased 40 times from 12,749 families in 1951 to about 485,000 in 1991: more than 25% of Delhi's total population.

The project activities included the following
A preliminary Baseline Survey was conducted in the two communities to assess behaviour, attitudes, perception and awareness level, frequency of occurrence of hazards, reasons for the vulnerability, the social and civic set-up in place, and the economic status of community members. The survey provided a platform for carrying out the risk assessment and for appraising the project on completion.

Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRS) exercises such as informal transect walks, focus group meetings, risk mapping, hazard ranking, seasonal disaster time line and children's drawings were conducted in both the communities. It was discovered that community mapping, informal walks and focus group meetings were the most comprehensive means of eliciting community-level information. Of these, the depth of information provided by the focus group meetings was the greatest. The range of PRA exercises ensured perceptional inputs from various cross sections of the community. Children's drawings were useful to find out the view that tomorrow's citizens had regarding the safety of their habitat.

Risk Assessment was carried out taking into account citizens' perceptions and expert views. It comprised identification of inventories of vulnerabilities and capacities of institutions, communities and infrastructure; key hazards, risks and perceptions of risks by key factors, etc. It was found that risk perception is dependent on a large set of community characteristics: economic insecurity, length of exposure, return period of disaster, the community's perception of its own capacity to deal with disasters, etc.

Action Planning Exercises were conducted within the community as part of a workshop spreading over three days. This was an attempt to introduce risk reduction measures in urban planning through community participation. The techniques was to combine the rapid development of action-oriented initiatives (in the form of a community action plan) with sustainable risk-reduction measures. The measures that were listed at the end of the workshop included physical improvement, strengthening of community structures and the identification of community led environmental improvement initiatives. Utilizing action planning ensured the involvement of all key factors in decision making: community members, government authorities and NGOs.

Currently, as part of the Citizen's Action Plan implementation process, mobilization of the larger community and related agencies is in progress. Links have been established with the local government and NGOs for eliciting their support in the initiative. The government has expressed its willingness to incorporate the larger of the Community Action Plans in its own agenda, and as a result of this advocacy, the community will soon have flood protection works and fire risk reduction programmes in place. Smaller issues, such as sanitation, have been picked upon by the community, as targets for local action through neighbourhood committees. These committees will also act as local disaster management teams to counter the threat of floods and fires in future. The community hopes that the coming years will be safer ones, and that so through their own making.