Assessing the household level perception and adaptation strategies to flood risk in informal settlements of Yamuna floodplain in Delhi

Understanding public risk perceptions and local coping and adaptation practices towards climate extremes can help establish effective policies towards disaster risk governance. Determining the local coping and adaptation strategies can also reveal the community’s preparedness to floods. This approach brings a bottom-up perspective to the policies, which can be tailored to the specific needs of local communities. This paper assessed perception, factors influencing the perception, and adaptation strategies from flood-affected informal settlements in Delhi. The development of mega projects and encroachments on the floodplain region in Delhi have increased the risk and vulnerability of the city to floods. The study presents the findings from the flood-prone areas of Delhi, focusing on contrasting risk profiles of formal and informal settlements. Using a semi-structured questionnaire, 140 households in three informal and two formal settlements were surveyed on their past experiences with floods, causes, impacts of floods, their perception of flood risk in their settlements, the coping and adaptation strategies they have been following over the years to mitigate the flood risk, the support they receive from various institutions and their effectiveness. The perceptions of risk were assessed using the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 6th assessment risk framework and were quantified to compare the perceived risk between formal and informal settlements. The results of the assessment show that informal settlements perceive a high flood risk compared to formal settlements, which is significantly shaped by demographic factors of age, education and assets. The results also revealed weak social bonds, institutional fragmentation, a mixed perception of early warning systems and a major focus on evacuation and temporary relocation rather than on preparedness measures such as elevating and building flood-resistant houses. We recommend collaboration between the Government, NGOs and communities, improving flood-resistant infrastructure such as expanding the capacity of drainage systems, coupled with social interventions such as training and education of informal dwellers, livelihood diversification, involvement of communities in the process, training and capacity building of stakeholders and setting-up context specific early warning system.