Housing, Hazards, And Nature: Reviewing Disaster Preparedness in Gujarat’s Peri-Urban Regions

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_17How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Climate Resilience; Disaster; Infrastructure; Nature-based Solution (NbS); Peri-Urban Region; Residential Development

Abstract

India’s post-1990 urbanization has rapidly reshaped peri-urban regions, the dynamic transition zones where rural agricultural landscapes are quickly absorbed into expanding city fringes. In Gujarat, one of India’s most industrialized states, peri-urbanization has intensified over the last four decades, driven by migration, rapid industrial and infrastructure development. Gujarat has endured major disasters for decades, prompting stronger institutions and early warning systems. However, significant gaps remain in peri-urban land-use planning, water management, and community preparedness. Rapidly growing peri-urban areas thus continue to face high vulnerability and uneven resilience. The peripheral regions of large urban centres of Gujarat exhibit fragmented land-use patterns, rapid conversion of farmland to non-agricultural landuses and weakened ecological buffers, creating built environments that are highly vulnerable to disasters. Drawing on a PhD study supported further by primary and secondary data analysis, this paper reviews peri-urban development patterns, disaster vulnerabilities, and the level of preparedness across Gujarat’s cities. The study finds that peri-urban areas are increasingly exposed to climate-induced hazards, with rising temperatures and intensified urban heat island (UHI) effects amplified by extensive hard paving. These conditions elevate local temperatures by 3–5℃, increase runoff, and reduce water percolation, leading to groundwater decline, low soil moisture, and diminished greenery. The resulting loss of natural cooling and continuous surface heating heighten heat stress, while excess runoff causes waterlogging and flood-like situations. Higher temperatures further increase dependence on mechanical cooling, reinforcing a cycle of heat buildup, energy use, and reduced ecological resilience in disaster-prone peri-urban regions. Study findings also highlight uneven implementation of resilience strategies and limited adoption of nature-based solutions (NbS). The study recommends integrating ecological resources into Development Plans (DP) and Town Planning Schemes (TPS), strengthening resilience-focused bylaws, and mainstreaming NbS to build safer and climate-resilient peri-urban development in Gujarat.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Bhawana Vasudeva
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/26
TI  - Housing, Hazards, And Nature: Reviewing Disaster Preparedness in Gujarat’s Peri-Urban Regions
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Infrastructure Development and Sustainability (ICIDS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 304
EP  - 321
SN  - 3005-155X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_17
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_17
ID  - Vasudeva2026
ER  -