Peri-urban ecosystems and urban resilience Training modules, instructions and reference materials

Introduction
Institutional Coordination for Water Supply in Shimla The Crucial Peri Urban-Urban Connect
Peri-urban crisis in Visakhapatnam as a result of CRZ violations
Urban and Periurban Water Flows The Case of Gurgaon Diminishing Lifeline of Panjim’s Resilience: The Khazaan lands
Changing land use and growing water insecurity in Mukteshwar
The urban-peri-urban water connect in Hyderabad: implications for resilience to climate change
Circular Economy: Urban Resilience through Peri-Urban Ecosystems
Ecosystem Services for Disaster Risk Reduction: Wetlands of Okhla Bird Sanctuary, Delhi
Peri-urban Ecosystems impacting Urban Resilience A case study of Secondary Cities in
Eastern India

The peri-urban is a fast-changing, semi-natural ecosystem that provides natural resources for growing cities in
terms of water bodies, open and green lands, and orchards. Peri-urbanisation leads to the usurpation of ecologically
sensitive lands for housing and other construction activities. These change the face of agriculture, reduce open
spaces, enhance pressure on natural resources like water. These areas are marked by a lack of hygiene and
sanitation infrastructure, industrial effluence, air pollution and inadequate provision of basic services. Often, the
solid waste of a city is dumped in peri-urban areas.
The resilience of most of the secondary cities in India is threatened with the decline of ecosystem services. With
rapid land-use changes and an economic shift from agriculture to urban development, small-scale and marginal
farmers in peri-urban areas, whose practices provide redundancy to urban food production, are on the brink
of collapse. The diversity of peri-urban agriculture, including its ability to provide food in periods of floods and
waterlogging, is an example of how the provisioning services of ecosystems help in developing the flexibility of hard
systems.
Peri-urban ecosystems are increasingly at risk of degradation and loss as natural resource consumption and waste
in peri-urban areas increase due to rapid urbanization and increasing human activity. Cities do not operate in
isolation but within a “sphere of dependence” on surrounding areas and their ecosystems. As such, the degradation
of these ecosystems results in the loss of ecosystem services that support urban and peri-urban populations.
This Knowledge Compendium is a collection of case studies from different cities in India which establishes the
important connection between the role of peri-urban ecosystems and urban resilience.