India’s journey in the direction of a sustainable power transition is gaining momentum; nevertheless, it’s essential to make sure that weak states and areas usually are not left behind. Frequented by floods, earthquakes and landslides, the state of Assam is especially weak to the impacts of local weather change. Based on a 2021 report, 24 of its 27 districts have been labeled as weak to local weather change. As of July 8 this 12 months, 72 people have reportedly died in the Assam floods, with thousands and thousands being displaced and going through lack of livelihood. Final 12 months, the state noticed an identical situation, with huge and recurrent flooding throughout 20 districts, affecting over 1,00,000 people. This underscores the urgency to implement modern plans and methods that allow the state to face up to the impacts of local weather change.
Recognizing this want, the Science, Technology and Climate Change Department of Assam launched the Chief Minister’s Climate Resilient Village Fellowship Programme. This program goals to extend the attention of local weather change resilience and empower youthful generations to turn out to be climate-smart leaders. It engages graduate and postgraduate college students from science and engineering establishments throughout Assam and assigns them villages. The fellows are anticipated to check assigned villages and advocate climate-resilient options for them.
Whereas the mentoring or instructional establishments for this system have been chosen by the division, the collection of villages required a data-driven strategy applied by means of the Energy Access Explorer (EAE), an open-access geospatial software developed by WRI India and its companions. The EAE offers complete and granular knowledge on varied points of power entry, akin to demand, provide, infrastructure and socioeconomic indicators. Furthermore, it permits customers to overlay this info with knowledge on local weather vulnerability akin to flood threat. By utilizing the EAE, customers can determine gaps and alternatives for enhancing power entry and resilience in numerous areas.
The EAE helped choose villages for the fellowship program primarily based on a number of standards akin to proximity to mentoring establishments, demographics, entry to electrical energy and clear cooking, and vulnerability to floods. A couple of of the choices made on the EAE platform are illustrated in Figures 1 and a couple of. Villages inside a radius of 25 kilometer of mentoring establishments, having at the very least 500 households and entry to primary facilities, akin to banks, piped water and street connectivity, have been chosen. Excessive flood threat was additionally a criterion for the villages to be chosen for creating climate-resilient options.
The Chief Minister’s Climate Resilient Village Fellowship Programme in Assam exemplifies the power of data-driven decision-making. By using the EAE and complete datasets, Assam is taking proactive steps to determine and empower weak villages to turn out to be climate-resilient and energy-smart communities. This is not going to solely allow the state to fulfill quick growth challenges by figuring out precedence areas however may even contribute to the climate-proofing of Assam within the face of local weather change.
Utilizing the EAE to determine and construct resilience in weak areas can function a mannequin for different states to think about. Deploying varied kinds of parameters to filter out precedence geographic areas provides a spatial dimension to the data-driven evaluation. This may be significantly useful for addressing local weather change vulnerabilities. By harnessing datasets from particular areas utilizing instruments such because the EAE, site-specific plans that take into account the distinctive challenges posed by local weather change might be formulated, enhancing the effectiveness of future planning and local weather resilience efforts.
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All maps are from the Power Entry Explorer (EAE). Click here to know more or try the tool.
