Up until a few decades ago, businesses were focused on selling as much as possible, disregarding the environmental impact and longevity of their products. This resulted in reckless exploitation of natural resources and production of short-lived products, even for crucial infrastructure. But with global climate changing and disasters becoming more frequent, the need for resilient
infrastructure has become more pressing than ever.
Acknowledging this need,
India launched the
Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) in 2019 to ensure nations promote sustainability and resilience of new and existing infrastructure systems and help mitigate damage from climate disaster strikes.
Currently, i.e. on April 4-5, the CDRI is hosting the fifth edition of the International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (
ICDRI) in
New Delhi. This event aims to bring "solutions integrating resilience in infrastructure to ensure access, delivery and continuity of essential services to people and communities".
Inaugurating the conference on Tuesday, PM Narendra Modi said: “Infrastructure is not only about returns, but also about reach and resilience. Infrastructure must leave none behind and serve the people even during time of crisis. A holistic view of infrastructure is needed. Studying past disasters and learning lessons from them is the way.”
“I am confident that the deliberations at ICDRI 2023 will provide a pathway to achieve the shared vision of a more resilient world,” he added.
The two-day conference will feature over 17 sessions convening almost a 100 global experts who plan to rattle discussions around disaster and
climate resilient infrastructure, risk-informed systems, resilient infrastructure assets and innovative financing methods.
In addition, key findings from the first phase of the Global Study on
Disaster Resilience of Airports study conducted on 111 airports across 56 countries will also be discussed. CDRI hopes this will help airports cope and quickly bounce back any stresses it might be subjected to during disasters. Airports are a crucial link for humanitarian operations during disaster events, and therefore, investing in resilient airports is important, CDRI stresses.
The event will also see MOUs signed between the CDRI and Adaptation Research Alliance, as well as the launch of the Infrastructure Resilience Academic eXchange (
IRAX).
IRAX, along with the new CDRI Fellowship programme that is also due to be announced at the conference, seeks to empower the next generation of infrastructure professionals to develop actionable and scalable solutions for real life disaster resilient infrastructure — an extremely crucial need of the hour, especially in countries like India undergoing a rapid infrastructure boom.
Recommended stories:
Next Story
I tutor the children of some of Dubai's richest people. One of them paid me $3,000 to do his homework.
John Jacob Astor IV was one of the richest men in the world when he died on the Titanic. Here's a look at his life.
A 13-year-old girl helped unearth an ancient Roman town. She's finally getting credit for it over 90 years later.
Sell-off in Indian stocks continues for the third session
Samsung Galaxy M55 Review — The quintessential Samsung experience
The ageing of nasal tissues may explain why older people are more affected by COVID-19: research
Amitabh Bachchan set to return with season 16 of 'Kaun Banega Crorepati', deets inside
Top 10 places to visit in Manali in 2024
