Transformative Climate Action using Participatory data driven decision making platforms (T-CAP)

While digital means are increasingly used to assist in managing cities, an untapped potential lies in using these means to facilitate participatory local level policy making and implementation to catalyse transformative climate actions. This holds special significance in the small and medium cities from the Global South that face resource and capacity constraints. In this ever dynamic world, data driven decision making platforms can assist in augmenting the capacity of local actors and communities to collaborate on forward looking, transformative climate actions. The project assisted urban local bodies in working effectively with all stakeholders (particularly the civil society) to gather and analyse data needed for comprehensive policy making and jointly implement transformative climate actions. It aimed to showcase a science based participatory planning framework for data driven decision making that can inspire cities across the globe.

Project data

Countries
India
IKI funding
799,979.99 €
Duration
07/2022 till 06/2025
Status
completed
Implementing organisation
United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)
Implementing Partner
  • National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA)
  • The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) - India
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State of implementation/results

  • Project completed.
  • Literature study and review of best practices globally highlight the limited focus of climate action primarily on mitigation strategies and not sufficiently on adaptation. Digital means were used to sensitise the community and for data collection & analysis. This highlights the opportunity to leverage digitalization for participatory climate action planning and implementation.
  • Towards this objective, needs assessment and impact chain analysis have helped derive use cases to be piloted in the Urban Living Lab (ULL). These will be further filtered based on the scope for digitalisation, feasibility and contextual relevance.
  • The project team organized a two-day workshop in 05/23, in New Delhi. Primary goal was facilitation of a dialogue on participatory climate action within urban discourse; aim of promoting better-informed, resilient cities. Event brought together city officials, advocacy groups, institutions, start-ups, and ICCC solution providers. Interactive sessions, panel discussions and expert presentations offered opportunities for cross-learnings. Senior officials from 10 Indian cities demonstrated a strong commitment to the project's outcomes.
  • ‘Visakhapatnam Urban Living Lab’ was launched on 17 May 2023 in the presence of the Mayor of Visakhapatnam and Commissioner of Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation.
  • A steering committee was set up.
  • Two capacity building workshops about mapping as a data collection tool were conducted. Urban Flooding was the first use case selected for pilot testing in the ULL. Activities and training included mapping, cartography, exposure and vulnerability analysis.
  • ULL conducted a two-day event with women from marginalized communities to explore participatory methods to engage civil society stakeholders and assist them in taking part in informed decision-making.
  • Launch of an online survey on participatory climate action to gather perspectives on what local climate actions should include and how collective climate resilience can be mobilized in Indian cities. National level conference in 10/24 in New Delhi, where the insights from this survey and entry points for institutionalization of participatory climate action were discussed.
  • In 11/24, NIUA organised two events at the World Cities Forum in Cairo, including a networking event on strengthening local climate action, followed by a solution-oriented case study to discuss the digitalisation of climate action to transform cities.
  • Meeting of the OST in 12/24. With the involvement of local government representatives, academia, civil society and communities, the foundation was laid for the implementation of flood resilience solutions in the pilot neighbourhood of Gnanapuram.
  • Strengthening of the institutional partnership by recognising the Letter of Association between GVMC and GITAM University.
  • Establishment of a WhatsApp group for OST members for long-term coordination, communication.

Latest Update:
12/2025

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