Coastal rural communities, being intricately associated with their ecological settings, are often highly vulnerable to climate change. Amongst the many approaches of reducing the coastal vulnerabilities and achieving climate change adaptation, a potential solution is to improve risk governance through integrated coastal zone management. The coastal risk governance signifies not only the actions of the state but also of other stakeholders, especially the local communities. Community-based approaches have also for long been advocated for effective adaptation and mitigation against climate adversities. While human-nature interactions can significantly influence disaster risks, this research makes an attempt to understand various decisions and choices that a coastal rural community makes based on such interactions to mitigate and manage the climate-induced adversities. Through structured interviews, this research first identifies the significant domains that reflect on the prevailing human-nature interactions, after which the choice modelling technique is utilized to comprehend the community priorities for better climate risk governance, with a specific focus on coastal rural settlements of Katrenikona (Andhra Pradesh, India). The application of this methodology resulted in the formulation of a baseline for local coastal governance, which can be useful for informing various levels within local governments. The baseline consists of an assessment of the different community resilience domains derived based on the prevailing interactions of local communities with their surrounding ecological elements and measured by indicators of local coastal governance. The concept and method for measuring coastal risk governance based on community preferences are potentially replicable, and it can help to track the progress towards longer-term coastal management and local climate adaptation goals. At the same time, it can be turned into a self-evaluation tool to assist the local governments in reflecting on pertinent pathways involving community actions for effectively managing various climate risks and ecological impacts.

With rapid urbanization and development, periods of water stress are common in the Nagpur Metropolitan Region (NMR) of India. The domestic and industrial water demands coupled with the demand for irrigation continue to rise in this region due to significant demographic growth and land use changes resulting in the decreasing surface water availability and exploitation of groundwater sources. Amidst the impacts of climate change coupled with rapid development, understanding the subsequent resource availability and future water requirements is critical for allocating vital and finite resources such as water. In this regard, an assessment of water demands under various scenarios is an important step. With this objective, this study has used the Water Evaluation and Planning modelling tool to simulate the water systems for the NMR by employing a scenario analysis approach to determine the future water balance. The findings reveal a water supply requirement of 4.14 bcm by 2040, considering the business-as-usual scenario. The research also reiterated the potential for increased rural–urban conflicts over water resource allocation in the future, underscoring the need for strategies to equitably cater to rural and urban water demands.

COVID-19 has become one of the most significant events in the history of globalization. The prolonged ‘lockdown’ adopted across various countries in the world as a countermeasure for containing the spread of the virus profoundly brought forth socio-economic and infrastructural vulnerabilities in urban as well as rural parts of India. While urban and rural areas have been greatly studied with respect to the environment, human health, safety, livelihoods, associated risks, etc., in the context of pandemics, many of these studies seldom accommodate their interdependency as a pragmatic approach to planning. This is observed to be primarily due to the dynamic and diverse nature of interactions coupled with the development disparities between rural and urban areas, thereby adding complexity to development decision making. The present study, therefore, applies the lens of the circulating and ecological sphere (CES), introduced by the Japanese government for the localization of resource flows between urban–rural regions, to consider possible alternative development approaches to achieve smooth transitions during pandemics through the case study area located in Hingna tahsil in the Nagpur Metropolitan Area, India. The methodology uses the critical examination of rural–urban linkages amidst the crisis through key-informant surveys involving representatives from local governments. Using this feedback and spatial analysis tools, the research identifies probable entry points in post-pandemic regional planning. The research contributes to understanding the impact of spatial development during pandemics through ground-based evidence. The findings from this research highlight the need to manage rural dependencies on urban areas and underline the potential of the rural–urban linkage as an approach, acknowledged and emphasized through CES, for managing such regional-scale hazards. The investigation concludes with the discussion and future research scope for achieving the pronounced needs reflected through the study.