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major residential projects, the open spaces are mandatory, they are private and fragmented. The other open
spaces in the city are mostly private and not accessible to the public. There is an increasing trend to convert
the hill slopes into manicured gardens as “open spaces”, limiting the accessibility to the public. Pune city is
starving for open playgrounds for children, which may lead to negative social issues. Due to the inadequacy
of playgrounds and public parks for children, some participants have rated the risk as high. Smart city
initiatives had the agenda of making the city “Clean and Green”, which further did not culminate in
increasing the open spaces in a development plan, obviously due to lack of space. Moreover, open spaces,
such as roads, are important resources for the citizens. The inadequacy of safe open spaces can weaken the
evacuation operations in disaster scenarios, as evident from earlier experiences. However, private open
spaces could be used in emergency situations; hence, the overall risk from a disaster perspective is medium.

The density of buildings will increase due to the increase in population. Commercial activities will boom
with overall development in the city. Pune city administration is permitting higher FSI, further increasing
the density of buildings and higher built footprint. The physical infrastructure, which is residential and
commercial buildings referred to in these studies, does not necessarily comply with the requirement of
mandatory safety systems quantitatively and qualitatively. The revisions in the building regulations that
allow lesser side margins and permit extra heights compromise the natural light and ventilation in the
buildings and stress the evacuation and safety mechanisms. The additional FSI will result in more built
stock and requirements of safety systems. With 40% of the population staying in shanty settlements or
slums, the risk due to physical infrastructure is high. The concentration of people and buildings without
additional safety systems and non-availability of encroachment-free accessible roads will increase the risks
of citizens in emergency scenarios. The built areas are assets that need to be protected from the impacts of
[34]
natural hazards to reduce vulnerability . The compact and dense development promoted by the smart city
initiatives shall add to the risks due to many reasons, such as evacuation failures, dependence of energy
intensive mechanisms in buildings, inaccessibility of critical facilities, and lack of green spaces, making the
development pattern unsustainable. The spatial planning gets stressed due to such developmental excitation.
The city administration needs to look beyond mere needs of citizens, recognizing the implications of the
decisions in worst-case scenarios. Spatial planning decisions should be informed decisions with necessary
mitigation measures to contribute to DRR.

[35]
Planning of critical infrastructural facilities is key to DRR and early recovery . Participants with their
experience are skeptical about quality and affordability of the healthcare facilities. The smart city initiatives
in Pune propose strengthening of healthcare facilities, especially in the local area development, which will be
replicated pan city. The other critical infrastructure facilities, such as police stations and fire stations, are
quantitatively and qualitatively lesser than desired urban development norms in terms of infrastructure and
resources; however, there are no concrete measures in the smart city initiatives to address this aspect. The
city enjoys good quantity and quality of water, though the distribution system has its own challenges. The
citizen engagement program had highlighted this issue of water management. The incapability of the
sewage treatment plants in the city to treat the sewage completely is perturbing. The untreated sewage
discharged in rivers is a concern. Smart city initiatives propose the enhancement of capacities of sewage
treatment plants under various government schemes. The pace of growth of Pune city is not aligned with
the infrastructural facilities and services; with smart city initiatives, it shall aggravate further, making it
critical in emergency scenarios. The organic pattern of development needs enhancement in spatial planning
for critical facilities and services, especially from a DRR perspective. The disaster risk is high due to
insufficiency of critical infrastructure and services.