Lubaina Rangwala

Program Head - Urban Development

Bio

Lubaina is Program Head, Urban Development and Resilience with the Sustainable Cities and Transport team at WRI India. She has been associated with the institute for nine years. Her current work focuses on green infrastructure projects, nature-based solutions to address long-term climate risk in Indian cities, and working with vulnerable communities to build their resilience capacities. She is currently involved in climate action plans, disaster management and flood mitigation measures in Indian cities.

At WRI, Lubaina led the development of a global tool called the Urban Community Resilience Assessment, and continues to address issues of gender, equity, diversity and inclusion in city resilience plans.

Lubaina started her career as a researcher and visiting lecturer at two architecture schools in Mumbai. She worked with the KRVIA design cell on projects affiliated with the Mumbai Transformation Support Unit (MTSU) and the World Bank. During her short stint at the City of Emeryville, California, USA she helped set up the online building approvals portal, and worked with the City of Berkeley on local economic development strategies in low-income neighborhoods of South Berkeley.

Lubaina is an Urban Planner and Architect from Mumbai, with over 14 years of work experience in India and the United States. She earned her undergraduate degree in architecture from the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture (KRVIA), Mumbai University, and a dual master’s in Architecture and City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, USA, with a focus on housing, community, and economic development.

Blogs

Differential Vulnerability and its Importance in Resilience Planning
by Sudeshna Chatterjee, Ike Uri and Lubaina Rangwala - February 26, 2024
India is the seventh most climate-vulnerable country in the world, with nine of its states among the top 50 most vulnerable regions globally. The country's cities are at the forefront of the climate crisis with more than
How To Make Climate Solutions Accessible To Vulnerable Communities
by Lubaina Rangwala, Prutha Vaze and Amrita Chakraborty - January 03, 2023
This blog is the second in a four-part series that highlights critical aspects of implementing the Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP). The authors spotlight opportunities that lie in equitable and inclusive climate action with a focus on residents of informal settlements who make up more than 42% of the city’s population. Read the
Moving from City-Wide Vulnerability Assessments to Localised Community Resilience Actions
by Priya Narayanan and Lubaina Rangwala - October 06, 2021
This blog was first published on NIUA.org on September 29, 2021.

Cities around the world are experiencing flooding, heatwaves and other climate-related disasters. The frequency and intensity of these disasters have amplified over
Tackling Climate Risks by Promoting NBS in Indian Cities
by Priya Narayanan and Lubaina Rangwala - August 27, 2021
This blog first appeared on NIUA.org on July 28, 2021.

Adapting to climate risks is imperative for cities. Cities are the epicentre of life-shortening pollution, dwindling water supplies, deadly heatwaves, natural disasters, and climate change.
Physical Distancing on Mumbai’s Trains Is Nearly Impossible, and Station Design Is a Big Reason Why
by Leona Nunes, Lubaina Rangwala and Madhav Pai - September 17, 2020
This blog was originally published on TheCityFix.

Mumbai’s suburban rail system is the world’s busiest, serving
Photo Essay: A Look at How Climate Change Affects Poor Urban Communities in Surat and Semarang
by Lubaina Rangwala - February 01, 2018
This blog post originally appeared in TheCityFix.

Photo Credit: Lubaina Rangwala/WRI India

One of the biggest challenges to climate
Beyond Mitigation: Planning for Resilience outside India’s Mega-Cities
by Lubaina Rangwala and Ayesha Dinshaw - October 05, 2015
This blog post originally appeared on TheCityFix

Over the last century, India’s landscape has urbanized considerably: the urban population has grown 14 times since 1901, and by 2050 up to 54 percent of India’s population will be urban
The Role of Women in Climate Adaptation
by Lubaina Rangwala and Divya Kottadiel - March 06, 2015
Climate change has drastic implications on societies, locally and globally. It affects social development factors like poverty, infrastructure, security, and economics. In impoverished communities, the co-relation between climate change and social vulnerability and inequality is particularly evident often resulting in reduced food security and
Building the Sustainable City of The Future in India
by Lubaina Rangwala - November 14, 2014
This blog post originally appeared in TheCityFix.

India is rapidly urbanizing. From 1991 to 2011, the urban population in India has increased from 100 million to 200 million. By

Publications

Climate Resilient Cities: Assessing Differential Vulnerability to Climate Hazards in Urban India
Based on WRI India’s work in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala, the report drives the case for integrating equity into climate action planning, enabling Indian city officials, planners, consultants and community members to deepen their understanding of urban climate hazards, its causes and its...
by Lubaina Rangwala, Sudeshna Chatterjee, Avni Agarwal, Bhanu Khanna, Bina Shetty, Raj Bhagat Palanichamy, Ike Uri and Ananya Ramesh - February 2024

Publication
Topics: Sustainable Cities
Geography: India
Nurturing Vegetation in Mumbai: Greening in Vulnerable Neighborhoods
The proceedings summarize the reflections of stakeholders from a 2-day workshop hosted in December 2022 by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), organized by WRI India in partnership with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA)....
by Deepti Talpade, Shruti Maliwar and Lubaina Rangwala - May 2023

Publication
Topics: Sustainable Cities
Geography: India
Flood Risk in Mumbai – Consultative Stakeholder Workshop
BMC in collaboration with WRI India as knowledge partner conducted a two-day consultative workshop on Flood Risk in Mumbai in April 2022. Government representatives from various departments: hydrological, engineering, and stormwater management discussed the complexities of managing monsoon...
by Sahil Kanekar, Kartiki Naik and Lubaina Rangwala - November 2022

Publication
Topics: Sustainable Cities
Geography: India
Prepared Communities
Climate change affects poor and marginalized communities first and hardest. Particularly in cities, a lack of access to basic services, a long history of unsustainable urban development, and political exclusion render the urban poor one of the most vulnerable groups to climate induced natural...
by Lubaina Rangwala, Lauretta Burke, Retno Wihanesta, Katerina Elias-Trostmann and Mandakini Chandra - December 2018

Publication

Making Big Ideas Happen™

Menu

You are here

Lubaina Rangwala

Differential Vulnerability and its Importance in Resilience Planning

How To Make Climate Solutions Accessible To Vulnerable Communities

Moving from City-Wide Vulnerability Assessments to Localised Community Resilience Actions

Tackling Climate Risks by Promoting NBS in Indian Cities

Physical Distancing on Mumbai’s Trains Is Nearly Impossible, and Station Design Is a Big Reason Why

Photo Essay: A Look at How Climate Change Affects Poor Urban Communities in Surat and Semarang

Beyond Mitigation: Planning for Resilience outside India’s Mega-Cities

The Role of Women in Climate Adaptation

Building the Sustainable City of The Future in India

Climate Resilient Cities: Assessing Differential Vulnerability to Climate Hazards in Urban India

Nurturing Vegetation in Mumbai: Greening in Vulnerable Neighborhoods

Flood Risk in Mumbai – Consultative Stakeholder Workshop

Prepared Communities

Stay Connected

Making Big Ideas Happen™

Search

Menu

You are here

Stay Connected

Sign up for our newsletters

Follow WRI India