Urban Flooding

Urban Flooding

Urban floods are becoming common in many Indian cities. The recent rains in Hyderabad have caused massive urban flooding and forced the Government of Telangana to declare the city flood-relief operations. In Mumbai too, several areas have been submerged after heavy rains lashed the financial capital of India.

What is Urban Flooding?

Urban flooding occurs when stormwater flows into an urban area at a higher rate than it can be absorbed into the ground or moved to a waterbody or stored in a reservoir.

Urban flooding can cause damage to property and infrastructure, and negatively impact on public health. Flooding impacts the environment and the natural drainage within an urban area.

The types of damage it causes is also dependent on whether the flood is a flash flood or a river flood.

What are the Causes of Urban Flooding?

Inadequate Drainage Infrastructure: Inadequate drainage infrastructure would be the immediate reason behind urban flooding in India. It indeed a very big problem, not just India, even the USA is greatly affected by this menace.

Terrain Alteration: Altering the terrain can cause serious difficulty when it rains. When rain falls on flat land, it naturally flows to low-lying areas which typically moderate the levels of flooding.

Reducing Seepage: These scenarios are caused due to seepage due to runoff from adjacent land, generally due to impervious surfaces. Landscape design has a big role in addressing the issue of urban flooding.

Lax Implementation: Lax implementation is also evident in hazardous waste management and water supply. Industrial effluents are frequently discharged into the environment without adequate treatment, causing a rise in incidences of dengue, malaria, and hepatitis.

Encroaching Natural Spaces: The decline in the number of natural wetlands has caused a decrease in groundwater table and reservoir capacity. This has resulted in urban flooding. The natural aquatic environment is being destroyed and habitats of many species are being altered.

Steps to be taken to control Urban Flooding

Need For Holistic Engagement: Urban floods, which are unprecedented in the recent past, cannot be contained by the civic authorities alone. Floods cannot be managed without concerted and focused investments of energy and resources. In other words, urban floods require both state interventions and non-state actors to construct a future through coordinated action.

Developing Sponge Cities: Sponge cities are a concept which aims to make the practices of urban development more environmentally and socially sustainable. The idea is to make cities be able to hold the rain as it falls, so that the run-off from rainfall can replenish aquifers or nearby bodies of water rather than causing problems with flooding.

Wetland Policy: To control urban flooding, there is a need to adopt a local perspective. One of the most effective ways to ensure the effectiveness of wetlands in any locality is to involve local communities in their management. There are positive benefits for local communities from wetlands, the most important being that people living around them benefit financially through fishing and agro-forestry.