Research Paper
Understanding urbanization and urban flooding scenario in India
With the ever-growing development in our country and due to its organic growth throughout the years ban flooding has become a matter of serious problem in many of the cities of India. Urban flooding is the flooding of various zones and pockets of an urban fringe due to overflow of drainage lines, waterlogging scenarios, etc. which creates a situation where the water through precipitation is not able to seep down to the earth but rather remain on the surface creating a situation of a health crisis for all the residents of the society. Urban flooding is defined as not only increase in the water table at the river basin resulting in the submergence of the land area but also waterlogging scenarios due to undulating topography and geography of the place, lack of softscapes in the urban fringe, improper land use, exploitation of the drainage patterns, etc. Urban flooding not only effects the health conditions of the residents but also hinders the basic urban functions like transportation, electric supply, drainage supply, etc. creating an unhabitable urban environment. Flooding has resulted in the outbreak of many epidemics due to an increase in diseases and also creates non-availability of important medical services resulting in loss of lives alongside a loss of property. In India, improper disposal of solid waste also is a major cause of waterlogging. People here tend to throw their waste from their residences and working places in the stormwater drainage lines resulting in clogging and waterlogging which in turn results in the birth of many vector-borne diseases. After a devastating flood in the year, the 1953 government of India came to know about the seriousness of the problem and started created policies and planning measures to cope out with flooding scenarios in urban cities. In recent years, heavy precipitation in our country and poor drainage services has led to extreme flooding scenarios around the country. The stormwater drainage systems in our country were designed earlier but the overall increased rainfall intensity has overwhelmed the structure which often also does not work due to the poor maintenance of the drains resulting in blockages and clogging of water. Natural streams and watercourses have formed over thousands of years due to the forces of flowing water in the respective watersheds. The drainage lines in an urban fringe should have been widened as according to the increasing strain on the system and according to the widening of the roads but on the contrary. The volume of the stormwater drainage system has been greatly reduced due to the encroachments done by the people resulting in a flood situation whenever rainfall occurs. In the absence of a proper solid waste disposal system, people tend to throw away their garbage in the stormwater drain which further clogs the drains and decreases its capacity even further. Whenever the question of drainage appears in our country, we cite the examples of the well planned and organized gravity-based drainage system in the cities of the Indus valley civilization like Mohan-jo-Daro (now Pakistan) and Lothal (Gujrat). Such examples of organized drainage systems are not to be seen anywhere in our country in modern times. Few of the notable examples of flooding of the urban areas in India are the Hyderabad in 2000, Ahmedabad in 2001, Delhi in 2002 and 2003, Chennai in 2004, Mumbai in 2005, Surat in 2006, Kolkata in 2007, Jamshedpur in 2008, Delhi in 2009 and Guwahati and Delhi in 2010, Srinagar in 2014, Guwahati in 2014, Chennai in 2015, Hyderabad in 2016, Ahmedabad in 2017, Kerala in 2018. So the flooding scenario in our country occurs in a part or another every year due to excessive rainfall, human encroachment in the softscapes, and inefficient drainage lines with overwhelming pressure. The unorganized and improper land use planning in our cities has also created zones that are geologically and topographically in the high vulnerability of flooding which poses a large number of population and property at risk. Generally, socially and economically backward class of people is forced to live here which faces the flooding scenario in their localities in every monsoon season. Unorganized developments of ever-growing habitations near the water sources like rivers and watercourses have disturbed the natural water streams and their courses resulting in surface runoffs and waterlogging.
Published by: Thoudam Sudha, Rachit K. Pamnani, Sanjay Singh Jadon, Noopur Gupta
Author: Thoudam Sudha
Paper ID: V6I4-1360
Paper Status: published
Published: August 12, 2020
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