Sustainable Management of Floods in Chennai, India

In the recent decades, Indian cit ies are witnessing devastating floods more often due to heavy rainfall, cyclones, etc., Though Tamil Nadu is not under flood risk p rone zone as mapped by meteorological depart ment (New Delh i), within the local body there are few low-lying areas wh ich are susceptible to inundation which also depends mainly on the developments near major drainage systems, encroachment of water bodies, inability of majo r canals to carry heavy rains, overflowing reservoirs. Chennai, one of the fast growing metros is likely affected by the lack o f drainage mainly due to uncontrolled developments of concrete spaces, encroachment of majo r drainage channels, shrinking of marshlands, etc,. Though Urbanizat ion, the vital factor of response for the flood risks is coupled with the climatic variability and ecological imbalances. The paper discusses causative factors responsible for flood risks in Chennai, the immediate need for proper flood risk reduction and management strategies.

IJRASET, 2021

Floods are water-induced disasters that lead to temporary inundation of dry land cause severe damage to the target location, such as human loss and properties and infrastructures. Knowing that floods are part of human life and that this natural phenomenon can't be fully controlled, it's essential to focus on necessary steps to improve knowledge about preventing damages. This project discusses the floods in major cities in India-Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi, the main reasons behind it, and how to prevent the floods from happening on the whole. I.

Asian Review of Social Sciences

Floods are the common natural disasters in most of the developing countries, and India isno exception.Due to the geographic and climatic conditions the country remains under threat. Floods have been recurrent phenomenon in many parts of India, causing loss of lives and public property and bringing untold misery to the people. The floods that occurred in India in 2013 were highly catastrophic based on the number of victims. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC (2013) continues to steer the evacuation efforts as well as in rescuing the stranded victims. Methods of structural control of floodwater can be grouped into four types; namely, storage, diversion, enhancing channel capacity, and constriction of the water within the channel. The following flood mitigation measures could be adopted to mitigate the adverse impacts of severe floods and to prevent normal floods. Flood walls are constructed out of materials such as concrete or steel in order to cont...

The present investigation aims to assess the impacts of urban flooding and mitigation processes in Kolkata. Now a day this urban flood has become a challenge to urban planners because of its disastrous consequences. This paper highlights how that frequent flooding and waterlogging problem in metropolis, endangering public health and increasing the heavy economic losses. The author suggests that technical solutions are not sufficient to ensure safety and human security. A judicious combination of structural and non-structural responses, including institutional, economic, financial, and social efforts is essential. Coordination (horizontal and vertical) between various institutions and administrative bodies is equally important to optimize results.

South Asia faces increasing flooding risks due to climatic and socioeconomic changes. Various measures have been adopted by the governments of the countries in this region. However, these measures are not adequate to protect the vulnerable communities from ever-increasing flood losses. This study assesses the policy and planning processes and flood-related scientific research in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Based on a systematic review, a comparison of the existing flood management systems of the three countries is undertaken, and a framework for sustainable flood management in the region is suggested. Insights from the literature show that Bangladesh has been able to develop an effective governance structure to address flood hazards, while Pakistan's approach to flood management planning is found to be largely inadequate. This inadequacy is mainly attributed to missing links in policy formulation and planning processes, along with a lack of institutional coordination. The results of the literature analysis reveal poor support from scientific research focusing on flooding issues in the case of Pakistan, while Bangladesh and India seem to have benefited from research support in formulating their flood management strategies. Based on these findings, an alternative framework is suggested, emphasizing the need to enhance institutional linkages, community participation and evidence-based research.

Journal of Geography and Regional Planning, 2010

India witnessed increased flooding incidences during recent past especially in urban areas reportedly since Mumbai (2005) as a mega disaster. Other South Asian cities like Dhaka, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, besides many other cities in India, are also reportedly been affected by frequent floods. Flood risk in urban areas are attributed to hazards accelerated by growth in terms of population, housing, paved-up areas, waste disposal, vehicles, water use, etc. all contributing to high intensity-high load of runoff. Reduced carrying capacity of drainage channels is also a key concern. Haphazard growth of lowincome habitations and un-organised trade added to challenge. Spatial dimensions of all these flood factors are often characterised by land-use and changes. Chennai, a coastal mega-city is fourth largest metropolis in India, has a history of over 350 years of growth. Meteorologically there is no major upward or downward trend of rainfall during 200 years, and a decrease in last 20 years with a contrast record of increasing floods have been experienced. Analysis of land-use changes over the temporal and spatial scale has been undertaken for Chennai city in order to understand the patterns on greencover, built-up area and consequences on hydrological settings. Land-use issues like decreased natural areas, loss of water bodies, encroachment of river/streams and other drainage channels, uncontrolled multiplication of built-up areas, have been identified as contributory factor to flood risk in Chennai. The paper discusses flood risk reduction and management strategies in urban context with example of the Chennai city and draws attention of land-use planners and disaster management experts to integrate their efforts for better and sustainable results.

Urban flooding is the accretion of land or property in a built environment, particularly in more densely populated areas, caused by rainfall overwhelming the capacity of drainage systems. A number of major cities and towns in India reported a series of devastating urban floods in the recent decade. Urban flooding is significantly different from rural flooding as urbanization leads to developed catchments, which increases the flood peaks from 1.8 to 8 times and flood volumes by up to 6 times. (NDMA Guidelines). In this paper, challenges of urban flooding have been studied taking instances of three cities of India viz. Srinagar, Gurugram and Chennai, selected for respective rationale. Srinagar is flooded due to unplanned urbanization, Gurugram due to breakage of Wetland linkages and Chennai flooded due to rapid urbanization, topography and siltation. The paper discusses causative factors responsible, the immediate need for flood risk reduction and management strategies.

This article has three objectives: 1) to demonstrate that there is a drastic change in the Earth's climate thanks to global warming, which is contributing to the occurrence of floods in cities that are increasingly catastrophic in their effects; 2) propose measures to combat global climate change; and 3) propose measures to prepare cities to face extreme weather events. Recently, floods have occurred that expose the vulnerability of cities in Europe and China to the most extreme weather. After the floods that killed people in Germany, Belgium and China, the message was reinforced that significant changes are needed to prepare cities to face similar events in the future. Governments need to admit that the infrastructure they built in the past for cities, even in more recent times, is vulnerable to these extreme weather events. To deal with the floods that will become more and more frequent, governments need to act simultaneously in three directions: the first is to combat global climate change; the second is to prepare cities to face extreme weather events and the third is to implement a sustainable society at the national and global levels.

Flooding induced by excessive and intense rainfall events is a foremost concern in the monsoonal countries like India. Since 1900 to 2009, India has experienced a total number of 232 floods, resulting huge loss of lives, extensive damages to crops, properties and immeasurable misery to millions of people. The flood management can be implemented by adopting either structural engineering measures or non-structural measures. This paper critically analyses the impact of river flooding on human society and applicability of non-structural measures in flood management.