Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
A number of major cities and towns in India reported a series of devastating urban floods in the re-
cent decade. Mumbai flood 2005 followed by other major cities of South Asia like Dhaka, Islama-
bad, Rawalpindi also suffered with urban flooding. Census 2001 figured 285 million people in 35
metro cities of India, and is estimated to cross 600 million with 100 metro cities in 2021. Regional
ecological challenges coupled with climatic variability are noted to aggravate flood risks and im-
pact on affected communities. Urban flooding was primarily a concern of municipal and environ-
mental governance, has now attained the status of disaster, which has drawn the attention of
environmental scientists and disaster managers. Challenges of urban flooding in terms of drainage
and flood mitigation including structural and non-structural measures and key issues of urban eco-
logy in two major metropolitan cities of India Bangalore and Chennai, have been studied. Risk
management challenges in the context of land-use, city and population growth, wetland degenera-
tion, waste disposal have been discussed.
Cities and floods temporary backwater effects in sewers and local drainage
channels, creation of unsanitary conditions, deposition of
IF there could be such a thing as sustainable develop- materials in stream channels during flood recession, rise
ment, disasters would represent a major threat to it, or a of groundwater coincident with increased stream flow,
sign of its failure.1 In 2000, 37% of Asias population and other problems3. Disaster management the worldover
lived in cities and the proportion is projected to reach is undergoing a paradigm shift from approach to response
more than 50% by 2025. Unfortunately, the majority of and relief to prevention and mitigation4. The call for a
Asian mega-cities and other urban localities occupy mix of resistance and preparedness for resilience towards
hazard-prone land. In the period 19942004 alone, Asia flood risk in cities depends on management of urban eco-
accounted for one-third of 1562 flood disasters. Urbani- logy5, including land use, water bodies, waste disposal,
zation in developing countries doubled from less than etc. Major implications of urbanization are the following6,7.
25% in 1970 to more than 50% in 2006 (ref. 2). It is
estimated that at least 13 cities of the world that are prone
Heat island effect
to natural hazards will have a population in the 1025
million range, with nine of them in Asia. In 2001, there
Surface and atmospheric temperatures are increased by
were 285 million people in India residing in 35 metro
anthropogenic heat discharge due to energy consumption,
cities (cities having a population of above 1 million).
increased land-surface coverage by artificial materials
This is estimated to exceed 600 million by 2021 in over a
having high heat capacities and conductivities, and the
100 metro cities as the trend is on a rise.
associated decreases in vegetation and water-pervious
Recent events highlighted the man-made causes respon-
surfaces, which reduce surface temperature through
sible for recurring and prolonged floods in South Asian
evapotranspiration.
cities like Dhaka, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmeda-
bad, Surat, Patna, Jamshedpur, Rawalpindi and Islama-
bad. Floods result from the overflow of land areas, Loss of aquatic ecosystems
The authors are at the National Institute of Disaster Management, IIPA Urbanization has telling influences on the natural
Campus, New Delhi 110 002, India. resources such as decline in the number of water bodies
*For correspondence. (e-mail: envirosafe2007@gmail.com) and/or depleting the groundwater.
1638 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 100, NO. 11, 10 JUNE 2011
GENERAL ARTICLES
Bangalore
Figure 3. Land-use changes, 19732007. Figure 4. Slums and high-density poor settlements.
Year No. of water bodies Area (ha) No. of water bodies Area (ha)
SOI, Survey of India, topographic maps (published in 1973); Source: Ramachandra and Uttam Kumar6.
All ecological projects (and arguments) are simultane- 1. Hewitt, K., Excluded perspectives in the social construction of
disaster. Int. J. Mass Emergencies Disasters, 1995, 13(3), 317
ously politicaleconomic projects (and arguments) and 319.
vice-versa. Ecological arguments are never socially neu- 2. UNDP-India, Panel discussion on urban floods in India (Back-
tral 23. As work on disasters since the nineties increas- ground note). UNDP-India and NDMA, Government of India,
ingly focused on issues of human vulnerability and 2010, E-circulation.
resilience, a more integrative approach has gained 3. Allen, A. and You, N., Sustainable Urbanization: Bridging the
Green and Brown Agendas, University College London, London,
favour24. Hazards are now defined as human ecological UK, 2002.
interaction that can generate disaster25. Urban ecosys- 4. Gupta, A. K., Nair, S. S., Chopde, S. and Singh, P. K., Risk to re-
tems are the consequence of the intrinsic nature of humans silience: strategic tools for disaster risk management. NIDM,
as social beings to live together6,26. Ecosystem function- ISET-US, US-NOAA and DFID, International Workshop Proceed-
ing is guided by abiotic steering variables related to ing Volume, NIDM, New Delhi, 2009, p. 116.
5. Gupta, A. K. and Nair, S. S., Comparative study of urban flood
hydrology, water quality and sediment load. These can be challenges in three cities of India. In Proceedings of International
used as primary indicators of ecosystem condition Hydrology Programme Conference on Flood Resilient Urban
and changes to them are first-order impacts. Floods and Environment, UNESCO, Paris, 2527 November 2009.
storms are an integral part of the ecosystem dynamics and 6. Ramachandra, T. V. and Uttam Kumar, Wetlands of greater
have both positive and negative effects on human well- Bangalore, India: automatic delineation through pattern classifiers.
Electron. Green J., 2008, 1(26); http://escholarship.org/uc/item/
being27. 3dp0q8f2
Urban meteorology has come to require much more than 7. Ramachandra, T. V. and Uttam Kumar, Land surface temperature
observing and forecasting the weather of our cities and with land cover dynamics: multi-resolution, spatio-temporal data
metropolitan areas17. Risks must be considered through analysis of Greater Bangalore. Int. J. Geoinform., 2009, 5(3), 4353.
continuing assessments of science, technology and appli- 8. Gupta, A. K. and Nair, S. S., Flood risk and context of land uses:
Chennai city case. J. Geogr. Reg. Plann., 2010, 3(12), 365372.
cation uncertainties, as well as in the costs and benefits 9. Menon, J., Chennai grapples with floods. The India Express,
associated with each of the urban issues and the proposed Chennai, 25 December 2005 (from the web).
actions to mitigate adverse hazards or impacts17. Abrupt 10. Srinivasan, R. K., White foam: the Chennai riverbed does not have
variability and increased uncertainties about rainfall space to breath. Down to Earth, February 2008 (from the web).
pattern, periods, days and amount, and risk of weather 11. Arambepola, N. M. S. I., Effective strategies for urban flood risk
management, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Bangkok, 2007;
extremes as an impact of global climate change28 aggra- www.adpc.net
vated by ecological and anthropogenic factors as local 12. SAPRDPI, South Asia Disaster Report, Practical Action, South
climate actors8 pose ever-increasing risk of flood disaster Asia Programme and Rural Development Policy Institute, Paki-
or waterlogging-led epidemics in urban areas. stan, 2005; http://www.practicalactionpublishing.org