ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES ASSIGNMENT
BY
779 SONAL ROY
780 Abinash Mishra
781 Siddhant Mishra
782 Aditya Agrawal
783 Yash Agarwal
Urban Floods in India
Flooding is basically an accumulation of water in an areas either by direct rainfall
which is indeed irresistible to the volume of drainage systems .In straight words its a
spill of huge amount of water from water bodies beyond normal limits. It is a form of
a huge disaster that impacts small areas or could be vast or massive, impacting very
large area.It is known that Urban flooding is caused by heavy rainfall overwhelming
drainage capacity. When we come to hear about this word it brings into our thoughts
of large economic and social disaster alongside.
As the words sounds as a Synonym to a disaster it brings about
a great disturbance of daily life in the city. Urbanization has been developing
countries doubled from less than 25% in 1970 to more than 50% in 2006. We have
seen by 2021 seven of the world’s ten largest economies will be from Asia. At the
same time, Asia in one of the fastest urbanization regions in the world. In the 20 th
century, 38% of its population lived in cities and the proportion is projected to reach
more than 50% by 2030s.Across India, in the recent times, city after city has
experienced floods. The study concludes the infrastructure and economic losses due
to these urban events.
I: Urban Flood--
Its quite strange to see that if we carefully analyze the word flood,FLOOD is in itself
abbreviates - Finally Loss Occurred after Opportunities Denied.
It should be known that Flood is influenced by various factors - rainfall, river-flow and
tidal-surge, topography, measure of flood-control, and many more as you can think
of at your level of knowledge. We see that some floods grow and discharge
gradually, while others can develop in just a few minutes and recede quickly such as
flash flood.
Urban flooding is caused not only by simple heavy rainfall as
we all consider ,but when we look deep in the cause of urban flooding we find that
the main and the topmost responsibility of such flooding is the bad drainage
capacity and the system . We see that It already has large economic and social
impacts as discussedearlier .Urban floods are a cause of the great disturbance of
daily life in the city which touches all cities in india every year. The economic
damages are high but the number of casualties is usually very limited, because of the
nature of the flood. The water slowly rises on the city streets. When the city is on flat
terrain the flow speed is low and you can still see people driving through it. The
water rises relatively slow and the water level usually does not reach life damaging
heights.
2: Reasons of Urban Flooding--
1)A series
of storms moving over
the same area can
cause areal flash
flooding. A muddy
flood is produced by
an accumulation of
runoff generated on
cropland.
2)
Meteorological
Factors-
The metrological
factors includes the most basic components like rainfall, cyclonic storms, small-scale
storms, temperature, snowfall and snowmelt which in common is the basis
components of flooding.
3)A lot of the sewerage and drainage network are basically old and its
condition are unknown to the responsible authorities. The drainage cannot cope
with the volume of water as they are blocked with a lot of rubbish and by non-
biodegradable plastic bags which are brought from markets.
4) .Human Factors- Rain used to come from the previous era and years
when less people inhabited this earth .But during thse day ther hardly occurred any
flood .However nowadays we are experiencing a lot of flooding,so we see human
being are the element responsible for flooding.
The people are so irresponsible in their behavior that they throw plastic bags
eveywhere they like.They are so ignorant that they just throw the plastic babgs here
they wish to Inefficiency or non-maintenance of infrastructure; Too efficient drainage
of upstream areas increases flood peaks; Climate change effects, magnitude and
frequency of precipitation and floods; Urban micro-climate may enforce precipitation
events; Sudden release of water from dams located upstream of cities/towns ;
Failure to release water from dams resulting in backwater effect; Indiscriminate
disposal of solid waste etc.
5) Developments encroach floodplains, obstructing
floodways and causing diminishing base flow of streams.
3:Consequences of Urban Flooding---
1)Urban Floods results in stagnation of water on roads, railway tracks and
in few cases even at airports because of the inadequate storm water drainage
capacity. This results in traffic jams and traffic diversions resulting in loss of
man hours. In the events of heavy rainstorms traffic gets diverted.
2)Telecommunication gets disturbed and maintenance of supply of
commodities becomes challenge. As communications is disrupted industrial
production gets hampered.
3)Prices of essential commodities shoot up.
4)Damages of assets are significant in warehouses and buildings due to
flooding by storm and sewage water. Perishable articles add to
economical loss. Accidents and fire due to short circuit are also
common. Hence there are a lot of financial burdens on relief measures.
5)Water bodies get polluted. Waste disposal gets hampered due to traffic
disruption. The stagnation of pollution of potable water and
accumulation of waste at dustbins result in epidemics.
4: Some Notable Urban Flooding Events in India since
2000:
Hyderabad in 2000
Ahmadabad in 2001
Delhi in 2002 and 2003, 2009, 2010
Chennai in 2004, 2015
Mumbai in 2005, 2017
Surat in 2006
Kolkata in 2007J
amshedpur in 2008
Guwahati in 2010
Bengaluru in 2017
Chennai in 2018
Pune in 2019
Mumbai in 2020
Hyderabad in 2020
5:Consequenses of Urban flood on Indian Cities---
A}MUMBAI
1)The 26 July 2005 event has been classified as ‘very heavy’
(>200 mm/day as per the criteria for rainfall classification of IMD). The
strongest rain ever recorded in India.
2)Severe urban floods were reported from 10 cities and
Mumbai was worst affected. The Santa Cruz observatory at Mumbai airport
recorded 944 mm during the 24 hours ending 08:30 h on 27 July 2006
while the Colaba observatory recorded only 74 mm of rain.
3)The Santa Cruz, heavy rainfall started at 14:30 with 481.2
mm falling.
4)The extremely high rainfall resulted in overflows from the already
inadequate e drainage system and it was unable to drain out to the
sea because of the maximum high tide level of 4.48 m at 15:50
during the month of July 2005.
5)The IMD was unable to issue advance warnings of this
event. Even when there was heavy rainfall in the northern suburbs, the IMD was
unable to monitor the rainfall and issue warnings in time. This has been attributed
to the lack of state-of-the-art equipment like tipping bucket rain gauges with the
imd.
6)The main causes of flooding in Mumbai were low ground
levels . Low ground levels, low Level of outfalls, silt of drains/nallas,
dilapidated drains, obstructions of utilities, encroachment along
nallas, slums along outfalls, urbanization, loss of holding ponds, garbage dumping in
SWDs/nallas mainly in slums and increase in runoff coefficient.
Steps taken over by BMC to tackle the
FLOOD WATER
The extreme rainfall event of 994 mm on 26 July 2005 has been a lesson for
Mumbai and it has indicated the perils of rapid development in highly concentrated
urban areas. This event has resulted in Mumbai setting up a much better response
mechanism based on real-time monitoring of rainfall at 27 locations in the city to
handle recurrences of similar events in the future. The Central Water Power
Research Station, Pune is currently (2007 – 2008) in the process of preparing a
detailed scale model for carrying out the hydraulic model studies for the Mithi River.
This model is intended to provide a basis for long-term planning of Mumbai taking
into account the impacts of climate change and sea-level rise. It would also help in
identifying the tidal impact on the flooding and estimate the extent of inundation of
low lying areas through the progression of low and high tides.
B}DELHI
1)Delhi always has a long past of flooding in Yamuna
river and the Najafgarh Drain system. A steady monitoring of floods in Delhi
due to in Yamuna River was started in 1958. The danger level of water level
was fixed at 204.83m.
2)During the past 36 years, Yamuna River has crossed
maximum level 25 times. Since 1990, Delhi has witnessed to many as 6 massive
floods in different past years and is still continuing the same . The peak level was
above danger level of 204.49 m in the years 1924, 1947, 1976, 1978, 1988 and 1995.
The highest recorded peak 206.92 m was on September 27, 1988
3)One of the most populous area of Delhi is to the
eastern side of Delhi ridge. It includes Connaught Place, the hub of
commercial activity. Unfortunately, during storm showers, it is the site for heavy
water impounding.
4) The drains in the Delhi were initially designed
to transport excess storm water and sewerage flow.
However, due to improper layout and improper
maintenance conditions,these now form pool of stagnant water
in north-west andnorthern parts of Delhi.
Steps taken in Delhi to tackle
FLOOD WASTE
1) Formation of an Apex Committee
An Apex Committee had constituted under the
Chairpersonship of Hon’ble Chief Minister, Delhi
to recommend, supervise and co-ordinate Flood
control measures in the National Capital Territory
of Delhi.
2)Central Flood Control Room
A Central Control Room was established on 24 X 7
Basis to assist the Apex Committee. The Control
Room was set up in Disaster Management Cell of
DC (East) Office, L.M. Bund, Shastri Nagar, Delhi-31
w.e.f. 15th June, 2013 to 19th October, 2013. The
S.D.M. Gandhi Nagar had been designated as Officer-In-Charge of the Central Flood
Control Room. Contact Telephone No. Of this Control Room was 22051234 which
was all time active.
(Disaster Management Cell).
The following organizations / offices were deputed as Liaison Officers to be available
in this Control Room in each shift:
1. East Delhi Municipal Corporation
2. Irrigation & Flood Control Department
3. Food and Civil Supplies Department
3)IMPROVEMENT OF DRAINAGE EFFICIENCY
A-Desilting, bell mouth, gullies, removal of debris, solid waste Materials from all
drains of all departments /civic bodies is being coordinated by Municipal Corporation
of Delhi (MCD).
B-An efficient Drain Monitoring Committee had been formed to make sure that all
drains were checked and monitored before monsoon to ensure that drains are not
blocked . Desilting reports and Certificates are being obtained from all Owning
agencies before 15th June Every year.
C-Constructions of Najafgarh Drain for 100-150 cusec capacity flow.
D-Continuous desilting of drains
has being carried out by deploying
about 28 machines (Dragline -18
Nos., Hydraulic excavator water
master-4 Nos with trucks, dozer,
barges having total Desilting
capacity of 250 cum /hr though
out the year. More machines are
being Purchased. Desilting also
being carried out through
contract where these machines
cannot be deployed.
