What Pune floods are teaching us about building climate-resilient cities

Unplanned urbanisation combined with poor infrastructure increases the vulnerability of cities to climate risks.

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Government schemes like AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) and Smart City mission, since their launch in 2014, and JNNURM since 2006, have particularly aimed at improving open and urban green spaces and stormwater drain infrastructure to reduce urban flooding caused mainly by extreme rainfall events.

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Construction of stormwater drains along roads and buildings is now a major expenditure in cities incur to avoid urban floods. Still, most cities lag in the required stormwater drains, especially to drain surface runoff from extreme rainfall events that occur at about one in a hundred years.

Coastal cities like Kochi, Chennai, and Cuttack are particularly short of stormwater drains and given their low-lying geography and sea level in some places, the flood risk is very high.

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Creating trusts like the Surat City Climate Change Trust in each city could also facilitate knowledge exchange on risks and resilience initiatives to be taken by all stakeholders, including residents, NGOs and scientific institutions.

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