Enhanced urban adaptation efforts needed to counter rising extreme rainfall risks

Record-breaking rainfall events are occurring more frequently in a warming climate. Impacts on lives and livelihoods disproportionately occur in traditionally underserved communities, particularly in urban areas. The significant level of impact from recent events is yet another indicator showing that existing mitigation measures are insufficiently protecting people from floods, especially in urban and peri-urban areas.

To influence policy and behavioral change at the community level, climate services must be developed specific to extreme rainfall events and subsequent floods in urban environments. In considering the expected rise in exposure in a rapidly urbanizing world, and with amplified extremes in a changing climate, the most vulnerable populations continue to be at risk of disproportionate impact from urban flooding even as policies have been implemented.