The Urban Stormwater Management Challenge

In today’s climate change-stressed world, extreme weather events have become the new normal. Erratic, unseasonal and unusually heavy rains, coupled with deeply flawed urban planning and management, have been leading to a spate of urban floods, a phenomenon which is becoming common in almost all parts of the world. Indian cities too have been at its receiving end, with Bengaluru and Lucknow deluged in 2022 and Delhi more recently, in July 2023. 

These events of flooding highlight the need for investing in water conservation and management through Water-sensitive Urban Design (WSUD). Also needed are enhanced norms for stormwater drainage to ensure a good drainage infrastructure to get rid of in-situ urban flooding. 

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has recently conducted a webinar to discuss the growing challenge of urban stormwater management. CSE also released its new report on the subject on this occasion. 

What the webinar proposed to cover:

• Understanding the urban stormwater management challenge: In-situ and ex-situ urban flooding, anthropogenic and natural factors, urban planning and drainage disruption, density of built-up area and run-off, and rainfall intensity and climate change
• Engineering(stormwater drainage systems) and spatial planning challenges, and adaptive stormwater management for cities

Innovative approaches and best practices for managing stormwater and reducing flood risks

Webinar coordinator

Sumita Singhal
Programme manager, water programme, CSE
Email: sumita.singhal@cseindia.org
Phone: +91 8884646146