{"id":68153,"date":"2020-10-31T18:12:59","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T12:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=68153"},"modified":"2021-01-21T11:54:28","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T06:24:28","slug":"sponge-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/sponge-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"Sponge cities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Context: <\/strong>The idea of sponge cities idea needs traction at a time when discussion on urban flooding is reduced to simple contradictions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mention the causes of flooding in Hyderabad.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Non utilization of tools: <\/strong>Climate change adaptation tools for Hyderabad built by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany was not used.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Excessive rainfall: <\/strong>In September 2019, the rainfall was the highest in 100 years, while in October it was in 62% in excess.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Inability to manage the city\u2019s drainage systems<\/strong>: The floods of October 2020 occurred because the water was not discharged in time and when it was discharged, it was done suddenly, in an uncontrolled manner.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Outdated infrastructure:<\/strong> Hyderabad\u2019s century-old drainage system (developed in the 1920s) covered only a small part of the core city. The city has grown at least four times its original built-up area in 20 years, into areas where there was no drainage infrastructure.\n<ul>\n<li>The risk is going to increase every year with changing rainfall patterns and a <strong>problem of urban terrain which is incapable of absorbing, holding and discharging water.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Communities are left out:<\/strong> The issues of incremental land use change; particularly of those commons which provide us with necessary ecological support, such as, wetlands are neglected.\n<ul>\n<li>This framing also <strong>rejects the role of local communities in managing local ecosystems<\/strong>; people with traditional rights for fishing and farming.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>How the idea of sponge cities can help us tackle the issue?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A mission that mitigates flood risk and provides a pathway to water security<\/strong> is required. The most promising idea across the world at this time appears to be the idea of \u201csponge cities\u201d.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The idea of a sponge city is to make cities more permeable<\/strong> so as to hold and use the water which falls upon it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sponge cities absorb the rain water, which is then naturally fi<\/strong><strong>ltered by the soil <\/strong>and allowed to reach urban aquifers.\n<ul>\n<li>This allows for the extraction of water from the ground through urban or peri-urban wells.<\/li>\n<li>This water can be treated easily and used for city water supply.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>In built form, this building attached open green spaces, interconnected waterways<\/strong>, and channels and ponds across neigh bourhoods can naturally detain and filter water.<\/li>\n<li><strong>These can all be delivered effectively through an urban mission<\/strong> along with the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (<strong>AMRUT),<\/strong> National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana <strong>(HRIDAY<\/strong>) and Smart Cities Mission.<\/li>\n<li>Regardless of ownership<strong>, land use on even small scale wetlands needs to be regulated<\/strong> by development control.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Suggest some governance reforms to deal with urban flooding.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Watershed management and emergency drainage plan <\/strong>should be clearly spoken in policy and law.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Detailed documentation of urban waters<\/strong> must be held by agencies which are not bound by municipal authorities.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Natural boundaries such as watersheds instead of governance boundaries<\/strong> like electoral wards for shaping a drainage plan should be considered.<\/li>\n<li>The Metropolitan Development Authorities, National Disaster Management Authority, State revenue and irrigation departments along with municipal corporations should be involved in such work together.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ban against terrain alteration: <\/strong>Terrain alteration needs to be strictly regulated and a ban on any further alteration of terrain needs to be introduced.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cities are becoming increasingly impervious to water<\/strong> because of the nature of materials used (hard, non-porous construction material that makes the soil impervious).<\/li>\n<li><strong>New porous materials and technologies<\/strong> must be encouraged or mandated across scales.<\/li>\n<li>Examples of these technologies are <strong>bioswales and retention systems, permeable material for roads and pavement, drainage systems<\/strong> which allow storm water to trickle into the ground, green roofs and harvesting systems in buildings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Way forward<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Acknowledging the role of different actors for the city can create a practical space to begin this work.<\/li>\n<li>We need to urgently rebuild our cities such that they have the sponginess to absorb and release water without causing so much damage to the most vulnerable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: The idea of sponge cities idea needs traction at a time when discussion on urban flooding is reduced to simple contradictions. Mention the causes of flooding in Hyderabad. Non utilization of tools: Climate change adaptation tools for Hyderabad built by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany was not used. Excessive rainfall: In&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/sponge-cities\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sponge cities<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1310,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-news-updates","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700392461},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}