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Reengineering Capital Drainage & Floodplain Governance: A Framework for Delhi’s Flood Resilience
Subject area: Science,Engineering and Technology · Area of research: Drainage and Floodplain Governance
Abstract
Delhi’s recurring urban flooding is an engineering and design failure, not just a weather anomaly. Rapid urbanization has sealed the ground surface, rendering legacy stormwater master plans completely obsolete against climate-driven cloudbursts. This brief delivers an actionable roadmap to transition Delhi from high-risk legacy "grey" infrastructure to a resilient, smart, and adaptive "sponge-and-sensor" grid. By decoupling urban drainage from traditional gravity-fed river discharge, we can drastically reduce economic downtime and protect critical public assets.
References
[1] Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO). Manual on storm water drainage systems. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India; 2019.
[2] Subramanian V, Ramanathan AL. Impact of urbanization on runoff coefficients in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies. 2021;34:100785.
[3] Zevenbergen C, Fu D, Pathirana A. Transitioning to sponge cities: Challenges and opportunities to address urban water problems in China. Water. 2018;10(9):1230. https://doi.org/10.3390/w10091230
[4] Kerkez B, Gruden C, Lewis M, Montestruque L, Quigley M, Wong B, et al. Smarter stormwater systems. Environmental Science & Technology. 2016;50(14):7267–7273. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b05870
[5] Hager WH. Wastewater hydraulics: Theory and practice. Springer-Verlag; 1999.
[6] Central Ground Water Board (CGWB). Master plan for artificial recharge to groundwater in India. Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, RD & GR, Government of India; 2020.
How to cite this paper
@article{1722918,
author = {Col (Dr) PK Chaturvedi, Retd},
title = {Reengineering Capital Drainage & Floodplain Governance: A Framework for Delhi’s Flood Resilience},
journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
year = {2026},
volume = {10},
number = {3},
pages = {4068-4071},
issn = {2456-8880},
url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1722918.pdf},
abstract = {Delhi’s recurring urban flooding is an engineering and design failure, not just a weather anomaly. Rapid urbanization has sealed the ground surface, rendering legacy stormwater master plans completely obsolete against climate-driven cloudbursts. This brief delivers an actionable roadmap to transition Delhi from high-risk legacy "grey" infrastructure to a resilient, smart, and adaptive "sponge-and-sensor" grid. By decoupling urban drainage from traditional gravity-fed river discharge, we can drastically reduce economic downtime and protect critical public assets.},
month = {September},
}