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Reimagining stormwater management: sustainable drainage pathways for resilient Indian cities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2025

Aamer Majid Bhat ,
Indra Mani Tripathi Open the ORCID record for Indra Mani Tripathi [Opens in a new window] ,
Pranab Kumar Mohapatra  and
Chandrashekhar Bhagat
Aamer Majid Bhat
Affiliation:
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gandhinagar, India
Indra Mani Tripathi*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gandhinagar, India
Pranab Kumar Mohapatra
Affiliation:
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gandhinagar, India
Chandrashekhar Bhagat
Affiliation:
Department of Civil Engineering, Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Institute of Engineering and Technology, Vishnupuri Nanded, Maharashtra, India
*
Corresponding author: Indra Mani Tripathi; Email: indra.tripathi@iitgn.ac.in
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Summary

India, as the world’s most populous country, and with a substantial urban population, requires strategic development to mitigate the risks of urban pluvial flooding in the context of a changing climate. Rapid urbanization increases the presence of impervious surfaces, and climate change effects bring intense, frequent and long-duration rainfall events in India, which magnify urban flooding. Implementing sustainable urban drainage solutions (SUDSs) would mitigate stormwater flood risks, but India has yet to adopt this approach; instead, it relies on traditional drainage infrastructure, despite increasing population indices and an extended yearly rainfall season. Here, we highlight the existing scenario, the challenges and the way forward towards implementing SUDSs in India. To attain SUDSs, city-specific drainage-related challenges need to be identified through problem tree analysis, co-creation with stakeholders of a shared vision for sustainable urban drainage and the design of actionable pathways and experimental approaches for implementing interventions and refining practical indicators. These actions could collectively provide a roadmap for achieving resilient SUDSs.

Keywords

Indiapluvial floodingsustainable urban drainage solutionsurbanization

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Type
Perspectives
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Environmental Conservation , First View , pp. 1 - 7
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Foundation for Environmental Conservation

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