Abstract
In September 2019, Patna witnessed an urban flood due to a greater than expected rainfall. Nearly 177 mm of precipitation within 48 h broke the decade-old record of 158 mm on September 3, 2013. This was also the highest rainfall recorded in September at nearly 430 mm, eclipsing the old record of 400 mm. Five teams of NDRF were deployed in the city, which rescued nearly 5000 people from the flood-affected areas. The floods led to the loss of property, damaged structures, and the spread of waterborne diseases. In the 6 years (i.e., from 2013 to 2019), what had changed in Patna city that a rise of nearly 12% in highest rainfall during September led to such an extent of flooding? Though the deluge was immediately blamed on climate change, it cannot be understated how unplanned rapid urbanization, deforestation, exploitation of flood plain, and lack of proper drainage networks are the underlying factors which aggravate the impact of climate change. Lack of flood zoning, lack of proper action plan for disaster management, and lack of proper legislation add fuel to the fire in terms of preparedness. This case study aims to explore the different natural and anthropogenic factors which congregated to cause the Patna flood of 2019 so that appropriate mitigation strategies can be worked out and implemented to abate future urban floods in Patna.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Berggren, K., Packman, J., Ashley, R., & Viklander, M. (2014). Climate changed rainfalls for urban drainage capacity assessment. Urban Water Journal, 11(7), 543–556. https://doi.org/10.1080/1573062X.2013.851709
Bhatt, C. M., Gupta, A., Roy, A., Dalal, P., & Chauhan, P. (2021). Geospatial analysis of September, 2019 floods in the lower gangetic plains of Bihar using multi-temporal satellites and river gauge data. Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, 12(1), 84–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/19475705.2020.1861113
Djordjević, S., Butler, D., Gourbesville, P., Mark, O., & Pasche, E. (2011). New policies to deal with climate change and other drivers impacting on resilience to flooding in urban areas: The CORFU approach. Environmental Science and Policy, 14(7), 864–873. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2011.05.008
Gnanaseelan, C., Mujumdar, M., Kulkarni, A., Chakraborty, S., & Sciences, E. (2020). Assessment of climate change over the Indian Region. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4327-2
Guhathakurta, P., Khedikar, S., Menon, P., Prasad, A. K., Sable, S. T., & Advani, S. C. (2020). Climate research and services observed rainfall variability and changes over Assam state. IMD Annual Report, 16, 28. ESSO/IMD/HS/Rainfall%0AVariability/16(2020)/40%0AObserved.
Gupta, K. (2007). Urban flood resilience planning and management and lessons for the future: A case study of Mumbai, India. Urban Water Journal, 4(3), 183–194. https://doi.org/10.1080/15730620701464141
Gupta, K. (2020). Challenges in developing urban flood resilience in India. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 378(2168). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2019.0211
Hammond, M. J., Chen, A. S., Djordjević, S., Butler, D., & Mark, O. (2015). Urban flood impact assessment: A state-of-the-art review. Urban Water Journal, 12(1), 14–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/1573062X.2013.857421
Hawkins, R. H., Hjelmfelt, A. T., & Zevenbergen, A. W. (1985). Runoff Probability, Storm Depth, and Curve Numbers. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, 111(4), 330–340. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9437(1985)111:4(330)
Huang, M., Gallichand, J., Wang, Z., Goulet, M. 2006). A modification to the Soil Conservation Service curve number method for steep slopes in the Loess Plateau of China. Hydrological Processes, 20(3), 579–589. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.5925
Huong, H. T. L., & Pathirana, A. (2013). Urbanization and climate change impacts on future urban flooding in Can Tho city, Vietnam. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 17(1), 379–394. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-379-2013
Ilam Vazhuthi, H. N., & Kumar, A. (2020). Causes and impacts of urban floods in Indian cities: A review. International Journal on Emerging Technologies, 11(4), 140–147. www.researchtrend.net
Jacobson, C. R. (2011). Identification and quantification of the hydrological impacts of imperviousness in urban catchments: A review. Journal of Environmental Management, 92(6), 1438–1448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2011.01.018
Khan, B., Rathore, V. S., & Krishna, A. P. (2021). Identification of Desakota region and urban growth analysis in Patna City, India using remote sensing data and GIS. Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, 49(4), 935–945. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-020-01248-8
Kug, J. S., & Ahn, M. S. (2013). Impact of urbanization on recent temperature and precipitation trends in the Korean peninsula. Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences, 49(2), 151–159. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13143-013-0016-z
Mishra, V. N., & Rai, P. K. (2016). A remote sensing aided multi-layer perceptron-Markov chain analysis for land use and land cover change prediction in Patna district (Bihar), India. Arabian Journal of Geosciences, 9(4). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-015-2138-3
Mourato, S., Fernandez, P., & Moreira, M. (2012). Flood risk assessment in an urban area. In Comprehensive flood risk management, April 2014. https://doi.org/10.1201/b13715-97
Mukherjee, D. (2016). Effect of urbanization on flood – a review with recent flood in Chennai (India). International Journal of Engineering Sciences & Research Technology, 5(7), 451–455. http:%5Cnwww.ijesrt.com
Nie, L., Lindholm, O., Lindholm, G., & Syversen, E. (2009). Impacts of climate change on urban drainage systems – A case study in Fredrikstad, Norway. Urban Water Journal, 6(4), 323–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/15730620802600924
Qi, W., Ma, C., Xu, H., Chen, Z., Zhao, K., & Han, H. (2021). A review on applications of urban flood models in flood mitigation strategies. In Natural hazards (Vol. 108, Issue 1). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04715-8.
Rafiq, F., Ahmed, S., Ahmad, S., & Khan, A. A. (2016). Urban floods in India. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 7(1), 721–734.
Ranger, N., Hallegatte, S., Bhattacharya, S., Bachu, M., Priya, S., Dhore, K., Rafique, F., Mathur, P., Naville, N., Henriet, F., Herweijer, C., Pohit, S., & Corfee-Morlot, J. (2011). An assessment of the potential impact of climate change on flood risk in Mumbai. Climatic Change, 104(1), 139–167. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-010-9979-2
Seenirajan, M., Natarajan, M., Thangaraj, R., & Bagyaraj, M. (2017). Study and analysis of Chennai flood 2015 using GIS and multicriteria technique. Journal of Geographic Information System, 09(02), 126–140. https://doi.org/10.4236/jgis.2017.92009
UDHD. (2016). PATNA MASTER PLAN 2031 town and country planning organisation. http://udhd.bihar.gov.in/PMP2031/data/pmp-2031-report.pdf
Declarations
No conflict of interest to declare.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rashiq, A., Prakash, O. (2023). Urban Floods: A Case Study of Patna Floods 2019 – Natural or Anthropogenic?. In: Thambidurai, P., Dikshit, A.K. (eds) Impacts of Urbanization on Hydrological Systems in India. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21618-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21618-3_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-21617-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-21618-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)