Abstract
The flood occurred in December 2015 in Chennai, the capital city of the state of Tamil Nadu, India, is a major disaster in the history of the region as it caused the loss of 421 human lives, affected over 2 million people and the loss of properties worth of US$ 80,000 million. There were beeline of observations through media and dailies, all attributing the floods to the indiscriminate urbanization. In the context of lack of any scientific observations on the disaster which occurs often, and at the same time the Chennai region is geologically vibrant with active geodynamics viz. tectonics and tectonically induced riverine and coastal geomorphic processes, a study was undertaken involving all the features related to both geodynamics and anthropogeny to unfurl the mysteries behind the recent flood disaster. In the study, ArcGIS-based spatial databases were generated on the (1) flood inundation interpreted from post-flood MODIS satellite data, (2) geodynamic features related to earth movements, riverine/fluvial and coastal geomorphology interpreted from IRS LISS IV FCC and GeoEye satellite data, (3) anthropogenic features viz. encroached drainages, water bodies and the wetlands extracted from IRS and GeoEye satellite data and (4) integrated geo-anthropogenic data. Using these GIS databases, spatial modelling was carried out between the flood inundation data and the geodynamic, anthropogenic and geo-anthropogenic data sets which revealed that these have significantly controlled the December 2015 floods of Chennai city. The GIS-based spatial correlative study between the flood and the geodynamic features indicated that the land arching, deepening and land subsidence related to post-collision tectonics; and the tectonically tutored phenomenon of river migration and the resultant occurrence of huge system of palaeochannels and the complex drainage patterns, and the coastal geomorphic features viz. palaeobeach ridges and swales, defunct swamps and the wide tidal flats have controlled the floods. The study with anthropogenic features indicated that the unmindful obstructions of drainages, encroached water bodies and encroached segments of the tidal flats and the swamps were the loci for the floods, whereas the spatial analysis between the flood and integrated geo-anthropogenic data gave fine resolution information that the anthropogenic features depending upon the geodynamic features with which these are associated determined the floods; for example, (1) the obstructions of drainages along deflected drainages, compressed meanders and tectonic deepening, (2) encroachment of water bodies in zones of deflected drainages and tectonic subsidence and (3) encroachment of tidal flats and encroachment of Pallikaranai swamp in zones of tectonic deepening. These observations have lead to broader remedial strategies.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahmed E (1972) Coastal geomorphology of India. Orient Longman, New Delhi
Agarwal RP, Mitra D (1991) Geomorphology of Cauvery basin Tamil Nadu, based on interpretation of Indian Remote sensing Satellite (IRS) data. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 19:263–267
Austin SA, Baumgardher JR, Humphreys DR, Shelling AA, Vardiman L, Wise KP (1994) Catastrophic plate tectonics: a global flood model of earth history. In: Proceedings of 3rd international conference on creationism, RE Walsh (Ed), pp 609–621
Babu PVLP (1975) Morphological evolution of the Krishna delta. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 3:21–27
Bowler JM, Harford LB (1966) Quaternary tectonics of the riverine plain near Echuca, Victoria. J Geol Soc Aust 13:339–354
Brian G, Hopley CA, Craig R (2006) Holocene progradation of the Macquarie Rivulet delta, New South Wales, Australia. In: An international conference on deltas, University Brunei Darussalam, Borneo, p 36
Burnett AW, Schumm SA (1983) Active tectonics and river response in Lousiana and Missippi. Science 222:49–50
Delpont G, Motti E (1994) Monitoring by remote sensing of the geomorphological evolution apart of the Roussillon coastal layout (France). In: Proceedings of OCEANS’94. ‘Oceans Engineering for Today’s Technology and Tomorrow’s reservation’, vol 1, pp I/44–I/47
Elliot CI, Joyce EB, Bishop I, Ramasamy SM, Kumanan CJ (1998) Lineaments of southeastern India and their relationship to drainage pattern and groundwater flow. In: Proceeding of volume on international association of hydrogeologists, University of Melbourne, pp 131–135
ESCAP-Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (2015) Science and policy knowledge series; El Nino 2015/2016 impact outlook and policy implications; RIMES (December 2015)
Foote RB (1873) On the geology of parts of Madras and North Arcot districts. Mem Geol Surv India 10:132
Gupta AK, Nair SS (2011) Urban floods in Bangalore and Chennai: risk management challenges and lessons for sustainable urban ecology. Curr Sci 100(11):10
Ignatov YI, Kaplin PA, Lykyanova SA, Solovieva GD (1993) Evolution of Caspian sea coasts under conditions of sea level rise: model for coastal change under increasing “Green House Effect”. J Coast Res 9(1):104–111
Jayaraman N, (2015) Chennai floods are not a natural disaster—they’ve been created by unrestrained construction, ‘The Hindu’ Nov 18, 2015
Javadekar (2015) Chennai floods highly localized event, not result of climate change. Union Environment Minister at 21st Dec
Jain V, Sinha R (2005) Response of active tectonics on the alluvial Baghmati river, Himalayan force land basin, Eastern India. Int Nat J Geomorphol 70:339–356
Lakshmi K (2015) Rain wreaks havoc in coastal districts. The Hindu dated 10, Nov
Lavanya AK (2012) Urban flood management—a case study of Chennai City. Arch Res 2(6):115–121
Nageswara Rao K, Sadakata N (1993) Holocene evolution of deltas on the east coast of India. In: Deltas of the world—proceedings of international symposium on coastal and ocean management—coastal zone 93, New Orleans, USA, pp 1–15
Nair MM (1987) Coastal geomorphology of Kerala. In: Coastal Geomorphology in India. J Geol Soc India 29:450–458
Nair MM, Subramanian KS (1989) Transform faults of the Carlsberg Ridge—their implication in neotectonic activity along the Kerala coast. Anonymous, recent geoscientific studies in the Arabian Sea of India. Geol Surv India Spec Publ 24:327–332
Narasimhan TN (1990) Palaeochannels of the Palar river west of Madras city: possible implications for vertical movement. J Geol Soc India 36(5):471–475
Nguyen VL, Ta TKO, Tateishi M (2000) Late Holocene depositional environments and coastal evolution of the Mekong River Delta, Southern Vietnam. J Asian Earth Sci 18(4):427–439
Nunn PD (1990) Coastal processes and landforms of Fiji and their bearing on Holocene sea level changes in the south and west Pacific. J Coastal Res 6:279–310
Ota Y, Omura A (1992) Late quaternary shorelines in the Japanese islands. Quat Res 30:175–186
Quchi S (1985) Response of alluvial rivers to slow active tectonic movement. Geol Soc Am Bull 96:504–515
Radhakrishna BP (1992) Cauvery—its geological past. J Geol Soc India 40(1):1–12
Raiverman V, Singh G, Murti KVS (1996) Fracture pattern in Cauvery basin. Bull Oil Nat Gas Comm 3:13–20
Ramasamy SM (1989) Morphotectonic evolution of east and west coasts of Indian Peninsular. Special Publication Geological Survey of India, vol 24, pp 333–339
Ramasamy SM (1995) Enechelon faults along west coast of India and their geological significance. Curr Sci 69(10):811–814
Ramasamy SM (1999) Tectonic and the geomorphic evolution of west coast along Mangalore—Cape Comorin sector, India. Indian J Geomorphol 4:115–126
Ramasamy SM (2006a) Remote sensing and active tectonics of South India. Int J Remote Sens 27(20):4397–4431
Ramasamy SM (2006b) Holocene tectonics revealed by Tamil Nadu deltas, India. J Geol Soc India 67(5):637–648
Ramasamy SM, Karthikeyan N (1998) Pleistocene/Holocene graben along Pondicherry—Cumbum Valley, Tamil Nadu, India. Geocarto Int 13(3):83–90
Ramasamy SM, Kumanan CJ (2000) Eyed drainages observed in IRS imagery in Tamil Nadu and their geological significance. Int J Remote Sens 21(3):475–481
Ramasamy SM, Ramesh D (1999) Temporal changes in land water distribution pattern during 1930–1993 along Coramandal coast of Tamil Nadu, India and its significance. Indian J Mar Sci 28:240–244
Ramasamy SM, Panchanathan S, Palanivelu R (1987) Pleistocene earth movements in peninsular India—evidences from Landsat MSS and thematic mapper data. In: Proceedings of international geosciences and remote sensing symposium, Michigan University, Ann Arbor, 18–21 May, pp 1157–1161
Ramasamy SM, Bakliwal PC, Verma RP (1991) Remote sensing and river migration in Western India. Int J Remote Sens 12:2597–2609
Ramasamy SM, Venkatasubramanian V, Riaz Abdullah S, Balaji S (1992) The phenomenon of river migration in northern Tamil Nadu—evidence from satellite data, Archaeology and Tamil Literature
Ramasamy SM, Kumanan CJ, Selvakumar R, Saravanavel J (2011) Remote sensing revealed drainage anomalies and related tectonics of South India. Tectonophysics 501(2011):41–51
Rao PS (1989) Quaternary geology and geomorphology of Coromandal coast Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. In: Proceeding of volume of workshop on coastal zone management, Anna University, 12–14 October
Rekha Y, Carolin A, Thirunavukkarasu (2015) A critical review of flood control and management policies—an IWRM perspective. IJSETR 4(10):3427–3432
Sambasiva Rao M (1982) Morphology and evolution of modern Cauvery delta, Tamil Nadu, India. Trans Inst Indian Geogr 4:68–78
Saravanavel J, Ramasamy SM (2015) GIS based 3D visualization of subsurface and surface lineaments/faults and their geological significance, Northern Tamil Nadu, India. Int Arch Photogramm Remote Sens Spec Inf Sci 40(8):469–476
Selvakumar R, Ramasamy SM (2015) Evaluating the influence of active tectonics on spatial distribution pattern of floods along eastern Tamil Nadu, India. Int Nat J Geomorphol 226:25–34
Sharma SB, Bakliwal PC (1980) On the migration of the river Yamuna. J Geol Soc India 21:461–463
Shumm SA, Dumont JF, Holbrook JM (2000) Active tectonics and alluvial rivers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p 276
Singh IB, Ansari AA, Chandel RS, Misra A (1996) Neotectonic control on drainage system in Gangetic plain, Uttra Pradesh. J Geol Soc India 47:599–609
Sinha A, Janardhanan A (2015) Extra rain and poor urban planning; why Chennai went under water (The Indian Express date 19 Nov)
Subrahmanya KR (1994) Post Gondwana tectonics of the Indian Peninsula. Curr Sci 67(7):527–530
Subrahmanya KR (1996) Active intraplate deformation in South India. Tectonophysics 262:231–241
Sunita N (2015) Unregulated urbanization to blame for Chennai flooding. The Hindu dated 4th Dec 2015
Teressa M, Herrera R, Jaime UF (1999) Morphotectonic zones along the coast of the Pacific Continental margin, southern Mexico. Geomorphology 28(3–4):237–250
Thornbury WD (1985) Principles of Geomorphology, 2nd edn. Wiley, New York
Twidale CR (2004) River patterns and their meaning. Earth Sci Rev 67:159–218
Vaidyanadhan R (1971) Evolution of the drainage of Cauvery in south India. J Geol Soc India 12:14–23
Vaidyanadhan R, Ghosh RN (1993) Quaternary of the east coast of India. Curr Sci 64:804–816
Valdiya KS (2001) Tectonic resurgence of the Mysore plateau and surrounding regions in cratonic South India. Curr Sci 81(8):1068–1089
Varadharajan K, Ganju JL (1989) Lineament analysis of coastal belt of Peninsular India. Mem Geol Soc India 12:49–58
Vemban NA, Subramanian KS, Gopalakrishnan K, Venkata Rao V (1977) Major faults/dislocations/lineaments of Tamil Nadu. Misc Publ Geol Surv India 31:53–56
Whitesitt J (2010) Boolean algebra and its applications. Dover Publications, Mineola
Websites
(2015) 2015 South Indian floods. In: En.wikipedia.org. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2015_South_Indian_floods&oldid=821324072
(2015) Bhuvan | ISRO’s Geoportal | Gateway to Indian Earth Observation | Disaster Services. In: Bhuvan-noeda.nrsc.gov.in. http://bhuvan-noeda.nrsc.gov.in/disaster/disaster/disaster.php
(2015) Chennai flood 2015 | Latest news on Chennai flood 2015 | Breaking stories and opinion articles—firstpost. In: Firstpost. http://www.firstpost.com/search/chennai%20flood%202015
(2015) In: The Hindu. http://www.thehindu.com/search/?q=chennai+flood+2015&order=DESC&sort=publishdate
(2015) Annual Rainfall Map of India, Rainfall in India. In: Mapsofindia.com. http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/india/annualrainfall.htm
Acknowledgements
The senior author is thankful to Alagappa University which conferred him the position of Distinguished Professor and thus facilitating him to carry out the present study. The authors are thankful to Dr. M. Muthukumar, Asst. Professor, and Shri. Subagunasekar, Research Fellow, Gandhigram Rural University, Tamil Nadu, India, for having provided the preliminary flood inundation data from the Bhuvan website, NRSC, Govt. of India.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ramasamy, S.M., Vijay, A. & Dhinesh, S. Geo-anthropogenic aberrations and Chennai floods: 2015, India. Nat Hazards 92, 443–477 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3213-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3213-3