Floods in megacities: impacts of urban growth, sustainable infrastructure and climate change

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Globally floods are one of the most devastating natural disasters, impacting numerous regions, responsible for thousands of casualties and billions of dollars in losses annually. All cities are becoming more vulnerable to flooding due to urbanisation, ageing infrastructure, and the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. In particular, megacities (cities with a population greater than 10 million) face even greater risks the urban growth in these areas is faster than other regions and the number of people and economic assets affected in large centres is also far higher than anywhere else. It is therefore essential to develop better urban flood protection methods, including improved flood forecasting methods and effective flood mitigation infrastructure.This research program aims to address these issues by focusing on three inter-related short term objectives. First, historical floods in global megacities are investigated to improve our understanding of pluvial flood governing processes in these regions. Conceptual global-scale and city-scale numerical models will be used to determine how floods have changed in megacities over the last century, and how growth, climate change, and region-specific characteristics will impact future flood events. Following this, the ability of sustainable “green” infrastructure technologies to mitigate future flood events in megacities will be investigated using a coupled modelling and experimental approach. The experimental component will optimise the design of these technologies to meet the flood risk reduction criteria established in the modelling approach. The last component of this research program focuses on a risk and economic analysis to determine the net financial benefits of implementing sustainable infrastructure. This research will improve our understanding of the complexity and uncertainty in urban water systems. The novel technical and economic assessment tools developed through this program will assist water resource managers in making more informed, strategic decisions in the face of limited infrastructure funding. The outcome will be more resilient urban environments.