Roadside Drains in Urban Area

Urbanization is pervasive global trend. Nearly half the world’s population now resides in urban areas and that percentage is expected to increase to 60% by the year 2030. The effect of urban development has increased flood frequencies in area due to imperviousness. However, drainage infrastructure has not kept pace with the rate of population growth. In addition, studies in climate change and global warming, have led conclusion that extreme event rainfall events are likely to become more frequent in future. This has resulted in increased incidences of urban flooding followed by epidemics not only disrupting the daily life during monsoons but also affecting the overall quality of life in most of the metros in India as well as around the world. To overcome flooding problems, the design of drainage system should be effective. The study area selected is the metropolitan city, Mumbai (India). The city experienced the unpredicted rainfall of 944.2 mm in 24 hours on 26th July 2005. Extensive floods were experienced in low lying areas in Mumbai. The current paper describes the Mumbai's drainage system, design criteria and practices for effective design of road side drains for Mumbai area and presents specific management practices to handle the high monsoon discharges in metros.