Civil Engineering in minimising risk of rising flood concern in various parts of India

We can never overpower nature but we can do our part to eliminate the naturally causing disasters.

Flood is a frequently heard word nowadays in all news media across various parts of India. There are various reasons for this natural disaster and various post flood disasters like major landslides are also observed along with flood.

We as engineers can do our part to counterfort the naturally occurring flood with the help of modern technology. The root cause of the flood is excessive rainfall which we can not control ourselves. We shall only look after the fact that the storm water drainage to pass the excessive rainfall run-off is sufficient in cross section so that discharge capacity of the stream is maximized.

Moreover we can think of master plans when flood prone areas are marked by local enquiry and past year data? and then a detailed engineering topographical survey by conventional survey? technique or by using modern technology like photogrammetric or drone lidar survey are conducted to get the contour of the area for a detailed analysis to find out most suitable and economical solutions to execute a flood master plan. Some low lying areas can be filled by the excavated river bed materials and embankments of rivers can also be strengthened by constructing earthen or concrete banks.. This is how not only the low lying areas surrounding the river catchment are improved but also the river cross section and discharge capacity are improved by several fold by this desilting activity.

A good river embankment also improves the aesthetics of the river bank and embankment can also be used as the formation of roadway. Excessive rainfall and floods sometimes cause landslides in very steep hills and embankments. We can provide slope stabilization measures like re-sloping, rock bolting, reinforcing the soil, providing proper drainage plan, benching, shotcreting, proving counter-berms, proving shear keys after properly analysing the slope with the help of drone survey and by geotechnical investigation to identify soil characteristics. Land reclamation process can be started by filling the river bed surrounding and we can save a huge loss of land, property and catastrophe by protecting slope failures. Flood in heavily congested cities can be reduced by properly cleaning the outlets of the city periodically to ensure timely drain out of the storm water.