Flooding in urban areas is an emerging climate-induced disaster. Discuss the causes of this disaster. Mention the features of two such major floods in the last two decades in India. Describe the policies and frameworks in India that aim at tackling such floods.

Introduction: Urban flooding is the inundation of built-up areas when rainfall outpaces a city's drainage capacity. A warming climate, by intensifying short-duration extreme rain over heat-island cities, is turning it into a recurring disaster.

Causes:

• Climatic: More frequent high-intensity cloudbursts, erratic monsoons and storm surges in coastal cities.
• Man-made: Loss of wetlands and lakes, concretised surfaces that block infiltration, encroachment of natural drains and floodplains, and storm-water systems designed for only 12-20 mm/hour rain.
• Governance: Poor land-use control, weak desilting of drains, and unregulated release of water from upstream reservoirs.

Two major urban floods:

• Mumbai (2005): 944 mm of rain in 24 hours paralysed the city for over 48 hours and killed about 400 people, exposing the choked Mithi river and outdated stormwater drains.
• Chennai (2015): Record northeast-monsoon rain killed over 400, shut the airport, and spurred state disaster-management reform after the loss of the city's tanks and water bodies.

Policies and frameworks: The National Disaster Management Authority's National Guidelines on Urban Flooding (2010) recommend dedicated urban-flood cells and Doppler-radar nowcasting; the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation funds storm-water drains, with AMRUT 2.0 rejuvenating water bodies; and the National Disaster Management Plan mainstreams flood risk into city planning.

Conclusion: Sponge-city design, restored wetlands and lakes, permeable surfaces, and integrated, real-time drainage management offer the durable fix to a fast-rising, climate-linked risk.