📌 Why in News?
Urban flooding is the inundation of built-up areas when rainfall, river overflow, drainage congestion, storm surge or a combination of these exceeds the capacity of the urban environment to absorb or remove water.
It differs from ordinary river flooding because cities dramatically alter the natural hydrological cycle.
Syllabus & Relevance
Paper: GS-3
Theme: Environment
Static Foundation
A natural landscape contains soil, vegetation, wetlands, ponds and floodplains.
These absorb, store and slowly release water.
An urban landscape replaces them with roads, parking areas, concrete buildings, pavements and other impermeable surfaces.
Rainfall that earlier infiltrated into the soil becomes rapid surface runoff.
Therefore, even a city not located beside a major river may experience severe urban flooding.
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