Water has nowhere to go: Dubai floods show world failing massive climate change drainage test

Last week’s Dubai floods illustrate how urban engineering fails a major climate change test. In a world where extreme weather events are increasingly likely, no matter how large and modern urban environments around the world are, they simply won’t have enough room to hold it all when there is too much water.

Cities in the United Arab Emirates and others like them were built in previously uninhabitable areas, reflecting 20th-century urban development ideals that blocked natural water absorption systems. Increasing populations bring more waste and the need for landfills and other waste disposal methods, while drainage challenges will continue to plague major global cities such as Dubai, which face more frequent, large-scale waste scale of rainfall.

On Tuesday, more than 10 inches of rain fell in parts of the UAE, with Dubai receiving about half that amount, equivalent to the UAE’s average annual rainfall. Rainfall has become more frequent in the UAE in recent years and is expected to be more severe in the coming years. There were claims last week that seed-casting experiments the UAE has been conducting were responsible for the rain, but the government told CNBC that was inaccurate and other experts have refuted the claims.

As we all know, Dubai is built on sand, a natural environment that easily allows water to seep into the soil. But by pouring large amounts of concrete over Dubai’s natural topography, the developers effectively prevented the soil from absorbing water. Last week’s rainfall was the heaviest recorded in the country since monitoring began in 1949.

“We have natural drainage that carries water directly to the aquifer and then into our reservoirs,” said architect Ana Arsky, CEO of environmental startup 4 Habitos Para Mudar o Mundo. “When we pave the road, It’s not there anymore,” Arsky said.

Rapid population growth associated with global urbanization trends increases waste, and while you don’t see rubbish on Dubai’s streets, it has to go somewhere, and it often ends up in less than ideal places. Plastic products are poorly absorbent, and when they end up in landfills around the world, large amounts of waste back up the world’s natural drainage systems.

As New York City residents discovered last fall, even older cities with mature drainage systems face similar problems, with some places seeing 5 to 8 inches of rain in a single day, flooding schools, roads, and homes, and flooding subways and railroads. Service stopped. Without proper preparation, man-made gutters filled with debris and contamination will be unable to absorb the increased water, leading to stagnant water and flooding.

“Stormwater drainage systems are not suited to the climate change and extremely concentrated rainfall we are seeing now,” said Tiago Marques, co-founder and CEO of Greenmetrics.AI. “Stormwater drainage systems are saturated and cannot handle the large amounts of water that have fallen recently. “Whether it’s tunnels, highways, or cities, this water eventually reaches the surface and causes urban flooding in the lowest parts of the city.”

Greenmetrics.AI, which installs sensors and uses data analytics to predict rainfall impacts and help advise communities on water usage, is currently working with civil authorities in six Portuguese cities.

Marks said that when floods occur, citizens often blame city officials for not properly clearing drainage systems, but in Porto, Portugal, where severe flooding occurred in several areas of the city last year, drainage systems were cleared. “The amount of water was so high and so unusual that it basically flushed all the branches and even trash into the previously clean drainage system and clogged it,” Marks said. “When all this water started to accumulate, the authorities were very It’s difficult to know exactly what’s going on everywhere at the same time.”

Greenmetrics combines smart sensors with lidar, the same technology used to guide self-driving cars in flood-prone areas, to warn when water levels are too high to manage. Coupled with a better understanding of weather patterns, authorities can clear gutters and debris before flooding hits. In the event flooding is unavoidable, the technology could give people time to evacuate or allow leaders to close sites to minimize casualties.

“What used to happen every 100 years… started happening every 10 years,” Marks said. “Then floods that happened once every decade now start happening every few years. Adapting to climate change means building resilience technologies.”

Vapar, a startup that makes sewer drainage and pipe inspection robots to catch problems before big storms hit, has partnered with the Australian and British governments

Arsky’s 4 Habitos Para Mudar o Mundo helps companies such as AB-InBev and Brazil’s Banco Ita, as well as consumers, use artificial intelligence to sort waste so it can be disposed of in the appropriate areas to minimize disruption to drainage. Influence. It also works to develop building materials that are strong enough, but porous enough to allow water to still be absorbed by the area’s natural soil.

Arsky said more frequent flooding in the world’s most densely populated areas was another reminder of the basic message that events like the Dubai floods send to the world: “There are no concrete solutions to climate change.”