Responding to floods in a new climate economy

The devastating floods in India’s southern state of Chennai, and now yet another deadly typhoon (Melor) bringing massive flooding in central Philippines, point to a rising frequency of climate-related disasters. For an effective response to these increasingly costly events, we can no longer regard them as one-off acts of nature. They are part of an emerging pattern shaped by human activity, in two ways. Globally, climate change is making countries far more hazard-prone; locally, environmental destruction is adding to the fall out.

Rising population densities mean that more people are locating in flood-prone areas. Unregulated urbanisation and inadequate drainage and flood protection are exacerbating people’s vulnerability.