October 25 2024
By Gyeonghyun Cho
Climate change is triggering more frequent and violent floods, and communities worldwide, especially in Southeast Asia, are feeling its full force. As the water level rises with devastating effect, governments are turning to solutions that are both revolutionary and organic in safeguarding life and property.
MOSE in Venice is perhaps the epitome in this regard to keep the cities safe with advanced technologies. This includes a barrier rise during flood conditions, a system that, since 2020, has protected iconic sites from Piazza San Marco against rising sea levels.
SLAMDAM technology presents another innovation in the Netherlands. It uses water-filled tubes that allow communities to quickly build temporary flood barriers. It has been installed in Kenya to help control flooding on Lake Victoria. One of the plus sides of SLAMDAM is it can store water for agriculture in times of drought, killing two birds with one stone.
Japan and the United States use flow control dams that hold back excess water at the time of flooding, whereas people of Bangladesh have built their homes on stilts so that flood waters could travel down, preventing families from harm.
Nature also plays a big role in this: restoring mangrove forests in Vietnam's Mekong Delta is protecting the coastline against storm surges and flooding. China is creating "sponge cities" with green space and special pavement that absorbs rainwater, reducing the likelihood of flooding.
The Netherlands, by allowing more space for the natural flow of rivers, is preventing flooding. Upgrading in India traditional systems of conserving rainwater during the monsoon period, such as "johads," also serves as a measure to control flooding and help to conserve water at the same time.
The range of these promising efforts has, however, a few points of challenge: large-area projects like Venice's MOSE system require huge funding, technology to be combined with nature-based solutions; awareness and involvement at the community level is vital, and people not knowing the risks or what to do when a flood strikes will result in very few preventing the flood. Flooding knows no borders, and therefore calls for international cooperation.