A Revisit to Impact of Urbanization on Flooding

Abstract

It briefly describes the main components of water cycle from precipitation to storage and explains the impacts of urbanization on water cycle with a particular focus on the increase of flood inundation depth due to urbanization, which has been very much insufficiently studied and poorly understood so far. It also points out even a small-scale rainfall event may cause flood damage in urbanized areas, which may be considered as a reflection of poor urban planning. Furthermore, it advocates the need to embed flood damage estimation into urban planning as a new strategy for better flood risk management.