Emergence of Water Sensitive Design:

Abstract

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, once had lowlands on both west and east periphery. The west periphery has already taken up by urbanization after constructing the flood embankment and in the eastern periphery it is on process of disappearing very fast. City is now expanding to this area which requires mandatory to keep open and low to take water from city for flooding alleviation. Lack of physical planning is very evident here which causes great degradation of the flooding and water logging situation of the city. At present master planning of the city following subdivision of land and provide little attention about water problem when zoning. Dhaka city was once gifted with rich system of water bodies and lowlands. Vast lowlands in both sides helped rivers to spread over wider area so the depth of flooding could remain low and contribute to balance water level by storing water before discharge into rivers. But, city is expanding drastically by grabbing all the least open areas in and around, and worsening the flooding scenario unbearable. Keeping these issues in mind this paper tried to understand the water system for the city, reasons for water (flooding, water logging) problems, role of eastern lowlands to control city's flooding situation. Finally, some innovative design strategies have been suggested for upcoming unavoidable development by understanding the water system and checking flood problem eventually ensuring environmental quality.