Rains are a pleasant and peaceful dose of heart, yet devastation for the mind if it exceeds the capacity. Every rain droplet reaches its destination, which, if precisely measured, would be 10% Runoff absorbed by the ground. For this, 25% of the water infiltrates shallowly, 25% infiltrates deeply, and 40% evaporates.

Pakistan faces worsening urban floods due to climate change and infrastructure deficits, demanding urgent adaptation.

The increase in the daily dosage of the world’s population ultimately increases Global warming which eventually lengthens the list of natural disasters such as urban flooding, there’s no such resilient force that could resist natural disasters because a man in front of Mother Nature is nothing but yes there are some barriers which can buy us time to run, to a safe point. ‘Every species is born with instincts that ultimately create a balance with nature. ’

Pakistan is on the verge of inflation. The major cause of its unfortunate tale is the history of geography and the turmoil of capitalists. Pakistan is blessed with 24 rivers, while six are shared with other territories, including India and Afghanistan. Most of the time, this blessing turns the phrase of blessing in disguise into an undeniable truth when draught hit the lands of Sind and was later flooded by monsoon rain. Pakistan has built different dams for the sake of resilience to floods today.

Global cities like Tokyo and China’s sponge cities showcase innovative flood resilience combining engineering and nature.

Almost 150 dams are running across the stream line of Pakistan, but few provide indefinite resilience, as building flood-resilient infrastructure on a small scale seems impossible, for it requires budget, and Pakistan is under inflation. Since the beginning of Pakistan, there have been 14 floods, which not only propelled inflation but also put Pakistan behind.

A 2018 study on flooding in Sri Lanka showed that wetlands could absorb 39 percent of the water during storms. The Pakistan government has already launched the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami project, a tree-planting initiative to revive forests and wildlife resources in the country. Planting and cultivating mangrove forests, for example, has also been found to help prevent coastal erosion.

Men are a stubborn species with traits of the creator; they always stand on their toes to invent wonders. This is the reason why we are not floating. From an early age, kids have been told  ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ in rare parts of the World. some people didn’t cram it like parrots and learned their lessons through every failure which led mankind to build examples of barriers till now man has invented different kinds of barriers to resist natural disasters including sewer systems, Dams, Channels, sponge cities permeable roads, water storage tunnels, dry and wet ponds although some projects have succeeded in their mission.

The sewer system was the earliest solution of Rome, which is now updated by separate waste pipes and storm water pipes because it makes water move no matter what and how is necessary to prevent clogging. Water prisons, ‘Dams’ are the most recognized solution of mankind China has the world’s biggest Dam called ‘Three Gorges dams’ it is the only man-made thing that affects the earth, it slows the rotation of the earth by 0.6 microseconds declaring mankind as the resilience in front of nature although till now there have been 114 total Dam failures.

When we wander around for the solution to urban flooding, we can’t help but gaze with amazement at Tokyo. Tokyo has embellished itself with almost all kinds of resilience equipment because Tokyo is also the most endangered city hanging by a thread on the edge of the Pacific Ocean and with 107 rivers.

Nature-based solutions such as mangrove restoration and pine forests can bolster flood mitigation and ecological balance.

Tokyo secures the world’s biggest discharge water system by building an underground discharge channel in a metropolitan area it has 6.3 KM in width and 70 M long tunnels that capture and store the water from five rivers along with that they have built an 8M long walls in curve shape along the sea after considering its lessons from 2011 tsunami which in the very least has bought people time to run to a safe spot. Sponge cities are another idea of China carried out by India, Russia, and the US. It’s like an antidote to the virus from the virus as it takes us back to nature through nature by restoring water and turning land into green infrastructure.

Permeable pavements are another drop of resilience against urban flooding, absorbing around 4000 liters of water per square meter each hour. But there’s no absolute resilience against mother nature as Protagoras said, “Man decides what is true and false there is no absolute truth, there is no absolute reason” So to live with the unpredictable and merciless nature Yuki and UAE proposed the idea of floating cities, UAE named it as ‘Oxagon’ along with different names such as neon city While Japan named it dogen city.

Capturing the vision of a safe floating city by the seaside, implementing the medical solution of recovering from the disease virus by the virus itself, named ‘antidote’, likewise, humans in their mind have found the solution to urban flooding is to live with it, though yet to be declared as a successful project or a failure.

Many countries of the West, such as Finland, Sweden, Canda, Norway, and Germany, adopted wood for construction work rather than the commonly used concrete for the sake of rapid climate change as it reduces carbon emission and improve sustainability.

Pine trees on another hand are also water absorbent and flood resilient low budget solution as Their root systems stabilize soil, reduce erosion, and can absorb excess water, which helps in managing floodwaters, which is why there are rare flood cases in Northen side of Pakistan except for land sliding.

Complete flood resilience is impossible; coexistence through adaptive infrastructure and early warning systems is key.

In this era of algorithm technology can be trusted for the warnings and generating high alters during the time of crisis but still algorithm without well-equipped engineering is useless. In the end, it is suggested to live with your enemy if you can’t resist it same goes with urban flood management.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not represent the views, beliefs, or policies of the Stratheia.