Building Resilient Communities: Investigating Adaptive Solutions to Urban Flooding in Global Megacities

Urban flooding is one of the most pressing challenges facing megacities of the Global South this century due to rising sea levels and the increasing intensity of disasters from climate change. The rising urban population of these centers from migration, particularly in unplanned informal communities located in flood-prone areas, further propels the problem and risks associated with urban flooding unless policy actions are taken. This paper discusses the context behind this issue and looks how three adaptive policies – use of secondary cities, relocation, and resilient home construction – can potentially create positive outcomes for low-income and marginalized communities in the flood-prone megacities of Dhaka, Bangladesh and Lagos, Nigeria. This discussion of policies concludes that to create resilient and adaptive policy, global megacities need to induce participation from marginalized and low-income communities in the planning process, establish trust in government and other institutions, and aid families that do have to be relocated to avoid escalating a crisis of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Lessons learned from these two case studies can be applied to other global megacities as well.