Flooding in the United Arab Emirates' city of Dubai last week illustrates a simple climate change problem the modern world has not fixed: lack of drainage.
Traffic diverts away from a flooded street in Sharjah on April 20, 2024, after the heaviest rainfall on record in the UAE.last week illustrated how urban engineering is failing a major climate change test. In a world marked by the increasing possibility of extreme weather events, no matter how big and modern expanding urban environments around the globe get, they don't have enough places for all the water to go when there's too much of it.
What's known is that Dubai was built on sand, a natural environment which lets water seep into the soil very easily. But by pouring massive amounts of concrete on top of Dubai's natural terrain, the developers effectively blocked the soil from absorbing water. Last week's rainfall was the largest amount of precipitation recorded
Greenmetrics.AI installs sensors and uses data analytics to predict rainfall impact and help advise communities on water consumption, and is currently working with civil authorities in six cities in Portugal.