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Coastal City Resilience — A Case Study of Chennai, India
Jaffer A. A. Khan1, and Deepika Varadarajan2
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DOI:10.17265/1934-7359/2026.05.003
1. Department of Architecture, Dar Al Hekma University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 2. Department of Architecture, Chennai Academy of Architecture and Design, Chennai, India
In the past two decades, India has been on a growth path economically. This growth also saw major developments in real estate with almost all the cities ever expanding and exponentially growing beyond the limits which caused unexpected physical changes to the natural topography. During the first ten days of December itself, the city received 539mm of rainfall as against the monthly average of 191mm. On 1st December, Chennai received 272mm of rainfall in a span of 12 hours. The floods of 2015 in a few days caused havoc to the environment, ecology and to the citizens of the city. The government agencies were unprepared to handle the problem and the citizens themselves tackled the situation saving lives and properties. The cities like Chennai are just a tip of an iceberg. Many cities in India have faced similar situations of flooding, the country has a particularly bigger challenge as most of the major cities are on the coastline of India which is 5700Kms long. The city of Chennai especially is significant as it was one of the most affected cities during 2004 Tsunami that hit the state of Tamil Nadu. Hence the dangers are from both internal and external sides, from within due to floods and from outside due to the Tsunamis. There is also a fear of climate change and the rise in sea levels which may affect the city in future. This paper will look at Chennai from both scenarios and discuss the way the resilient community responded in the absence or the ineffectiveness of the government machinery. It will further, deliberate the need for a change in the attitude of the people towards these recurring disasters and the way to mitigate them through urban design that responds to the very life of the people who would build their resilience in facing these disasters.
Floods, tsunamis, the coastal community, urban design, rainfall, topography.
Jaffer A. A. Khan, and Deepika Varadarajan. (2026). Coastal City Resilience — A Case Study of Chennai, India, Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, May 2026, Vol. 20, No. 5, 186-193.
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