At the COP21 talks in Paris, Chennai had been brought up as an unfortunate exhibit of the perfect storm triggered by climate change and indiscriminate urban planning. While India is already driving the conversation about the global effort to climate-proofing, hopefully the impact of this latest flood will also force its leadership to sit up and take notice of the urban problems they've put off for far too long. Till such time, the effects of urbanisation and climate change will continue to converge in dangerous ways.
Delhi's urban sprawl, for instance, has been expanding much faster than its drainage infrastructure could catch up. All this is exacerbated by its often impetuous approach to urban planning.
Increased storm frequency and intensity related to climate change are exacerbated by such local factors as the growing occupation of floodplains, increased runoff from hard surfaces, inadequate waste management and silted-up drainage.
Climate scientists too have been warning about rapid unplanned urbanisation - expanding both outwards and upwards, extinction of water bodies, deforestation and growing encroachments on the Yamuna floodplains shaping up to be a tinderbox.
Environment watchdogs say the Capital's vulnerability has to do with both its unplanned development as well as its location. A UN panel report on climate change in April 2014 placed Delhi among three of the world's largest cities that are at high risk of floods; the other two being Tokyo and Shanghai.
The report says river floodplains need to be secured to be able to adapt to extreme weather and recommends setting aside buffer zones along rivers instead of "hard defences" like channelisation or dams.