Deadly rivers in cities. Why do people die in Russia during heavy rains
Why in Russia do people die on the streets during heavy rains? A woman died in a rainstorm in Sochi, and this is not the only such tragedy. Urban expert told aif.ru about reasons for street flooding after rain — and how to deal with it.
Pavel Dyatlov, design engineer of city streets:
Road construction standards are imperfect< /p>
Why can't city storm drains withstand rain? The problem has several aspects. For example, a documentary. Now, on new roads under construction, the recommended distance between wells or drainage gutters is 250-300 meters.
The rules apply to all types of roads, no matter what the width of the carriageway.
A ;we know that the larger the pavement area, the more precipitation will “collect” road.
This is where the first problem — excessive road width in city.
Of course, you can add more drainage wells inside the city, but then you will have to expand the drainage collectors to let enough water through.
The more asphalt and tiles, the larger the area for collecting water, which has nowhere to go. So it turns out that the road or sidewalk turns into an unpredictable river or water accumulates in one place (lowland). In the moment of the elements, a person in a metropolis finds himself in a stone trap, which is filled with uncontrolled water.
Endless roadway expansion — a big mistake
As European experience shows, when designing roads, it is not necessary to build a large number of drainage wells, collectors, and associated expensive infrastructure.
Europeans avoid building roads in the city excessive width, don pave absolutely the entire city space with tiles, don destroy green lawns in order to widen the parking road.
The best drainage system — this is a simple lawn on which trees and shrubs grow.
We know from the school lessons of The World Around»that trees, shrubs, lawns, flowers need water, and they absorb it .
My opinion as a specialist: don expand roads to maximum, pave everything with tiles, destroy lawns for cars.
In megacities of Europe, this phenomenon was encountered back in the 70s of the 20th century: roads were expanded, everything was rolled into asphalt. As a result, as soon as the rain passes, so the wide highways passing through the residential area are heated.
Then they decided to narrow the roads, began to plant trees and shrubs, the problem was solved by itself, and the Europeans did not change the drainage collectors, did not expand them , left the old ones.
Rolled everything in asphalt for the sake of cars
What is the conclusion? It is necessary to preserve and increase the existing green spaces in order to reduce the load on the drainage system.
Also, do not forget about the decrepitude of the drainage infrastructure on the scale of the city — it is not always known exactly what condition the collectors are in, whether they are clean or clogged.
More — the larger the city, the greater the load on the drainage system.
Many people say that «everything depends on money», so the city authorities are not always willing to deal with complex repairs, there is no equipment to control collectors , there are no services by their content.
There is also the human factor in the flooding of the road — these are clogged rain collector grates with debris.
To summarize. Among the main factors why drainage collectors cannot handle the flow of water, the first — is the excess width of the roadway.
Another error — paving everything for the sake of motor transport, that is, the elimination of lawns, trees, shrubs for the sake of expanding roads, parking lots. In the center of a million-plus city, an old tree will be cut down, and nothing planted in its place.
The more greenery in the city, the less dependence on drainage wells.
When we walk in the park, we hardly see a drainage well. Why?
They are not needed there, because the water goes into the soil, there is no flooding. Yes, there are puddles in the park at the place of uneven asphalt, but it is better and safer than deadly rivers in the city.
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