India, Dec. 25 -- As the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) prepares to handle its first flights on Thursday -making Mumbai the first Indian city with two international airports-years of technical work by the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS), Pune, have quietly shaped the project's flood-mitigation framework.

Located in the Panvel creek region, the airport sits in a hyrologically complex zone influenced by five upstream river bodies - Taloja, Kasadi, Kalundri, Ulwe and Gadi- and the strong tidal forces of the Arabian Sea. During extreme events, peak river discharges can coincide with spring tides rising up to four to five metres, creating a high risk of inundation. Addressing this challenge was central to CWPRS's ma...