India, Aug. 17 -- The researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar have found that flood protection measures create inequality by protecting some neighborhoods while leaving others with worse flooding. The team developed tools to assess how protective infrastructure redistributes flood damage and deepens inequality in cities.

The study titled 'Partial flood defenses shift risks and amplify inequality in a core-periphery city' and published in leading journal Nature Cities on August 15, examines how levees and embankments affect flood risk across city parts.

Flooding is among the most devastating of natural hazards, causing around US$41.1 billion in annual economic losses and affecting 74.6 million people worldwide...