Coastal city climate resilience in India is advancing through Surat’s landmark Dumas Sea Wall project, which pairs hard engineering with mangrove-based natural defenses from rising seas and worsening floods.
Coastal city climate resilience has found one of its boldest examples in Surat, a port city of 7 million people on the western coast of Gujarat in India. Surat sits where the Tapi River meets the Arabian Sea, a location that has built its wealth for centuries but now places it on the front line of climate risk.
Surat has been flood-prone throughout its history. Climate change is making that worse. Last year, heavy rains submerged its markets, damaged hundreds of shops, and forced schools to close. Residents waded through chest-deep water in scenes that made front pages across the country.
Beyond floods, the city also faces rising sea levels and coastal erosion. Dumas Beach, a well-known tourist destination, has been visibly losing its shoreline. Officials point to strong tidal swings that strip away soil and harm marine life. During low tide, freshly exposed ground is especially vulnerable to wind and runoff, particularly where vegetation is thin.
Rather than waiting for each disaster and rebuilding after the fact, Surat has shifted to long-term planning. The city’s central project is the Dumas Sea Wall, a major component of the Sustainable Cities Integrated Programme. The wall strengthens the existing embankment and adds a pedestrian promenade, a cycling track, and public green spaces. Where the river meets the sea, dikes are reinforced to block both flooding and saltwater from seeping into freshwater sources. Construction began in 2022 and is on track to finish by late 2026.
The Dumas project is not purely concrete and steel. It pairs hard engineering with nature-based solutions (NbS), which use natural processes to address environmental problems. Mangrove forests along the coast serve as a living buffer. They absorb storm energy, reduce erosion, and support local biodiversity. This combined approach reflects a growing global understanding that coastal city climate resilience in India, and elsewhere, works best when engineering and ecology are designed together rather than treated as separate concerns.
Coastal city climate resilience is most effective when hard engineering and nature work in tandem, as demonstrated by the Dumas project in India, where concrete infrastructure and mangrove forests are designed together to absorb storm energy, reduce erosion, and support biodiversity along a vulnerable shoreline. Photo by Chehek Bilgi courtesy of UNEP.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Asian Development Bank are backing the effort through the Global Environment Facility (GEF), an international funding partnership. Surat is one of 50 cities across 17 countries taking part in the program. The overarching goal is to cut more than 250 million tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and restore close to 1 million hectares of land globally.
The numbers tied to Surat’s portion are significant. By the time the project wraps up, it is expected to deliver a cumulative reduction of nearly 35.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. The work is also projected to restore close to 2,000 hectares of land and directly improve conditions for more than 12.2 million residents, including 5.8 million women. Women in lower-income coastal communities often carry a greater burden during climate shocks, facing limited mobility during emergencies, caregiving pressures, and fewer economic safety nets.
The stakes extend well beyond Surat. Globally, sea level rise over the past two decades has placed 14 million more coastal residents at a one-in-20 annual chance of flooding. By 2050, hundreds of densely populated coastal cities face heightened flood risk. That projection puts Surat’s challenge in sharp relief and makes the city’s solutions all the more valuable.
Surat’s model is drawing wide attention as a template for coastal city climate resilience. The National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), India’s leading body for urban research, has described the city as a “lighthouse city,” meaning a place whose approach others can study and adapt. That recognition carries real weight. India has roughly 250 million people living within 50 kilometers of its coastline, accounting for approximately 3.5% of the world’s total population. What works in Surat could guide planning in Chennai, Kochi, Mumbai, and dozens of smaller coastal towns.
Oxford Economics has projected that Surat will rank as the world’s fastest-growing city between 2019 and 2035. That growth is an asset, but it also means more people, more infrastructure, and more at stake when extreme weather strikes. The question is not whether rapid growth and climate action can coexist. Surat is already demonstrating that they can.
The approach is also aligned with wider thinking on how cities can manage flood risk without relying solely on hard infrastructure. Cities globally are exploring how green infrastructure reduces the burden on existing systems while delivering additional benefits such as cleaner air, cooler temperatures, and livable public spaces.
Building coastal city climate resilience requires more than seawalls and sandbags. It requires cities willing to plan decades ahead, blend technology with nature, and put communities at the center of every decision. Surat is doing exactly that, and the results so far suggest this is a model the rest of India’s coast cannot afford to ignore.
