Browsing by Subject "Waterlogging"

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    A HIPPIE CLIMATE, A RIGID SYSTEM. CLIMATE ADAPTATION TO RIVERINE FLOODS AND WATERLOGGING AT THE LOCAL LEVEL IN COLOMBIA
    (2024-04-26) Diaz Ramos , Jose Luis
    Climate change intensifies extreme events, posing risks to ecosystems and human populations. In the near-term in a 1.5°C global warming scenario, more intense and frequent extreme rainfalls are expected, which is associated with flooding. Colombia is a highly vulnerable country to extreme weather, particularly flood risks. While the country has made progress identifying its climate vulnerabilities, and adopting policies to address them, the implementation of actions at the local level requires further assessment. This Master Project seeks to understand if actions and institutional arrangements for flood risk adaptation at the local level in Colombia are commensurate with the challenges of climate change. To answer this question, Chía, one of the most densely populated municipalities in the country that has suffered from flood impacts in the past, is used as a case study. Review of current literature and regulations, interviews to key stakeholders, and petitions to obtain information on government actions were used for the analysis, as well as estimations using geographic information systems. From the analysis, it was found that current frameworks and literature analyzing flood risks focus on riverine floods and neglect other sources of floods, such as waterlogging, despite them being a significant hazard especially under climate change. Therefore, this brief presents a framework for local governments to analyze their current actions (if any) related to flood and waterlogging management, in order to identify gaps and overlaps that need to be addressed. The framework has ten components, including the following: area and climate change context, stakeholder analysis, regulatory analysis, current actions description and analysis, gaps description, problem definition, design of the alternatives, prioritization of alternatives, and monitoring and assessment actions. Applying this framework to the case study, it was found that the municipality of Chía has reduced its flood risk as during the last decade dikes have been built along the river; however, it is estimated that 1,866 (0.9%) people in 2022 were living in areas of high flood risk. In addition, more than 80% of the population has a medium threat of riverine floods, which is concerning as even though total yearly precipitation is not expected to change considerably, precipitation is expected to increase in short periods of time (1 and 5 days), representing a threat to a municipality that has been highly urbanized. The analysis of the actions deployed to tackle these risks reveals that they are fragmented both between the regional and local level, and within the local administration. Flood and waterlogging risks management face different challenges due to lack of information (outdated and limited public access to data), policy (lack of integrated plan with low consideration of climate change), administrative coordination (lack of clear responsibilities lead to overreliance on actors and actions), accountability (fragmented environmental management structure) and capacity (lack of specific expertise). Flood and waterlogging actions need to be built upon existing initiatives. For flood management the most critical action is to guarantee the long-term quality of the dikes that were built by improving, among others, a better joint work between regional and local levels, as well as with the community. For waterlogging risks, it requires a better involvement of the local Environment Secretary to incorporate climate adaptation actions, fostering transversality and avoiding duplication. Infrastructure investments should focus on improving sustainable drainage systems, permeable surfaces and green spaces due to the complexity of increasing drainage systems. Even though this policy brief considers a specific case study, it helps to identify barriers that municipal governments in Colombia are having to tackle climate change effects of floods and waterlogging.