Urban flooding management. A proposal for a multi-layer adaptation plan in Cartagena

The global awareness of climate change is an important step in order to produce strategies to face this reality, it is important to identify which are the crucial aspects of climate change in which each city should concentrate. One of these issues is flooding which affects differently every city which suffers from them, different types and causes are visible around the globe, and the strategies to manage the effects cause by this natural hazard are diverse and complex. Urban flooding is the term use to explain the causes of this natural disaster in urban areas, it is important to identify that the causes for this type of problem depends as I say before on the context, but it is also important to be aware that the disadvantages of the population living in these areas are also an important factor to take into account. Population in these areas tend to be in the lowest levels of poverty, thus is even more difficult for these communities to survive a flood, that due to the precarious building and road infrastructure, make the economic losses even higher, and sometimes even life’s. Floods have became a public manner in Colombia, which has high level of population living in poverty and two rainy seasons every year, this has created a vicious cycle in which the disadvantage communities tend to loss everything. It is crucial to developed and integral strategy to face this problem and decrease the amount of victims every rainy season in the country. Cities like Cartagena located close to the Caribbean sea, face an even higher problem due to the proximity to the coast and the amount of water bodies around the area, also this city has one of the highest levels of poverty in the country, with scared urban plots almost over the water borders, and integrated plan that comprehends the protection of the city, that educates the population about the danger of living on this areas and also that provides opportunities to improve the quality of life an environment it is necessary in order to manage the effects of flooding on the city, and also to allow the city a more organize growth, with a define trama and the development of a more attractive city. Therefore the aim of this thesis is to trough an adaptation plan, find an answer to the urban flooding issue in the most deprived areas of Cartagena. In order to develop the most suitable strategies first I will start my research on what involves floods and urban flooding, causes of this kind of disaster depending of the type of area, location in the world and different characteristics that will be useful to comprehended how they work, which are the causes and which methods have proven to be successful. This step will help me discover how climate change impacts Cartagena through floods and hence which tools I will be using in my proposal. As a second step I will be addressing the urban and social context of the city. It is important to find out how the city has grown, so understanding which settlements suffer from flooding risk will be easier and also which are these areas specifically so I can create specific solutions according to the areas in risk. As a complement in this step it is crucial to understand the social background of the inhabitants living in this area, it is common that people living in urban flooding plots are in the lowest scales of poverty specially in a country like Colombia, the notion of why people continue living like this, can be answer if we discover, which are their income, their educational background and even their race. Thus it will be an advantage to integrate the urban context and the social phenomena in an integrated plan. A proposal situated in the flood risk areas of Cartagena can be developed only if an integral and organized strategy is implemented trough a good period of time, and the location of this proposal should be closer to the points were the issue affects the biggest amount of people, which is the Laguna of “La Virgen”. Even though the city is plated by the Caribbean Sea, the Laguna is one of the biggest water bodies inside the city, and covers the border of many neighborhoods. Choosing this area will help my proposal, sue to the possibility to embrace a big variety of situations where different tools should be implemented. The development of this thesis came to me as an answer to what I have seen as citizens of Cartagena and also as an urban planning master student, the outcome of this proposal search to find, create or develop an integral plan to solve this issue and therefore improve the quality of life not only of the inhabitants of this area but also the whole city, which as I already said is been establish by UNESCO as historical heritage of humanity. I believe that it is useful to create a catalogue of actions according to the cities context, with time and with the aim to involve the inhabitants also, it will be possible to manage urban flooding in Cartagena’s higher risk areas.