Project Information

Title: Urban Development and Climate Change: Studies on Climate Change, Vulnerability and Risk Mitigation and Adaptation

Client: Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), Iniciativa de Ciudades Emergentes y Sostenibles (ICES) – 2015

Project Description

In an effort to support long term planning solutions and sustainability initiatives, a natural hazard vulnerability assessment was conducted in San Jose, Costa Rica, one of the largest metropolitan areas in Central America. The project evaluated flood, landslide and drought vulnerability in the region using probability assessment tools, bi-dimensional modeling for flood potential in urbanized river corridors, seismic models for landslides and remote sensing models for drought vulnerability. Incorporating these hazard assessments into growth development models, revealed that under a trend growth scenario, the city’s infrastructure and service delivery was two times as likely, to suffer from maximum losses from floods and 13 times more likely to suffer from a landslide event. The tools developed throughout the process allowed policy makers to promote sustainable development initiatives using evidence based decision-making and allowed for a much wider discussion in the city of how to include anticipatory measures in their urban growth plans.

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