Interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral construction of flood alerts at the Matanza River Basin -Argentina-: A Community-Based Approach to Disaster Risk Management

CAMILA PRUDENTE; NADIA TESTANI; FEDERICO ARIEL ROBLEDO; DIEGO MOREIRA; BRICHE, ELODIE; GATTI, IGNACIO AGUSTIN; MARÍA LAURA CONTIN; MICOU, ANA PAULA; KAZIMIERSKI, LEANDRO DAVID; MARIANO RE

Kigali

Conferencia; World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Open Science Conference; 2023

World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)

Urban floods mean a significant challenge to local governments around the world due to their direct impact on the population. The risks of urban flooding are increasing due to Climate Change, so evaluating and monitoring urban basins turns out to be a priority. This study presents an experience that aims to improve the local community's understanding of floods through the creation of a local early warning system in the Matanza river basin (MRB), a rural-urban sub-basin of the Plata basin, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where over five million people live.The "Anticipando la Crecida" project began in 2013, unifying scientific knowledge from different disciplines, including meteorology, oceanography, geography, anthropology, and engineering, with the local community knowledge, including local neighbors, Civil Defense, teachers and students of schools that work as evacuation centers, community organizations, and the Science and Technology area of the local government in the MRB. The objective is to improve adaptation strategies and reduce the effects of extreme hydric events by promoting effective decision-making in disaster risk management at local level. Also, to ensure that the community appropriates the knowledge generated and the tools available for monitoring and forecasting this hazard. In addition, this project seeks for young people to be active protagonists when considering climate change adaptation measures based on local realities.Our challenge was to advance the understanding of the local river system and its impacts on the MRB´s most vulnerable population. Community monitoring of rainfall and river height has been carried out since 2014 in MRB. Through participatory workshops, the community diagrammed the best way to communicate official short-term weather alerts and the data measured in each rainfall event. Furthermore, an analysis of risk knowledge is conducted at the block scale every few months through participatory mapping workshops in the territory and field trips in drought and flood situations. The co-produced information is incorporated for organization and visualization into a Geoportal of the National Geographic Institute (https://riesgo.ign.gob.ar/mapa/), aimed at producing geospatial information and making it accessible to all citizens through a web platform.Overall, our experience provides valuable tools for disaster risk management in urban areas, where early warning systems can mitigate the impact of flooding on the population. The integration of academic and local community knowledge can contribute to effective decision-making. Developing dialogue and cooperation between scientific communities, stakeholders, and policymakers is crucial to achieve this aim.