Anticipando la Crecida, anticipating the flood: Tools for the contribution in risk and disaster management floods at Buenos Aires, Argentina

FEDERICO ARIEL ROBLEDO; ELODIE BRICHE; DIEGO MOREIRA; IGNACIO GATTI; MARIANO RE; MAGDALENA FALCO; MARIANO DUVIELLE; LEANDRO KAZIMIERSKI; VERA, CAROLINA; CELESTE SAULO; CAMPETELLA, CLAUDIA; MARCOS SAUCEDO; CLAUDIA SIMIONATO

Sendai

Conferencia; Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction; 2015

United Nations

Risks and/or disasters arise from the interaction between weather and climate extremes on the one hand, and social vulnerability and its distribution in the territory on the other. Therefore, the severity of the impacts related to extreme weather events is multi-causal, resulting in hazardous situations or disasters when there is a population affected, and severe alterations in the organization of the communities involved1. Between these extremes, there is the "sudestada", a climatic phenomenon characterized by the occurrence of persistent winds of moderate to strong intensity, from the South-South East direction, usually accompanied by persistent rain2. Characteristically, this phenomenon affects the estuary of the "Río de la Plata"(RdP)and is causing major flooding in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA) where more than 12 million inhabitants lives. It lasts for 1-3 days, but there have been cases of longer duration3. The "sudestada" phenomenon affects the RdP margins and the alluvial valley of the RdP and the "Riachuelo" with a backwater effect, up above the bridge of "La Noria", and the RdP margins and the bottom of the basins4. The rising river and streams due to "sudestadas" in metropolitan Buenos Aires affect much of the population living on the margin of the Rio de la Plata and its tributaries (streams). When the "sudestada" is combined with rainfall, the flooded area is usually higher. The vulnerable populations are most affected by the flooding of the RdP, causing property damage and health problems for children and old people. To achieve the "Anticipando la crecida" project objective, which is to explore the social, physical and natural causes of the impact of the sudestada, alongside adaptation to these events, highlighting the predictive knowledge and technologies. In this sense the project "Anticipando la crecida"5 aims to contribute to before-disaster risk management (prevention) associated with flooding by heavy rains6,7 and the "sudestada" event in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, through dialogue with the different stakeholders. In a first phase of this project, the area corresponds to the "La Ribera" district of Quilmes8, Buenos Aires, Argentina.