Resilience in Latin America: exploring flooding mitigation in Bogotá (Colombia)

This paper is concerned with the implications of flooding in Bogotá (Colombia) by focusing on a specific typology of flooding -surface water flooding- resulting from excess of surface water runoff as it occurs in the Colombian capita. In particular, the paper considers some of the main alternative strategies that can be used to reduce the risk of surface water flooding and pays specific attention to the benefits of Sustainable Urban Drainages (SUDS). The suitability of SUDS in the urban context is tested through an approach focusing on the city block scale and its surfaces' characteristics. Technical and social elements of SUDS are critically analysed and accordingly, a comparative analysis is performed to test different adaptive strategies scenarios for a case study in quartier Carimagua in the inner urban area of Bogotá. Carimagua barrio has been found to be able to effectively mitigate the excess of surface water runoff, and by so to meet some of the challenges associated with climate change. On this basis, it is defended that the city block can cope with not only its own surface water runoff but also to compensate as active catchment for other parts of the city where adaptation might not be feasible.