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Antananarivo: Assessment and Pre-Feasibility Study of Green Infrastructure Solutions and Disaster Evacuation Planning and Design to Mitigate Flood Risk and Strengthen Resilience
Introduction
Antananarivo faces pressing challenges related to urban floods and water pollution, which have wide-ranging impacts on its economy, and environmental conditions. The integrated master plan, with its focus on Nature Based Solutions (NbS) and disaster evacuation planning, aimed to enhance flood resilience and living conditions in, specifically, low-income neighborhoods. The project, the design and evaluation of NbS for disaster evacuation and flood risk reduction, will contribute to achieving the objective of improving urban living conditions and strengthening of flood resilience in Antananarivo's low-income communities situated along the Ikopa River floodplains.
About the Initiative
The project was sub-divided into four phases - inception, diagnostic, scenario building and synergies and pre-feasibility - that resulted in development of city level strategic plans for three pilot sites and later recommendations for implementing and upscaling those pilots. The study included continuous stakeholder and community engagement, to ensure the robustness of the process adopted for the initiative.
During the inception phase, the project team defined the methodology, technical assessment framework, and community engagement activities, where they held discussions with stakeholders to arrive at a shared understanding of the problem. They conducted field visits to extract site-specific insights and further conducted the diagnostic to understand the current situation, identify challenges and opportunities, and foresee potential solutions. It was concluded that flood risk reduction in the project site of Antananarivo would require a strategic, versatile, multiscale, and scalable intervention which would be focused on enhancing the storage and discharge capacity of the floodplains. The interventions would, additionally, require capacity development and awareness generation among affected communities.
Post diagnostic, the team worked on multiple scenarios and synergistic assessment with local economic and environmental development outcomes to explore how different measures and sites could be part of a disaster evacuation plan. They focused on on-site and off-site refuges, connected by a network of evacuation routes, where NbS and other complementary measures could be implemented.
Finally, the team conducted the pre-feasibility assessment to guide the stakeholders working at different scales for implementing and upscaling NbS and other complementary measures for flood risk reduction and evacuation. Three pilot sites were selected and assessed to evaluate the effectiveness of various flood mitigation measures and to develop site specific plans. These plans included nature-based solutions like urban forests, retention ponds, and bioswales. Design guidelines for the upscaling of these pilots were developed, as well as general strategies for their implementation, maintenance, communication, and monitoring.
Learning & Impact
The project has strengthened urban resilience in Antananarivo through targeted interventions in urban planning and disaster risk management. The main beneficiaries are the 650,000 poorest and most flood-prone inhabitants of Antananarivo living in high-risk areas. The outcome has enhanced urban living conditions and increased flood resilience in these areas.
Apart from flood mitigation, the NbS implemented in the project offer additional benefits such as:
- Ecosystem conservation: The solutions aided in restoring and rehabilitating degraded ecosystems. Conservation of ecosystems enhances disaster resilience and promotes sustainable tourism, fisheries, and overall ecosystem health.
- Community empowerment: The solutions involved engaging and empowering local communities. By raising awareness about the value of ecosystems, promoting sustainable practices, and involving communities in decision-making processes, the solutions fostered a sense of ownership and stewardship towards ecosystem conservation.
- Economic stability: By reducing the impact of disasters, the solutions safeguard critical infrastructure, protect livelihoods, and ensure business continuity. This fosters a stable economic environment, encourages investment, and supports sustainable economic growth.
- Health and well-being: the project has helped minimize the health impacts of disasters, including injuries, waterborne diseases, and mental health issues. Enhancing health systems and disaster preparedness contributes to a healthier and more resilient population.
- Knowledge and innovation: This project promoted knowledge sharing, innovation, and capacity building. The exchange of best practices, the development of new technologies, and the transfer of expertise enhanced local institutional capacity, fostered innovation, and supported the development of locally appropriate solutions for disaster management.
Implementation challenges and mitigation strategies:
- Engaging and coordinating with diverse stakeholders (government agencies, local communities, NGOs, private sector entities, and international organizations) was a complex task because each stakeholder group had different interests, priorities, and levels of involvement, making it crucial to ensure effective communication, collaboration, and consensus-building among them.
- Madagascar has a diverse range of urban typologies, including densely populated urban areas, informal settlements, and rural-urban fringe areas. Each typology presented a unique challenge and required tailored approaches for flood resilience. Understanding the specific characteristics, infrastructure systems, and socio-economic dynamics of different urban typologies was essential to develop appropriate strategies and interventions.
- Gaining a comprehensive understanding of the water system in Madagascar was crucial for flood resilience planning. This included studying the hydrological patterns, river networks, drainage systems, and flood-prone areas. However, data availability and its quality posed challenges, requiring efforts to collect accurate and up-to-date information. Additionally, local knowledge and indigenous practices related to water management also had to be considered to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of interventions.
- Madagascar, like many such countries, faces resource constraints and limited capacity for implementing flood resilience projects. Funding limitations, technical expertise shortages, and inadequate institutional capacity may hinder the successful implementation of such interventions. Building local capacity through training programs, knowledge transfer, and institutional strengthening initiatives became crucial to ensure the sustainability of flood resilience efforts.
- It was also important to converge the proposed city strategy plan with various other ongoing WASH (WAter and Sanitation Hygiene) programs in the area to optimize funding and resources in the area. One of these included a Solid Waste Management program funded by the World Bank.
- Additionally, the project gave the project team a unique opportunity to optimize flood evacuation measures as a multifunctional social benefit intervention. This was particularly important due to the availability of open and usable spaces in the densely populated project area. For example, an open space which was designed as a relief and assembly point was also recommended for use as a soccer field during non-emergency situations. These can be seen in the images below.
Scalability:
- Climate change introduces an element of uncertainty in flood resilience planning. Madagascar is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including increased rainfall variability and sea-level rise. It was essential to incorporate climate change projections and scenarios into the project to anticipate future flood risks accurately. This involved considering adaptive strategies, such as infrastructure design and land-use planning to address the uncertainties associated with climate change.
The main conclusion from this pre-feasibility assessment and scaling lessons are that complex challenges would require formulating and designing simple solutions that are community-based, easy to implement and are replicable. Moreover, education and a suitable governance structure are essential for the design, implementation, and maintenance of successful low-technology intervention for flood risk reduction and disaster evacuation. Scaling lessons for similar interventions pivot around interventions being community-based, being embedded in appropriate governing structures, and supported by appropriate institutional and local capacities.
