Exploring the Development and Implementation of Co-Produced Water Management Infrastructure Solutions to Adapt to Climate Change-Related Risk: The Intersection of Rural-Urban Areas in Medellin, Colombia

Increasing urbanisation along the edge of Medellin, characterised by informal growth influenced by (internal) conflict and environmentally based displacement, has produced vulnerable peri-urban areas that are exposed to risks, increasing with climate change. Understanding "habitat" as "socially constructed", where each individual’s input forms the collective "state of being", this project aims to develop transdisciplinary knowledge and build capacity for policy implementation through identifying and testing water management infrastructure solutions that are at the intersection of technical, social and environmental knowledge. The project’s innovative approach is rooted in the co-production of infrastructure solutions through climate-change participatory methodologies that engage local community knowledge, technical appraisals and institutional policy design and implementation. This includes identifying and scoping joint decision making between communities and government agencies around neighbourhood planning in the rural-urban edge, aimed at reducing structural inequalities and risk, as well as increasing social equity and wellbeing.

Research Team: Dr Maria Soledad Garcia Ferrari, University of Edinburgh; Dr Elizabeth Arboleda Guzman, National University of Colombia; Professor Edier Aristizabal, National University of Colombia; Dr Guillermo Correa Montoya, University of Antioquia; Dr Katharina Kaesehage, University of Edinburgh; Mrs Paula Vargas Lopez, University of Antioquia