Cartagena, it's now or never

Abstract

This report is the result of a study which aims to understand both the source and severity of flood risk in Cartagena de Indias, Bolívar, Colombia. Solutions to the problem are proposed accordingly. The flood risk is found to be severe and urgent enough to demand action. Currently annual damage and negative impact of inundations are severe enough to justify intervention. The problem is considered urgent due to the threat of an extreme event such as a hurricane or La Niña rainfall in combination with a predicted growth in future flood risk due to sea level rise and heavy rainfalls due to climate change, subsidence and increased urbanization. The current proposed solutions do not offer protection against all the causes of the floods and are not effective in the face of climate change. Therefore, a new flood protection plan must be proposed. An integral solution is proposed for Cartagena at the conceptual level. The solution protects the city from both coastal and pluvial floods in an integral, elegant and efficient manner. The solution provides many opportunities to improve the general well-being of the city.