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INFORM@RISK


Figure 1. Mapping Landslide Vulnerability: Global soil conditions, population densities, and precipitation levels.




Overview



The city of Medellín sits on the banks of the Medellín River in the Aburrá Valley in Colombia’s northwest Antioquia province. Medellín is organized into 271 barrios (neighborhoods) that spread outward and up the surrounding mountains. During periods of heavy rainfall, the mountain slopes at the city’s periphery are subject to significant landslides due to the instability of their volcanic soils. These precarious lands are from barred sanctioned property development but have become home to informal settlements for residents unable to afford to live in safer areas of the city. These communities, already at risk due to their socio-economic status and a lack of functional infrastructure and government investment, thus find themselves at even greater risk. The unstable grounds on which they live, with heavier and more frequent precipitation introduced by climate change, will only become more dangerous as time passes.

Inform@Risk is a research and design initiative to study this shifting landscape and propose design interventions to support these at-risk communities. It was founded in 2010, by faculty from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and Universidad EAFIT in Medellín after one of the region’s most deadly landslides. That early research project has since evolved into an international effort by landscape architects, urban designers, community organizers, scientists, government officials, and residents. The initiative brings this range of constituents together to plan, implement, and test proposals to avoid the worst outcomes of landslides on Medellín's populated foothills. To date, Inform@Risk has initiated five pilot projects:

> Building evacuation routes and an early warning/alert system
> Improving soil drainage to avoid saturation
> Supporting micro-farming on steep slopes to reduce erosion
> Reestablishing protective forests
> Identifying land for future settlement growth

Across the pilot projects, Inform@Risk employs an approach that embraces on-the-ground political and economic realities. It does so by proposing an array of phased, tactical solutions that address systemic issues. Their work may serve as a model for how landscape architects can address complex climate challenges in socially, economically, and politically vulnerable contexts while also highlighting the limitations of the profession and overarching issues of environmental inequity.





Organizations & Collaborators


Geographers
- German Aerospace Center: Remote Sensing (DLR)
- Technical University Deggendorf: Geoinformatics (THD)
- Office for Aerial Photo Analysis and Environmental Issues (SLU)

Risk Management
- Sistema de Alerta Temprana del valle de Aburrá: Regional Warning Agency, Medellín (SIATA)
- Departamento Administrativo de Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres: Disaster Management (DAGRD)
- Multipliers: Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible (MADS)

Engineers
- AlpGeorisk: Early Warning Systems (AGR)
- Technical University of Munich: Engineering Geology (TUM)
- Sociedad Colombiana de Geología (SCG)
Community
- Defensa Civil: Civil Based risk management (DC)
- Fundaçion Sumapaz: Community management (FS)
- Oficina de Resiliencia de Medellín (ORM)

Planners
- Departamento Administrativo de Planeación: Municipal Planning Agency (DAP)
- urbam: Centro de Estudios Urbanos y Ambientales: planning (EAFIT)
- Leibniz Universität Hannover Institute of Landscape Architecture (LUH)




Key Terms









SETTLEMENT AND RISK




Figure 2. The Aburrá Valley Watershed: Medellín sits along the Medellin River, at the base of the Andean foothills. Figure 3. Medellín is a city of neighborhoods, and its growth has long responded to its terrain, including its topography and the course of its prominent waterways. Figure 4. In 1948, the architects Josep Lluis Sert and Paul Wiener and their New York-based office Town Planning Associates created a masterplan for the city that deemed certain areas “undevelopable” due to the danger posed by their geology and steep topography. The design was one of the first of its kind in Colombia, which had passed a law in 1947 requiring such planning efforts for cities that had the capital to do so. It was one of four plans created by Sert and Wiener, who also created plans for Tumaco, Cali, and Bogota, the latter with Le Corbusier. (Schnitter Castellanos, 2004) Figure 5. Many of Medellín’s residents started to establish informal settlements in these areas deemed “undevelopable.” Viewing these settlements as a source of social and political instability, the government would periodically make efforts to incorporate them into the city’s official boundaries, at times by clearing and rebuilding and at others by legalizing tenure and introducing government services (Betancur, 2007). Figure 6. Current urban settlement pattern showing public spaces and residential neighborhoods, but not informal settlements in the Medellín hillsides. Figure 7. Landslides are a looming threat in the city, particularly for those that live in the hillsides that ring the city’s periphery. Figure 8.1. Medellín has gradually grown wider and higher; towards and up the slopes of the Andean foothills. (Echeverri, et al., 2012) Figure 8.2. Medellín has gradually grown wider and higher; towards and up the slopes of the Andean foothills. (Echeverri, et al., 2012)
The city of Medellín sits in Colombia’s Aburra Valley in the Andes mountains. The city is the second largest urban area in the country with a metropolitan population of more than 2.5 million. The growth of the city has been shaped by a series of urban masterplans that have been designed around the city's dramatic, mountainous topography. Portions of the city that were prone to landslides or were deemed uninhabitable due to extreme slopes were zoned as ‘undevelopable’ - a designation which placed these areas outside of the city’s real estate market and thus rendered them prime locations for informal settlements. As a result, some of the city’s poorest residents - from an economic perspective - are also living in the city’s most precarious areas.







RAIN AND RISK




Figure 9. More rain means more landslides and more damage caused by landslides in the settled hillside regions of Medellín. (Echeverri, et al., 2012) Figure 10. Locations of the most “devastating” landslides in Colombia’s Aburra Valley from 1920 to 2010. (Echeverri, et al., 2012) Figure 11. Two of the deadliest landslides in the history of the valley were the Media Luna (1954) and the Villatina (1987) landslides, less than ten kilometers east of the city center. (Echeverri, et al., 2012) Figure 12. A photograph of the aftermath of the Villatina landslide reveals the striation in unstable soils and dunite bedrock, which were separated after the ground was inundated due to a clogged drainage system and a series of heavy rains. Although the area was not large, the slope’s heavy occupation made this the deadliest landslide in memory. (Echeverri, et al., 2012) Figure 13. Informal settlements have grown along and up the steep dunite slopes of the Aburra Valley. This same dramatic topography traps storms, leading to a greater risk of inundation which, combined with the steep slopes and development, put these settlements at great risk (Claghorn and Werthmann, 2015) Figure 14. The bedrock in Medellín is primarily dunite, or serpentinite, a type of peridotite igneous rock that is susceptible to splitting once inundated. (Echeverri, et al., 2012)

While there are many soil and geological conditions that can produce landslides, Medellín and many other cities within the Andean range sit on bedrock made up of igneous rock of the peridotite family. Under heavy or consistent rain this kind of bedrock can fracture and break apart, leading to catastrophic earth-moving events. In a future of heavier and more frequent rainfall brought on by climate change, landslides will become more common, especially in areas like Medellín’s foothills, where the top layer of soil is exposed and unstable and its ability to support soil-securing vegetation is limited by its high metal content (Claghorn and Werthmann, 2015). Additionally, Medellín’s population expansion and encroachment up the hillsides has consistently thwarted attempts to plant vegetation in vulnerable areas.







INFORM@RISK PROCESS




Figure 15. Inform@Risk began shortly after the La Gabriela landslide in 2010. Although the disaster was tragic, it was not altogether unanticipated; in the last 80 years at least 854 people have died in landslides in the Aburra valley, and the frequency of landslides is increasing. Figure 16. The Inform@Risk team devised a regional plan of action which unfolded in four phases: (1) research on potential sites, (2) community meetings at identified sites, (3) development and implementation of pilot projects, and (4) a regional plan based on these pilots. Although Inform@Risk had initially hoped to complete Phase Three (pilot projects) and Four (present regional plan) by 2017, the team is, as of October 2020, still working primarily on its first pilot project to develop an early warning system and improved evacuation routes in Bello Orient. Figure 17. Phase One of the Inform@Risk initiative was focused on mapping risk; this included studying the historical growth of the city, trends and locations of informal settlements, precipitation metrics, and slope and soil conditions. Findings were collected in a report produced by URBAM (El Centro de Estudios Urbanos y Ambientales) at the Universidad EAFIT and the Social Agency Lab at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Figure 18. One of the key objectives in this first phase was identifying the areas most prone to landslides. Figure 19. Phase Two used the findings from Phase One to zoom in to two potential sites of intervention based on their heightened level of risk: the neighborhoods of La Honda and La Cruz. This work included speaking with residents of these selected neighborhoods to understand how they came to live there and what they might hope to change as well as ownership, territorial, and social dynamics. These meetings also allowed residents to weigh in on case studies and potential solutions and hear from engineers and other experts about models of mitigation. (Claghorn, et al., 2015). Figure 20.1. After conducting meetings and workshops with residents in specific hillside communities, the Inform@Risk team proposed five pilot projects for the La Honda and La Cruz communities to be implemented in Phase Three. Inform@Risk published their project proposals in the Brazilian Journal of Urban Management in 2015. Figure 20.2. After conducting meetings and workshops with residents in specific hillside communities, the Inform@Risk team proposed five pilot projects for the La Honda and La Cruz communities to be implemented in Phase Three. Inform@Risk published their project proposals in the Brazilian Journal of Urban Management in 2015. Figure 21. The ultimate goal of the Inform @ Risk initiative is to create a proposal for regional intervention, using the information learned from the pilot projects to inform approaches both for the city at large and the wider Aburrá Valley. Figure 22. Inform @ Risk teams engage the community through education workshops on the risks of landslides and by involving residents in the design and implementation of the pilot projects. Figure 22.1. Inform @ Risk teams engage the community through education workshops on the risks of landslides and by involving residents in the design and implementation of the pilot projects. Figure 23. The team created process drawings for each of their proposed pilots to highlight the various strategies to be used over time and identify the local partners responsible for implementation. The diagram shown here outlines Pilot Project Two, which proposes improved drainage and stormwater management. Notably the process acknowledges that while the design and engineering teams are active and critical in the early phases of the project, the ultimate responsibility for its long-term success rests with the community. (Claghorn, et al., 2015)
Inform@Risk is a research and design initiative led by an international team of landscape architects, urban designers, community organizers, and scientists working with government agencies in Medellín to propose solutions to landslides in Medellín's populated foothills. The project began shortly after the La Gabriela landslide in 2010 and is still carrying out five pilot projects in different at-risk communities in advance of making longer term proposals to the city. Inform@Risk’s work is organized in/by four phases:

Phase One
·     Project initiation
·     Work supported by the primary researchers’ academic institutions (EAFIT and GSD)
·     Mapped the conditions of risk at the urban scale
·     Findings published in the group’s first report, Shifting Ground: Precarious Settlements and Geological Hazard in Medellín, in 2012

Phase Two
·     Two neighborhoods – La Honda and La Cruz – selected by Inform@Risk for closer assessment as potential pilot project sites.
·     Outside researchers went to Medellín on several site visits
·     Local researchers conducted many community meetings and engagement sessions

Phase Three
·     Five pilot projects designed to be implemented on sites within La Honda and La Cruz proposed based on the team’s research
·     Phased implementation (short, medium, and long-term) and assessment of these projects
·     Proposals for the five pilot projects were published in two articles:
      o Rehabitar la Montaña: Strategies and Processes for Sustainable Communities in the Mountainous Periphery of Medellín (Claghorn, et al., 2015)
      o Shifting Ground: Landslide Risk Mitigation through Community-based Landscape Interventions (Claghorn and Werthmann, 2015)
·     This is the current stage of the project, with particular emphasis placed on the development and installation of an early warning system and improved evacuation infrastructure. Specific sites have yet to be selected for the remaining four pilot project concepts.
·     Community outreach work adapted to conform to COVID-19 measures (quarantine, social distancing, etc.)

Phase Four (forthcoming)
Development and presentation of a regional plan based on pilot project initial findings.

While this design model altogether – researchers from elite foreign universities coming into Medellín to “problem solve” – is open for critique, Inform@Risk’s work represents a decade-long engagement (certain to continue for several more years) that includes many Medellín based participants. Throughout each phase the team’s work has been marked by collaboration, community, and communication. It reveals how landscape architects are well-positioned to convene, coordinate, and facilitate the work of complex interdisciplinary teams across scales while ensuring that ownership remains with residents.








DESIGN PROPOSALS



Figure 24. Pilot projects: The team identified areas within the informal settlements for the implementation of their strategies based upon existing ground conditions (e.g., slope, soil quality, occupation) and predictions of future settlement. Figure 25. Pilot 1– Monitoring risk and developing an evacuation infrastructure: This project includes the development of an early warning system that monitors potential landslide conditions and alerts residents if a greater risk of land movement exists. It also creates clear and safe evacuation routes with new public spaces for everyday use and identifies sites of temporary shelter for those forced to evacuate. (Claghorn and Werthmann, 2015) Figure 26. Pilot 2 – Mitigating risk through improved drainage: This project builds new water management infrastructure, including plant and soil-based streambed stabilization and improved stormwater management channels. It also places emphasis on waste management, identifying residents as key actors in ensuring that drainage infrastructure is not clogged by refuse and can safely flow out of high-risk areas. (Claghorn and Werthmann, 2015) Figure 27. Pilot 3 – Productive plots, micro-farming on steep slopes: This project is designed to keep potentially developable, at-risk land profitable while preventing further slope-destabilizing construction. Borrowing from regional precedents, micro-agricultural strategies are developed for the steep terrain and low-nutrient soil. These require sustained interest by owners and managers, most likely a farming collective, to ensure that the land remains unbuilt. (Claghorn and Werthmann, 2015) Figure 28. Pilot 4 – (Re)establishing protective forests: This project builds upon existing interest and energy toward reforesting those slopes that are presently and likely to remain undeveloped. The proposal calls for landscape architects and ecologists to help select appropriate species and create a management plan using bioengineering techniques to support their early establishment. These newly vegetated areas can also serve as recreation destinations. (Claghorn and Werthmann, 2015) Figure 29. Pilot 5 – Addressing future growth, the ‘sites and services’ approach: This final proposal acknowledges that efforts should be made to relocate those communities at highest risk and to ensure that future settlement occurs on safe sites. Recognizing that the key issue among these settlements is not housing, it recommends diverting money that might typically be used by the government to build housing towards creating an infrastructure and service network that can adequately support the existing forms of informal settlement. (Claghorn and Werthmann, 2015)
The five pilot projects initiated by the Inform@Risk team aim to explore the advantages and challenges of small to large-scale landscape-based strategies for mitigating risks related to landslides. The five projects include: (1) an early warning system and improved evacuation routes with integrated public space, (2) improved drainage and stormwater management infrastructure, (3) small-scale agricultural operations on steep slopes, (4) reforestation, and (5) the preparation of sites to support relocation.








QUESTIONS




What design and non-design roles can landscape architects play in addressing complex climate-based challenges? What are the limits of our expertise and in what ways could our field expand in new directions?

How can we design a long-term, multi-phase project that remains responsive to imminent needs?

Inform@Risk attempts to ensure that its proposals are attainable for communities with limited resources. Accepting these conditions is pragmatic, but by working within these constraints rather than challenging the inequities that produce them, does Inform@Risk ultimately reproduce and re-affirm an unjust status quo? If so, how could Inform@Risk operate differently? Is it possible to challenge structural inequity while still providing urgent support to at-risk communities?







SOURCES


Alberti, Stefano, Giovanni Battista Crosta, Gonghui Wang, Giuseppe Dattola, and Davide Bertolo. “Influence of Graphite and Serpentine Materials along Landslide Failure Surfaces.” Geophysical Research Abstracts 19 (2017). https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..19.8653A/abstract.

Betancur, John J. “Approaches to the Regularization of Informal Settlements: The Case of PRIMED in Medellín, Colombia.” Global Urban Development Magazine 3, 1 (November 2007). https://www.globalurban.org/GUDMag07Vol3Iss1/Betancur.htm.

California Department of Conservation. “Serpentine: California’s State Rock.“ https://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/Pages/Publications/Note_14.aspx

Chopra, P. N., and M. S. Paterson. “The Role of Water in the Deformation of Dunite.” Solid Earth: Journal of Geophysical Research 89, B9 (10 September 1984): 7861-76. https://doi.org/10.1029/JB089iB09p07861.

Claghorn, Joseph, Francesco Maria Orsini, Carlos Alejandro Echeverri Restrepo, and Christian Werthmann. "Rehabitar la Montaña: Strategies and Processes for Sustainable Communities in the Mountainous Periphery of Medellín." Urbe Revista Brasileira de Gestão Urbana (Brazilian Journal of Urban Management) (January 2015). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287111064_Rehabitar_la_Montana_Strategies_and_processes_for_sustainable_communities_in_the_mountainous_periphery_of_Medellin.

Claghorn, Joseph, and Christian Werthmann. "Shifting Ground: Landslide Risk Mitigation through Community-based Landscape Interventions." Journal of Landscape Architecture 10, no. 1 (2015): 6-15.

Echeverri, Alejandro, Ana Elvira Vélez, and Christian Werthmann (eds.). Shifting Ground: Precarious Settlements and Geological Hazard in Medellín. Medellín: Universidad EAFIT and Harvard Graduate School of Design, 2012.

Finn, Megan. “Making Sense of Earthquakes: Public Information Infrastructures and Postdisaster Event Epistemologies.” In Documenting Aftermath: Information Infrastructures in the Wake of Disasters. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2018: 1-18.

Schnitter Castellanos, Patricia. “Wiener and Sert’s Pilot Plan for Medellín. Contract and Presentation. Colombian Urban Planning and its Vicissitudes.” Paper presented at the 11th Conference of the International Planning History Society, Barcelona, Spain, July 14-17, 2004. http://www-etsav.upc.es/personals/iphs2004/pdf/194_p.pdf.

Werthmann, Christian. “Inform@Risk.” ResearchGate Project Page. Accessed July 6, 2020. https://www.researchgate.net/project/InformRisk.

Werthmann, Christian. "Inform@Risk: Improving the Resilience of Informal Urbanization against Landslides through Participative Networks of Early Warning Systems, Web-based Technologies, and Landscape Design." 2019.








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