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ABSTRACT
With the growing prominence of climate change in development discourse, the practice of resettling households vulnerable to disasters is increasingly promoted as a strategy for climate adaptation. This study focuses on the Bogota Humana development plan (2012–2016) in which Bogota, a regional leader in resilience planning, first tied its resettlement policy to a broader adaptation strategy. Specifically, the study analyzes the creation of a new municipal subsidy to finance resettlements in the context of Bogota’s complex and uneven geography of risk. Data for the study was collected through a household survey of program participants, interviews of city officials, site visits in Bogota and a review of Colombian census data. The study finds that despite the unprecedented size of the city’s investment in resettlements during this period, it largely failed to meet the plan’s goals. Its uniform financing and large-scale resettlement strategy failed to account for varying levels of risk produced by informal development. Consequently, Bogota Humana’s climate resettlements resulted in an inconsistent process generating resistance among residents.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. The Bogota Urban Services Project (2002–2007).
2. Valoración de daños y pérdidas: Ola invernal en Colombia 2010–2011. Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL). InterAmerica Development Bank, 2012.
3. Law 1523 of 2012, p. 40.
4. The city relied on technical analysis in a United Nation’s Development Program (UNDP) sponsored project, the Integrated Regional Plan for Climate Change (PRICC), which presents climate model scenarios for the Bogota metropolitan area.
5. The city’s housing deficit is measured by the Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadistica (DANE) in three surveys: the Census Nacional de Poblacion y Vivienda; the Encuesta Nacional de Calidad de Vida and the Encuesta Multiproposito.
6. Colombia’s meteorological service is provided by the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM). IDEAM is responsible for issuing climate model projections and climate scenarios in accordance with guidelines established by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The projected scenarios referenced here can be found in IDEAM’s third scenario communication on climate change in the Bogota region between 2011–2100.
7. Plan Distrital de Gestion de Riesgo y Cambio Climatico, Bogota, D.C., 2015.
8. The most consolidated neighborhoods of Bogota’s informal settlements were consolidated in the 1950s−1970s.
9. Law 1523 of 2012 fixed the value of the VUR.
10. Decree 255 of 2013 governs the use of financial instruments in the resettlement program.
11. See Resolucion 109 de 2014 and Decreto 1420 de 1998 for appraisal and recognition of factors methods used by IDIGER.
12. The household survey was designed to measure how factors such as building consolidation, tenure might influence a household’s decision to participate in the resettlement program given the city’s compensation strategy.The survey sampled households participating in the resettlement program. These households (n=127) were distributed across two neighborhoods in Ciudad Bolivar (San Francisco) and San Cristobal (La Gloria and Altamira).
13. The Capital District of Bogota is divided into 20 administrative units known as localities.
14. Concepto Tecnico 7528, 7663.
15. According to Caja de Vivienda’s 2005 report on average it takes 5.5 to resettle a household in the resettlement program.
16. The buying of properties for risk reduction is a practice introduced by the Petro administration therefore no historical data is available for comparison.
17. Olimpo Rojas Rodriguez, Informe de Gestion: Direccion de Reasentamientos Humanos, Enero de 2016.
18. The special modifications to the city’s territorial plan can be found in Decreto 364 of 2013: https://www.alcaldiabogota.gov.co/sisjur/normas/Norma1.jsp?i=55073.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Hugo Sarmiento
Hugo Sarmiento is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research considers the political and economic dimensions of housing and land use strategies for climate change adaptation, post-disaster recovery and resilience planning. Central to his research agenda is considering the social mobilization, grassroots resistance and counter-planning efforts which help shape these strategies across the global north and south divide. Hugo’s PhD is from the University of California, Los Angeles Department of Urban Planning.