Floodwater Governance as Key Urban Challenge in Beira, Barranquilla and Ho Chi Minh City

Abstract

Urbanization will be one of the major global trends of the years to come. And, although cities are seen as engines of growth, if not planned carefully they also can be responsible for increased CO2 emissions, depletion of natural resources, and growing social inequality. At the same time, cities will become more vulnerable to natural disasters. For example, delta cities are vulnerable to increased and catastrophic rainfall (severe rain in a short time), riverine and coastal flooding, land subsidence, and salt water intrusion. Urban growth in deltas therefore places even more pressure on their natural systems, thereby increasing the vulnerability of their inhabitants (Han Meyer, 2014). It appears that the urban (planning) authorities of delta cities in lower and middle income countries lack the capacity to effectively implement urban planning instruments necessary to increase urban flood and water resiliency (Molenaar, Aerts, Dircke, & Ikert, 2015). A transition towards integrated urban water management in the delta cities of those countries is therefore necessary. Yet, although scholars have argued for the importance of urban water governance to achieving water resiliency (Herk, Zevenbergen, Rijke, & Ashley, 2011), there is a knowledge gap on how transitions towards an integrated urban water resource approach work in real life of lower and middle income countries (Koop & van Leeuwen, 2016). To find solutions that work, local case studies on how civilians, businesses, and city authorities experience the city and its water challenges must be considered. Therefore, to enhance and refine the understanding of the transition towards, and effective implementation of, an integrated urban water resource approach in delta cities, it is necessary to gain more in-depth comparative knowledge on the specifics of local water governance. To this end, this research will deliver descriptive case studies of the urban water system in three delta cities in lower and middle income countries, Beira (Mozambique), Barranquilla (Colombia) and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), and relate those with how water governance works on paper and in practice in each city. The results of my research address my primary research question: What aspects of integrated urban floodwater governance are crucial in making cities more resilient? With this research I aim to investigate various interrelated hypotheses: a) Pressure on natural water systems is caused by uncontrolled city growth and climate change impact; b) Increased pressures on natural water systems increases the risk of flooding, coastal erosion and salt intrusion; c) Strong integrated urban water governance decreases risks as mentioned in subsection “b,” above, and will even discourage uncontrolled city growth and lower the pressure on natural water systems, as mentioned in subsection “a”; and, d) Better water governance can be achieved through better understanding of specific local problems, perceptions, politics, and people. I expect the final results of the research will present new evidence on how water governance is organized in the three cities, which can then contribute in the building of theory on integrated urban water resource approaches in lower and middle income countries to make cities more resilient. The results will be further elaborated and operationalized by running the collected data through a governance gap analysis framework on water governance. Possible relationships between the results after analyzing the data via this framework will be described in the final phase of the research.