Developing co-created smart city solutions for managed adaptation and monitoring of hydro-meteorological climate change related risk in Mexico

The sharp growth of Latin American cities in the last decades has led to an increase of vulnerable communities in informal settlements on land exposed to hazards. These are affected by climate change-related risks such as changes in surface, temperature, droughts, flooding, and more aggressive hurricanes, heightening the need to improve the resilience of such communities. Diseases associated with new atmospheric conditions are some of the consequences, further increasing the displacement of people towards cities. As urban areas expand, current levels of vulnerability, socio-spatial segregation and inequality are aggravated by an increasing demand of housing. In order to reduce disasters it is essential to develop innovative, co-created strategies for managing risk and increase resilience. 'Smart city' approaches offer an integrative perspective, establishing the potential for emerging collaboration between city governments and technology contractors. However, these technological solutions tend to be dependent with top-down ideas, which do not necessarily take into account the needs of, or benefit for people living in poor informal communities. Those challenges that 'smart cities approaches' are faced with reflect a need for context-specific strategies and solutions that respond to the needs of the most vulnerable. Therefore, the aim of this project is to enable city communities to monitor and mitigate climate change-related risks as well as enable communities to develop strategies to adapt to those risks through the co-creation of local, bottom-up initiatives using smart-city solutions.

The project will develop an interactive networking smart-technology, enabling city-communities to share best practice on monitoring climate change-related challenges, and to allow them to create solutions that enhance managed adaptation, in close collaboration with local and national institutions, and other relevant stakeholders. The research is structured around three work packages aimed to address the following questions: (i) how do local communities and local institutions perceive and adapt to climate change-related risks and what are the roles of private and public sector organisations in taking adaptive action? (ii) how could a co-created smart-technology help communities to monitor and adapt to these climate change risks? (iii) how can this technology, using community knowledge and experience, help create and influence climate change-related local and national policies?

The research will focus on a pilot case study in México City (Penón neighbourhood), where a traditional community is confronting flooding risk challenges. Using focus groups and semi-structured interviews, the research will implement an interactive dialogue between community members, government institutions, as well as NGOs and other stakeholders, including support agencies, and private businesses. This dialogue will result in the development of risk-mitigating strategies and actions, including smart technologies, which will be tested over the project, in order to evaluate pilot experiences and upscale these into a larger city area. Lessons learnt about risk management in Mexico City have the potential to be easily disseminated across the developing world.

Communities will be empowered through engaging in identifying, developing and testing strategies for risk-monitoring, mitigation and adaptation. The social, economic and political aspects of impacted communities, as well as an understanding the the physical origins of climate change risks, will contribute to developing resilience and prevent the consequences of exposure to hazards. Finally, considering both the macro-scale and the local scale, understanding that change can emerge in collaboration with local communities and policy makers, the project will provide, along with best community practices, opportunities for interaction and negotiation between actors for increasing resilience and reducing vulnerability.

The proposed project builds on ongoing collaboration between academics in the UK & Mexico, and existing collaboration between Mexican partners and local institutions involved in climate change-related policy development. Initially, specific case study communities involved in the project in Mexico City will benefit from training and in-situ piloting of community-managed risk monitoring, mitigation and adaptation measures as well as on the developed and testing smart technologies. The evaluation of this experience will provide an initial core of 'trainers of trainers' to help spreading such measures across the city. Pilot demonstration projects will also foster informal copying, which has been successful in the researchers' experience in other developing countries. At the local level, the research workshops and findings will contribute to implementing cross-sectoral risk management.

At national and local levels, the findings from the research will inform decision-making and actions implemented by stakeholders involved in climate change-related risk monitoring and mitigation in Mexico City including: at the national government level: Comisión Nacional del Agua (CONAGUA) aimed to "prevent the risks derived from meteorological and hydro-meteorological phenomena and attend to their effects", through the relocation of human settlements in high-risk areas and monitoring and provision of timely and reliable information of the occurrence of severe hydro-meteorological events. The Centro Nacional de Prevención de Desastres (CENAPRED) researches natural phenomena, e.g. hurricanes and heavy rains, and delivers educational training on civil protection culture. The Sistema Nacional de Protección Civil (SINAPROC) aimed to integrate actions for risk mitigation and response to disasters. The Secretaria de Desarrollo Agrario Territorial y Urbano (SEDATU), responsible for territorial planning and for the promotion of risks prevention in human settlements, including the Risk Atlas, mitigation works, and feasibility and cost-benefit studies for the relocation of the population in areas at risk. At the regional level: the Gobierno de la Ciudad de Mexico (CDMX), through the Secretaria de Protección Civil, which promotes identification of risk areas, such as the Public Atlas of Hazards and Risks of Mexico City. Also, the Sistema de Aguas de la Ciudad de México (SACMEX), in charge of management and distribution of water in Mexico City. At the local level: 'Delegacion Venustiano Carranza', directly involved in the prevention and attention to the disasters. The project will also engage with innovative bottom-up experimental activities: e.g. Laboratorio para la Ciudad https://labcd.mx

International projection will be ensured through establishing a dialogue with relevant international actors in the field including the Environment and Human Settlements Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL), EM-DAT, and USAID. The investigation will be of great interest to policy makers and practitioners across the Global South affected by climate change-related risks.

The close involvement of the project partners in local and regional government will ensure that the project has an impact on the development of policy and practice moving forward. The regional and national levels of landslide risk management will be involved through targeted invitation to a National Forum in Mexico City An understanding of different stakeholders' perceptions, the findings from the in-situ pilots and co-design methods emerging from them, and the experience of multi-stakeholder workshops for strategic decision-making will provide a basis for changing attitudes and actions across the international and multi-disciplinary partners involved in the project and beyond. The collaborative nature of this research will contribute to challenge existing ways of understanding and managing risks and allow for learning through interaction across disciplines and contexts.