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If zero risk does not exist, how to select safe lands?

June 24, 2019 por Wilhelm Dalaison - Maricarmen Esquivel - Livia Minoja - Ignacio Astorga Leave a Comment


Finding suitable land to build social infrastructure is a great challenge. Budgets are usually very limited; there are few available lands and often they have legal problems or debts, lack of public services or require additional work besides those of the project itself. In many countries, through intergovernmental agreements, donated land is accepted, which seems to be the ideal solution since, in theory, there is no cost. However, the reality is very different. Many of the lands that in the first instance seem to be costless can present problems and “hidden” costs.

The Do it Here, Not There: Guide for the Selection of Land to Build Social Infrastructure identifies 12 aspects that must be analyzed simultaneously to determine if a land is viable or not: 1) place and surrounding area, 2) regulatory analysis, 3) legal analysis, 4) socio-environmental aspects, 5) susceptibility to threats, 6) pre-existing buildings, 7) shape and dimensions, 8) topography, 9) accessibility, 10) public services, 11) costs, and 12) deadlines. Costs and deadlines are directly affected by the measures that might need to be implemented, given the weaknesses of some of the 10 previous points. The Guide explains the importance of each of these aspects and provides concrete cases, and lessons learned that could be very useful for those who must select and evaluate lands for construction projects.

When we refer to susceptibility to threats or the need for safe land, our starting point must be that there is never zero risk. However, it is possible to minimize the risks that may exist, either through complementary work and a risk management plan or better yet, by making a wise decision when choosing the land before start building!

The land may have threats imposed by natural hazards, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanoes, avalanches, large-scale floods, wildfires; or technological, such as nuclear plants or dams that may fail, among others. For this reason, Do it Here, Not There, proposes an analysis at two different levels: at the macro level (at the level of territorial planning), and at the micro level (at the moment of the specific selection of the land).

At the macro level, a safe location must be identified. It should guarantee the structural, nonstructural, and functional safety of the building, in accordance with the role that the building should fulfill, even during a disaster. For example, hospitals must remain up and running, just as schools must function as refuge centers for the affected population.

For the micro level, it must be assessed how susceptible the terrain is to a possible overflow of a nearby river or landslides, for example. Generally, this assessment is done by a professional, who will observe the environment (distance to water courses, slopes of land, age of vegetation, type of surface, presence of water puddles, etc.), and also based on available secondary information (municipal maps of threats and/or risks, geological data, raining seasons or frequency of earthquakes or windstorms and tropical storms, including variables of climate change).

Another key element is the soil’s quality, since areas of poor quality (e.g., landfills) may represent additional costs within the project due to added work to stabilize the soil. These assessments are essential and do not necessarily imply high costs.

In the specific case of health facilities, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has developed a strategy for Safe Hospitals, which aims to ensure that health facilities must not only resist nature’s threats but that it can continue to function and provide services at times that are critical for the community. To this end, it has created a tool called the Hospital Safety Index, which assesses the probability that an establishment will remain operational in emergencies. The Index highlights the geographic location as one of the critical elements to classify a hospital safe and suggests evaluating the threats and the geotechnical properties of the soil.

The Hospital Safety Index is presented as an easy and inexpensive tool to assess the risk that a health infrastructure can present. In some cases, more detailed and costly studies will have to be done, but this allows a first approximation to the risk, and to eventually decide to select another site before building the facility.

Therefore, many problems, financial resources, and even lives can be saved if an adequate land was sought from the beginning, or if “free” land was not accepted without prior analysis.

Along these lines, and in the framework of Directive A2 of the Disaster Risk Management Policy (OP-704) and the Sustainable Infrastructure Framework, the IDB has developed a methodology to facilitate the identification and assessment of disaster risks and climate change, and to identify opportunities to provide further resilience to projects during their identification, preparation and implementation phases. The methodology proposes different stages depending on the complexity of the project, so it seeks to be gradual and scalable in accordance with each particular case. It also seeks to establish in which cases it is necessary to conduct complex studies to determine disaster risks and which cases it is sufficient to define mitigation measures to be implemented in the design stage of the infrastructure.

These studies or the necessary mitigation work should be considered in the overall cost of the project, and should have direct relationship with the selected land. Therefore, the moment of the selection of the land is key, because this first decision can impact the infrastructure project forever.

Perfect land does not exist, but if we carefully analyze the available land, we can contribute to guarantee both the sustainability of infrastructure projects and people’s safety, without the need for expensive studies and significant mitigation work.

If you were interested in this post, do not hesitate to read the “Five steps to include disaster risk management in infrastructure projects”.

Here you can download the “Do it Here, Not There Guide” and “Methodology of disaster risk and climate change”.


Filed Under: Climate change

Wilhelm Dalaison

Wilhelm Dalaison es Especialista Senior en Infraestructura Social del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) y desde septiembre de 2020 coordina el Grupo de Infraestructura Social (GIS). El GIS apoya a diferentes sectores en la implementación de los proyectos de infraestructura, y en la generación de conocimiento y transferencia de buenas prácticas a los países de América Latina y el Caribe. Anteriormente se desempeñó como coordinador técnico en la Oficina de las Naciones Unidas de Servicios para Proyectos (UNOPS) para proyectos de infraestructura de salud en Colombia y El Salvador, y realizó actividades de docencia e investigación en el área de la infraestructura de salud en Argentina. Wilhelm es arquitecto de la Universidad de la República de Uruguay y Especialista en Planeamiento de Recursos Físicos en Salud de la Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Maricarmen Esquivel

Maricarmen Esquivel es Especialista en Cambio Climático del BID, donde se enfoca en integrar resiliencia y adaptación al cambio climático en proyectos. Sus áreas de especialización incluyen la gestión integrada de riesgos de desastres y cambio climático, política y planificación ambiental, y resiliencia urbana. Se interesa por la interacción entre la vulnerabilidad y los procesos económicos, ambientales y sociales. Antes de unirse al BID, Maricarmen trabajó para el sector urbano del Banco Mundial como analista en gestión del riesgo de desastres. Maricarmen es Economista Ambiental con maestría en Planificación Urbana del MIT y en Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo del London School of Economics. Es originaria de San José, Costa Rica.

Livia Minoja

Livia es Especialista en Infraestructura Social en el BID, donde trabaja en la preparación y ejecución de programas que incluyen el diseño y construcción de proyectos de infraestructura social, en varios países de la región, como Belice, Costa Rica, Perú, República Dominicana, Surinam, entre otros. Se interesa en temas de innovación, sostenibilidad y eficiencia energética en los diseños, y en la sistematización de buenas prácticas en la mejora de los procesos de ejecución de los programas. Anteriormente, Livia trabajó en la División de Desarrollo Urbano y Vivienda del BID, centrándose en la revitalización de los centros históricos; en ONU-Hábitat en México, como consultora para el desarrollo de lineamientos de diseño para refugios para mujeres víctimas de violencia; en la Agencia de las Naciones Unidas para los Refugiados de Palestina (UNRWA), como arquitecta en programa de desarrollo urbano para los campos de refugiados de Cisjordania. También se desempeñó en estudios de arquitectura y departamentos de investigación en Brasil e Italia, centrándose principalmente en proyectos de desarrollo urbano en zonas marginadas. Adicionalmente, ha sido Profesora en la Facultad de Arquitectura de la Universidad Iberoamericana de la Ciudad de México y en la Facultad de Estudios Urbanos de la Universidad de Al-Quds de Jerusalén. Livia tiene un Maestría en Arquitectura por el Politécnico de Milán.

Ignacio Astorga

Ignacio Astorga es Especialista Líder en Salud de la División de Protección Social y Salud del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo. Su trabajo en el BID ha estado enfocado en el desarrollo de redes de salud, inversiones y APP.

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