Developing a participatory landslide early warning system: The Inform@Risk project in Colombia

This case study presents the Inform@Risk project which aimed at developing innovative strategies to strengthen resilience against landslides in informally urbanized areas in Colombia. The project team developed a site-specific Participatory Early Warning System culturally and spatially adapted to the complex conditions of dense self-constructed urbanization in areas with socio-natural and natural hazards in Medellin, Colombia.

The authors developed an international and interdisciplinary project with people from multiple sectors, including Colombia and Germany, to reach this goal. These included representatives from the academia (landscape architects, geoscientists, remote sensors specialists, and geoinformatics), local government (risk management, planning, environment, and infrastructure offices), civil society organizations, private companies, and the local community at risk. The academic project lasted four years and finished in December 2022 with a preliminary prototype that still needs to be developed into a full-functioning EWS. Part of the process included the preparation of the transition of the EWS operation in order to ensure its continuation, further development, and integration into the municipality's risk management procedures. Currently, the municipality of Medellin is in charge of operating the system in test mode. During the implementation, we faced multiple challenges that directly impacted the governance of the project, including building back trusting relationships among the participants, administrative limitations of an international project, the presence of illegal armed actors in the implementation site, the COVID-19 pandemic, and exhausting bureaucracy, among others.