Water Resources Planning through Climate Change Capacity Building: Rios del Paramo al Valle, por urbes y campinas

Rios del Paramo al Valle

Colombia's water resources management institutions need to evaluate water supply, demand, quality, and climate risks under a situation of insufficient information regarding future water provision constraints. The country's accelerated urbanization and expansion of agro-industrial areas can be expected to exert long-term impacts on water resources to compound any impacts stemming from climate change.

This project aims to:

• support governance, planning and management decision-making through quantitative water modeling informed by participatory processes.
• build capacity for water resources management and support climate change adaptation for three watersheds in Colombia, Rio La Vieja-Otún, Alto Magdalena and Magdalena Cauca.

Using the Robust Decision Support (RDS) framework and modeling the system in WEAP, SEI will both solicit and evaluate the opportunities and challenges for the basin's development to best secure future water supplies in balance with future water needs, even under conditions of broad uncertainty.

Evaluating hydrological sub-basins requires spatial and temporal analysis with greater resolution at the national scale, as well as monitoring and decision making at a local level. In the three Colombian basins, the project used WEAP to examine flooding, indices of hydrologic alterations, and integration of different scales of modeling. In the Alto Magdalena and Rio La Vieja-Otún basins, the project applied the RDS framework to compile stakeholder priorities and information to clarify the consequences of choices and decisions. The process aims to reduce conflict between groups and  avoid unnecessary spending. Using RDS, SEI convened key stakeholders to  inform the modeling priorities under examination, and  present the various policy consequences in a coherent manner to decision makers.

This project is currently underway and results will be shared on an ongoing basis. .

• Project Description on SEI Website - Water Resources Planning through Climate Change Capacity Building “Ríos del páramo al valle, por urbes y campiñas” (English)
• Blog Postings for the Project (Spanish) - Gestión Integral del Recurso Hídrico y Cambio Climático
• Alto Magdalena Modeling (Spanish) - Modelación hidrológica del recurso hídrico en la cuenca del Alto Magdalena en Colombia
• Using WEAP to Study Water Quality for the Rio La Vieja (Spanish)
• Building Management Adaptation Capacity for Climate Change in the Otún River Basin (Spanish)
• Planning Instruments and Robust Decision Support in Water Management in Colombia (Spanish)
• Water Resources Modeling in the LA Vieja basin in Colombia (Spanish)
• Building climate adaptation capacity in water resources planning: ‘Ríos del páramo al valle, por urbes y campiñas’ (English and Spanish)