Resilient Blue-Green Infrastructures [RES] - Constance | Video Series

Hello, my name is Constance Poirier and I'm a PhD student in the module Resilient Blue Green Infrastructure. At the Future Cities Lab Global, I study the transformation of per urban areas in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. Their flooding is a major challenge and and the land is currently under transformation from urban growth and losing its natural capacity to cope with this excess of water. As part of my PhD, I aim to understand what could be more resilient pathways for those areas. I'm working with colleagues to understand how could blue green infrastructure be potential solution for those areas. Solutions inspired by local practices such as a pond vegetating the dike or multifunctional water basin to could cope with flood but at the same time also provide other benefits. But these solutions are not just technical, they are also social and governance challenges surrounding them. I asked myself who are the beneficial of this solution and what could be the challenge to implement them? To do that, I have conducted over the last four years of my Ph.D. a series of workshop interviews and surveys with local residents affected by floods, with farmers working the land, but also with decision makers. Recently we have developed a serious game, a tool for decision makers to take decisions about fictionary municipalities facing floods, but at the same time having to cope with their own interests and their own roles. What is very good about the game is that participants say that it was close to their reality and they could dive into their own challenges such as difficulty to collaborate among each other. As part of my PhD, I've identified that there is a gap between decision makers and the local practices. There are solutions existing on the ground, but they often don't align with policies and urban plans. I Hope that my PhD will allow to bridge this gap. What I'm partly excited about is to see that the game isn't static. We are currently adapting the game to play it with local real asking them if you will be the decision makers, what solution will you take for your neighborhood? We are also developing the game to play it with students at the university to put themselves in the role of decision makers and make them understand the complexity to navigate between private interests and the public goods.