A strategy game on urban flood and blue-green infrastructure in Antananarivo (Madagascar)
In June, my colleague Nantenaina and I organized a series of workshops, as part of Future Cities Lab Global Tana project. We tested our new strategy game, which aims to improve flood management in the peri-urban floodplains of Antananarivo and to explore the potential of blue-green infrastructure.
This tool is designed to address the challenges of flooding in an urbanised and changing world and is intended to be played between decision-makers from different stakeholder groups: investors, municipalities, flood management authorities and the Ministry of Landscape Planning.
The workshops were a fantastic opportunity to exchange with stakeholders from public, private and international institutions, as well as students and researchers from the University of Antananarivo. Their feedback and insights were invaluable in refining our game to better reflect the complexities of flood management.
We were able to identify differing mentalities and priorities among stakeholders, shaped by personal interests, which limit the effectiveness of flood management strategies. For some stakeholders, the floodplains are seen as buffer basins, meant to protect infrastructure and people, for others they are productive agricultural land, and for others, areas to be built on. The use of floodplains as buffer basins compromises wet-season farming and farmers' means of subsidence. We hypothesis that the inclusion of stakeholders such as Ministry of Agriculture at the negotiating table could foster a multifunctional vision of this landscape and strengthen the nexus between agriculture & flooding.
Looking ahead, we are excited about the final workshops in October, where we will continue to explore alternative strategies and solutions. We will present the landscape designs developed by the architecture students under the supervision of Philipp Urech. These designs proposed flood mitigation solutions based on green-blue infrastructure to strengthen the resilience of the peri-urban floodplains to pluvial floods. We've translated them into game elements and can't wait to see how stakeholders use them as part of their individual or collective strategies. We hope to simulate discussions on social issues related to land tenure, the future of urban agriculture and the governance of blue-green infrastructure.
Stay tuned for more updates on how this project will help shape a resilient future for Antananarivo
#FloodManagement #UrbanResilience #SeriousGames #Antananarivo #FCL Global Tana
