In 2015, I2UD will research and formulate alternative resiliency strategies for Dangriga, an at-risk coastal community in Belize, limited in its financial and institutional capacity to address impacts of flooding and rising sea levels due to climate change. This project, with support from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, will build on the Institute’s recently completed work on developing Municipal Development Plans in seven municipalities. An important objective will be to consider strategies to integrate resiliency planning into local land use planning and management.
In collaboration with the Dangriga Local Planning Working Group (LPWG), the I2UD team led by Jim Kostaras will incorporate local knowledge into the design of resiliency strategies for a targeted at-risk neighborhood. The team will develop two strategies: one that focuses on traditional structural responses (gray infrastructure); and an alternative that focuses on green infrastructure responses. Through this process, the research team will formulate an outline of a decision making framework for investments in resiliency, for use by municipalities in Belize, that considers public and private investments and instruments to finance, implement and maintain these investments including community partnership and land policy mechanisms. The study will culminate with a workshop attended by municipal officials, the LPWG and members of civil society and the business community to discuss the findings and incorporate their input into the final products of the study.
This will be the third study in partnership with the Lincoln Institute in the past five years. Previous research projects undertaken in partnership with Lincoln include: Strategic Land Use Planning for Climate Change-Driven Water Shortages in El Alto, Bolivia and Increasing the Resilience of Informal Settlements to Climate Change in Cartagena, Colombia and Condega, Nicaragua..