Flood risk and coastal assessment of the Tocumen River - panama city

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Benefit

Opportunities were identified in two

currently undeveloped floodplain areas to

both optimise their topography to store

and reduce flood peaks, but also to

provide space for recreation and

high-quality development zoned on higher

ground.

In this way, the study enhances the

Municipality's evidence base to support

their emerging district plan. Capacity

building training was delivered to a wide

range of stakeholders, and used to

develop a training session at the 2020

Understanding Risk CentroAmérica

(URCA 2020) conference.

Three future scenarios for development

of the city were developed;

- Business-as-usual

- Implementation of the city's new

district plan

- A scenario based on restoration of

natural floodplain and mangroves

systems to provide enhanced flood

protection. This demonstrated that

nature-based solutions have the

potential to mitigate many of the

impacts of climate change.

The study made recommendations for all sectors involved in or able to influence flood risk management,

including spatial planners, coastal and river engineers, disaster risk managers, developers, ecologists and

the airport authorities.