Group P - Collaborative Climate Adaption Project

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• Group P - Concept Mapping of Seminar Topics

Area	please enter the area name here
Place	Tegucigalpa
Country	Honduras
Topic	please enter the topic here
Author(s)	Please enter your name(s)

Rationale: Why have you selected this case study area?

Honduras is the second poorest country in Latin America and nominated by the World Bank Organization as the third most vulnerable country in the World. Despite of its great climate conditions, in 2011 Honduras’s Government had to call for State of Emergency every 38 days. Most of its vulnerability is due to its poor infrastructure, high population growth rate, unemployment which results in criminality, its inexistent land and city planning, and its increasing annual precipitation. Tegucigalpa, itself is a mirror of poor planning. Most of the city’s neighborhoods are located on places where buildings were not plausible. Most of Tegucigalpa’s soil conditions are poor for construction purposes and often result in erosion. Tegucigalpa’s topography and poor drainage infrastructure often cause the city to be flooded and this is terrible considering what that Honduras has a high annual precipitation.

Authors' perspectives

It is very diffcult to explain the complexity of Honduran reality. Honduras suffers what
most of 3rd world countries suffer: Considerable Social Wealth distribution differences, Political
crisis, high assassination rates and no future planning. The climate change problems will
affect primarily those with poor economic incomes, which live in the areas, which were
not planned or meant to be occupied. The social and security problems maintain the
average Honduran distracted from concerning on Climate change. Natural Disasters then
happen and thousands of people loose their homes, others suffer severe damage on their
working facilities and the aid never gets to them because it’s lost in bureaucratic stages
and the system’s corruption.
Little investigation has been done in Honduras regarding on Climate Change although
there has been an increase in annual precipitation during the last years in winter and
much more droughts during summer. To make this worse, Honduras has being absorbed
by the political crisis originated by the Coup d’état in 2009, the emergence of a socialist
political power, Venezuela’s political interference and plenty of assassinations to lawyers,
journalists, political leaders and policemen. All this social confict that is perceived more in
Tegucigalpa (political capital from Honduras) has obsessed Hondurans overshadowing
other important issues as natural disasters mitigation.
It’s also widely known that Latin-American culture and planning are like water and oil. The Honduran
carefree way of living has resulted on poor response to natural disasters, long-term
recuperation from hurricanes, earthquakes and foods.

Landscape and/or urban context

Tegucigalpa, Honduras’s capital has a population of over a million inhabitants. The Choluteca River crosses the city from north to south (which often floods the city’s downtown and poor residential areas). There is no landscape design related to Tegucigalpa’s rivers, surrounding mountains, historical center and statues. Few parks are found on the downtown with very little maintenance. The city has adopted the American city life concept in which cars are more important than pedestrians. No planning has been developed for Tegucigalpa’s rapid urban growth, which causes plenty of traffc. The public transportation system is also very defcient and has no well structured circuits. Tegucigalpa hasn’t any main Bus station but many stations that are located on the most dangerous neighborhoods. Most of the houses built in Tegucigalpa must have a perimeter wall protecting the inhabitants from criminality. These walls often include security cameras, electrical wire and house alarms. Tegucigalpa’s topography is variable, its surrounded by mountains and hills and the lowest point is at the city’s downtown. All the water from precipitation and drainage ends up here.

Illustration: Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

Cultural/social/political context

As mentioned above, Honduras political crisis is a conversation subject for every Honduran. Two conservative parties have governed Honduras during the last 100 years, and military coups took place 30 years ago. However, during the presidential period between 2006 and 2010, Manuel Zelaya the former president change the direction of its government from conservative to socialist due to his alliance with Hugo Chavez. This resulted in a considerate popular discontent in some social sectors as the religious groups, conservative groups and other fnancial groups. These groups eventually forced Zelaya to quit the presidency because he had plans to change the constitution and remain as president, which ended up as the 2009 coup d’etat. Since then Zelaya was forced to leave the country and other social groups decided to create a socialist political party to change Honduras’s Status Quo. Since then many assassinations to journalists, lawyers, political and religious leaders have taken place. The criminality rate has increased converting Honduras in the country with most high criminality rate all over the world. Poverty reaches 65 to 80% of Honduras population, 1/3 of the working population is unemployed. Social differences are big and the poor often suffer more from natural disasters such as foods and hurricanes as those conforming the middle-class and highclass sectors.
Generally, the public services are defcient and Hondurans choose (when economically possible) to use private services such as education, transportation and health. Most of Honduran traditions are related to its past as a former Colony from Spain and to roman catholic traditions. Other traditions come from its different ethnical groups such as the Garifunas (slaves who where brought from Africa) and other native indian groups. Honduras is also famous for being part of the Mayan part and having plenty of mayan ruins on its occidental part.

Illustration: Bullet points, image, background notes

Local Climate

Honduras is characterized by its tropical climate throughout the year, divide in two subcategories: in its coasts it’s rainy tropical and tropical dry in its central region. Nevertheless, Honduras’s annual precipitation varies from 1900mm to 2500mm. The average temperature is 23º C but in March and April it can get to 40ºC and 15ºC during December and January. There are only two seasons in Honduras; the dry season, which takes places between November and March and the rainy season from May to October.

Illustration: Table or time line

Analysis of vulnerability

Tegucigalpa’s vulnerability is due to these factors:

1. Poor drainage infrastructure
2. Existing residential areas located in erodible and hard to reach places.
3. Constant ground invasion in dangerous topographical zones
4. No planning related to flooding, evacuation and containment of landslides

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches/photos/background notes

Proposals for Climate Change Adaption

• How could your case study area become more resilient to climate change?
• Which measures would need to be taken to adapt to the new situation?
• How could you assure sustainability of these measures?
• Please describe 2-3 measures

Proposals for Climate Change Mitigation

• Which measures would need to be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other drivers of climate change within your case study area?
• How could you assure sustainability of these measures?
• Please describe 2-3 measures

Your scenario

• How will this area look like in 2060?
• Please forecast one potential future development taking climate change into account

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

What can be generalized from this case study?

• Are there any important theoretical insights?
• Which research questions does it generate?
• Short statement plus background notes

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References

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