Land-Use Change, Risk and Land-Use Management

Abstract

This chapter focuses on flood risk analysis and risk prevention in Santiago de Chile. It presents a conceptual framework for flood risk analysis in urban areas and demonstrates the utility of a mixed set of methods, including remote sensing and GIS techniques, to improve the methodological basis for flood risk assessment and risk prevention. Population growth and land-use changes are analysed as key elements of urban development and indicators of flood risk production. A conceptual framework comprising the core elements of exposure, elements at risk and vulnerability serves as a tool for risk analysis and risk assessment, and is applied to the municipalities of La Reina and Penalolen. The chapter reviews existing institutional responses to land-use and risk management and, based on expert interviews, detects their deficits. As a conclusion, recommendations to improve flood risk prevention in Santiago de Chile are made. The absence of a systemic view of flood risk resulting from complex ecological and social processes is the chief weakness of current risk prevention in Santiago de Chile.