Informal urban fabrics flood resilience

Flooding is a major threat to cities, especially those in the Global South. The progressive transformation of natural land into impermeable soils weakens infiltration and generates significant runoff. Urban sprawl, linked to this change in land use, is reflected in many countries of the Global South in the development of informal settlements because of cities' inability to produce sufficient space and housing to accommodate their new inhabitants. This situation is exacerbated by urban fragmentation, which is very present in post-colonial cities.
Informal settlements are often located in flood-prone areas, and this process tends to weaken vulnerable populations. The proposed responses are often temporary and not very resilient. The main objective of my research is to develop the analysis of the interactions between urbanization, exposure to flood risk, and social vulnerability to produce a hydro-social model for long-term adaptation of informal settlements located in floodprone areas.
The agglomeration of Antananarivo (Madagascar) is the proposed study site for the research. Methods based on open-source data and high-resolution satellite images will be adopted. They will be accompanied by a qualitative approach based on field surveys and active collaboration both with experts in spatial planning and flood risk management and with the local population. This research will provide innovation in urban flood management by proposing sustainable solutions for improving the flood resilience of informal settlements, particularly in the Global South