Rio and Buenos Aires Have the Same Idea on How to Fight Floods from Climate Change: High-Tech!

Tens of millions of people across Latin America face worsening flooding threats sparked by climate change, so cities are coming up with new ways to keep people safe – using technology, better data and insights from affected communities.

Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, for example, is using a hackathon to cope with the wilder weather, bringing together a team of university students, tech start-up professionals, software developers and computer engineers to come up with solutions that could help the city reduce its losses. Another example of new measures comes from Argentina’s capital: Buenos Aires is working on a network of digital sensors to monitor rainfall, sending data to the central control station in real time.

Kyra Appleby, from London-based international environmental non-profit CDP, says that climate change adaptation measures are crucial in urban planning, highlighting the impressive progress of Brazil’s city of Belo Horizonte, explaining, “It’s in the process of creating a new masterplan for the city and they are integrating all their adaption measures into their masterplan. That is really ahead of the curve.”