Building climate adaptation capacity in water resources planning: ‘Ríos del páramo al valle, por urbes y campiñas’

The project aims to support Colombia's national climate change response by providing Corporaciones Autónomas Regionales (CARs) with analytical tools to manage water allocation and adaptation strategies. It focuses on the coffee-growing region, emphasizing the role of high-elevation páramo ecosystems in regulating water supply. Key activities include developing WEAP models for the Río La Vieja and Alto Magdalena watersheds, integrating hydrology and water quality data, and applying the RAND Corporation's XLRM framework for robust decision-making. The project also seeks to enhance WEAP software functionality regarding spatial scale articulation, floodplain inundation, and ecological limits of hydrologic alteration to better understand the cumulative effects of local adaptation on the basin-scale Magdalena-Cauca system.

• The project focuses on the coffee-growing region (Eje Cafetero), highlighting the critical role of the páramo—alpine moorland between 3,000 and 5,000 meters above sea level—in regulating the timing and supply of water for downstream agriculture and cities.
• For the Huila 2050 Climate Action Plan, the project employs a two-phase process: a preparation phase using the RAND Corporation’s XLRM framework to identify uncertainties and metrics, followed by an investigation phase using WEAP models to test water management strategies against various climate trajectories and non-climate variables like population growth.
• The project is implementing technical enhancements to the WEAP software to improve basin-scale planning for the Magdalena-Cauca watershed, specifically adding capabilities for simultaneous multi-scale model articulation, floodplain inundation characterization, and integration with the Nature Conservancy's ELOHA framework via IHA software.
• The project aims to empower Colombia's Corporaciones Autónomas Regionales (CARs)—the entities responsible for water allocation and watershed management—by providing tools to manage the complexity of coordinating diverse stakeholders while adapting to climate effects.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2013). Building climate adaptation capacity in water resources planning: ‘Ríos del páramo al valle, por urbes y campiñas’. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Air-land-water-resources/SEI-USAID-FS-2013-Colombia-Water.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Building climate adaptation capacity in water resources planning: ‘Ríos del páramo al valle, por urbes y campiñas’. 2013. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Air-land-water-resources/SEI-USAID-FS-2013-Colombia-Water.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Building climate adaptation capacity in water resources planning: ‘Ríos del páramo al valle, por urbes y campiñas’ |date=2013 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Air-land-water-resources/SEI-USAID-FS-2013-Colombia-Water.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2013building, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Building climate adaptation capacity in water resources planning: ‘Ríos del páramo al valle, por urbes y campiñas’}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2013}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Air-land-water-resources/SEI-USAID-FS-2013-Colombia-Water.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }