Building a legacy of resilience

In early 2017, the climate event known as El Niño Costero had a devastating effect on Peru, particularly in the country’s northern coastal region. Incessant heavy rains caused flooding and mudslides, affecting an estimated 1.1 million people. Homes, schools and hospitals were destroyed and damaged and 2,500km of roads were washed away.

Today, a massive effort is under way to rebuild Peru’s affected infrastructure and put in place measures to make it more resilient to future climate events. Arup is at the heart of this work, leveraging our multi-disciplinary expertise and strategic thinking as part of a coordinated multi-party UK team that is helping to transform the way the country approaches major building and sustainability projects.

This is having a real impact on the lives of local people. In the areas worst affected by El Niño, 47,000 students will benefit from reconstructed schools, and they and many more will have access to rebuilt, international-standard hospitals and health centres – all designed to be better able to withstand extreme weather. The programme is benefiting local businesses, giving local people knowledge and skills they can use to further their careers, and has created 20,000 new jobs so far. And, crucially, a new early warning system for natural disasters will cover 16 million people living in high-risk areas. Through our work, we are helping to restore hope and confidence to the people of Peru.

Reconstruction with changes

In the wake of El Niño Costero, the UK Department for International Trade signed an agreement with the Government of Peru to support the repair, reconstruction and enhancement of its damaged infrastructure. Peru’s Authority for Reconstruction with Changes (ARCC) selected the UK Delivery Team (UKDT), consisting of Arup and two collaborators, to accelerate and assure the delivery, to international standards, of 140 critical infrastructure projects across 13 regions of the country. The UKDT partners had previously worked with the Peruvian authorities to successfully deliver the Lima 2019 Pan American Games and brought learnings from that event to the reconstruction programme, which is now being run by the Peru National Infrastructure Authority (ANIN).

Working with nature to build resilience

Because El Niño is a recurring phenomenon, the UKDT is helping Peru to develop integrated management plans for flood mitigation infrastructure.

Critical to our ability to deliver these complex projects is a team encompassing a wide range of skills including programme management, client relations, governance and technical expertise. This multi-disciplinary approach was behind our successful review of the initial plan to procure 17 separate early warning systems; instead, we recommended delivering a single, integrated system to enable large parts of the country to prepare and respond effectively to major climate-related weather events.

Five gullies that will only be activated during future El Niño events will benefit from dykes, tunnels and integrated defences, while seven cities particularly at risk of flooding are being protected through improved drainage systems. 

The flood mitigation projects also cover 17 river basins where the UKDT team has proposed using a range of nature-based approaches and other interventions that will help make Peru safer and more sustainable. After carrying out multi-hazard assessments to identify the most appropriate flood mitigation measures, we are supporting efforts to embed improved natural resilience across essential infrastructure. This will eventually include planting 56 million trees and seedlings as part of natural flood defences, capturing an estimated 220,000 tonnes of carbon per year.

World-class critical infrastructure

The programme also includes the building or renovation of 74 schools and 15 hospitals and health centres. Acting as technical advisors on these projects, Arup and our UKDT colleagues have helped to provide international-standard facilities to thousands of people who have never had access to them before. The schools, which benefit 47,000 students in the areas most affected by El Niño, are safer, greener and more sensitive to the needs of children than the buildings they replaced. They are already acting as a template for the first of more than 1,400 schools being reconstructed across Peru. 

Similarly, in our work on the healthcare facilities, we provided advice that optimally adapted international best practice to local conditions and existing standards. This has resulted in hospitals that are resilient, flexible, adaptable and patient-centred. They also incorporate features such as green roofs and courtyards and rain gardens, providing sustainable drainage and natural temperature reduction for the buildings. 

Digital decision-making tools

As well as embedding sustainable development and resilience approaches across the programme, the Arup team within the UKDT has led on technical assurance and the design and development of digital solutions, and has played an important role in setting up a proactive knowledge transfer programme, while supporting ANIN with stakeholder engagement and communications.

To support the efficient and effective delivery of the programme, Arup, along with our partners in the UKDT, developed and delivered an integrated suite of digital solutions, built on a common data platform to promote collaboration and ensure consistency, while enabling new analytics and insight and supporting data-driven decision-making.

One of the most powerful digital solutions is a GIS-led decision-support tool. This enables team members to evaluate the benefits of different intervention options for complex flood mitigation projects, based on the cost, land use and local impact of flooding in the river basins – enabling them to make smarter decisions that will have long-term benefits.

Transferring knowledge to build capacity

ANIN is keen to build capability to deliver public facilities and infrastructure, both nationally and across the regions. This will require a sustained improvement in planning, design and construction ability in the public and private sectors alike.

In response, the UKDT developed a comprehensive knowledge transfer programme. More than 200 training modules have been delivered to public officials and contractors, nationally and regionally, with more than 9,000 training certificates issued through the knowledge transfer programme. Arup has conducted ongoing maturity assessments to measure the value of the programme and the ways in which it is building a more skilled workforce for Peru, and the results from these have been very positive. The transfer of specialist knowledge to everyone from national and regional public officials to contractors and industry professionals is leaving a powerful, sustainable legacy that will improve Peru’s capacity to develop major projects in the future.

Developing a strong foundation

This is just one of the ways in which the UKDT, with Arup a key player, will leave a lasting legacy for Peru. Our multi-hazard assessment of flood risks is an example of our multi-disciplinary approach to infrastructure projects, going beyond water to cover everything from urban design to innovative digital tools. Similarly, the UKDT, working with ANIN, has set new standards for the design of safe, sustainable and resilient schools and health facilities throughout their lifecycle.

Across all these projects, Arup teams have won the trust and confidence of local officials, workers and communities and helped to change attitudes and behaviours, as well as working with them to develop and embed an effective approach to the transition to opening and operating this critical infrastructure.

It is not just the thousands of students using the new and rebuilt schools, the patients being cared for in the hospitals, and the towns and villages protected by new flood defences who will benefit from our work. It is also the people from local communities who will get jobs and skills that they can use for the rest of their lives – indeed, 20,000 new jobs have already been created.

Then there are the local businesses and supply chains that will get a boost from the programme that will help them thrive and prosper, and local professionals who will benefit from the knowledge and expertise they gain from working with the UKDT.

Ultimately, our work with ANIN is helping Peru to close the infrastructure gap that challenges the nation, protecting and improving lives and livelihoods and building resilience to mitigate the effects of severe weather events in the future.