Institutional bricolage and the production of vulnerability to floods in an urbanising delta in Accra

Abstract

The boundary between formal and informal urban development tends to be particularly blurred in African cities. The Densu Delta in western Greater Accra is a prime example where buildings have been erected outside formally regulated urban development, in an ecologically precarious site. As a result, more and more people and structures are exposed to inundation, coastal erosion and flooding, but they also develop creative strategies to cope with the risks and vulnerabilities related with these hazards. The role of institutions, understood as co-produced arrangements between people, towards shaping the distribution of vulnerability to flood risk has been assessed for two localities in the Densu Delta. The article combines qualitative data from interviews and field observations with quantitative spatial data monitoring urbanisation in Greater Accra. Institutional as well as bio-physical dynamics in space and time that shape the riskscape of urban flooding in the Densu Delta are revealed. They expose a highly diverse landscape of vulnerability to flooding that cannot be explained solely by the material environment. Instead, tinkering, re-invention and transformation of twilight institutions is found to shape the distribution of vulnerability. The insights gained are of particular relevance to disaster risk reduction in rapidly urbanising areas in the Global South.