Sustainable Asset Valuation of the Recovery of the Bogotá River, Colombia
Hybrid infrastructure to reduce flood risk and improve water quality in the Bogotá River
This Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) examines how nature-based infrastructure (NBI) interventions like wetland restoration and flood control transformed the Bogotá River basin. The results show that hybrid infrastructure delivers far more value than it costs—generating USD 349 million in net benefits across flood protection, cleaner water, and improved quality of life.
Key Findings
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Restoring wetlands and river functions through NBI significantly reduced flood risk, avoiding up to USD 828 million in damages by protecting homes, businesses, and infrastructure across the Bogotá River basin.
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Hybrid infrastructure that combines grey systems with NBI delivered a positive return on investment, generating USD 1.27 in benefits for every USD 1 invested and USD 349 million in total net benefits over the project lifetime.
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Improvements in water quality and ecosystem services generated by NBI delivered USD 554 million in value, representing the largest share of total benefits and driving gains in urban resilience, environmental quality, and quality of life.
The Bogotá River is essential to central Colombia, providing drinking water for nearly 6 million people across 46 municipalities and supporting agriculture and industry across Cundinamarca. Rapid urban growth, untreated wastewater, and the loss of wetlands degraded water quality and increased flood risks. Extreme events, such as the 2010–2011 floods, highlighted the limits of traditional flood protection approaches.
To address these challenges, the World Bank and the Corporación Autónoma Regional de Cundinamarca funded a major restoration project combining conventional infrastructure, such as wastewater treatment and hydraulic works, with NBI interventions, including wetland restoration and river rehabilitation.
These interventions improved water quality, restored natural flood buffers, and increased the river's capacity to manage high flows. The project closed in December 2022.
The NBI Global Resource Centre conducted a SAVi assessment to examine the long-term performance of these investments over a 50-year period at the basin scale.
Results show that hybrid infrastructure delivers strong economic returns when the full range of benefits is considered. The project generates USD 1.27 in benefits for every USD 1 invested, with total net benefits of USD 349 million. Avoided flood damage represents a major share of this value, with an estimated USD 828 million in avoided losses to homes and businesses.
In addition to financial returns, the project strengthened climate resilience and improved environmental quality and living conditions for millions of people. The findings highlight the role of hybrid infrastructure as a cost-effective strategy for river basin management, delivering integrated economic, social, and environmental benefits.
Participating experts
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