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Practical Strategies for Urban Adaptation in Asia: the Asian Cities Climate
Change Resilience Network
Dr. Stephen Tyler
ISET
Cities and Climate Change: COP 16
Dec 3, 2010
Cities and Climate Change
Refuges of climate resilience, job creation, economic innovation and growth?
Or concentrations of poverty, vulnerability and increased exposure to climate hazards?
• Conceived and funded by Rockefeller Foundation• 5 year program intended to
– catalyze attention, funding, and action on building climate change resilience for poor and vulnerable people in cities
– create robust models and methodologies for assessing and addressing climate risk
– Implement local adaptation measures– Build recognition and support for urban climate
resilience
• 4 countries, 10 medium size cities
Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network
• ISET is an international, non-profit, applied research institute registered in the United States but with members and advisors in many parts of Asia.
• Individuals and organizations involved in ISET all share a commitment to INNOVATION for environmentally sustainable development and poverty alleviation.
• ISET works extensively on climate change, water management, energy and related topics
Introduction to ISET – The Institute for Social and Environmental Transition
ISET's mission:
- to improve understanding and elevate the level of dialogue so that nations and local communities can better respond to challenges such as climate change in a dynamic global context
- to serve as a framework for equal collaboration between individuals and organizations in the North and South on programs that address the first mission
ISET’s role in ACCCRN (phase 2): methodology, technical support, coordination, India / Vietnam lead
ISET’s Mission
• Led by local government
• Engagement of multiple departments and stakeholders
• Studies by national experts
What Makes ACCCRN Different
• Capacity building and shared learning
• Networking activities between cities and other partners
• Collaborative workplan development
Diagram: Arup
Includes the ability to:• Learn from and adapt to
experience – i.e. to change strategies or structure of the system
• Respond to unexpected events
Urban Climate Resilience
Resilience is the capability of a system faced with shocks or stresses to maintain or quickly restore its function.
Can Tho
Framework tries to:
- Accommodate high uncertainty through iterative processes
- Recognize multiple sources of vulnerability- Integrate across scales- Focus on strategic issues and processes rather than
specific projects
Urban Climate Resilience Framework
Who?- Focus on agents (individuals, organizations, groups):
their behavior, socio-economic position, authority, marginalization, etc
- Key capacities: learning, visualization and planning, (re-) organization
What?- Urban systems comprise elements and linkages:
ecosystems, infrastructure, institutions, knowledge- Key characteristics: flexibility and diversity, modularity and
redundancy, safe failure
Fragile systems / low capacity agents + exposure = vulnerability
Urban Climate Resilience Framework
To integrate climate resilience thinking into planning procedures in order to enable vulnerable groups living in cities to anticipate, respond to and recover from projected climate change impacts.
Objective of City Resilience Planning
• Basic information and data required to inform planning, e.g. climate scenarios, local vulnerability assessment, other data sources.
• Multi-lateral and participatory processes to share local knowledge and experience, e.g. community level HCVA and SLD process with stakeholder representatives.
• SLDs engage different city departments, local experts, national / international scientific authorities, civil society, disaster response organizations, and vulnerable groups. Exchange and validate new information, guide foundations of planning
• Small scale pilot projects proposed to test preliminary adaptation measures and improve community conditions
• Detailed studies of high priority issues where data is lacking• Actions proposed to address important areas of vulnerability
Key Elements of Urban Climate Change Resilience Planning
Process
Science and Local Knowledge
Approach
• Capacity building and local engagement more important to build local understanding than technical sophistication and detailed analysis;
• Iterative - we can return and improve analysis in future, or add in-depth studies on key issues.
ACCCRN City level workflow
• SLD process proved innovative and helpful– Indonesia– Vietnam
• Climate projections not available in useful format– Data hard to find or non-existent– Format unhelpful– Don’t explain uncertainties– Don’t respond to key decision parameters
• Process takes time• City partners have been able to build multistakeholder
planning processes and use the tools (18 months or less)
Results of Resilience Planning
• Proposed priority actions included capacity building for agents, strengthening of infrastructure, ecosystems, knowledge and institutions
• City partners tied in resilience plans to other plans and funding activities– Infrastructure projects– Public health and sanitation programs
• Managing uncertainty:– Base analysis on existing climate vulnerabilities and extend– Scenarios– “no-regrets” strategies– Detailed studies of key issues– Increase awareness– Avoid maladaptation
Results of Resilience Planning 2
• New planning processes put in place– Sustainability varies
• Issues affecting vulnerable groups central to plans– Urbanization, economic development
• New concepts and new information from outside sources applied to local planning
• City partners have been able to build multistakeholder planning processes and use the tools (18 months or less)
• Beginning to share experiences within country• Not yet evidence of influence on national policy
Preliminary Outcomes
