023 Tyler Urban Climate Resilience 0

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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

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Cities and Climate Change

 _{Refuges of climate resilience, job creation, economic innovation and}

growth?

 _{Or concentrations of poverty, vulnerability and increased exposure to}

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• _{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}

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• _{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

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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

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• _{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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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• _{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}

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Process

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Approach

• _{Capacity building and}

local engagement

more important to build local understanding

than technical

sophistication and detailed analysis;

• _{Iterative - we can}

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• _{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)

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• _{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}

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• _{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}

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Dr. Stephen Tyler – stephen@i-s-e-t.org Ken MacClune – ken@i-s-e-t.org