Climate Resilient Cities

A Primer on
Reducing Vulnerabilities to
Disasters

Kuala Lumpur, December 4, 2008

Dr. Jerry Velasquez,

Senior Regional Coordinator
UNISDR Asia and Pacific
Overview of presentation
The “Primer” – What is it? Why have one?
Climate change and disasters in the region
The links between CC and DRM
Hot spots and identifying priorities
City case studies and key lessons learned
The Climate Resilient Cities program
The Role of National Governments
Discussion

2
What is the Primer?
o The Primer outlines city typologies
o Integrates climate change with DRM
o Presents a “hot spot” tool for identifying city-
specific priorities for action
o Identifies both adaptation and mitigation
strategies at the local level, based on learning
from regional and global sound practices
o Applicable to a range of cities

3
 Objectives of the Primer
o To understand the issues and impact of climate
change at the city level
o To engage in a participatory approach to
establish vulnerabilities
o To learn about the why and the how through
illustrative examples from other cities
o To build resilience to future disasters into
planning and adopt no-regrets actions
o To understand the requirements for moving
from theory to practice
o To engage in partnerships and learning
4
Why focus on cities in East Asia?

5
Region prone to multiple hazards

Source: World Bank, 2005.

6
Largest increase in incidence
of natural disasters

7
Largest amount of damage from
several types of disasters

8
Climate change and DRM
Climate Change exacerbates the
frequency and intensity of
hydrometeorological disasters
CC can add new disaster risks
DRM includes seismic activity/volcanoes
while CC also addresses gradual
average changes in Climate
DRM and CC adaptation greatly overlap
and can strategically reinforce each
other
9
Climate change and DRM
Sea level rise
Temperature
Precipitation
Natural hazards (incl earthquakes, etc)
Extreme events

What are the effects and impacts?

What are some mitigation and adaptation
sound practices?
Goal is to become more RESILIENT over time

10
Why focus on cities?
Cities disproportionately contribute to
climate change  mitigation
50% of global population, 80% of GHGs
Cities disproportionately suffer the impacts
of climate change and disasters 
adaptation
Port cities: 9% of global GDP exposed
4 of top 10 exposed (pop) cities in EA
Cities are also the front line in terms of
preventive action and emergency
preparedness and response
Sichuan, New Orleans, etc.

11
Urban poor at greatest risk:
What can local govts do?

12
Is your city a Hot Spot?
The Primer provides criteria for
determination of a Hot Spot using its
City Information Base:

Vulnerability to different consequences

of climate change in urban areas
Preparedness and response capacity to
different natural hazards in urban
sector

13
 The Primer:
The “Hot Spot” exercise
RESILIENT
“Given”
• Geographic location
• City size and growth rate
• Governance structure
• Disaster history
HOT
“Influentiable”
• City management
• Financial resources
• Built environment
• Disaster response systems
• Economic impact of disasters
14
City description and size

15
Cities have a choice as to
their physical footprints

16
Building resilient cities:
Learning from experience

17
 Sound practices overview
City Geography Population
Tokyo Coastal, Very High EQ Hazard Very large
New York Coastal Very large
Jakarta Coastal, Moderate EQ Hazard Very large
London Coastal Large
Milan, Italy Inland Plateau Large
Singapore Coastal Large
Hanoi Inland, River Medium
Thua Thien Hue, Vietnam Coastal Medium
King County/Seattle Coastal, High EQ Hazard Small
Albuquerque, USA Inland Plateau Small
Venice, Italy Coastal Small
Rockville, USA Inland Plain Very Small
18
Dongtan, China Coastal, Moderate EQ Hazard --
What to extract from the profiles
City Profiles of Sound Practices (on CD)

Detailed Profiles Short Profiles

POLICY
WHY? HOW?
DETAILS

IMPLEMENTATION
COORDINATION
DETAILS

19
 Sound practices and lessons

1. Organizational structure & Information

Base
2. Institutional mechanism
3. Ownership by line departments
4. Climate change strategy
5. Public awareness
6. Accounting and reporting of GHG inventory
7. Hazard risk financing
8. DRM system considering CC impacts
20
 Sound practices and lessons

9. Mitigation: Energy sector

10. Mitigation: Transport sector
11. Mitigation: Built environment & density
12. Mitigation: Forestry and urban greenery
13. Mitigation: Financial mechanisms
14. Adaptation: Infrastructure
15. Adaptation: Water conservation
16. Adaptation: Public health
21
 Action based on experience
and risk assessment
o Hot Spot assessment can be used to
prioritize vulnerabilities, not judge
o Specific local action programs can draw
upon experience of other cities
o Not all actions are expensive, neither
time intensive
o No-regrets strategies are important and
can be complemented by specific
investments

22
Creating a virtuous circle

23
A multi-year program:
Climate Resilient Cities

Reach as many cities in East Asia

as possible to support them in
developing and implementing
THEIR climate resilient strategies

24
Program Objectives

o To disseminate the Primer tools in EA cities

o To develop Implementation Tools for Action
(ITA)
o To identify and strengthen partners for
implementation to go to scale
o To facilitate implementation of climate
resilience programs in 100 cities in East
Asia

25
 Program Components
A. Develop local resilience action plans
o Populate Hot Spot risk assessment matrix and compile
City Information Base (Primer tools)
o Identify priorities for action & design feasible programs
B. Strengthen national and local partners for
implementation scale-up in initial countries
o Identify and engage national/ local partners at outset
C. Scale up implementation of resilience action plan
development to 100 cities in East Asia

26
 Local Resilience Action Plan
(LRAP): What is it?
o How can resilience help the city achieve its vision?
o Populate Hot Spot risk assessment
o Identify particularly vulnerable areas, populations,
sectors, capacities
o Compile City Information Base – identify and fill
information gaps
o City masterplans
o Socioeconomic profile
o Hazard profile
o Future growth map
o City institutional map
o Identify priorities for action
o Design feasible programs with investment financing
strategies
27
 What role can national
governments play?

o National governments very important

o Must enable cities and subnational regions
o Provide support, funding, required changes
in national laws and regulations
o Commit to applying learning from initial
demonstration cities to other cities

28
What next?

Are you a Hot Spot?

Are you willing to become resilent?

Take the Primer,

Learn about the process
and be one of first implementing cities!

29
 Climate Resilient Cities

www.worldbank.org/eap/climatecities

Email: climatecities@worldbank.org

30