In 2011, Lao Cai City was selected by the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET) to implement the project ?Mekong-Building Climate Resilient Asian Cities? funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). One of the main components of the project is to develop an Action Plan to Respond to Climate Change in Lao Cai City (the Action Plan) to help build and strengthen climate resilience in the urban context. An interdisciplinary working group has developed the plan, with technical support from ISET, the National Institute for Science and Technology Policy and Strategic Studies (NISTPASS) and in-depth consultations with stakeholders and vulnerable communities. The working group collected suggestions from the stakeholders and worked together to revise the draft of the Action Plan accordingly, they then shared the revised draft with stakeholders before reaching a consensus.

The action plan focuses on analyzing the current and future vulnerability of the city to climate change and uses these analyses as a basis for the identification of short, medium and long-term priority adaptive measures. This action plan applies the ?no regret? approach to identify adaptive measures, which can be integrated into the existing plans and programs to enhance the city?s resilience and benefit communities vulnerable to climate change. The Action Plan covers:

Section I: An evaluation of the natural condition and the socio-economic development context for an in-depth analysis of climate change impacts at present and into the future.

Section II: Goals and objectives to build climate resilience for Lao Cai city

Section III: Identification of priority measures; and

Section IV: Implementation Keywords: Climate Modeling and Scenario Planning; Disaster Risk Reduction/Hazard Management; Hazard Management and Urban Planning; Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation; Water Management