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Household and agricultural demands for water are increasing. At the same time, there is erosion, saline intrusion and an over-reliance on inadequate infrastructure. These factors are increasing the risk to Da Nang’s water supply. ISET-International, Central Vietnam Institute for Water Resources (CVIWR) and Climate Change Coordination Office of Da Nang city (CCCO Da Nang) have prepared three Policy Briefs that identify and make recommendations to manage the key issues. They explain how the governance of water needs to improve; local departments need to work together to manage infrastructure, strategic planning needs to be undertaken, and there needs to be the raising of public awareness of water saving. Please note that there are slight differences in the Vietnamese and English version of these briefs. The Vietnamese versions have greater relevance to those working in Vietnamese domestic policy. The following policy briefs can be found on our website: Climate Change Implication for Da Nang Surface Water Management Recommendations on Adaptive Measures for Cau Do and Hoa Lien Water Supply Facilities Water Resource Trend and the Implication for Water Management ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tóm tắt chính sách về Tài Nguyên Nước tại Đà Nẵng Nhu cầu nước cho sản xuất nông nghiệp và nước sử dụng của các hộ gia đình đang ngày một tăng. Trong khi đó các hiện tượng sạt lở bờ sông, xâm nhập mặn và tình trạng quá phụ thuộc vào cơ cở hạ tầng không phù hợp, đang đồng loạt diễn ra. Tất cả các yếu tố này đang làm tăng nguy cơ thiếu nguồn cung cấp nước của Tp. Đà Nẵng. Tổ chức ISET-International, Viện Nghiên Cứu Thuỷ lợi miền Trung Việt Nam (CVIWR) và Văn phòng Điều phối về Biến đổi Khí hậu Đà Nẵng (CCCO Đà Nẵng) đã phối hợp thực hiện ba bản Tóm tắt Chính sách nhằm xác định và đưa ra các đề xuất để giải quyết những vấn đề chính này. Các bản Tóm tắt Chính sách này làm rõ sự cần thiết phải cải thiện việc quản lý nước, các ban ngành địa phương cần cùng phối hợp để quản lý cơ sở hạ tầng, việc lập các kế hoạch chiến lược cần được thực hiện và cần tăng cường nhận thức cho người dân về tiết kiệm nước. Xin lưu ý bản Tóm tắt Chính sách Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt có một vài sự khác biệt nhỏ. Bản Tiếng Việt đề cập nhiều hơn đến các vấn đề phù hợp với những người làm trong môi trường chính sách của Việt Nam. Xem bản Tóm tắt Chính sách tại đây dưới mục “Resource” hoặc nhấn vào các hình dưới đây: Tác động của BĐKH đối với công tác quản lý nguồn nước mặt Các khuyến nghị về giải pháp thích ứng với BĐKH đối với các công trình cấp nước Cầu Đỏ và Hoà Liên Xu hướng nguồn nước và các vấn đề ảnh hưởng đến công tác quản lý

Originally posted by Urban Climate Resilience Community of Practice (UCR-CoP). Above: On the way to the Community Safe Shelter. Flood Early Warning System in Quy Nhon. Photo: ISET-Vietnam Urban Community-Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) was proved to be a topic of high concern to our UCR-CoP participants as the meeting room was packed on Friday last week (Mar 18, 2016) in the first UCR-CoP event of 2016. Two success lessons in community engagement for urban disaster risk reduction were shared at the meeting: (1) Early Flood Warning System in Quy Nhon city; and (2) Co-management of Urban Flood and Erosion in Can Tho city. As usual, members also had a chance to share and update their work during the Sharing Corner section. “What does CBDRM in urban areas look like” in comparison with CBDRM in rural areas was the question raised by Dr. Stephen Tyler (ISET-Vietnam) at the beginning of the meeting. Most disaster risks issues arise in peri-urban areas where infrastructure is still poor, while the level of investment and population density are high. Below are two examples of urban CBDRM efforts. Reducing flood risk to residents in the lower Ha Thanh and Kon Rivers, Quy Nhon city – Ms. Nghiem Phuong Tuyen, ISET-Vietnam Early Warning System Drill on October 2015 in Quy Nhon. Graphic: ISET-Vietnam In Quy Nhon city, the impacts of climate change have been felt more and more acutely, especially for the people who unfortunately had to suffer the damages of extreme flood events during the last two decades. The project “Reducing flood risk to residents in the lower Ha Thanh and Kon Rivers, Quy Nhon city” aims to address the existing gap in the early flood warning system (EWS) for Quy Nhon city so that local people are better able to prepare and respond to floods. The success of the EWS are attributed to a number of factors, including high technology and equipment, support from the local government, and the participation of local community. The effectiveness of the EWS in helping local people respond to floods is largely thanks to direct engagement of the local people themselves in various stages of the project. Installing and operating the EWS was in fact the easier task. Meanwhile, getting the approval from the local government and engaging local people turned out to be the biggest challenge as the project aims to build the first EWS model that allows flood warnings to reach the community at the same time they reach local government officers. For more information about the project, please see the presentation from Dr. Tuyen Nghiem in the event page here. For more information about the project, please visit here. Co-management of urban flood and erosion in Can Tho city, Vietnam – Mr. Ky Quang Vinh, Director of Climate Change Coordination Office of Can Tho city (Can Tho CCCO) Mr. Ky Quang Vinh provided an overview of riverbank erosion situation in Can Tho city, the challenges and difficulties when applying community-based approach in the urban area, and lessons learnt from the project. The engagement of local communities in riverbank management plays an important role in controlling erosion. High tide, rainfall, waterway transportation are key factors contributing to the increase of riverbank erosion in Can Tho, affecting the lives of people living by the rivers. The project organized multiple Shared Learning Dialogues (SLDs) to promote the participation of local community, especially those who live by the riverbank. The local community participates in making decisions regarding the measures of riverbank control to apply, provides ideas and suggestions, contributes materials and labor for the construction, develops regulations, and takes the key role in operation and maintenance of the work in accordance to these regulations. Above: Biological River Embankment in Can Tho. Photo: ISET-Vietnam The biological river embankment was built and is working well in protection against erosion. This success is the result of a joint effort between the local community and other stakeholders, including the local government, scientists and the donor. However, this was a challenging process that required a great amount of time and effort. Please see the presentation from Mr. Ky Quang Vinh in the event page here. For more information about the project, please visit here. At the Sharing Corner session, Ms. Chau Lai from the American Red Cross (ARC) shared with UCR-CoP participants about their Urban Disaster Risk Reduction (UDRR) works in Quang Ngai, Tam Ky and Ha Tinh. ARC is also working with ISET and the Disaster Management Center (DMC), an agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam to develop UDRR guidelines. Mr. Jerome Faucet from the German Red Cross shared their DRR work with GIZ in Tuy Hoa and Quy Nhon to develop methodology for using GIS software to train local technical working groups, and to draw maps to support DRR planning and evacuation. They have recently received new funding from DIPECO to continue developing the method to combine science-based maps and community-based maps. Ms. Lisa Buggy from COHED updated members on their Heat Stress project: MOLISA has approved to include Heat Stress as a component in Labor Safety training. There will be a Heat Stress webinar, organized by ACCCRN.net on March 30, 2016. More information on this webinar can be found here. Ms. Huyen Le from Swiss Cooperation Office for Vietnam (SECO) is working on a project funded by World Bank on Urban Development and Resilience in Can Tho. She felt that the lessons learnt from today’s event would be very useful for this project. Mr. Phil Graham from Belgian Development Agency shared their work again with new members on Climate Change Adaptation program—Integrated Water Management in Urban Development in 3 provinces (Ha Tinh, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan). He was interested in today’s theme especially the EWS presentation because there is EWS component in their program as well. Mr. Miguel Coulier, Climate Change Consultant and is currently conducting a consultancy (commissioned by CARE Vietnam) on urban resilience targeting migrant populations, DRR, climate change adaptation in Hai Phong, Can Tho and Hanoi. He was looking forward to meeting all members to share lesson learnt and discuss relevant issues. The event was organized at Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Hanoi on March 18, 2016. It was also joined virtually by participant from ADB Manila. This is potentially a great way to enable interested participants to engage with UCR-CoP events without having to travel long distances. Also joining the event were CCCO Can Tho, representatives from agencies of the Ministry of Construction, and representatives of various NGOs, universities, and consulting agencies in Vietnam. For more detailed information of the workshop presentations please refer to the Events page. All UCR-CoP members will receive the detailed notes of workshop contents and related discussions. Many thanks for participating and sharing at the workshop and we hope to see you soon at our next meeting.

We’re Moving on January 4! The ISET-International Boulder office will move to the University of Colorado’s new Sustainability Innovation Lab at Colorado (SILC). ISET-International will serve as the anchor tenant within the SILC, where we will continue to build on our foundation of collaboration. ISET will be co-located with the global hub of Future Earth and the Aspen Global Change Institute, as well as an incubator and accelerator for sustainability focused Social Enterprises and B Corporations. Additional actors are expected to come aboard during the coming year. The SILC is located within the university’s new Sustainability Energy and Environment Complex (SEEC). We welcome you to come visit our new office on the third floor!

Establishing a Regional Network Hub to Promote Research and Learning on Urban Climate Resilience and Transformation We are pleased to announce that ISET-International’s Bangkok team is establishing an independent urban climate resilience network hub. The new hub will be established as a Thai-based “Center of Excellence” for engaged research with regional and international partners. The network hub will be the host for the IDRC/SSHRC Urban Climate Resilience in Southeast Asia Partnership (UCRSEA), focusing its efforts on the Mekong countries of Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Dr Pakamas Thinphanga is the Co-Director of UCRSEA. The hub will also provide a platform to deepen and expand the research and learning work of the ACCCRN network. To allow for this transition, the ISET-International Bangkok office formally ceased operations on November 25, 2015. The role of regional hub, formerly performed by the ISET-International Bangkok office has now shifted to our office in Hanoi. We wish our former Bangkok team well in their new endeavor. If you would like further information, please contact Ken MacClune at ken[at]i-s-e-t[dot]org or Ngo Thi Le Mai at lemai[at]i-s-e-t[dot]org.

Above: Flooding in the Mekong Delta in 2050. Source: Southern Institute for Water Resources Planning The growing problem of urban flooding in southern Vietnam has attracted the attention of the national government, but few practical solutions have been put forward. The combination of rapid urban growth, inadequate infrastructure, land subsidence and climate change all contribute to this challenging problem. At a workshop held in Can Tho on Oct 27, national, regional and local participants heard that there is no single solution to the problem, and no perfect set of solutions. Multiple actions are needed at different scales, from the community to the ward, district, city, province and regional scale. Contexts and risks vary at different scales, but a crucial gap is the lack of mechanisms for sharing information and collaborative planning between different organizations and scales. Above: Urbanized areas in Ho Chi Minh City (Red areas) in 1985 (a) and in 2010 (b) While infrastructure investment is needed, there are limitations to hard infrastructure in solving flooding problems. Dikes may keep water out of one area, but then divert it into another area downstream. And with more intense rainfall, inundation can still occur behind the dikes as it becomes more difficult to drain runoff. With uncertain new climate conditions, dikes may fail. Other flexible measures will also be needed, such as slowing drainage, storing water and allowing for more infiltration, according to Dr Ho Long Phi, of the National University of HCMC. Dr Phi emphasized that cities need to allow more space for water, instead of filling and developing all available land. While flood protection and drainage infrastructure may serve its purpose most of the time, cities need to be prepared for extreme conditions under which it will fail. Engineers, urban planners, disaster managers and vulnerable communities should collaborate to plan and design systems that can fail in a safe and non-catastrophic manner. Urban development in the Mekong Delta accompanies economic development and the growth of commerce and services. This shift may actually be encouraged by climate change, which may increase risks for farmers and lead to greater rural-urban migration. In each sector, planners develop their own priorities and strategies, but these are not well coordinated and often create unexpected negative impacts, for example as new transportation infrastructure blocks floodway drainage and increases flood risk for affected areas. The workshop heard that using the concepts and tools of resilience building is a useful approach to deal with the uncertainties of urbanization and climate change. It encourages flexible and diverse approaches that strengthen both infrastructure and ecosystem buffers. But it also encourages innovative approaches to maintain the functionality of urban systems, such as water supply or transportation, even if flooding occurs. A focus on resilience also points to the need for increased capacity of management organizations in order to identify, plan and coordinate implementation measures. The workshop provided a number of examples of failures in the planning process that led to increasing flood risks in peri-urban areas of Da Nang, Can Tho and Quy Nhon, based on ISET studies conducted with local partners in the past year. In these cases, a major problem was the lack of coordination between different sectors, or between local planning and national level projects. These experiences point once again to the value of new mechanisms, tools and expertise at the local level to support collaborative planning practices that build climate resilience. Practical suggestions were put forward to address some of these deficiencies, but small-scale experimentation and pilot projects are needed to test these and build relevant expertise. A collection of some of the workshop papers is available on request from ISET by emailing infovn@i-s-e-t.org. For Vietnamese version of this blog, please visit: http://wp.me/p3k22m-ir For more pictures of the workshop, please visit Can Tho CCCO’s Facebook page.

The sixth Asia-Pacific Urban Forum (APUF-6) took place on Oct. 19-21 in Jakarta. This meeting, organized every four to five years through the UN, was hosted by the government of Indonesia and brought together policymakers and practitioners to discuss emerging and critical urban development issues. This year’s forum took place at a pivotal moment, following the recent adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — an inter-governmentally agreed set of targets that will build upon and replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) — and leading up to the third United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat III) next year in Quito. APUF-6 provided an opportunity to focus on the reality of the newly adopted 11th SDG that commits member states to: “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. Half of humanity is already urban, and this level will continue to rise with 95 percent of future expansion happening in the developing world by 2030. The SDG 11 presents a call for action by 2030 to ensure universal access to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services; to enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management; and to increase the number of communities adopting and implementing policies that embrace inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation strategies that enable resilience to climate change. Asian countries will have their work cut out in achieving the SDG 11. Asia is economically powerful, but its “resilience” has become increasingly exclusive, primarily benefitting the wealthy, and to the detriment of the poor, thereby dramatically escalating inequality trends that are all too apparent across the region. More inclusive approaches that take into account the poor and marginalized members of the community (such as the almost 1 billion people that already live in slums) are likely to face an uphill battle, due to growing political challenges in the region. For example, recent laws restricting the ability of NGOs have been passed in Cambodia and India, harming the constituencies they represent and constraining the voice of civil society. Furthermore, decentralization appears to have stalled across the region. In Jakarta, the controversy in Kampung Pulo attracted international attention regarding the rights of untenured citizens in Indonesia. It is hard to reconcile commitments to urban inclusion when the political space is constrained. Across Asia, we have seen many examples where urban governance is failing to meet growing demands. The floods that devastated Thailand in 2011 were the result of heavy rainfall, but the impacts were compounded by a history of land use planning that allowed industrial estates and residential areas to be built in areas that naturally flood, such as wetlands and agricultural land. Air quality in many Asian cities is already far worse than levels considered safe, and it is often poorly monitored. The haze problem has been a human and policy issue for almost 20 years, yet forest fires still harm public health and close public services in urban centers here in Indonesia, as well as in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Traffic congestion is now emblematic of Asian cities, again as a result of poor policy and planning. The impacts of these failures fall mostly upon the poor, the elderly and the sick. The APUF-6 provided lessons on how SDG 11 offers hope for moving forward. As the newly released “State of Asian and Pacific Cities 2015” report clearly points out, cities where there is an open dialogue with transparent and accountable government are those most likely to have successful and sustainable futures. Strong regulatory frameworks that dovetail harmoniously with market forces allow public systems and services to be funded and to be accountable and accessible by all. With huge inbound investments into Asian cities, there is an urgent need to strengthen the regulatory role of local government to protect environmental and health standards and to ensure that decisions that affect city residents are made in ways that are openly responsible to the public. The pressures from climate change are intensifying and it is clear that urbanization in the future will need to diverge significantly from current trajectories. As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said, the struggle to avoid global climate catastrophe will be played out in cities. With Asia representing the most rapidly urbanizing area of the world, the region will require a new vision and new solutions. The Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) and its partners have supported city governments and citizens to take action to build a new urban future that is inclusive and resilient to climate change. At the heart of this process is a need for strong commitments to social and environmental justice — where much needed city investments can be made in inclusive, transparent and accountable terms. As urban citizens, we should all have the right to cities that are healthy and safe and with productive urban environments that offer access to public spaces that inform citizens and allow participation in the decision-making process. The aspirations of the SDG 11, along with the policy advice and dialogue generated by APUF-6, are set in the harsh and challenging context of Asian urbanization. However, there are examples of actions, people and processes that give cause for hope and can be further recognized and built upon. For all of us living in Asian cities, there is a duty to become involved — to build safe, inclusive and accountable futures for everyone. This article is originally posted on http://www.thejakartapost.com.

By: Dr. Prof. Do Hau, VUPDA, Tho Nguyen & Thanh Ngo, ISET-Vietnam Originally posted by UCR-CoP Above: An Van Duong New Urban Area, Thua Thien Hue Province In the wake of tremendous losses from abnormal natural disasters recently, cities and provinces in Vietnam—coastal, river delta, mountainous and highland alike—are more and more acutely aware of the growing threats from climate change. However, city planners, academics, and urban policy makers still have limited recognition of climate change resilience approach in urban development. This is a dominant story line highlighted by the work of the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) and many other climate change resilience projects in Vietnamese cities during recent years. City planning and development practices are shown to typically lack the climate resilience lens. At both the national and local level, the linkages between flooding, sea level rise and urban development are only beginning to come into focus. Under the Vietnam national engagement project of ACCCRN, the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET) in Vietnam and the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association (VUPDA) are working with various partners across the country in an effort to address this gap. The idea is to accelerate and sustain the development of knowledge and capacity of urban professionals in urban climate change resilience (UCCR) through developing and delivering training modules that incorporate these currently quite separated realms of knowledge. By the end of June 2015, the project had: Assessed training needs, professional resources and experience in UCCR in Vietnam. The survey helped identify any university faculty with research or teaching experience in this field, and any professional experience or case materials that could serve as the foundation for designing a training course for urban planners and architects on this topic. Completed four city case studies for classroom application with accompanied classroom activity plans, developed a curriculum of 10 lectures and accompanied classroom activity plans, and organized a series of 4-day training courses in 06 cities of Vietnam, with lectures and classroom activities delivered/facilitated by experts who developed of the above-mentioned lectures and case studies. For all of the six training courses, the numbers of course participants were higher than expected because of high demand, especially from provincial government departments. Revised and improved the lecture modules after each of the training courses based on feedback from course participants. The current set of training materials and case studies can be found here. Provided course materials, reference documents and case studies to the university partners (Hanoi Architecture University, Hanoi University of Construction, Ho Chi Minh City Architecture University, Mien Tay Construction University, Da Nang Architecture University, Central University of Construction, Yersin Da Lat University) to use in their courses. All of the universities expressed interest in incorporating portions of the training materials in their undergraduate curriculum on Architecture, Urban Management and Urban Construction, either as a compulsory/optional subject, or a thematic portion in their current curriculum. Above: Review workshop in Ho Chi Minh City on 05 June 2015 Organized a review workshop on June 05, 2015, which representatives from the Ministry of Construction (MOC), Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) and universities attended and contributed valuable recommendations for next steps. The representatives all showed high appreciation of the project effort in generating quality training contents relevant to the current needs in building capacity for urban professionals in UCCR. The training program developed was evaluated as providing a good foundation for a university training curriculum for the planning and architecture majors. Universities shared that they have incorporated several lectures from the project into their current curriculum. The MOET is requesting universities to review their programs to incorporate disaster management and disaster risk reduction into their curriculum to various extents. However, to consistently integrate the materials into the universities’ program, the training materials should be developed into a full program of about 30 class sessions, which will allow the universities to better consider the adoption of the materials, while following MOET’s guidelines. The materials should also include contents on the impacts of climate change on technical infrastructure systems such as power supply, water supply, communication, and drainage, as well as guidance on resilience measures. To follow up with these efforts, the course organizers are developing the course materials into a Vietnamese language textbook aimed at senior level university courses in architecture and urban planning. This is an important step before the materials can be considered by MOC and MOET and become a standardized requirement in professional education courses on urban planning and architecture across the country, making UCCR capacities a norm for the future generations of professionals who will design and build our cities. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Tăng cường sự liên kết của địa hạt ‘đô thị’ và ‘khí hậu’: Đào tạo về Chống chịu với Biến đổi Khí hậu ở Đô thị cho các cán bộ chuyên môn ở Việt Nam Trước những thiệt hại to lớn của các hiện tượng thiên tai bất thường trong thời gian qua, các tỉnh và thành phố của Việt Nam, dù là những địa phương duyên hải, đồng bằng châu thổ hay đồi núi và cao nguyên, đang ngày càng nhận thức sâu sắc hơn về những hiểm nguy từ BĐKH. Tuy nhiên, các nhà quy hoạch, nghiên cứu và xây dựng chính sách ở các đô thị này vẫn chưa hiểu biết một cách thấu đáo về các giải pháp ứng phó với BĐKH trong quá trình phát triển đô thị. Vấn đề này đang trở nên rõ nét hơn qua kết quả của các dự án thuộc chương trình Mạng lưới các Thành phố Châu Á có Khả năng Chống chịu với BĐKH (ACCCRN) cũng như nhiều dự án khác về BĐKH được thực hiện tại các thành phố của Việt Nam trong những năm qua. Công tác quy hoạch và phát triển của các thành phố thường chưa cho thấy quan điểm rõ ràng về khả năng chống chịu với BĐKH. Ở cả cấp quốc gia và địa phương, mối liên hệ giữa lũ lụt, nước biển dâng và phát triển đô thị mới đang bắt đầu hiện ra rõ nét hơn. Trong khuôn khổ dự án thuộc chương trình ACCCRN tại Việt Nam, Viện Chuyển đổi Môi trường và Xã hội (ISET) và Hội Quy hoạch và Phát triển Đô thị (VUPDA) đang phối hợp với nhiều đối tác tại Việt Nam nhằm cải thiện tình trạng này. Ý tưởng của dự án là thúc đẩy và tạo tính bền vững cho quá trình xây dựng kiến thức, năng lực về công tác quy hoạch phát triển đô thị chống chịu với BĐKH cho đội ngũ các nhà chuyên môn công tác trong lĩnh vực đô thị thông qua việc xây dựng nội dung, tổ chức đào tạo, qua đó giúp tạo mối liên kết giữa hai địa hạt kiến thức hiện còn khá tách biệt này. Tính đến thời điểm cuối tháng 6 năm 2015, dự án đã: Thực hiện đánh giá nhu cầu đào tạo, nguồn lực và kinh nghiệm chuyên môn về lĩnh vực Chống chịu với BĐKH ở Đô thị tại Việt Nam. Nghiên cứu này giúp tìm ra được các trường đại học đã có kinh nghiệm nghiên cứu và giảng dạy về lĩnh vực này, và các kinh nghiệm chuyên môn hoặc tài liệu đã có, có thể sử dụng làm nghiên cứu điển hình, tạo cơ sở cho việc thiết kế một bộ tài liệu đào tạo cho các kiến trúc sư và nhà quy hoạch đô thị về chủ đề chống chịu với BĐKH. Hoàn thành xây dựng bốn nghiên cứu điển hình để áp dụng trong nội dung giảng dạy cùng đề cương về các bài tập liên quan trên lớp, xây dựng một chương trình đào tạo gồm 10 bài giảng với các bài tập và hoạt động đi kèm, và tổ chức một loạt khóa đào tạo 4 ngày tại 06 thành phố trên cả nước. Các bài giảng và nội dung hoạt động trên lớp đều do các chuyên gia đã tham gia xây dựng bài giảng và nghiên cứu điển hình nói trên thực hiện. Trong cả sáu khóa đào tạo này, số lượng cán bộ tham dự đều cao hơn dự kiến, cho thấy nhu cầu đào tạo là rất lớn, đặc biệt là đối với cán bộ các sở ngành ở địa phương. Rà soát và cải thiện chất lượng các bài giảng sau mỗi khóa đào tạo dựa vào ý kiến đóng góp của học viên. Bộ tài liệu đào tạo và các trường hợp nghiên cứu có thể tải về theo đường link ở đây. Cung cấp tài liệu các khóa đào tạo, tài liệu đọc thêm và các nghiên cứu điển hình cho các trường đại học đối tác (Đại học Kiến trúc Hà Nội, Đại học Xây dựng Hà Nội, Đại học Kiến trúc thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, Đại học Xây dựng Miền Tây, Học Kiến trúc Đà Nẵng, Đại học Xây dựng Miền Trung, và Đại học Yersin Đà Lạt) để sử dụng trong chương trình giảng dạy. Tất cả các trường đại học tham gia đều bày tỏ sự quan tâm trong việc sử dụng nội dung tài liệu trong chương trình đào tạo chuyên ngành quy hoạch, Kiến trúc, Quản lý đô thị và Xây dựng đô thị, tùy theo điều kiện áp dụng của từng trường, có thể là môn học băt buộc hoặc tự chọn hoặc các chuyên đề. Tổ chức một hội thảo tổng kết hoạt động đào tạo vào ngày 5/6/2015, với sự tham gia của đại diện Bộ Xây dựng, Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo và các trường Đại học. Hội thảo đã nhận được những ý kiến đóng góp rất giá trị về các bước tiếp theo: Các đại biểu đều đánh giá cao nỗ lực của dự án trong việc xây dựng các nội dung đào tạo có chất lượng, phù hợp với nhu cầu hiện tại về xây dựng năng lực cho đội ngũ chuyên môn về đô thị trong lĩnh vực chống chịu với BĐKH. Chương trình đào tạo được đánh giá là đã tạo cơ sở tốt cho việc xây dựng giáo trình đào tạo về chuyên ngành quy hoạch và kiến trúc đô thị trong các trường đại học. Một số bài giảng đã được các trường lồng ghép vào một số môn học có liên quan. Hiện theo chủ trương của Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo, các trường cần rà soát lại chương trình đào tạo để đưa vào nội dung về phòng chống và giảm nhẹ thiên tai, phù hợp với từng trường về mức độ chuyên sâu và thời lượng. Tuy nhiên, để đưa các nội dung vào chương trình đào tạo, cần tiếp tục hoàn chỉnh tài liệu và xây dựng thành một giáo trình với thời lượng khoảng 30 tiết để các trường có cơ sở lựa chọn đưa vào chương trình đào tạo của mình, phù hợp với quy chế của Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo. Trong tài liệu cần làm rõ ảnh hưởng của BĐKH đến hệ thống hạ tầng kỹ thuật như cấp điện, cấp nước, thông tin liên lạc, thoát nước và các giải pháp tạo khả năng chống chịu với BĐKH. Để tiếp nối các nỗ lực này của dự án, đơn vị tổ chức đào tạo đang tiến hành phát triển các tài liệu đào tạo thành một bộ giáo trình bằng tiếng Việt dành cho các khóa đào tạo nâng cao trong lĩnh vực kiến trúc và quy hoạch đô thị. Đây là một bước đi quan trọng để các nội dung đào tạo được Bộ Xây dựng và Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo xem xét, hướng tới trở thành một yêu cầu chuẩn hóa trong công tác đào tạo chuyên môn về kiến trúc và quy hoạch đô thị trên cả nước, đưa kiến thức về chống chịu với BĐKH ở đô thị thành một phần không thể thiếu đối với đội ngũ chuyên môn các thế hệ kế tiếp, những người sẽ tiếp tục thiết kế và xây dựng các các đô thị của chúng ta trong tương lai.

On July 29th, 2015, Dr. Marcus Moench, Michelle Fox, and Christopher Moench presented the results the Resilience Narratives project at a luncheon hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation. The theme of the event was the collaboration of art and science to communicate concepts of resilience. Given the complexity and nuances of science, and the difficulty of communicating these subjects across cultural and disciplinary barriers, ISET-International recognized the need to communicate in a new way. While the Resilience Narratives project is firmly grounded in research and science, the results of the project are communicated in innovative, non-traditional formats. Some of the products produced include: Short documentaries that provide simple and clear examples of what resilience is and is not. These ≤4-minute long videos are designed to spur conversation and quickly illustrate different dimensions of resilience. Ceramic artwork creates a reflective space for people from all walks of life to ponder and imagine the hope we have for our future and what a resilient future can look like. Simple hands-on games provide an environment where experts and non-technical community members can interact and share their understanding, while building their collective knowledge of what resilience is and how it applies to their own city. In addition to creative communication products, the team has also developed a series of working papers and case studies. The first installment of this series is Beyond Resilience, which provides an accessible introduction to the concept of resilience. Through these multiple platforms and diverse range of mediums, the team is able to connect with, and bring together diverse groups of stakeholders—a component that is key to building resilience, regardless of the scale or location. The luncheon involved brief presentations, the screening of short documentaries, interactive art, and simple, hands-on games. The products presented were produced collaboratively by the presenters and their teammates Kanmani Venkateswaran, Rachel Norton, and Andrea Caspari with support from the Rockefeller Foundation. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is Resilience? The luncheon began with a brief presentation from Marcus Moench, Founder of ISET-International. He introduced the goal of the project, discussed the varying definitions of resilience by practitioners of disparate fields and why a new approach for communicating science through art is important. Marcus’ presentation presented the themes behind the commissioned artwork entitled, “A tale of two contrasting realities,” and how the imagery presented on each form provokes feelings of both fear and hope. His presentation discussed the 1000 1% solutions that are possible, and how these small-scale actions can aggregate to transform the fragile and unsustainable systems on which all of our lives depend. -------------------------------------- Beyond Resilience Presenter: Michelle F. Fox In Beyond Resilience, the authors seek to clarify what resilience is, and what it is not. In this publication they share an at-a-glance introduction to the concept of resilience and the factors that it results from. Our first goal is to generate a discussion that explores both the common meanings of resilience and the manner in which resilience terms can contribute to a much more profound understanding of complex system dynamics. Our second, but equally important goal is to prevent resilience from becoming a buzzword lemming that unwittingly follows sustainability (and a host of other terms) off the proverbial cliff into an abyss of meaninglessness. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using Games to Demystify Complexity Presenter: Michelle F. Fox The event engaged participants with a simple hands-on game called the Resilience Tumbling Blocks. This game breaks open concepts of uncertainty, resilience, core urban services, and encourages the audience to build their knowledge and understanding of the characteristics of resilience together. To learn more about this game, please see this blog. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using art to communicate resilience Presenter: Chris Moench Chris Moench’s work, “A Tale of Two Contrasting Realities” juxtaposes the hope and threat of our changing world. In his presentation, Chris shared the story of his journey as a material artist, and the collaboration with the Resilience Narratives team that inspired these works of art. This kinetic sculpture invites the viewer to gently turn the wheel, write notes of reflection, and place them inside the vessels. It’s this connection with the art that brings them to life. The video above brings you as close to the experience as possible with scrolling imagery and calming music to bring the viewer into a reflective space to consider the question of “what is the hope to you?” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Short documentaries These short, 4-minute documentaries were developed by the Resilience Narratives team as a way to open discussions on resilience. Each of the documentaries was produced as a way to illustrate one or multiple dimensions of resilience. Below are links and descriptions of the documentaries that were screened. Above: Beyond Resilience: It’s more than just flood mitigation Description: This documentary tells a story from Gorakhpur, India and how resilience building activities to increase the flood holding capacity of a city harnesses the force multiplier of social networks impacting the lives of nearly 18,000 people. Not only that, but the successful training and access to a 5-day weather forecast is offering improved farming yields and profits that farming families are reinvesting into their homes and children’s education. “Things will get better in the future,” says Karin, a model farmer who is participating with the Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group’s Farmer Field School. This documentary illustrates that building resilience isn’t about fixing the problem, it’s about finding elegantly frugal solutions that have cascading benefits—improving overall conditions through a thousand 1% solutions.

The Pakistan heat wave is an unforgiving reminder of the threats and dangers of rising temperatures. During our research in Pakistan through the Sheltering From a Gathering Storm project, we found that these types of heat impacts are likely to increase with climate change and urbanization. Below is a list of materials that speak to the challenges and potential solution spaces for building resilience to heat. Highlighted ISET-International resources on heat impacts Resource 1: Projecting the Likely Rise of Future Heat Impacts Under Climate Change for Selected Urban Locations in South and Southeast Asia An excerpt from the discussion paper: “While heat is already an issue for the large fraction of the poor population that suffers from a lack of appropriate shelter and access to basic water and energy, the rapid rise in heat is likely to become an inescapable challenge. As the average daily heat-index reaches human body temperature, lack of cooling will significantly impact economic productivity and pose severely heightened health risks. Although South Asian populations have learned to cope with episodes of heat, future heat events will become relentless as the number of days of excessive heat increases and gaps between heat episodes shrink or even disappear. Overall, the heat-season will start earlier in the year and last longer into the fall. Both daily and nighttime temperature and heat will reach unprecedented levels that are difficult to escape without access to active cooling. Daily maxima in the late afternoon can possibly be partially ameliorated through construction of simple forms of shade and through the use of evaporative cooling. For rapidly increasing nighttime minimum temperatures, however, which previously provided natural relief, there is no obvious, simple adaptive measure. A form of active but clean, low-energy cooling will be necessary to help the large populations of urban, peri-urban and even rural poor cope with the coming changes without leading to counterproductive increases in greenhouse gas emissions.” Resource 2: Sheltering From a Gathering Storm: Temperature Resilience in Pakistan Excerpt from the report: “Melting ice and rising sea levels have been the hallmarks of climate change impacts as popularized by scientists and the media alike. Reduction of habitat for polar bears and loss of biodiversity and glaciers in colder areas have been causes of great concern. From this study, we see that increased humidity (coupled with raised minimum temperatures inside shelters) may threaten the livelihoods of millions of people who are under considerable stress from the economic impacts of heat. More research is needed to identify areas where such threats to human existence are imminent and may start exhibiting impact within the next 15 years. Climate change will seriously impact urban areas in Pakistan. Increases in the temperature minimums and heat index need greater attention. The T-min is the most important variable for shelter design. Heat impacts vary by gender and occupation. Temperature increases will make cities unaffordable for the poor. New T-min heat reduction measures are needed. Several passive technologies for heat reduction have been proven effective. Concrete is unsuitable for heat resilient housing. Greater awareness of heat reduction measures is needed. Heat is not the only problem affecting poor communities.” Resource 3: Dirty Canals. Scorching Sun. No Escape. An excerpt from the blog: “Men complained of the mosquitos that made it impossible to entertain or to even sit outside in the evening to enjoy whatever breeze there might be. One man went so far as to say that their conditions were worse than those of the dead in the graveyard. Women, who generally are very sheltered, are forced to wet their clothes and sit outside in order to get some relief.”—An account from research in Rehmanabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan Resource 4: Temperature Impacts on Health, Productivity, and Infrastructure in the Urban Setting, and Options for Adaptation Excerpt from the discussion paper: “Heat waves and warming temperatures pose a serious threat for human settlements worldwide, especially in urban environments. Research shows that increased temperatures, coupled with the urban heat island effect, can have a crippling effect on both biological and infrastructure systems. As the number of people living in cities continues to increase, so does the vulnerability of target groups susceptible to the impacts of heat. In an attempt to better understand the risks involved, the paper explores literature surrounding the implications of heat including morbidity, mortality, work productivity, and system failures. In addition, the paper highlights potential options for adaptation, which scale from the individual level to that of policy implementation, including the importance of managing impacts from a multi-stakeholder perspective.” Resource 5: Transforming Vulnerability: Shelter, Adaptation, and Climate Thresholds This peer review article by Marcus Moench will be published in Climate and Development later this year. Abstract: This paper synthesizes collaborative research results on the economics of alternative strategies for building resilience of housing systems in response to current conditions and projected changes in climate. Research undertaken in Vietnam, Gorakhpur, and Pakistan demonstrates cost effective solutions for reducing risk from flooding, extreme storm events and increases in daily temperature maxima. These solutions benefit poor and vulnerable groups by enabling adoption and enhancement of strategies implemented by more wealthy groups. They involve specific steps to alter and strengthen shelter system designs and demonstrate avenues for supporting existing patterns of autonomous adaptation that have large social and economic benefits. The solutions leverage private investment. Most strategies would be enhanced by urban resilience planning but have benefits even when planning is impossible. Addressing projected increases in daily temperature minima and the heat index more intractable. Multi-model projections for case areas suggest heat index increases of 5-7 °C, more than double projected temperature changes of 1-3 °C. These will have large impacts on health, especially manual laborers and groups, such as women, children and the elderly that are housebound without air-conditioning. Few cost-effective solutions exist and further research and innovation is needed.

ISET-International has developed a workshop titled “Using Games to Demystify Complexity”. Through games, we present otherwise complex and abstract concepts in a memorable and accessible way to engage stakeholders around issues relating to urban systems, climate change, and resilience. Topics include: the importance of social networks, and how they contribute to the resilience of an urban system; how social and legal institutions and/or norms can dramatically enable or constrain social behavior, or provide the catalyst for innovation and adaptive strategies; nine resilience characteristics to look for in systems, agents, and institutions; core urban services as a foundational component to building urban climate resilience; and working with uncertainty. This workshop is designed to leverage the value of games as creative, collaborative exercises. Games are a powerful way to engage audiences around complex issues because they are simple, fast, fun to play and encourage collaboration and learning. While these games are simple enough to be played with a non-technical community, they can also be used to help experts across a range of fields and practice areas come to a common understanding of and develop a shared vision for addressing complex problems as a team. The workshop is designed to facilitate conversation among participants. Brief presentations are given by the facilitators to help guide the conversation, but the intention of the games workshop is to bring out knowledge that is held already in the group. The workshop games include: Game 1: Sociogram As a way to understand who is in the room and get participants interacting with their peers, we began the session with a few simple questions including: Who is familiar with the term resilience and who is new to the concept? Who lives in a big city, little city or suburb, or rural area? Who works with marginalized vs population at large? Participants are asked to respond by lining up across a spectrum in the room. This encourages participants to talk with people around them to see where exactly they fit into the spectrum. The process of answering as an individual quickly becomes a collaborative process for the group. This simple exercise is a great warm-up for getting the group engaged and ready for the rest of the workshop. Game 2: Making the Invisible Visible Relationships are critical at every scale from local to international. Although invisible, these connections increase access to resources and knowledge. Strong, well connected networks are therefore a core element of resilience. In this game, participants are asked to introduce themselves by name and the city that they live in. Participants then go around the circle calling out someone’s name and city that they remember. If correct they toss a ball of yarn—holding on to the string so that a web is eventually created in the middle of the circle. Twice as many tosses are allowed as there are participants. Some people may be completely left out of the game, while others may have received tosses more than once. The facilitator then tosses a large beach ball onto the web as a metaphor for disruption. If the web is evenly distributed, and everyone is included, the ball should be able to stand on the web of string. This game offers an opportunity to talk about equity and access, and the need to include all portions of the population in resilience planning. If portions of the population are left out, the entire system becomes more vulnerable to disruption. Game 3: Constraining Rules and Regulations It is easy to stick to the things that we know and that we can see, touch, and feel, but invisible dynamics and institutions, such as policies or social and legal norms can have dramatic effects on human behavior. To illustrate this, we use a simple ball toss game where participants are numbered off 1–4. With each new round, the facilitator introduces a new rule to part of the group. This game illustrates how cultural and legal norms influence system behavior and how the ability to collaborate and innovate in a changing, constraining environment is critical in building resilience and developing adaptive strategies. Game 4: Resilience Tumbling Blocks The final game resembles a life size Hasboro JENGA set. Here we introduce three new concepts: uncertainty, core urban services, and characteristics of resilience. The tower of blocks become a metaphor for a city, with color coded and labeled blocks stacked with ecosystems and core urban systems at the bottom, and agents and institutions at the top. Characteristics of resilience are evenly distributed throughout the tower, and the goal of the game is to collect at least 7 characteristics of resilience before the tower comes tumbling down. Every other turn, players have to roll the “Dice of Disruption” and pull a block of the corresponding color that the dice falls on. Taking turns between players, the group is encouraged to build strategies, and if necessary help one another pull blocks from the tower. Each time a characteristic of resilience is pulled, the player reads out the characteristic and provides an example from their work, they can also let someone from the group respond. This game invites everyone to engage with resilience concepts, but it also facilitates a group discussion about what resilience is and is not and how we all think about these terms differently, and often with some bias to our own experiences or the context that we work.

By Kanmani Venkateswaran and Marcus Moench Photos by Michelle F. Fox The recent major earthquakes in Nepal and their devastating effects have sparked extensive international involvement and major fundraising initiatives. As disaster response and aid funds deplete in the coming months, it will become critical for Nepal to spend the remaining money in ways that maximize the recovery of the millions affected. A recent study conducted by ISET-International, ISET-Nepal, Practical Action Nepal and the Zurich Flood Resilience Programme on the 2014 Karnali floods indicates that the disaster management system in Nepal is weak. Recovery, in particular, is challenging as government-led recovery primarily focuses on physical infrastructure. People are left to recover on their own, often building back to more vulnerable and less resilient states due to economic loss and a lack of resources. While shelter is the most immediate need following the earthquake, most communities have already begun to identify drinking water, sanitation, micro irrigation, access to affordable energy and communications as bottlenecks to recovery. Recovery should not be merely about building back to a previous, vulnerable state. Rather, it should be about building back in a better, more resilient way. This is especially important given that Nepal is extremely disaster prone, owing to unstable geologies, rapid urbanization, political instability, weak governance, and widespread socioeconomic vulnerability. Despite this, Nepal does have important, existing capacities that can be leveraged for resilient recovery. These capacities include strong relationships within families and communities and the flow of remittances to fund local, distributed recovery efforts. Context Across the areas affected by the earthquake, shelter is the most urgent and pressing need. In many rural areas and small towns, construction prior to the earthquake was unreinforced masonry and brick. Much of this has collapsed leaving people with virtually no shelter for themselves, their livestock, and, critically, for the crops that are going to be harvested soon. Yet there is a false sense that “modern” building techniques—reinforced brick or concrete—are safe because many of those buildings survived. The survival of reinforced concrete columns and brick structures in Nepal was higher than is common in earthquakes of a similar magnitude, possibly due to the nature of the earthquake. The risk posed by current structures, and alternatives to those structures, need to be widely disseminated now, as decisions about reconstruction are being made. Although shelter is the most immediate need, shelter alone will do little to contribute to recovery over the longer term. The distribution of critical services across the Nepalese population is insufficient. The water and sanitation systems, in particular, are poor. In Kathmandu, rapid urbanization, government instability, and poor regulation have resulted in heavily polluted surface waters and subsequent over-extraction and contamination of groundwater. Prior to the earthquakes, municipal water supplies in Kathmandu were only able to provide 100–155 million liters of low-quality water/day to a population that requires 320 million liters of water/day (KUKL, 2010); the earthquakes have further stressed an already poor public water supply. Wealthier households, unlike poorer ones, are able to buy additional water from private sources. Increasingly, communities are banding together to diversify their water sources and access cleaner water through community pumps, wells, and rainwater harvesting systems. Above: A community-shared well in Patan, Lalitpur. In this sense, Nepal’s strength lies in its’ families and communities. Governance at this level is strong. At the community level, forestry, medium and micro hydropower, local land and water management, and some highly professional farmer cooperatives have been successful in providing critical services that the government is unable to provide. At the household level, families are close and the traditional joint family structure remains important in many communities. The resilience of these more local structures will determine the pace of long-term recovery. Consequently, these structures and capacities at the local level are entry points for resilience-building interventions. Above: Kids playing in Nagbahal in Patan, Lalitpur in one of the largest remaining community courtyards. Local capacity to build resilience can be greatly strengthened by increasing access to electricity, information and knowledge. Such access will help develop other forms of economic activity that could support households and communities in the long-term. Communications and information access in many areas has improved over the years, particularly along tourist routes, but that has yet to translate to learning opportunities at the scale needed. As a result, Nepal’s largest export is that of unskilled labor. Thousands of young men each year travel to the Gulf and South East Asian countries on low-paying five-year contracts leaving women as the backbone of the local agricultural economy and the primary caretakers for children and the elderly. While detailed data are unavailable, in general a far higher proportion of the remittances sent home by skilled laborers are used to support education and other productive forms of investment, in comparison to remittances sent home by unskilled migrants. People, mostly men, wait outside the passport office in Kathmandu to obtain passports so that they can migrate to other regions for work. The importance of remittances in Nepal cannot be overstated. Over 60% of families in Nepal now receive remittances from family members working abroad. At a national level, remittance income exceeds agricultural income, tourism earnings and international aid. And, remittances flow directly to families. It is likely that migration for work will increase in the aftermath of the earthquake. Given the limited national and international funding for recovery, remittances will be the primary resource available to most families for recovery. Leveraging this and enabling families to easily access and effectively use remittances for building resilient shelter and livelihood systems is probably the fastest, most effective route towards sustainable recovery and longer-term development. Focusing resilient recovery Existing capacities such as access to and use of remittances and the strength of local communities need to be harnessed to address critical gaps that will constrain the evolution of resilient social, economic, infrastructural and ecological systems in the aftermath of the earthquake: Shelter is the primary, essential, immediate need for communities in the earthquake affected areas; these shelters need to be earthquake and climate resilient. Distributed power (micro-grids, solar, wind, micro-hydro) is a critical catalyst for the development of low cost communication and financial systems, and thus for resilient development. Using distributed power generation, internet communications need to be developed to increase community connections with migrants and the remittances they send for recovery, transform community access to sources of information on resilient recovery, and contribute to the development of critical capacities that are of fundamental importance for Nepal to develop globally competitive livelihoods. Access to water and sanitation need to be increased to ensure household water security and safeguard public health. Rooftop rainwater harvesting in Kathmandu has seen great success and should be more widely incorporated into new shelter construction. If recovery interventions are to enable transformative changes towards a more resilient future, they need to be scalable, accessible, and distributed. The goal is not only to support the recovery of the millions of Nepalese impacted by the earthquakes, but to ensure that the Nepalese are able to thrive despite the threat of future shocks and disasters.

From 22-23 April 2015, the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) organized a soft launch event and first exchange visit in the city of Hat Yai, Thailand. The event was co-hosted by the Hat Yai City Municipality and ACCCRN Hat Yai working group. Participants, from different cities of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, gathered to learn from Hat Yai’s experience in building climate resilience for their city, and to share their own knowledge, perspective and experience, especially related to community-based capacity building and flood risk reduction. Above: Mr. Ky Quang Vinh – Director of Can Tho Climate Change Coordination Office (CCCO) sharing Can Tho’s experience at the workshop. Also attending the event were representatives from Binh Dinh and Da Nang CCCOs Hat Yai—a small coastal town in the southernmost Songkhla province of Thailand—is undergoing rapid urbanization and commercialization. Located on a low-lying floodplain area of the U-Tapao River basin, the city is suffering from regular floods events every year, and major flood events in approximately 12-year intervals. However, recently along with the urbanization process and the impacts of climate change, local communities in Hat Yai are seeing more frequent flashfloods, and severe flood events (such as those in 2009, 2010 and 2012) that cause major damages, especially the most vulnerable people such as the elderly, women, children and the physically challenged. In this context, a bold and effective measure was taken by the city government to reduce flood risks in the area. This is the construction of six flood diversion canals connected to the main streams of the U-Tapao River. Started in 2004 and finished in 2010, the canals allow floodwater to flow more quickly into the Songkhla Lake in the north and into the ocean, thereby significantly reduced flood risks in Hat Yai city. Above: Flood diversion canal number 1, looking over to Hat Yai city center The flood diversion channels, however, will not solve the flood problems completely. Living in a river floodplain area, communities here will always have to accept floods as part of their lives. Therefore, local communities have to organize themselves effectively to respond to floods. As part of this process, a City Working Group was established under ACCCRN, focused on strengthening capacity of governments and communities to reduce flood vulnerability, and in developing and implementing the city resilience strategy. With the facilitation of this working group, the ACCCRN program supported organization of flood evacuation centers in the most vulnerable communities, and implemented an early flood warning system in order to provide official flood warning information to the communities. This system includes real-time flood monitoring stations called CCTVs, which include staff gauges to monitor flood levels, and the website (www.hatyaicityclimate.org) where monitoring information are updated. Real-time images of CCTV staff gauge reading are displayed on the website as evidence. Two CCTV stations were installed along the main stream of the U-Tapao River. In addition, the project team collects meteohydrological data from monitoring stations and use these data to calculate flood respite periods. Timely provision of the information allows people time to protect their assets and evacuate to higher place before a flood arrives. Above: A staff gauge at Ton Lung Community The Hat Yai story was understood and shared by many other cities in Asia and around the world where the urban and economic development process is exacerbating existing disaster risks to the most vulnerable communities. To protect communities from these increasing risks, it will take more extensive and innovative measures, and opportunities for cities with similar problems to learn from one another like what the ACCCRN network has offered in this exchange visit are always highly valued. Hai Yai was one of the ten original cities of the ACCCRN program initiated by the Rockefeller Foundation in 2008, along with other cities in Thailand (Chiang Rai), Vietnam (Da Nang, Quy Nhon and Can Tho), Indonesia (Bandar Lampung and Semarang) and India (Gorakhpur, Indore and Surat). Originally posted on UCR-COP blog