MANILA, Philippines -- A meeting among international scientists and various sectors has been set to address issues on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
The Manila Observatory and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the Ateneo de Manila University are hosting the international scientific meeting entitled “Coastal Cities at Risk (CCaR): Building Adaptive Capacity for Managing Climate Change in Coastal Megacities†on February 7 to 11 at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City.
Scientists and international organizations such as the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and multilateral financial institutions have all noted the role of urbanization in increasing exposure, vulnerability and risk during disasters.
Recent trends in mortality and economic damage from urban disasters have proven that risk governance systems strongly linked only to political and administrative boundaries are failing to cope with the ecological connectedness of extreme rainfall, flooding and landslides.
Evidence-based land use and socio-economic planning were considered imperative for urban resilience and sustainability.
The CCaR is a five-year project funded as an International Research Initiative on Adaptation to Climate Change (IRIACC), through a collaboration of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
Principal Investigators of the project are Dr. Gordon McBean, incoming President of the International Council for Science (ICSU), and Dr. Anond Snidvongs, Executive Director of the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency of Thailand (GISTDA).
The Coastal Megacity Project Team Leaders are Deborah Harford (Vancouver), Dr. Wijitbusaba Ann Marome (Bangkok), Dr. Ibidun Adelekan (Lagos) and Antonia Yulo Loyzaga and Dr. Emma Porio (Manila).
Coastal Cities at Risk teams from Vancouver, Lagos, and Bangkok are meeting with climate scientists, urban disaster risk and sustainable development experts from Canada, the Philippines, United States, China, Japan and India to identify and understand the complex and dynamic relationships between hazards, vulnerability and exposure in coastal megacities confronting climate change.
Dr. Hassan Virji, Executive Director for Global Change of the System For Analysis and Training (START) and senior project adviser, will join the meeting in Manila.
Also Dr. Slobodan Simonovic, Professor and Research Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Western Ontario will be conducting a workshop on the system dynamics–based decision support tool for urban climate and disaster risk reduction.
Among those addressing the meeting are: H.E. Christopher Thornley, Ambassador of Canada; Presidential Adviser on Climate Change, Secretary Elisea Gozun; Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay; NAST President, Dr. William Padolina; Dr. Carrie Mithchell of IDRC and, Drs. Nessima Ahmad, Vinod Thomas and Yusuke Muraki of the Asian Development Bank.