ADPC in association with Viet Nam Disaster Management Authority (VNDMA) organized a technical consultative meeting to introduce the Urban Resilience to Climate Extremes in Southeast Asia (URCE) Program to key stakeholders in Viet Nam.
ADPC implements the Urban Resilience to Climate Extremes in Southeast Asia (URCE) program under the aegis of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). The main program goal is to build and strengthen resilience of urban systems and urban communities in deltaic and coastal areas to current and emerging climate extremes, disasters and emergencies.
Viet Nam is one country where the URCE program is been implemented. It is one of the countries which is most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Majority of cities and urban centers in Viet Nam are located along the coast or rivers. They are facing many challenges and highly vulnerable, due to climate induced natural hazards and rapid unplanned urbanization.
My Tho City (Tien Giang province) & Nam Dinh City (Nam Dinh Province) have been selected for the URCE program implementation in Viet Nam. These are two medium sized cities and have development potential due to their proximity to larger cities (Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi respectively). As both cities are rapidly developing in urban infrastructure and services, it is an opportunity to ensure that this development follows risk sensitive urban planning standards taking into account future development projections and climate risks. URCE program can make these cities prepare better and build resilience for the anticipated climate risks.
A technical consultative meeting was organized by ADPC and Viet Nam Disaster Management Authority (VNDMA) in hybrid mode (in person and online) on 12 November 2021 in Hanoi, Viet Nam. This is to introduce the Urban Resilience to Climate Extremes in Southeast Asia (URCE) program to city and provincial stakeholders in Nam Dinh (Nam Dinh province) & Mỹ Tho (Tien Giang province) cities and other stakeholders at national level in Viet Nam.
The meeting provided an overview about the URCE program to the key stakeholders. During the meeting, feedbacks were received from the stakeholders on what are the key issues existing on the urban climate resilience in the context of Viet Nam and in particular to the two target cities (My Tho & Nam Dinh) for future refinement of the URCE program outcomes and the work-plan. Key issues presented by the city authorities are:- Nam Dinh city is prone to disasters caused by typhoons, floods, heat waves and riverine erosion. These disasters result in huge socio-economic losses to the city with severe impacts to agriculture and infrastructure sectors. There are many aging/degraded infrastructure (buildings, drainage network, dyke system) in the city which is an unfavorable factor in responding to disasters. Improving the capacity of community responders and development of early warning systems in communities for responding to disasters are some of the Key needs of the city.
- My Tho city experiences flooding annually due to high tide in Spring in the months of September, October and November. There is a need to improve the capacity of the disaster response teams and communities in order to respond efficiently to different disaster types.
Dr. Doan Thi Tuyet Nga – Director, Department of Science, Technology and International Cooperation, Viet Nam Disaster Management Authority (VNDMA) – Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and Mr. Hans Guttman, Executive Director, ADPC were present in the meeting.
The consultative meeting was attended by 71 participants from different levels of the government, city representatives from the target two cities (My Tho City – Tien Giang province; Nam Dinh City – Nam Dinh Province), academic institutions, international organizations, the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Hanoi, Viet Nam and the URCE program team based in Bangkok & Hanoi.
