East Asian urban resilience project

(13-04-2011)

Recently Witteveen+Bos Indonesia started phase 1 of the project for the World Bank to increase the resilience of Asian urban areas against climate change and natural disasters.

The project will first analyse in detail the impacts of disasters, the factors determining the vulnerability of hazard-prone economies, the opportunities for improving the management of risk and the hindrances to the adoption of such measures. This builds a better understanding of the wider economic and financial impacts of natural disasters and climate change. Hazard modelling for meteorological events and impacts of climate change are part of the works.

Subsequently the results from the analysis will be combined with satellite imagery and other geospatial data to prepare a database. The database can be used in an interactive way to support the urban planning process and support the decision making for urban (infrastructure) investments. A more sustainable urban planning and an increase of the resilience of urban development activities at city level will be the ultimate goal.

The project focus is on the urban areas of Jakarta (Indonesia) and Can Tho (Vietnam). The project will be completed in joint collaboration with Royal Haskoning and HKV, both Dutch consultants.