ACTIVITY REPORT

First Tagum Training Workshop on Climate Resilient Urban Plans and Designs

23–24 October 2017, Tagum City

ACTIVITY REPORT

Official Project Title: Climate Resiliency in Urban Planning: Institutional Support to Philippine National Government Agencies

on Building Capacities of LGUs to Develop Climate Resilient Urban Plans and Designs

First Tagum Training Workshop on Climate Resilient Urban Plans and Designs23–24 October 2017, Hijo Resorts, Tagum City

contents

project background 4

city workshop overview 5

workshop proceedings 6

training evaluation 9

annex 12

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Building Climate Resiliency Through Urban Plans and Designs (BCRUPD) is a three-year German-govern-ment-funded project being implemented by the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) in partnership with the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) and other Philippine governmental agencies in five cities.

It aims to support the Philippine government in improving policies, regulations, and capacities to adapt to climate change through the promotion of climate-responsive sustainable urban development plans and designs. In support of existing national climate change frameworks and strategies, it aims to enhance national and subnational government representatives’ institutional capacities to guide and manage urban growth towards suitable areas and design the same incorporating resilience principles and practices.

The Philippines is extremely vulnerable to climate change, with as much as 70% of its cities located along the coast. Settlements in these areas are exposed to hydro-meteorological hazards exacerbated by climate change, such as sea level rise, stronger typhoons, and storm surges. Regular flooding in cities undermines infrastructure, disrupts economic activity, and impedes the delivery of basic services.

The Philippine Government estimates that nearly 60% of the country’s population will be living in urban areas in the next 20 years. This increases the vulnerability of the urban poor as well as new migrants who tend to live in informal settlements located in environmentally fragile and dangerous areas, and who are without resources to bounce back when disaster strikes. This necessitates development and spatial planning that effectively addresses climate change vulnerabilities specific to urban areas.

Nearly 60% of the country’s population will be living in urban areas in the next 20 years. This necessitates spatial and development planning that effectively addresses climate change vulnerabilities specific to urban areas.

The passage of the Climate Change Act (CCA) in 2009 and the development of the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) under the National Framework Strategy on Climate Change (NFSCC) have significantly advanced the agenda of climate resilience in the Philippines. Collectively, these instruments aim to build the adaptive capacity of communities to climate change, and envision healthy, safe, self-reliant communities with productive and sustainable ecosystems.

The CCA and the NCCAP mandate local government units (LGUs) as front-liners in dealing with climate change impact, through the formulation and implementation of sub-national climate change action plans that are integrated into spatial and development plans. National government partners have been brought together to implement programmes that enable LGUs to fulfill this their mandate.

The BCRUPD project will supplement existing urban planning guidelines and develop knowledge through policy inputs, capacity development, and demonstrations. Demonstration of innovative approaches in the five partner cities will showcase context-specific processes in building resilience while considering balanced economic and ecological sustainability.

The project is slated to provide various technical trainings and workshops that feed the development of holistic urban adaptation plans and the development of policy recommendations that can be championed by each local government unit (LGU). Investment forums can then be conducted wherein LGUs are famil-iarized with financing windows that can support and supplement their urban adaptation design and plans.

BCRUPD is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The German Federal Ministry for the Environ-ment, Nature Conservation, Building, and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.

Download the project brief here: https://bit.ly/2HhJLwH

As part of the project’s capacity development, the first in a series of training workshops on Climate Resilient Urban Planning and Design for Tagum City, one of the five partner cities, was held on 23–24 October 2017.

Tagum is the provincial capital of Davao Del Norte. It experiences climate change impacts such as flooding, sea level rise, and storm surge, and is considerably affected by rapid urbanisation brought by prolific infra-structure development and fast migration from adjacent and neighboring areas in the region.

The workshop was an opportunity for the participants, mostly from local government units, to acquire initial information on and an understanding of the specific profile and scoping of the city. The training presented the overview of the project, urban systems and vulnerabilities, and options for developing urban adaptation options.

Workshop participants provided their insights on their Local Climate Change Action Plan (LCCAP), (see Annex A: Programme). The workshop was attended by 25 participants, majority of whom were from the city’s municipal offices, with the rest from the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) regional office.

CITY WORKSHOP OVERVIEW

Download: Tagum City Profile

https://bit.ly/2HC7kQh

Activity Type: Training Workshop

Focus Theme: Climate Change in Urban Design

Lead Government Partners: Tagum City government and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory

Board Participants: 20 members from City Technical Working Group

DAY 1

The project overview was presented by Mr. Cris Rollo, Habitat Pro-gramme Manager at UN-Habitat Philippines. He underscored that proper planning was necessary to minimize the negative impacts of climate change and rapid urbanization in the Philippines, and ultimately enable the country to be resilient and adaptive enough to obtain minimal loss and damages. He touched on the project’s vision for climate-resilient, adaptive, and sustainable urban devel-opment through the promotion and implementation of appro-priate policy interventions and urban designs in order to address climate change vis-a-vis rapid urbanisation.

Mr. Yen Flores, BCRUPD Project Coordinator, UN-Habitat Philip-pines, discussed the programme design, familiarizing participants with the workshop activities. This was followed by the presenta-tion of the city’s LCCAP by Mr. Dave Alcantara of the City Mayor’s Office, highlighting its issues and challenges.

See Annex C: Technical Input for Dave Alcantara’s city pre-sentation on the Tagum City Local Climate Change Action Plan.

Technical input began with a presentation by Ms. Laids Mias-Cea, Regional Coordinator of the Cities and Climate Change Initiative, UN-Habitat on current and possible climate vulnerabilities that could be affecting the urban system. To facilitate a deeper comprehension and appreciation of the urban system, Mr. Thomas Stellmach, a consulting urban planner at UN-Habitat, introduced concepts and how urban systems can respond to the threats of climate change. He also introduced key considerations for urban development design options that can withstand climate change impacts and threats.

To apply these inputs, participants were divided into three groups and tasked with mapping out develop-ment trends and external issues related to climate change applicable to their city (see Annex D: Trends & Issues).

See Annex C: Technical Inputs for Addressing Climate Change in the Urban Systems presenta-tion by Laids Mias-Cea and the Urban Planning and Urban Resilience presentation by Thomas Stellmach.

UN-Habitat country head Cris Rollo opens the workshop with elaboration on the project’s vision for the city.

WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS

Day 1 Workshop Highlights:

• Based on the presentation provided by city representative Dave Alcantara, Tagum used the Climate and Disaster Risk Assessment (CDRA), which identified the following climate change threats: flood-ing, sea level rise, typhoon, storm surge, and drought. However, there was no identified affected population (exposed systems) in terms of sea level rise. Their Vulnerability and Adaptation Assess-ment (VAA) also cites the city as highly vulnerable to climate change.

• The city presentation further reported that Tagum drafted a 12-year LCCAP 2017–2029. Ensuing discussion and assessment saw the need for the LCCAP to revisit members of the technical working group (TWG) to enhance content validating the city’s CDRA findings as well as to include green-house gas (GHG) inventory. According to the participants, the LGU underwent orientation on GHG inventory facilitated by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and the Climate Change Commission (CCC).

• Mr. Alcantara clarified that as an initial action, the CDRA culled from the LCCAP would be stream-lined as part of enhancing and updating Tagum’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) and Com-prehensive Development Plan (CDP). This would be in parallel with the LGU’s current efforts to complete their Community Based Monitoring System (CBMS).

• Other urban issues brought up by participants included the absence of a shelter plan and sewer-age and drainage system plan. A city hydrologic assessment/map, however, has already been made.

• The first workshop exercise following the technical input on concepts familiarization was for the participants to subdivide into three groups and locate existing climate change impacts and devel-opmental trends on their city map with flags, legends, and other materials.

• The three groups identified common development trends such as subdivisions, major infrastruc-ture (flyover, coastal and bypass road), and a planned airport and seaport (see Annex D: Trends & Issues). The flyover is a nationally funded infrastructure project that has been given notice to proceed.

• Aside from development trends, the following climate change impacts were also mapped out: inundation of Hijo and Liboganon Rivers which results in flooding; drought; liquefaction; landslide; salt water intrusion; and urban heat. Impacts like sea level rise and storm surge were not mentioned during the mapping exercise, despite despite having been identified and included in Tagum’s CDRA.

• Other issues identified by participants during the exercise said to affect urban development and exacerbate climate change impacts were the presence of informal settlers, location of the mineral processing plant, siltation and setback, and parking.

“Climate adaptation doesn’t mean zero impact but rather significantly minimizing it to a point where you can continue to thrive.” — Laids Mias-Cea, Regional Coordinator of the Cities and Climate Change Initiative, UN-Habitat

“Climate-conscious urban plans aren’t about the good guys versus those who want to make money. We can do both.” — Thomas Stellmach, Urban Planner, UN-Habitat

DAY 2

On Day 2 BCRUPD Project Coordinator Reinero Flores gave a recap on the previous day’s technical input and exercises. Ms. Lara Togonon-De Castro, Urban Planner, UN-Habitat, introduced the enhanced LCCAP process which integrated GHG inventory to come up with mitigation options. During the workshop proper, the participants were asked to identify both ongoing and planned climate change projects in Tagum.

See Annex C: Technical Input for Lara Togonon-De Castro’s presentation on Enhancing the Local Climate Change Action Plan for Tagum City.

Day 2 Workshop Highlights:

• Climate change projects identified by participants included a potable water project, resettlement site, skyway, museum, solar projects, CDA preparation, parks, open space, evacuation centers, san-itary landfill, and rainwater collector. See Annex E: Climate Change Projects.

• After classifying climate change projects, participants were then tasked with developing an action plan to schedule follow-through activities, primarily revisiting their LCCAP and the conduct of a second workshop on 4–8 December 2017. See Annex F: Action Plan.

Observations

• The LCCAP team was not yet final and formalized, and needed revisiting. Other agencies and stakeholders should also be involved; this may include the academe, civil society organisations, and the private sector, who may then comprise the LCCAP technical working group supported by an amended resolution.

• Upon presenting the LCCAP, the CDRA/VAA should also be revalidated to further consider other cc impacts that might be affecting the city. For instance, during the workshop, urban heat was iden-tified as an impact but was not cited in their LCCAP. Despite being oriented in the GHG inventory processes, knowledge on conducting the GHG inventory remained insufficient, hence a coaching/mentoring session may be considered.

• Not all programmes and projects identified during the mapping exercise were could be considered climate change projects. There remains a strong business-as-usual approach to urban design and projects; and more work is needed to cultivate a better appreciation of adaptation designs, adap-tation costs, and even maladaptation.

TRAINING EVALUATION

TRAINING PROFILE:

TRAINING EVALUATION SUMMARY: The evaluation summary provided an account of participants’ views of various aspects of the training workshop on climate resilient urban planning and design namely: workshop proper, approach and methodology, venue and administration, and usefulness of the workshop, using a Likert scale format. All open-ended questions were analyzed using simple content analyses.

Training Title: Training Workshop on Climate Resilient Urban Planning and Design Training Type: Workshop Managing Office: UN-Habitat Philippines UN Habitat Training Team: Christopher Rollo, Country Programme Manager Laids Mias-Cea, Regional Coordinator Climate Change Initiative Asia Pacific Reinero Flores, Project Coordinator Lara Togonon-De Castro, Urban Planner Jesus Dominic Dizon, Training and Capacity Development Officer Erika Erro, Tagum City Coordinator Thomas Stellmach, Consultant, UN Habitat Philippines Date: 23-24 November 2017 Duration: 2 days Venue: Hijo Resorts, Tagum City No. of Participants: 18 No. of Respondents to the Questionnaire: 15

Figure 1. Workshop Proper Rating

Overall, the findings of the evaluation showed a satisfaction rating (93.4%) among the participants, on how the workshop was organized and conducted. The workshop provided an excellent opportunity to learn from the subject matter experts and fellow participants on urban planning and design. It helped in better understanding the development issues, challenges and opportunities that face the city in connection with climate change adaptation. The knowledge, information and the discussion acquired from the training workshop were relevant and useful to their work and functions. The participants found the mapping exercises very useful in identifying climate forces and trends that need to be considered in developing a sustainable and climate-resilient plan for their city. Climate adaptation projects were also mapped out. Also, the participants commended the resource persons’ knowledge and understanding of the topics presented. Resource persons used interactive and effective visual aids that are clear and easy to understand. Participation and interaction among the participants were also encouraged. Majority of the respondents, 87%, agreed that the length of the workshop in terms of the number of days, was just right. Although the time allotted for each session should be improved, in particular, the mapping exercise. On a similar note, forty-seven percent of the respondents considered the workshop intermediate while 33 percent viewed it as introductory course on urban planning and design and 20 percent regarded it as an advanced course.

Figure 2. Duration and Timing

Feedback on the venue and administration was generally positive. Participants were satisfied, 92%, on how the registration process was handled and organized and the quality of the meals that were served, 93%. The main concern in terms of arrangement was the long commute to the workshop venue as well as the sound system. Self-evaluation is an important component of the training evaluation. Seventy percent of the respondents attended all sessions while the remaining 30% attended most and half of the sessions due to conflicting activities and important meetings. Participants also shared the most useful learning gained from the training workshop. The responses were as follows:

• Introduction to key concepts (urban design, urban form, urban planning, urban systems) • Presentation on the Enhanced Guidelines on Local Climate Change Action Planning • Inputs on Urban Planning and Design

Additional topics which they found to be relevant to the next training workshop were the following:

• Regulations on Climate Change • Greenhouse Gas Inventory • Climate Change Adaptation Approaches • Green buildings

Overall, the participants found the workshop well-structured, rich in content, and useful for building the city’s resiliency to climate hazards.

Figure 3. Venue and Administration Rating

ANNEX

Click on the arrows to download the respective individual files.

Annex A: Programme Annex B: Attendance

Annex C: Presentations

Urban Planning And Urban Resilience

Tagum OverviewProject Overview Tagum Local Climate Change Action Plan

Addressing Climate Change In The Urban Systems

Annex D: Workshop Outputs

Enhancing the LCCAP of Tagum

Action Planning

Prepared by UN-Habitat Philippines - January 2018

This project is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building, and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) supports this initiative on the

basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.

For more information, email info@unhabitat.org.ph

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