The Asia-Pacific Resilience Prospectus

The 100 resilient cities (100RC) is an initiative pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation to help cities in Asia Pacific work towards urban resilience.

Through the 100RC, a global network of institutions both private and public and across sectors such as buildings, economy, education, environment, emergency and disaster management, information and technology, urban planning and development, and climate change advocates come together to provide service and expertise to assist and support cities in Asia Pacific achieve urban resilience.

Why Asia Pacific?

The regions rapid population growth and development brings in challenges and opportunities. The Asia Pacific is home to seven out of 10 most populous city is in the region, carrying 55% of the world’s urban population.

Climate change, aging infrastructure, extreme weather, climate change and persistent heat, sanitation, water management, congestion and lack of open spaces, mass migration are among the problems the region is facing, challenges that will take its toll eventually.

The Rockefeller Foundation has leveraged more than $655 million for this project from national, philanthropic and private sources, US $230 million worth of pro-bono services has been pledged by partners of the 100RC, and 36 citywide resilience strategies have been released to implement the resilience initiatives of the 100RC.

Roadmap to Resilience

Resilience building happens when cities respond to their challenges and problems. It can be done through collaboration with various sectors and partners that would result in finding solutions that would provide multiple benefits according to the 100RC initiative.

An example of responding to a city’s problem that brings multiple benefits is the following case in Jakarta Indonesia. In Jakarta only about half of the city residents have access to clean water, just 4% have access to sewerage system meaning that some city residents still practice open defecation. 74% of the city households rely on ground or river water which is frequently polluted. To improve the sewerage system, the city plans to build a wastewater master plan that will provide piped sewerage system by 2022.

A development in wastewater technology will allow small odourless wastewater and recycled water treatment plants to be integrated into the dense urban systems.  This wastewater recycling technology can deliver multiple benefits like improved sanitation, access to clean reusable water, and can reduce health costs, improve sanitation infrastructure, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Cities in the 100RC networks are provided with the resources needed to develop resilience through the following ‘4 main pathways’:

• First, financial and logistical guidance to establish a Chief Resilience Officer, a new position in city government.
• Second, expert support in developing a resilience strategy.
• Third, access to the solution, service providers, and partners of the foundation to help cities implement their resilience strategies, and fourth, memberships of a global network of member cities can learn and help each other to attain their resilience goals and projects.

The prospectus highlights sample projects in infrastructure, community and catalytic, and studies and planning in some Asian cities and that opens up opportunities for investments and involvement.

For example, Bangkok needs comprehensive flood management. The city is working with Deltares, an independent institute for applied research in the field of water, subsurface and infrastructure. Deltares also support cities to develop climate adaptation strategies by selecting the most suitable adaptation measures.  Deltares has developed a roadmap for completing the study and developing an integrated water master plan the first of its kind in Bangkok. The Dutch government has agreed to fund 30 per cent of the cost.

Jakarta, Indonesia’s significant population growth in its metropolitan area creates a mobility problem. To do this the city needs to scale up its bus network and transition to the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

In Melbourne, Australia they are developing a metropolitan urban forest strategy in conjunction with the urban forest in the city. This will open for more urban greening projects such as urban cooling and flood mitigation. They are looking for investment partners to implement the urban forest strategy.

The city is also developing the Metropolitan Cycling Network, a bicycle network and infrastructure around the city that would improve the resident’s quality of life. To achieve this the city is seeking technical expertise to design and implement cycling strategies to help the city build a business case for continued funding.

Sample projects on community and catalytic highlights the shortage of community and open space in Da Nang, Vietnam due to lack of investment in open spaces. While several open spaces have become dumping sites. To remedy the problem, the Climate Change Coordination Office with support from the 100RC conducted a design competition to transform a vacant area filled with debris into a park for the surrounding community.

There are more sample projects highlighted in the prospectus showing the problems and challenges and faced by some cities, what the cities are doing about it in terms of solutions and strategies to implement and the opportunities available to get involved.

100 Resilient Cities concluded on July 31, 2019, after six years of supporting urban resilience in the Asia Pacific region. However, the Rockefeller foundation committed $8 million to support the work of the Chief Resilience Officers and member cities of the 100R (100 Resilient Cities, 2020).

Read the entire prospectus by clicking on the button below:

Sources:

The Asia Pacific Resilience Prospectus. (n.d.) 100 Resilient Cities. Retrieved from https://100rc.app.box.com/s/c2rds2ei9nj9r221arjrjxfe83myhynq

100 Resilient Cities (2020). Retrieved from http://www.100resilientcities.org/