Urban Climate Change Resilience Framework

increased with an average income of 500 kg of rice/person/year. The whole commune no longer has hungry households, the number of poor households is insignificant.

During the period 2006-2010, the commune planted 90.2 hectares of new forest, bringing the area to

Forestry land in 2010 increased to 367.59 hectares.

The commune has important road traffic routes such as National Highway 4E, railway, Hanoi - Lao Cai Expressway under planning... these are favorable conditions in terms of location for communication with outside areas. By mid-2014, Cam Duong had achieved 70% of schools and school sites meeting standards, 1 year ahead of schedule. Up to now, all 21 villages have cultural houses, including 1 Tay ethnic community cultural house built with socialized capital contributed by businesses and people.

Part of the commune is located in the mineral exploitation and processing area (apatite ore) of Vietnam Apatite One Member Co., Ltd., so during the rainy and stormy season every year, landslides and land subsidence often occur, affecting the agricultural production of the commune. In the commune, there are about 1,371 households with 4,797 people, divided into 21 villages, with 7 ethnic groups living together: Kinh, Giay, Nung, Dao, Tay..., (Kinh ethnic group accounts for 56%, Tay ethnic group accounts for 39%, other ethnic groups account for 5% of the population ). Average income per capita in 2014 was 14.8 million VND.

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2.2. Methodology and research methods

2.2.1. Methodology/approach

According to Tyler and Markus [2012], climate change occurs only when exposed to climate hazards. Climate change may differ for different climate hazards. Therefore, it is important to first identify which hazards are important in different locations in the province. Different terrains face different types of climate hazards. Coastal areas face sea level rise and coastal erosion. Mountainous areas face landslides. Climate change occurs when infrastructure fails to function properly, when ecosystems are degraded and can no longer provide valuable services, or when people and organizations lack the capacity to plan, respond, and act to address climate risks. Each local situation is different, but we can recognize climate change in the following types of situations.

(1) Infrastructure

TDBTT occurs when infrastructure systems – which provide shelter, drinking water, drainage, flood protection, transportation, electricity or communications – do not have sufficient capacity or strength to survive a particular climate event (e.g. flood/hurricane).

Housing is destroyed or damaged, roads are washed away, levees can collapse, power is cut off, and cell phone service is down. These are examples of climate-related TDBTT. Infrastructure TDBTT can be reduced through cost-effective design improvements and investments to increase flexibility, diversity, capacity, and resilience.

To assess the TDBTT of infrastructure, local infrastructure coordinators should consult with specific systems and their performance in the past and across climate thresholds. Which systems are most TDBTT? Which functions/components are down? What options could prevent or better manage failures with less impact on society?

(2) Ecosystems

Ecosystems provide a range of important services, including providing food, as well as water purification and buffering against extreme climate events. Examples of critical ecosystems include agricultural land, wetlands, forests and marine ecosystems. Ecosystems are vulnerable when they are vulnerable to damage and perform poorly during climate events. For example, a drought that causes the loss of wetlands or a wildfire that destroys an ecosystem shows that a wetland ecosystem is not resilient. Deforestation in upland areas can lead to increased runoff and flash flooding. Fragile ecosystems can result from over-harvesting, pollution and land degradation. When they become fragile, ecosystems can no longer support productivity and food supply, and they also no longer protect against the effects of extreme climate events. For example, when wetlands are filled in or drained, they no longer have the capacity to store water to cut floods, or the capacity to filter and clean polluted water. When mangroves are destroyed, they no longer protect low-lying coastal areas from erosion.

eroded during storms, and they no longer provide habitat for aquatic life. The ecological vulnerability of ecosystems can be reduced through conservation and restoration measures.

(3) People and organizations

People and organizations are considered vulnerable when they lack the ability to anticipate and prepare for extreme climate events, or when they cannot respond effectively when extreme climate events occur. Households are vulnerable when they lack the resources, such as land, knowledge, or money, to adequately prepare for the climate hazards to which they are exposed. For example, poor households are more vulnerable because they do not have enough money to invest in high-quality building materials for their homes, or they skip steps in construction to save money, such as not properly tying roofing materials to structural beams. They may not have a well for drinking water. Local government organizations are vulnerable when they do not have a good emergency plan, or when they lack rescue equipment and communications during a natural disaster. To reduce people's vulnerability, investment is needed in disaster risk reduction, planning, and improving livelihoods and economic opportunities.

(4) Institutions

DBTT also arises from barriers that prevent households, businesses, and other organizations from taking action to respond to climate risks. For example, without information about increasing flood risks, households may build new homes in low-lying areas and not know how to cope with floods. Without access to clean water, households may be forced to rely on contaminated surface water during a flood, leading to illness and economic losses and hindering recovery. Households that migrate without registration may not receive services such as education and health, putting them at a disadvantage in preparing for or responding to storms. Government services or emergency responses are ineffective due to lack of coordination across levels and agencies. To reduce the risk of barriers to adaptation, it is important that local governments provide services, information, and benefits equally to all who need them, with coordination mechanisms.

Or we can understand:

Vulnerability is the sum of the level of impact of climate change on systems and individuals, organizations, social groups and their adaptive capacity.

This study applies the “vulnerability analysis” method of CARE International. The study conducts a combined top-down and bottom-up assessment of TDBTT, assessing both the city level and detailed assessments at the ward, commune and community levels. The socio-economic and environmental development planning policies of the province and the urban planning of Lao Cai city are considered in the process of assessing the adaptive/resilient capacity of the system and groups affected by DBTT. At the same time, the DBTT assessment is also carried out at the community level, selecting 01 semi-urban commune of Lao Cai city.

2.2.2. Urban resilience to climate change

Resilience is the ability of a system to withstand shocks or stresses and maintain or quickly recover its function. It includes the following capabilities [Tyler and Markus, 2012]:

AGENT

Urban climate change resilience framework

Figure 2.5. Urban climate change resilience framework

Source: Tyler and Markus, 2012

According to the resilience framework, a city's resilience to climate change is reflected in the resilience of three systems: (1) Infrastructure; (2) People and organizations, and (3) institutions. Specifically:

(1) System:

Urban systems include the elements and relationships between infrastructure and ecosystems. Cities require a high level of infrastructure to deliver critical services. On a global scale, cities are connected through international trade and investment patterns, which have a direct impact on local jobs and livelihoods as well as on supply chains from pharmaceuticals to staple foods.

The infrastructure systems that underlie the supply and exchange networks of a city’s population are therefore an essential component of urban resilience. They include infrastructure systems and ecosystems, both within, adjacent to, and far from the city, that provide critical services such as food production, drainage management, and flood control. While local managers may have limited influence over what lies beyond their city limits, their systems can be strongly influenced by factors at multiple scales and at great distances. The distribution of electricity to a city depends on the capacity of its reservoirs, its generation, and its grid. Crop failures on the other side of the world can impact the local availability and price of commercial food items.

The ability of systems to function is a “critical” basis for urban functioning. Their failure threatens human life throughout the affected area, and prevents further economic activity until functioning is restored. These systems include water and food supplies, and the ecosystems that support them, as well as energy, transportation, shelter, and communications. In assessing the potential for failure of these systems under the stress of climate change, it is crucial to recognize the interdependencies within a complex and interconnected system.

is of utmost importance, because failure in one system can lead to the collapse of all related systems [Kirshen, Ruth & Anderson, 2008].

Resilient systems differ from a robust systems engineering approach that relies heavily on hard protection architectures (e.g. seawalls) or systems designed in a way that emphasizes the ability of individual components to ensure specified operations. Resilient systems, in contrast, ensure that operations are retained and can be rapidly restored through interconnections between systems rather than failures or interruptions in operations. Rather than relying on the capabilities of individual components, resilient systems retain their ability to operate through flexibility and reliance on operational diversity.

Complex engineering and ecological studies have shown that the properties that contribute to system function and performance include:

- Flexibility and diversity: The ability to perform important tasks under a wide range of conditions, and the ability to transform materials or adapt structures to introduce new ways of doing the same things.

- Redundancy and modularity: reserve capacity for emergency situations, to support increased pressure or very high demand;

- Safe failure: the ability to absorb sudden shocks (including those exceeding design thresholds) or the gradual accumulation of pressure impacts in such a way as to avoid complete failure when a failure occurs.

(2) People and organizations:

People, organizations in the urban system, are the second important system/element in the urban climate change resilience framework. People here include individuals such as farmers, consumers ; households; consumption units, social reproduction, capital accumulation, education, etc.; and organizations in the private and public sectors (Government departments or ministries, private companies, civil society organizations).

This human and organizational factor depends on the urban system and service needs.

but are not actively involved in the creation, management or operation of these systems. Other factors are directly concerned with the management of important urban systems. Resilience is not a uniform characteristic of urban populations. It depends largely on the different social capacities of different groups and individuals. Wealth, gender, ethnicity and age have all been documented as contributing to differences in urban social vulnerability to climate events, through characteristics such as housing quality, location and access to services or social networks.

For individuals and households, capabilities can be viewed primarily as assets, the reserves that individuals and social groups can call upon to achieve the satisfaction of their preferred living conditions. Even the very poor have assets such as knowledge or social connections. These are the basis for an actor’s capacity to act. For the components of the actor, differences in vulnerability to climate change are closely linked to differences in asset profiles. Losses caused by climate change typically erode asset profiles and make these groups poorer.

However, the adaptive capacity of other social institutions is also important for resilience. The role of local government and community organizations is crucial here, as these are the main sources of organization and transfer to the planning process, the main prevention and response services.

The capacity of individuals and organizations to learn is an important aspect of approaches to resilience across a range of sectors. Learning involves not only the facilitation and sharing of knowledge but also the identification of community groups that need support based on their experiences and contributions to community resilience in the event of a disaster.

Individuals, communities and organizations need to have the following capabilities to recover and be resilient in mitigating risks caused by climate change:

 Reactivity: The ability to organize and reorganize in an unfavorable situation; the ability to identify problems, predict, plan and prepare

prepare for unexpected events or organize for risks and respond quickly to the consequences of risks.

 Resource acumen: the ability to mobilize resources and assets from multiple sources to carry out actions. This also includes access to finance and other assets, including those of other individuals, communities and organizations through collaboration.

 Learning capacity: the ability to learn from past experiences, avoid repeating failures and improve to enhance performance, as well as in learning new skills.

(3) Institutions

Institutions in social science refer to the social rules or conventions that structure human behavior and exchanges in social and economic interactions. Institutions can be formal or informal, explicit or implicit, and are established to reduce ambiguity, to maintain the continuity of social rules and social order, and to stabilize the pattern of human interactions in a predictable manner [Tyler and Markus, 2012 citing other authors].

Institutions that enable or constrain individuals to organize or participate in decision-making (i.e., those who are considered legitimate “stakeholders”) determine whose interests are considered in political decision-making. Institutions can enable and support, or limit and prohibit, the ability of vulnerable urban groups to be vulnerable. The governance process (i.e., the decision-making process) is an important factor influencing resilience. Decision-making processes that focus on building the resilience of vulnerable groups will contribute to improving the resilience of the city.

Drawing from research on economic behavior, collective action, and decision-making, the key aspects of institutional arrangements and systems that should be considered in assessing whether they enhance or limit resilience are listed below:

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