Created in conjunction with 100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation, Strategy Calls for storm resistant housing, refreshed green spaces, and improved disaster management capabilities

 Credit: Jimmy Tran/ Shutterstock.com

DA NANG, VIETNAM – On September 27, 2016, Da Nang unveiled Resilient Da Nang, a concrete strategic roadmap to promote urban resilience in Central Vietnam’s largest city.  Ho Chi Minh, Vice-Chairman of the Da Nang People’s Committee, alongside Cuong Dinh Quang, Da Nang’s Chief Resilience Officer and Lauren Sorkin, Regional Director, Asia Pacific for 100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation (100RC) led an event to discuss the strategy and its implementation with members of government, community groups and businesses at the Da Nang Administrative Center.  The strategy, a joint effort between Da Nang and 100RC, proposes 36 actions to build citywide resilience, including plans for storm resistant housing, micro-insurance to provide financial security in the face of natural disasters, the revitalization of community spaces, and strengthening Da Nang’s Disaster Management Center.

As a member of the 100RC Network, Da Nang has access to services, tools, and expertise from the 100RC Platform of Partners, comprised of leading private, public, academic, government, and NGO sector leaders, including SwissRe, Akzo Nobel, CSIRO, the World Bank and, the World Resources Institute. 100RC Platform Partners assist member cities with expertise and guidance to implement initiatives from Resilience Strategy efforts. The total current value of offerings from the 100RC Platform exceeds $200m (USD).

“This program and its holistic approach to resilience building is exactly what our city needs to survive and thrive in the face of adversity and to continue to grow stronger well into the future,” said Da Nang People’s Committee Chairman Huynh Duc Tho. “Resilience building helps citizens, communities and all of the systems within a city to better prepare for and recover from the shocks and stresses we may face. This includes catastrophes both natural and manmade as well as the slow-moving disasters that we face in the form of daily stresses put on our city and community. We consider this a comprehensive approach that can help us become a community and an urban system that can be resilient regardless of the challenges we face.”

Da Nang is a rapidly growing transportation, services, and tourism hub but faces challenges from natural disasters and rapid urbanization that this strategy seeks to address.  Typhoons have battered the city, and variable rainfall has caused both drought and flooding. The poor and near-poor households of the city face unstable employment and insufficient access to health care, education, housing, and other services. For years, the city has been developing innovative models to enhance resilience to climate change, including early flood warning systems and improved urban planning.  This strategy supports those efforts and expands them to include solutions for interrelated social and economic challenges.

Resilient Da Nang lays out four key visions in response to these challenges, each with tangible actions to strengthen the city and its communities:

• A Peaceful City: Da Nang will be a city free from fear and anxiety in places where residents live, work and recreate.  Key actions to support this vision include expanding loan support for the community to build storm-resistant housing; assessing the city’s storm vulnerability and piloting insurance programs for storm-resistant housing.
• A Dynamic City:  Da Nang will build a dynamic economy in partnership with people and business to meet the needs of a changing world. Key actions to support this vision include creating favorable conditions so children of industrial workers can attend school; creating distribution channels for organic products and revitalizing Da Nang’s open spaces.
• A Prepared City: Da Nang will have infrastructure systems which can recover quickly from, and be well prepared for the challenges of tomorrow.  Key actions in to support this vision include expanding floodwater drainage corridors and research on energy efficiency in buildings
• A Connected City: Da Nang will be a city where knowledge is driven by meaningful information sharing. Key actions to support this vision include strengthening the disaster management system and developing an inclusive communication system with diverse channels.

“This is an exciting time in the history of Da Nang’s development,” said Cuong Dinh Quang, Da Nang’s Chief Resilience Officer. “We have an opportunity to build on the momentum of Da Nang’s phenomenal growth but we must ensure that we are growing stronger and better so that what we’ve built can stand up to the future. This strategy includes projects that are not only comprehensive but inclusive to ensure every citizen has a place and a voice in our city.”

“These projects will also serve as a valuable best practice for the rest of the 100RC Net-work to emulate,” said Michael Berkowitz, President, 100 Resilient Cities. “As one of the cities selected in the first round of the 100 Resilient Cities Challenge- Da Nang has time and again been a pioneer in our global movement. We could not be more excited to showcase the work we have done in partnership with our colleagues there- and to watch as Da Nang helps to spread the urban resilience revolu¬tion to cities across Vietnam, the Asia-Pacific region, and the world”.

Resilient Da Nang was developed following a wide range of consultation meetings engaging different stakeholders, including the CRO’s office, local experts from key technical departments, mass organizations and communities. The strategy was also submitted to 100RC, the Da Nang Steering Committee and the Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee for review. Through this process, Da Nang built a consensus and appreciation for the city’s approach to resilience and prioritized actions and initiatives that will increase urban resilience.

100RC works with a network of 100 cities around the world to prepare for and bounce back from physical, social and economic challenges that increasingly impact our rapidly urbanizing world.

The full Resilient Da Nang strategy is available here: ccco.danang.gov.vn or http://www.100resilientcities.org/Da-Nang-Strategy

(Originally posted by 100 Resilient Cities)