Climate Sense

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daptation

and

itigation

trategies

cal assessments to assist in developing effective data and information

management, analysis, and sharing.

Meeting climate variability challenges

The challenges to integrating DRR, especially longer-term DRR,

with public policy and planning are immense. In the near-term,

interannual fluctuations (like ENSO) complicate matters. In the

longer-term, uncertainties compound, making characterization

of intertwined multi-sectoral human-environment systems more

difficult. Consequently, the assessment and communication of

risk are more difficult, too. However, we can and must draw

on the results of work done in the context of DRR to integrate

climate and weather information into decision making, to build

human relationships and strengthen information networks, to

conceptualize risk holistically and contextually, and to link

research, technology and practice in service of human sustain-

ability. Taking these steps helps decision makers, communities,

and individuals produce and access relevant data and analyses,

and will help them see hazards, weather and climate as part of the

everyday context rather than the extraordinary. The same steps

will help increase available options and choices for mitigation

and adaptation at multiple scales.

The DRR challenges presented by climate change and variability

cannot be met by individuals or even organizations working alone.

Understanding this, PDC has taken action to find ways to facilitate

teamwork at the highest level.

In 2008, PDC organized an Expert Working Group Meeting on

Climate Change and Variability: Shifting Risks, hosted by the East-

West Center. Three Nobel laureates and many highly respected

urban planners, disaster managers and researchers from various

disciplines convened to discuss gaps in knowledge and practice,

and identify areas of potential progress and partnership. A year

later, PDC is collaborating with Nobel Laureate Dr Nguyen Huu

Ninh to establish an International Program on Climate Change and

Variability Risk Reduction (IP-CVR).

The IP-CVR includes an international advisory panel to guide

its direction and establish a framework of activities; an expert

network representing private and public organizations that will

exchange information, develop networks, and engage in coop-

erative projects and applied research; and a ‘Collaboratorium’

– a forum and knowledge base on climate variability. The

Collaboratorium, which has already been prototyped, provides

a web-enabled space for sharing data and information sources,

research, project and programme ideas, and practical applica-

tions. The goal is to synchronize efforts and create synergies

between widely different approaches to the applied science of

climate variability and DRR – resulting in more effective practices

and policies.

One IP-CVR pilot project is a risk and vulnerability assessment

of Ho Chi Minh City, in which PDC and Dr Nguyen Huu Ninh will

engage programme partners. It will integrate analyses of sea-level

rise and coastal flooding, ENSO-related variability in precipitation

and riverine flooding, as well as the area’s vulnerability and capac-

ity, including social, economic, and environmental measures. The

project results will provide vital information for urban planning and

development processes.

Other current and near-future PDC projects will also increase

both IP-CVR engagement and the programme’s knowledge-based

strength.

Making connections

Climate change and variability cannot reasonably be

ignored in any discussion of how individuals, communi-

ties or organizations can reduce future losses. However,

that does not mean it is necessary to completely

reconfigure established thinking or abandon familiar

activities. We can build on structures and activities

developed under existing DRR initiatives.

Risk reduction and research activities associated with

climate change and variability should not be considered

as somehow separate from DRR, but as a key compo-

nent of both near-term and longer-term approaches to

disaster risk reduction and human security. Near-term

activities affect longer-term options.

Increased connectivity – through globalization

and the communication technologies that underpin

it – works to shift and magnify the risks and impacts

of hazards. However, those underlying connections

present opportunities as well. The central operational

mechanism of the IP-CVR is connectivity. It builds

on PDC’s experience in developing relationships and

technology to facilitate access to hazard and risk related

information. The Collaboratorium raises connectivity

to a new level by taking advantage of social networking

technology to facilitate both relationship building and

information sharing.

By building open human networks, focused on the

applied science of climate change and variability, the

IP-CVR:

• Encourages a comprehensive conceptualization of

risk

• Advances applied science and practice in climate

and risk reduction

• Eases mutual access among people working on any

given issue from multiple disciplines

• Facilitates thinking and acting outside the box

• Helps identify common goals

• Streamlines activities, and reduces duplication and

funding competition

• Enables access to local knowledge

and observations

• Has potential to improve data collection

• Increases the reach of individuals and organizations

and the distribution of information

• Builds human and technology networks that can be

activated during an extreme event.

The IP-CVR components all aim to facilitate network

building and information sharing as ways to foster adap-

tation, increasing flexibility and responsiveness while

developing a common knowledgebase. IP-CVR will

support development, for all its participants and constit-

uents, of the capacity to deal with change, improve the

range of options to leverage and promote actions to influ-

ence policy. In the context of trusted experience and in

conjunction with the entire International Program on

Climate Change and Variability Risk Reduction, the

common knowledge base is central to the development

of a new kind of common sense: real climate sense.