Building Capacity for Climate Adaptation

August 25, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Mānoa Campus, East-West Center Research Program, Burns Hall, Room 3012

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Building Capacity for Climate Adaptation: EWC’s Urban Climate Change Adaptation Training Course

Keith Bettinger
Team Leader for Capacity Building
USAID Adapt Asia-Pacific

Micah Fisher
PhD Candidate, Geography Department, University of Hawaii
East-West Center Student Affiliate

Kem Lowry
Adjunct Senior Fellow, East-West Center
Emeritus Professor, Urban and Regional Planning, University of Hawaii

Thursday, August 25, 2016 12:00 noon to 1:00pm
John A. Burns Hall, Room 3012 (3rd floor)

In global surveys, Asian coastal cities have been identified as those at greatest future risk of loss of life, property and critical infrastructure due to flooding brought on by climate change [including more intense storms and sea level rise], land subsidence and rapid, unregulated urban development of low lying coastal areas. It has been estimated that by the year 2100, even with a sea level rise of only 59 cm, a 100-year storm surge could inundate areas in Asia with a population of 362 million, 10 per cent of the total projected population. By 2050 the number of people exposed to tropical cyclones and flooding, the majority of whom will reside in Asia, is expected to double as a result of urban growth in coastal zones.

Climate adaptation---a process of anticipating and reducing the adverse effects of climate change on humans and natural systems---is an urgent requirement of effective governance. Successful climate change adaptation requires enhanced public and private capacity to analyze climate threats at several geographic scales. It also requires strategies for educating key policy makers, business, community residents, and NGO leaders on the threats, opportunities and costs of local adaptation and the development and funding of adaptation strategies.

In 2013, USAID Adapt Asia-Pacific contracted with East West Center to develop a week long training course on urban climate change adaptation for urban managers, planners, and other local officials as well as NGOs working with Asian cities and smaller communities. The course introduces techniques for assessing local vulnerability to climate change and for developing and funding strategies for building greater community resilience to climate threats.

This session is an opportunity to learn more about course content and experiences in delivering the course a total of eight times to participants from more than twenty countries across South and Southeast Asia.

Event Sponsor
East-West Center, Research Program, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Laura Moriyama, 944-7444, Laura.Moriyama@eastwestcenter.org

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Thursday, August 25
8:00am	Textbook Buyback Mānoa Campus, UH Manoa Bookstore, 1st Floor Campus Center
8:00am	Graduate Student Research Carrels and Lockers Available at Hamilton Library Mānoa Campus, Hamilton Library
10:00am	UH Press Back to School Sale Mānoa Campus, UH Press Bookshop @ Hamilton Library
12:00pm	Building Capacity for Climate Adaptation Mānoa Campus, East-West Center Research Program, Burns Hall, Room 3012
3:00pm	Reading Tutor Recruitment Fair Mānoa Campus, Queen Liliuokalani Center for Student Services Rm. 412
3:00pm	Political Science Final Oral Mānoa Campus, Saunders 624