ESCAP is organizing the Expert Group Meeting on Innovative Strategies towards Flood Resilient Cities in Asia-Pacific to be held in Bangkok on 21-23 July 2009. The Meeting will gather experts from the Asia-Pacific region to review and share experiences and strategies on urban flood management considering climate change.

Asia-Pacific is a highly disaster prone region. Since 1990, this region experienced 42% of the world's natural disasters, with a disproportionate 65% of its victims. During this period, a person living in Asia-Pacific was almost 25 times more likely to be affected by a disaster than someone living in Europe or North America . The majority of those affected by disasters in Asia-Pacific were victims of weather-related disasters, while floods have accounted for more than one third of all natural disasters in the region.

With the increasing growth of urban population in the region, one third of which are living in slums, a growing number of people are becoming vulnerable to floods. Current flood risk management schemes are based on the accumulated knowledge of past weather events and scientific assessment based on the hydrological approach, without taking into account the long term impacts of climate change scenarios and the way that it would impact the frequency and intensity of floods.

A promising approach to reducing the risk of urban floods is to adopt a strategy combining the present approaches that addresses multiple components of risk, with long term climate change scenarios in different spatial and temporal scales. A comprehensive risk reduction approach has to consider the aspects of reduction of impact considering the issues related to hazard, vulnerability and exposure in a manner that it considers not only the risk as at present but also future risks.

A major challenge for the effective disaster risk reduction in the region is to ensure that risk reduction strategies are integrated with broad development strategies, as well as climate change adaptation efforts in an effective and efficient manner.

In that connection, the main objectives of the Meeting are to:

(1) Examine and share experiences on innovative strategies towards flood resilient cities; and

(2) Recommend policy options for effective urban flood management considering climate change.

I. GENERAL

The Expert Group Meeting on Innovative Strategies towards Flood Resilient Cities in Asia-Pacific is scheduled to be held at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC), Bangkok, from 21 to 23 July 2009.

The event will be inaugurated at 9:00 hours on Tuesday, 21 July 2009, by Mr. Xuan Zengpei, Director of Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction Division, ESCAP, in meeting room A, 1st Floor, UNCC, where all subsequent meetings will also be held from 09:00 hours to 12:00 hours and 13:30 hours to 16:30 hours.

Participants are kindly requested to prepare a paper (5 to 10 pages) presenting cases of innovative strategies for effective flood management based on their work experience and area of expertise. These strategies should be considered innovative, meaning that they should represent improvements in well known strategies or should be characterized by new ideas that were not previously known or implemented in the cases' context. Such innovative strategies should also be considered effective in terms of achieving the goals of the Hyogo Framework for Action: (1) reduction of deaths, (2) reduction of economic damage, and (3) enhancement of disaster preparedness, taking into consideration trends in disaster risk, including trends in climate change. The paper would be shared and discussed by the experts who would attend the meeting and would also be used as an input for an ESCAP publication on urban flood management to be issued in the last quarter of the year.

II. MEETING DOCUMENTS

•  Provisional Agenda

•  Tentative Programme

•  List of Participants

•  Papers on innovative strategies for urban flood management considering climate change:

• Effective strategies for urban flood risk management, by Mr. NMSI Arambepola, Ms. Gabrielle Iglesias, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center , Bangkok
• Innovative Strategies for Effective Urban Flood Management in Australia: A Voice For Waterways: An integrated approach towards achieving water-sensitive cities and managing waterways in Australia's fastest-growing region, by Dr. Eva G. Abal , Chief Scientist, International Water Centre and Office of the Vice Chancellor The University of Queensland Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
• Brief on the Dhaka Integrated Flood Protection Embankment - Cum - Eastern Bypass Road Multipurpose Project, by Mr. A.S.Khan PEng.Deputy Executive Director, Institute of Water Modelling , Bangladesh
• Innovative Strategies Towards Flood Resilient Cities in Asia-Pacific, by H.E. Mr. Eng Rinbo, Executive Assistant to Senior Minister, and Senior Technical Officer, Council Of Minister
• Strategies and Countermeasures for Integrated Urban Flood Management in China, by Mr. Zhiyu Liu, Deputy Division Director, Vice-Chair of WGH, Division of Hydrological Information and Forecasting, Bureau of Hydrology (National Flood Forecasting Center), Ministry of Water Resources of China
• Urban Floods in Context of India, by Mr. N.Y. Apte, Deputy Director General Of Meteorology ( Hydromet , India Meteorological Department
• Climate Disaster Resilience: Focus on Coastal Urban Cities in Asia, by Mr. Rajib Shaw, Associate Professor, International Environment And Disaster Management Laboratory, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University
• High-Impact Weather Forecast and Global Rainfall Maps for Urban Flood Management, by Mr. Tetsuo Nakazawa, Head Of The Second Laboratory Of The Typhoon Research Department, The Japan Meteorological Agency, Meteorological Research Institute, Japan
• Disaster Management System in Lao PDR, by Ms. Oudomchit Bouangeun, Head Of Climate Division, Water Reservation And Environment Administration, Department Of Meteorology And Hydrology, Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic
• A Case Study of Mitigating Flooding in City Center of Kuala Lumpur, by Mr. Hinseang Saw, Malaysia/Asia Water And Environment
• Innovative Strategies for Urban Flood Management Considering Climate Change in Myanmar, by Mr. Chit Kyaw, Assistant Director, Department Of Meteorology And Hydrology (Dmh), Yangon, Myanmar [Paper]
• Innovative Strategies For Effective Flood Management, by Mr. Ahmed Said Al Barwani, Water Resources Expert, Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources, Sultanate of Oman
• Urban Floods and An Important Aspect of the Flood Mitigation Process for Reducing the Flood Damages In Pakistan, by Mr. Hazrat Mir, Chief Meteorologist, Flood Forecasting Division, Pakistan Meteorological Department, Pakistan
• Linking Science and the Community for Effective Flood Management, by Ms. Susan Espinueva, Assistant Weather Services Chief, Flood Forecasting branch, Weather and Flood Forecasting Center (WFFC), Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA)
• Flooding In Urban Areas (Urban Flooding), by Mr. Shankar Mahto, Specialist, Hydro-Met Disaster Division, Saarc Disaster Management Centre (Sdmc)
• Innovative Strategies Towards Flood Resilient Cities In Asia-Pacific - Country Report – Sri-Lanka, by Mr. Siriranjith Jayasekera, Deputy Director Of Meteorology, Department Of Meteorology Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo (Sri-Lanka-S-R-Jayasekera-Country-Rep-Final.Pdf)
• Innovative Strategies For Effective Flood Management Focusing on Disaster Risk Reduction in Typhoon Committee Area, by Mr Jinping Liu, Mr Olavo Rasquinho And Mr Derek Leong, Unescap/Wmo Typhoon Committee Secretariat (Tcs-Innovative-Strategies-For-Effective-Flood-Management-In-Tc-Area-Final.Pdf)
• Flood Protection In Bangkok, by Mr. Vichai Somboon, Chief Of Project Management Sub-Division, Department Of Drainage And Sewerage, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (Thailand-Flood Protection In Bangkok . 2009.Pdf)
• Flood Mitigation Management in Urban Areas, by Royal Irrigation Department , Thailand (Thailand- Flood-Mitigation-Lower-Chaophraya-River-Basin.Pdf)
• Innovative Strategies for Effective Urban Flood Management, by Mr. Sampan Thaikruawan, Director of Research And Development Division, Thai Meteological Department (Thailand-Tmd-Sampan-Innovative-Strategies-For-Effective-Urban-Flood-Management.Pdf)
• Innovative Strategies towards Flood Resilient Cities In Asia-Pacific, by Ms. Lien Tran Bich, Central Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Center, National Hydro-Meteorological Service Of Viet Nam (Nhms) (Vietnam-Tran-Lien-Paper-Management-City-Flood-Of-Vietnam-Final.Pdf)
• Good Practices in Fiji Flood Management, by Mr. Manasa Ramasirai Vaniqi, Ministry of Provincial Development and Multi Ethic Affairs, Fiji
• ACCCRN-VN: Initial evaluated results on the Impact of climate change to CanTho and
  DaNang and methodologies approach for developing the adaptation plan of these cities, by To Quang Toan, Southern Institute Of Water Resources Research, Viet Nam
• Global Flood Alert System (GFAS), provided by Mr Yosuke Yamashiki, Disaster Prevention Research Institute,Kyoto University,and Mr Fukami, International Center for Water
  Hazard and Risk Management