The Summer Capital’s push to establish its own Smart Flood Early Warning System, Information and Mitigation System that was initiated in August of 2020 is ongoing according to City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) head Antonette Anaban. It is implemented under the ASEAN Australia Smart Cities Trust Fund (AASCTF), supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and managed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Its key focus areas are on enhanced capacity building and on-the-job training; climate change assessment as input to modeling and design for enhancing city resilience; and gender transformative approach for strengthened development, application, and replication of the city’s FEWS. The project will assist the city government with both the planning for flood mitigation and delivery of services of flood early warning and responses, using smart technologies with outcome as improved FEWS, responses and mitigation measures of the city. It also includes the installation of water level sensors on key river locations. Coupled with real-time weather data collection, all this information would be processed and made available, which will be the basis for efficient policy-making and enhanced disaster response.
Other AASCTF technical assistance to the city, includes establishing a climate-resilient and local carbon urban development where the CDRRMO was assisted in coming up with a climate risk and vulnerability assessment that provides useful inputs to the city’s development planning; greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory; investment prioritization and financing of climate projects.
