RESEARCH AND development (R&D) practitioners from various academic and research institutions within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are meeting this week in Laoag City for the Urban Resilience to Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction Management forum. The five-day discussions from Dec. 4-8, will cover policies, programs and experiences that may be replicated among ASEAN members. There will be paper presentations on five topics, namely: 1. Vulnerability assessment in megacities and other highly urbanized areas; 2. Climate change adaptation strategies and coping mechanisms; 3. Green growth strategies and government programs for urban resilience; 4. Disaster risk reduction management strategies in highly urbanized areas; and 5. Financing resilience. The forum is hosted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (ERDB). “With the urban population expected to increase by at least 2.5 billion by 2050 according to UN (United Nations) reports, pursuing urban resiliency should be an important agenda for all policy and decision makers, resource managers, and environmental scientists and researchers,” Dr. Henry A. Adornado, ERDB-DENR executive director, said in a statement.

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