The main aim of the workshop was the presentation and discussion of the methods and results from the BMBF funded megacity research project for the planning and spatial adaptation of Ho Chi Minh City to climate change (www.megacity-hcmc.org) at the national level in Vietnam. The thematic focus of the workshop was on the appropriate methodologies for the rational and scientific selection and justification of adaptation strategies to climate change impacts in the context of mega-urban regions. A methodological emphasis was placed on scientifically founded, spatially referenced information management as a central decision support system for spatial (urban) planning; while the target group was primarily administrative decision makers on the national ministerial level in Hanoi, as well as experts from scientific policy and advisory institutions.
The essential integration and dissemination of research results into the administrative decision making level was stressed in keynote presentations by Dr. Klaus Müschen (German Federal Environment Agency, Dessau), Dr. Fabian Dosch (German Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development, Bonn), Mr. Jörn Welsch (Senate Department of Urban Development, Berlin), as well as by Mr. Franz Ellermann (German Technical Cooperation, Bangkok). In particular the detailed outlines of the climate protection and adaptation strategies of the German administrative and ministerial realms were by Dr. Nguyen Thi Hien Thuan, Dr. Nguyen Van Thang and Mr. Bao Thanh (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, IMHEN, Hanoi) and Dr. Do Tu Lan (Ministry of Construction, Hanoi) and as well as by the participants in the open discussions highly valued.
In several presentations by members of the megacity research consortium it was highlighted how planning authorities can utilise spatially specific information, as well as corresponding instruments, for decision making, in order to gain knowledge over and respond in an appropriate manner to the adverse effects of climate change at the urban level. This is of extreme importance for the political preparation of the spatial planning in Vietnam, as instance in the form of urban development scenarios. Only via a comprehensive integration of the urban- and environmental planning and scientific disciplines can the adaptation of mega-urban regions to climate change be truly managed. In this case the key integration mechanism is the spatial reference. Here spatial planning can act to compile all implementation solutions and potentials within the integrating concept of the spatially referenced information management, as well as to include the goal orientated local stakeholders from administration and science in a meaningful way.
A detailed workshop report will be available end of August 2010 on the megacity project website (www.megacity-hcmc.org).
Project No.: VNM 10/028
For further information please contact:
Dr. Harry Storch
BTU Cottbus
e-mail: storch(at)tu-cottbus.de
