Resilience in urban design: 4th International Urban Design Conference. Gold Coast, Australia, 21-23 September 2011

Posted on: 23 September 2011
By: isadm
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This event provided an opportunity to reinforce and highlight resilient solutions for city-wide planning, design and infrastructure in order to successfully address emerging challenges brought about by climate change, peak oil crisis, population growth, social disengagement, technological disparity, rising pollution and waste, demands on food production, rising carbon emissions, and diminishing habitat and biodiversity. A 350-page book of proceedings is available online.

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Sustainable shelter in an age of climate change and disasters. Bangkok, 7-9 September 2011

Posted on: 9 September 2011
By: isadm
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The Asia-Pacific Housing Forum is a biennial event which brings together stakeholders engaged in providing housing solutions to urban poverty. The aim of this conference was to: explore and share solutions that address the urgent and widespread problem of substandard housing in the context of sustainable housing needs and a changing global climate; share strategies and experiences of how best to build resilient communities, including better designs for sustainable homes and settlements; explore how such strategies and experiences can be integrated into “bottom-up” development planning processes. A large number of presentations are available under the following themes: housing policy and climate change; housing finance in response to climate change and disasters; disaster mitigation, response and sustainable development; and technologies for more resilient homes and communities.

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Planning and delivering urban infrastructure in Indian cities. New Delhi, 10-11 August 2011

Posted on: 31 August 2011
By: mackene
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This event, organised by RICS India, aimed to share knowledge from other global cities who have already undergone or are planning for sustainable growth. The e vent considered:  funding and financing for new and retrofitted infrastructure, which includes developer tariffs and private finance initiatives/public private partnerships; developing and attracting sufficient built environment expertise to plan and deliver the infrastructure through a thriving community of built environment professionals; and the costs of planning and delivering infrastructure need to be benchmarked against competitor cities to lower the infrastructure delivery costs. Presentations are available online.

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Green growth: Implications for development planning

Posted on: 11 August 2011
By: mackene
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The Climate & Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) aims to help decision makers in developing countries design and deliver climate compatible development. A challenge for CDKN’s core audience, national planners and policy makers in developing countries, is incorporating ‘green growth’ into a rigorous policy planning process. This guide by CDKN aims to support national planners and policy makers in the green growth planning process by focusing on the key role of economics and economic tools.

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Safer homes, stronger communities: Handbook for reconstruction after natural disasters

Posted on: 10 July 2011
By: mackene
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This handbook deals with how to reconstruct housing and communities in large-scale post-disaster situations like Haiti, where there are often conflicting demands, especially between short-term relief and long-term reconstruction and recovery. The handbook emphasises the importance of owner/occupier-led reconstruction, and makes a case that effective reconstruction occurs only after policy makers have established the framework for reconstruction in consultation with local communities and stakeholders. It has been developed on behalf of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery to assist World Bank staff, as well as the Bank’s government counterparts, engaged in large-scale post-disaster housing reconstruction programs. Others working in the housing and community reconstruction field will benefit from the information in the handbook, especially those collaborating with government and the World Bank in post-disaster reconstruction.

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Protecting development gains: Reducing disaster vulnerability and building resilience in Asia and the Pacific

Posted on: 10 July 2011
By: mackene
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The UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) and the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) have released the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2010. The report notes that the region generated one quarter of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), but also accounted for 85% of deaths and 38% of global economic losses due to natural disasters over the last 30 years. The report analyzes the socioeconomic impact of disasters, and suggests ways of reducing vulnerability to disasters in order to protect development gains. The report includes sections on: disaster risk in Asia and the Pacific, including a chapter on the impact of climate change on disaster risk; the socioeconomic impacts of disasters; socioeconomic perspectives of reducing vulnerabilities, including chapters on the implications of disasters and climate change for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and scaling up climate change adaptation in Asia and the Pacific; making the recovery resilient; capitalizing on new technology; and cooperating across the region.

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