The Liveable Cities Philippines and the League of Cities of the Philippines, in partnership with Globe Telecom, has presented the latest edition of the Liveable Cities Labs, a series of webinar sessions to gear up cities with knowledge and insights for designing better solutions for their communities.
For its 7th session, the Liveable Cities Lab will focus on building resilient cities and towns to enable LGUs to prepare and be resilient, with the Philippines being prone to natural disasters that include typhoons, earthquakes, flash floods, landslides, and volcanic eruptions.
The LCC Labs Webinar will give LGUs insights, knowledge and experiences from professionals who are regarded as experts in climate change adaptation, disaster risk management, urban and environmental planning, and Information and Communication Technology, as it aims to promote cooperation and unity to help LGUs to be more resilient.
The speakers and panelists include Emmanuel Estrada, Globe SVP for Technology Strategy & Service Integration; Geraldine Santos, VP of Alliance for Safe, Sustainable and Resilient Environments (ASSURE); Leonard Travis, Team Lead-Urban and Regional Planning, Empark Land Development Inc.; Dr. Cedric Daep, Department Head-Albay Public Safety & Emergency Management Office; and Veron Gabaldon, the Executive Director of the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation.
Discussions will also revolve around the current impact of disasters to cities and municipalities, LGUs, and to the people.
The LCC has put together a team of experts who will give their inputs on how LGUs can prepare against the challenges of natural disasters; and share solutions and knowledge on how towns and cities can strengthen their capabilities in becoming more disaster resilient.
According to the Rockefeller Foundation, resilience is defined as the ability to plan and prepare for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse events. City resilience is the capacity of cities to function, so that the people living and working there, particularly the poor and the vulnerable, survive and thrive no matter what stresses or shocks they encounter.
For cities and towns to become disaster-resilient, the most critical considerations include: 1) the impact of disasters on people’s livelihood, especially that of the poor; 2) the effects of climate change on people’s food and water supply; and 3) the degradation of the natural environment that reduces nature’s defense capacity against natural hazards.
At the forefront of building disaster-resilient cities and towns are the local government units themselves (LGUs) which are logically the first responders during times of calamities.