Choosing from the Climate Resilience Toolbox Xiangtan, PRC

7.8K

CUBIC METERs OF WATER sTORAGE CAPACITY IdENTIFIEd

Inhabitants 2.88 million

GdP per capita $11,371

Geographic area 5,015 km²

ThE ChAllENGE

There are many existing guidelines for climate adaptation strategies, but this can be a maze for urban planners tasked with responding to location-specific risks.

CO-BENEFITs

Environmental

Ecosystem-based adaptation measures included in the toolbox integrate the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Economic

Proper implementation of policies and projects tested with the toolbox is expected to increase real estate values and avoid economic loss induced by future flood events.

health

Accidents and the loss of lives due to flood events will be minimized in project areas.

Choosing from the Climate resilience toolbox

xiangtan is using a newly developed toolbox to enhance collaboration for climate change adaptation planning. In particular, the city is using the toolbox to become more flood-resilient.

The Xiangtan Climate Resilient City Toolbox is an interactive platform designed for a more collaborative approach to adaptation design. It can be used at design workshops by policy makers, planners, designers, and practitioners for informed decision making of priority areas for climate resilience, defining requirements, setting adaptation targets, selecting specific interventions, and assessing effectiveness. More importantly, the use of the toolbox created a new culture of collaborative city planning within the Xiangtan Municipal Government, replacing the practice of working in silos and utilizing single sector-driven development and planning.

A climate risk and vulnerability assessment was conducted in Xiangtan to create a customized toolbox for city planners. The toolbox contains information on the cost and effectiveness of 43 ecosystem-based adaptation solutions, which can be easily selected for a project area using the toolbox’s user-friendly interface.

The toolbox was used to help improve the flood resilience of Xiangtan’s First Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, by identifying ecosystem-based adaptation solutions that could provide 7,840 cubic meters of storage capacity to protect against flooding.

The project is funded as part of ADB’s technical assistance to prepare the Xiangtan Low-Carbon Transformation Sector Development Program loan project.

Web-based platform for urban resilience planning. The Climate Resilient City Toolbox has been used for a number of projects including designing the floodproofing for the first Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital (photo by E-waters Environmental Science and Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.).