Integrated Water Management and Urban Development In Relation to Climate Change

The BTC Climate Change Program, implemented from 2013 to 2019, has a total grant budget of €25 million, of which €8.48 million is provided for the construction of strategic priority investments to enhance resilience with respect to climate change and to provide opportunities for lessons learned.

The main findings from the consultant’s review was that opportunities exist for the project provinces to enhance their investment proposals to provide a more multi-dimensional approach in accordance with the principles of integrated water resource management (IWRM). During the Technical Meeting, a considerable amount of the discussion was directed towards ‘greener’ engineering approaches and their application in urban drainage. In addition, Mr Pham Trung Nghi from the Vietnam Institute for Urban and Rural Planning (VIUP) presented on the recently completed Guidelines for Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Urban Planning in Vietnam, which was prepared by VIUP in cooperation with the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCRN).

Mr Pham Trung Nghi from (VIUP) presented at the meeting

It was discussed that investment proposals relating to flood and drainage issues – such as, a retention lake, an upgrade of culverts, urban drainage networks, and river bank protection works – provide opportunities to demonstrate the comparative advantages of ‘greener’ design approaches, such as the application of the principles of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS). In addition, during the meeting, various presenters provided examples of use of vegetative solutions in urban engineering in Vietnam including many situations where Vetiver grass has been planted to control riverbank erosion. Other suggestions included porous pavements, infiltration trenches and grassed swales to slow urban runoff and promote infiltration or reuse. Many of these technologies are new to Vietnam and much work is still required to adapt these approaches to local conditions.

The event concluded with BTC providing an in principle agreement for the investment proposals conditioned upon more work to improve the concept designs to address issues of green engineering and innovation.

Download the speech by Mr. Pham Trung Nghi (VIUP) on Green infrastructure trend responds to climate change and solutions integrated to urban planning.Here