Urban water resilience: local adaptation policies and best practices

Locally led policies are key to climate resilience and climate adaptation – yet local governments are the ones who struggle the most to be heard at the international forum of debate on the matter.

This panel presents experiences that are making a difference, and have the opportunity to be reproduced in larger scale, by other local communities around the world. As an example, the OECD is extending its studies from the first 100 different cities to identify blue economy initiatives elsewhere in the globe, and Rio de Janeiro is making an effort to participate in the international debate of sustainability more often then ever before.

UN-Habitat and the Australian Water Partnership show very relevant cases involving displaced persons, settlements and climate resilience – cases in which the local challenges have even less international voice and representation. The UN Water report also stressed different best practices of local led policies through Research & innovation projects funded by institutions.

Speakers :

•  Ms Ana Asti, State Secretary for Environment and Sustainability, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, The Blue Metropolis Project of Rio de Janeiro
• Dr Oriana Romano (online) Head of Unit, Water Governance and Circular Economy in Cities in the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Cities and Regions, Cities for a Blue Economy: a comprehensive study (online)
• Professor Tony H F Wong, Water for Climate Pavilion Envoy, Revitalizing Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE)
• Ms. Ruth Mathews, Senior Manager, Water Cooperation and Diplomacy Department, Coordinator, Action Platform for Source-to-Sea Management, Building urban resilience through strategic and environmental planning from source to sea
• Ms Layal Abi Esber (online), Climate Change Coordinator, UN-Habitat Lebanon Office, Increasing the resilience of both displaced persons and host communities to climate change-related water challenges in Jordan and Lebanon.

Moderator: Chrysi Laspidou, Professor, University of Thessaly, Coordinator of Arsinoe and Nexogenesis EU projects