RISK AND VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT A land use planning tool for adaptation to climate change effects

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RISK AND VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT A land use
planning tool for adaptation to climate change
effectsMr. Michel Vielle Director General -
Dept of Risk and Disaster Management - Seychelles
October 2006


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Outline of presentation

• Effects of climate change e.g. sea level rise
• Nature of impacts
• RVA as land use planning tool to mitigate against
  potential effect of climate change
• Importance of RVA in land use planning
• RVA at Community LEVEL outcome
• Importance of conducting the RVA and lessons
  learnt
• Selected lessons learnt - Example 1 thru 5

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Effect of a relative rise in sea level

• Inundate and displace wetlands and lowlands
• Erode shorelines
• Exacerbate coastal storm flooding (even if
  storminess does not increase)
• Increase the salinity of estuaries, threaten
  freshwater aquifers, and otherwise impair water
  quality.
• Population shifting to higher grounds.
• Adversely affecting the coastal marine ecosystem

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Effects cont

• Socio-economic impacts on human activities in the
  coastal zone
• Human settlements, agriculture, freshwater supply
  and quality
• Fisheries, financial services and human health

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Nature of the impacts

• Vary from place-to-place and country-to-country
• Certain settings are more vulnerable than others
• Small islands and coastal ecosystems appear
  particularly vulnerable
• Seychelles outlying coralline islands risked
  being wiped out

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RVA as land use planning tool to mitigate
againstpotential effect of climate change

• RVAs and Land use planning is an important tool
  for adaptation and risk mitigation
• Public education, participation and awareness
  important elements for effective land use
  planning in climate change related disaster risk
  reduction.
• Involvement of Planners, architect, engineers,
  NGOs, decision makers, professional and local
  communities.

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Importance of RVA in land use planning

• Decision on which action could best be taken, and
  where, when and how.
• Revealed important examples and lessons for
  future planning purposes
• For implementation of proper land use guidelines
• To mitigate against potential disasters arising
  from potential climate change

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Importance of RVA in land use planning cont

• RVA helped to focus the attention on coastal
  communities most at risks.
• Contributed to longer-term thinking about the
  coastal zones and climate change
• RVA studies is one possible trigger of increased
  efforts towards integrated coastal zone
  management (ICZM)

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Importance of community RVA

• Provided pertinent information on
• Pre-implementation evaluation
• examine constraints
• quantify measures/formulate alternative
  strategies
• weigh objectives/evaluate trade-offs).
• An important point is the extent to which
  planning for coastal adaptation can benefit from
  these tools and techniques.

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RVA at Community LEVEL

• The RVA started in January 2006 by RDM.
• Conduct an exhaustive risk and vulnerability
  assessment, over three main islands of Seychelles
• The assessment was divided in two phases
• diagnostic of the organisational preparedness at
  the highest levels of the country i.e. assessing
  the different agencies preparedness,
• assessing the local community vulnerability i.e.
  locating the critical sites and their
  vulnerability etc

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Outcome

• General Report
• relevant information about the district
  organization, vulnerability and preparedness.
• Important information like the general geography
  of the district, population infrastructures, list
  of hazardous sites, classified vulnerable
  infrastructures (education, health, social,
  tourism / leisure, environment, industry, sports,
  )
• Resources needed in case of warning

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Outcome cont

• Hazard Description Form
• ideas about the global vulnerability of the
  district vis-a-vis, five potential disasters
• Infrastructure Vulnerability Form
• One form for each public infrastructure at risk.
  
• Mapping
• four maps for each district on
• infrastructure vulnerability,
• natural disaster risk areas
• rock fall risk area and
• identified safe demarcation.
• NB The maps will be used for development
  planning and for mitigation plans

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Selected lessons learnt - Example 1

• Expansion of housing development within a flood
  prone estate
• tsunami surge at Anse la Mouche Bay flooded many
  houses
• caused extensive damages worth thousands of USD.
• No RVA conducted prior to developing, led to no
  mitigative measures implemented e.g. elevation of
  floor level. Affected communities claimed damages
  from government worth thousands USD.
• Lessons learnt
• The need for risk identification, assessment
  mapping prior to implement development programs.
• The need for community-level assessments for both
  risks and vulnerabilities

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Example 2

• Drought of 1999, resulted in large scale Bush
  fire
• Indicators to forecast drought was present, but
  most attention was given to the social and
  humanitarian impact of the drought and less on
  ecological impacts.
• Lessons learnt
• advance preparedness could advert or minimize
  damage
• better coordination between and within government
  agencies
• better coordination between the local and
  national level authorities
• the need for coordination of activities to attend
  to all potential risks.
• Need for effective early warning and quick
  dissemination of information

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Example 3

• Drought in 2001
• compelled the water department to resort to
  desperate means of providing potable water to the
  community
• Operations resulted in increased cost to the
  service provider whilst substantially decreased
  its revenue collection from the water bills.
• Lessons learnt
• preparedness in planning must foresee such
  eventual calamities
• adaptive measures should be put in place in the
  development process
• Lack of preparedness, stressing
• the need for contingency planning to consider all
  vulnerable sectors.
• disaster management system needs long-term
  funding, through a combination of government,
  donor, NGO and community resources

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Example 4 Gorilla rock

• Population shifting trend towards the hillside
• Not necessarily safe from other hazards
• Adding more pressure on potable water reservoirs
  and conservation of biodiversity
• The expansion of housing development at La batie
• No consideration to the risk posed by potential
  rock fall
• Took one major incident, government intervene to
  relocate inhabitants of the area
• Mitigative measures to minimise the risk was
  undertaken at heavy cost.
• Lessons learnt
• The need for risk identification, assessment
  mapping prior to implement development programs.
• The need for community-level assessments for both
  risks and vulnerabilities

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Example 5 Insurance for Fishing Boat and Farmers

• Insurance for fishing boats already exists but is
  not attractive - Particularly to small boat
  owners
• Agricultural insurance an entirely new product
• Scheme does not work
• To succeed, a culture of prevention is needed
• Government should no longer compensate boat
  owners after disasters as this becomes a
  dis-incentive to take insurance.

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Lessons learnt example 5

• Many uninsured compensated more than those with
  insurance.
• Potential clients must be involved in the
  development of the schemes
• The initial focus should be on insuring the more
  vulnerable
• Should make fishing boat insurance a requirement
  of boat registration.
• Client education on how insurance works

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Lessons learnt example 5 cont

• RCSS expressed VCA for the farming community.
• VCA (Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment) will
  better define role insurance can play adapted
  to fit the farmers needs.
• The RCSS should be invited at least as an
  observer to future meetings
• Disaster management must include all key actors
  in a multi-agency approach
• It needs to be government-led, coordinated and be
  based within government structures,
• to incorporate donors and NGOs (ranging from
  international, national and local NGOs and local
  civil society organizations)

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• Thank you