Research Findings Presented at Bangkok International Conference with UNEP

On October 21 and 22, the "Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum 2010" was held in the Thailand capital of Bangkok, organized by, among others, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Government officials, researchers, and experts - practitioners in climate change adaptation - gathered together to network and share regional-level information. At the session on climate change adaptation and vulnerability on the first day, Research Fellow Megumi Muto presented on the findings from a joint research project involving JICA-RI, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Muto discussed how she determined the scale and the socioeconomic impacts caused by flood damages to the Philippines' coastal area of Manila by using a method to derive socioeconomic costs from geographic information systems data and flood simulations, assuming the present condition of climate change will go unchecked by the year 2050. Afterwards, session chairperson and Director of the Regional and Sustainable Development Department of ADB's Environment and Social Safeguard Division Nessim J Ahmad and the participating panelists enthusiastically exchanged viewpoints on the importance of and the way to incorporate climate change adaptation into urban planning.

In the discussions for the post-Kyoto Protocol framework on climate change, adaptation issues have been gaining great attention worldwide. JICA has been contributing to these issues through its various activities. Likewise for JICA-RI, Muto who represents the cooperative research project mentioned above, has published the research results of "Impacts of Climate Change upon Asian Coastal Areas: The Case of Metro Manila."

RELATED RESEARCH AREA: Environment and Development / Climate Change

RELATED RESEARCH PROJECT: Impacts of Climate Change upon Asian Coastal Areas