21 July 2010
Engaging with the climate change agenda in Vietnam
VASS President, Professor Đỗ Hoài Nam (front centre), and RMIT’s Associate Professor Darryn McEvoy at the opening of the workshop.
Workshop participants at the plenary question and answer session.
Members of the RMIT delegation in Hué, from left to right: Professor Ralph Horne, Philip Buckle, Associate Professor Darryn McEvoy, Dr Ifte Ahmed, Julia Werner, Nina Rogers and Izabela Ratajczak Juszko.
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RMIT University academics have collaborated with the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) in leading a workshop to help Vietnamese cities adapt to the future impacts of climate change.
The two-part training and research development workshop, Climate Change and Sustainable Urban Development, was held earlier this monthin the central Vietnam city of Hué.
The Climate Change Adaptation Program (CCAP) of the RMIT Global Cities Research Institute coordinated a multi-disciplinary team of science, social science and design academics from across RMIT for the workshop, as well as inviting Nina Rogers, the leader of the climate change adaptation unit for the Municipal Association of Victoria.
CCAP Director, Associate Professor Darryn McEvoy, said the collaborative workshop sessions in Hué would inform the development of new research proposals at the program.
"This initial engagement process was not only valuable in making a real and substantial contribution to the building of local adaptive capacity but will also help to refine the content for future training workshops," Associate Professor McEvoy said.
"Vulnerability assessment methodologies suitable for urban application, climate resilience indices, and the role of knowledge networks have all been identified by stakeholders as research areas of potential interest, which the CCAP is keen to pursue."
The first part of the workshop was a training exercise for 40 municipal and provincial decision-makers, addressing issues of mitigation, vulnerability, adaptation and sustainable urban development.
It was opened by the President of VASS, Professor Đỗ Hoài Nam, who said: "I hope that this workshop will strengthen the relationship between VASS and RMIT and local authorities, giving us the opportunity to set up a network of collaborators."
This message was further supported by Le Troung Luu, Vice-Governor of Thua-Thien Province, who expressed his desire for the workshop to lead to cooperation between the central provinces and RMIT.
The training component of the workshop aimed to:
- improve understanding of climate change risks and adaptation, explore assessment tools and methodologies;
- highlight specific examples of Australian, Vietnamese and international work on impacts and adaptation responses; and,
- enable discussion of the latest international developments in climate change policy and their implications for Vietnamese city authorities.
The second part of the workshop scoped possible collaborative research activity between RMIT, VASS, and other local and international partners.
The focus of the research activities will be on the climatic challenges facing secondary cities in Vietnam, which have received less attention than their larger counterparts.
World Vision and UN-Habitat were among the international organisations represented in the exploratory discussions, which also examined the opportunity for collaborative research activity to play a role in informing the development of adaptation strategies for the city of Hué and other cities in central Vietnam.
In a concluding speech on behalf of VASS, Associate Professor Dang Nguyen Anh emphasised that the Hué workshop was a continuing sign of strong cooperation between RMIT and VASS.
