Workshop
The workshop that was conducted in Jakarta, Indonesia from 23-24 March is the second one of its kind and is an essential part of the TWIN-SEA project, which established and maintains an expert network to analyze and promote Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) strategies in coastal areas throughout Indonesia and Southeast Asia. It follows the “First International workshop on Climate and societal change in coastal areas in Indonesia and South East Asia” whose report can be downloaded here.
The discussions at the workshop highlighted the need for more serious engagement with integrated solutions in coastal adaptation linking engineering, social and ecological dimensions of adaptation as well as a tighter link between scientific knowledge production, practical business solutions, policy-making and policy implementation. This includes for example, the need to integrate resettlement programmes and hard protection infrastructure such as sea walls more thoroughly with measures to limit the livelihood impacts and to strengthen the long-term adaptive capacity of affected communities.. Potential policy responses and implementation options were debated by the workshops participants and helped to bridge the views between scientists and practitioners.
In addition to UNU-EHS senior scientists Dr. Garschagen, Dr. Renaud and Dr. Szarzynski, the following key experts on DRR and CCA and members of the TWIN-SEA network presented in the recent workshop:
- Prof. Mark Pelling from King’s College London
- Prof. Javier Revilla Diez from the University of Cologne
- Prof. Joern Birkmann from the University of Stuttgart
The programme was further complemented by invited presentations from network experts from Indonesian governmental agencies (e.g. from the Ministry of Environment or the National Agency for Disaster Management), civil society organizations (e.g. USAID or Mercy Corps Indonesia), UN organizations and private business actors active in the field of coastal protection (e.g. NAUE).
Objectives of the workshop
In one of the most important years for climate change when several global processes on DRR and CCA are taking place, the TWIN-SEA workshop served three main objectives:
- A discussion on essential scientific findings achieved within the TWIN-SEA project to date, including, for example, the results of a survey examining policy decisions amongst Indonesian authorities for or against ecosystems-based DRR solutions such as mangroves, or measurement results on the capacity of green coastal protection infrastructure to attenuate wave energy;
- A further strengthening of the TWIN-SEA expert network, which currently includes around 80 international experts on DRR and CCA;
- The definition of the future work plan of TWIN-SEA, including, for instance, field work to analyze adaptation decisions of individual firms exposed to flooding as well as community resilience appraisals in four coastal case studies across Java and Sumatra.
Structure of the workshop
| Day 1 | Day 2 | |
| Session I | Introduction to TWIN-SEA project, linking the workshop with the broader strategic planning | DRR and CCA activities in Indonesia |
| Session II | Programs and activities on DRR and CCA at the national and local level in Indonesia | State of the art working group I: Ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction |
| Session III | State of the art working group II: Vulnerability and pathways for adaptation | Working group sessions |