SUCCESS

the EU Delegation Thailand organised

Strengthening Urban Climate Governance for Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable Societies in Thailand (SUCCESS PROJECT)

Introduction

Urbanisation and climate change are emerging drivers that pose important and complex social, institutional and governance challenges. These challenges are further complicated by the fact that local governments, civil society, and community members are often not engaged in development planning processes, disaster risk reduction and management, and planning for climate risks, in any meaningful way.

The urbanisation process across Thailand has recently been accelerated by the national government in partnership with the business sector through urban and economic development projects. Secondary cities have been rapidly urbanising in recent times with urban economic development priority and little consideration of climate-related challenges in land use planning and infrastructure design.

The current development pathway is leading to dramatic transformations in ecological landscapes, waterways, wetlands and agricultural areas, as well as causing changes in hydrological patterns and regimes. In addition, there have been social consequences to the industrial development e.g. increasing conflict over land.

There is therefore an urgent need to:

i) Investigate and better understand the implications of urbanisation and climate change, how they contribute to the vulnerabilities, poverty and equity of urban communities (particularly marginalised and vulnerable community groups, including those in the informal economy sector);

ii) Create multi-stakeholder platforms to enable and support debates and dialogues and increase civic participation in decision making;

iii) Increase access to scientific, spatial, social and environmental information and data for more informed decision and planning processes,

iv) Identify and implement mechanisms to improve and increase engagement between local governments, civil society, and the private sector in planning processes, and;

v) Identify approaches to address governance challenges in urban development processes to ensure inclusiveness, equity, and resilience in the context of sustainable urban development.

Project objectives

The overall objective of this project is to enhance the adaptive capacity of local urban communities through improved urban climate governance, state-of-the-art knowledge, and shared learning.