Under IUC Asia framework, Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA) workshop was carried for Depok City on 28 July 2020. The meeting aimed to deliver the result of CRVA and seek feedback from City officials to enhance the result further.
The increased risk of floods and droughts are the main climate change threats faced by Depok City. The urban expansion, as a result of growing population and urbanization, could lead to such increased risk. Further, the risk could be worse when the expansion involves a lot of deforestation, that sacrifices urban green space. Settlements that are located near riverbanks could come under significantly increased threat in the future, as sea-level rise or high precipitation could come to flood the area more frequently.
A lot of studies recognize CRVA as a critical step in climate change resilience planning and help to ensure that strategies and interventions would be effective and address the greatest risks to city and populations affected. Specifically, for Depok City, the CRVA would enable the city government to establish evidence-based strategies and prioritize adaptation interventions.
The workshop introduced the basic principle of vulnerability, which expressed as a function of three factors, namely exposure; sensitivity; and adaptive capacity, defined by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. The level of vulnerability was derived from biophysical and socio-economic indicators, representing attributes of villages and their inhabitants. Due to the complexity and the need to involve different indicators, the vulnerability assessment was simplified by using an indexing system, namely exposure and sensitivity index (ESI) and adaptive capacity index (ACI). The next step was assigning weigh the value of each indicator, which adopts both quantitative and qualitative methods. Weighting was critical as it represented relative importance among indicators applied. The quantitative method involved scoring technique represents. In contrast, qualitative analysis entailed the discussion, which ideally through city relevant stakeholder consultation, including with local experts.
As presented in the meeting, the unit of the vulnerability assessment (VA) was the Kelurahan (referred to as village), which was the lowest administrative area. For Depok City, the assessment covered 63 kelurahan across the City. The first draft version of the VA relied on the 2018 Village Potential Statistics (PODES) dataset, issued by the National Bureau of Statistics. Should there be any historical data collected by city officials, it could replace the statistical data set.
The outcome of the meeting suggested adding the relevant indicators in order to enhance the result. It also required to replace the statistical data set with the historical data to reflect the actual condition. The changes would be reflected in the next version of CRVA.
