Iligan City : A Recipient of the Shelter Academy 2012 Program

Iligan City, represented by Archt. Gil R. Balondo, City Planning and Development Coordinator, was one of the participants to the Shelter Academy Program 2012 of ARCADIS and UN-HABITAT. 

The program titled  "Adapting and Mitigating Climate Change: Challenges for Port Cities", was held on October 1-4, 2012 in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

The seminar was designed to increase participants' knowledge of and improve responses to urban issues related to global climate change through improved economic, environmental and urban planning.   The program have three (3) focus points:

1. Water management and coastal management in the urban planning process 

2. Stakeholder involvement and decision making   

3. Economic development, in balance with environment

And the schedule was composed of  3 sessions :  lectures and presentations, site visits to actual projects implemented in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, and Implementation Plan Workshop.

Below is the schedule of the seminar :

The other participants to the seminar came from Namibia, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Mozambique, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Before the seminar proper, each participant was required to submit a case study regarding their city. And these case studies were used as the basis of the practical sessions during the seminar so that participants can learn from each other and benefit from the support of ARCADIS' and UN-Habitat's network of experts who will support the implementation of action plans.   For Iligan City, the case study  focused on "Addressing Urban Warming and Hydrological Hazard" with the following identified main challenges :

1. The phenomenon of Urban Warming is already being felt.

2. Urban area is starting to get congested for residential zone.  There is a need to identify new                 residential zones but, due to its hilly and mountainous terrain, urban development is limited.

3. Polluted waterways

4. Insufficient drainage system

5. The city proper lies between two major rivers, hence, large urban areas are susceptible to flooding       so there is a need to design an effective river flood control.

6. Congestion (of people and transportation) at the Central Business District

7. Urban development lacks aesthetic design

After the implementation plan workshop, it is recommended that the city should make priority the

1) Creation of River Basin Management Council, and  

2) Formulation of Climate Change Adaptation Program.