First impression of CATCH presented at Singapore International Water Week 2018
Entitled ‘Applying the Water Sensitive City framework for climate adaptation in the North Sea Region’ the first impression of CATCH was presented by Nanco Dolman, Water Sensitive City expert for CATCH. Nanco’s presentation was part of the technical panel session themed ‘Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD)’, chaired by Robert Skinner, professor of Monash University Melbourne (Australia). Over 50 people attended this panel session.
The CATCH presentation focussed on the scope, objectives and its 7 pilot projects. Nanco talked about the initial findings of the benchmark exercise and the exploration to develop a navigational ‘climate adaptation’ tool for the mid-size cities in the North Sea Region (NSR). The CATCH presentation was well received and contributed to the panel discussion. Especially the suggested step-by-step transitioning and ‘leapfrogging’ potential towards a water sensitive mid-size city in the NSR was well appreciated. And CATCH appears to have an Australian twin. The technical panel session themed ‘water-wise communities’ included a presentation on ‘transitioning to Water Sensitive Cities: insights and lessons from six Australian cities’. This presentation went into the navigation in adaptation planning of Water Sensitive Cities. Although differences in water challenges, it is obvious to exchange experiences.
The fact that the SIWW is a platform of global importance was demonstrated during the plenary SIWW water dialogue, which featured former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as key note speaker. Under his leadership of the United Nations, the Paris Agreement was clinched. Mr. Ban Ki-moon announced that he will chair the Global Commission on Adaptation, which will feed recommendations into the UN Secretary-Generals climate summit next year.