In the Philippines, cities remain vulnerable to risks arising from natural disasters, poor urban planning, and as of late, even public health pandemics. The growing incidence of these natural hazards has significantly threatened Filipino lives, causing large-scale damage across livelihoods and communities while putting a strain on local resources. Meanwhile, other factors such as rapid urbanization and the alarming effects of climate change exacerbate such risks.
However, this does not need to be the case for all city center. Reducing such risks and building resiliency in urban areas is in fact a planning and development issue that can be addressed through proper implementation of land use management processes and modern technologies. These regulations can become powerful tools, not only to improve urban living conditions, but in the inclusive transformation towards more functional, resilient and sustainable cities and societies.
For the past decade, the concept of urban resiliency is often associated with smart city developments where risk-resilient approaches are applied from the initial planning stages to eventual construction and building, and even afterward in community building. The smart city approach in urban design leverages sustainable planning and cutting-edge technologies to improve quality of life through optimization of resources, co-existence of urban and ecological systems, and the integration of infrastructure and technology.
Highly urbanized cities today are exploring the potential of smart city planning and development to solve overpopulation woes and high traffic congestion, especially the prospect of land reclamation, for instance.
Land reclamation is the process of creating new land from the sea. The simplest method of land reclamation involves filling the area with large amounts of heavy rock and/or cement, then filling with clay and soil until the desired height is reached.
The earliest major reclamations began in the 1900s, one of which being the notable Changi airport of Singapore. Constructed by the government of Singapore in 1975, the international airport was built over 40 million cubic meters of sand reclaimed from the seabed. The highly acclaimed airport now continues to support the aviation industry and economy of Singapore while targeting greater sustainability through energy conservation, recycling of water as part of its water resource management and tree planting initiatives.
The Bangladesh Government has also seen the potential of land reclamation towards addressing problems of coastal floods, tidal surges and erosion of coastal areas. Located in South Asia, Bangladesh is characterized by their high population growth and scarcity of land – hence the bearing of sustainable management in the overall development of the country. Since 1957, land reclamation by cross-dam construction has been initiated in the country, where closure structures between islands and the mainlands are constructed to accelerate the natural accretion process in their regions.
Well-designed and properly constructed, reclamation projects can help many flood-prone and calamity-stricken countries by providing added protection, such as barriers to mitigate flooding and risks of accelerated rising sea levels. Coupled with smart city solutions such as green buildings, transit-oriented development, and human-centric services, these water sensitive and environmentally friendly infrastructures can even further enhance the local biodiversity and promote a greater quality of life for the residents in its area.
In the Philippines, small smart city practices have been slowly experimented and integrated—an example being the acceleration of digital operations in healthcare and social welfare, or in collecting data for traffic monitoring and public disaster warnings. However, nothing has been fully explored in scale. But with the undeniable reality of the impact of climate change on vulnerable nations such as the Philippines, it is high time that these technologies and practices are put to actual use.
It is vital that our very own cities embrace the complexities of an evolving risk landscape. If the pandemic or the occurrence of natural disasters in the country has taught us, we must be agile and adaptable to change. When our cities are agile enough to foresee potential threats and prepare accordingly, then we are already one step ahead.
Being future-proof and shockproof will now be the hallmark of new cities. While the undertaking of a new city is steep, it is the necessary disruption to present new opportunities for economic growth, foster resiliency and bring in inclusive progress.