Paving the Way for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure - UN CC:Learn

PART IChapter 1: IntroductionIntroductionOn 7-8 November 2009, El Salvador experienced extreme rainfall that caused severe flooding and landslidesin seven of the country’s 14 departments, including San Salvador. The heavy rains killed about 200people and left thousands of households without homes. Damage to infrastructure was also high, with 43bridges destroyed and another 161 damaged. Many communities were left without access to transport,communications, electricity and basic services.1The country is projected to face an increase in such severe weather events and risks related to climatevariability and change. In response, El Salvador sought assistance from the United Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP) to develop preventative measures to avoid catastrophic injuries to people anddamage to infrastructure. This assistance, requested by El Salvador’s Ministry of Public Works (MOP) andMinistry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), came in the form of policy capacity building.UNDP was asked to develop a strategic framework for decision-making processes for climate-resilientinfrastructure that would incorporate long-term climate change adaptation (CCA) as well as more immediatedisaster risk management (DRM) into policies for the planning, design, construction (including retrofittingand reconstruction), operation and maintenance of public infrastructure.To further support El Salvador and meet its request for aid in this area, UNDP organized an internationalconference on strategies for adapting public and private infrastructure to climate change in San Salvadoron 30 June 2010. This report presents the proceedings from the conference. The proceedings are a compilationof the statements and technical papers presented at the conference, as well as background informationand available strategies for increasing the climate resilience of infrastructure.PurposeThis Report summarizes the proceedings of the El Salvador conference. It also outlines the multiple developmentbenefits of climate proofing infrastructure and the importance of conducting such an exercisewithin a broader territorial approach. While these Proceedings address the specific context of El Salvador,the methodologies outlined can be applied to a wide range of situations. The proceedings are meant toserve as a guidance document for practitioners working to protect public and private infrastructure fromthe devastating impacts of climate change in order to avoid human and economic loss.Paving the Way for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure: Conference Proceedings 3