DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/08December) –The city will integrate the results and recommendations of the recent survey conducted by the World Wide Fund (WWF) Philippines in updating the urban area’s zoning and infrastructure systems to make them viable in the next 10 years.
Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said yesterday in her speech read by Roberto P. Alabado III, officer-in-charge of the City Planning and Development Office, that the results would play a role in revising the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP), Zoning Ordinance and Comprehensive Development Plan.
“The city government recognizes that the pursuit of development and environmental preservation must go hand in hand, therefore our adaptation to climate change is vital as we continue to position Davao City as one of the top travel destinations in the country,” she said.
Her speech was read by Alabado at the launching of the survey results yesterday at the Marco Polo Davao Hotel.
According to the study titled “Business Risk Assessment and the Management of Climate Change Impacts,” which began in August last year in selected four cities, Davao City was the least vulnerable to climate change with a score of 5.68%.
The remaining three urban areas namely, Baguio City, Ilo-ilo City and Cebu City scored higher in vulnerability to climate change with Baguio City emerging as the most vulnerable.
The four cities were selected based on the occurrence of floods, storms, droughts and other extreme climate events from 1990 to 2010.
The WWF-Philippines observed that Davao City has still more room for sustainable and integrated area development amid its population of 1.5 million. The urban area also has not experienced any typhoons, the group added.
But the group said that while the urban area is typhoon-free, it will still likely have to deal with climate change impacts such as sea level rise, increased sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification.
The WWF-Philippines recommended that the city should come up with climate-smart zoning and efficient land or sea access infrastructure to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
The shipping fleet and port facilities should also be upgraded, it added.
Alabado told reporters that the recommendations will be included in the CLUP that served as a basis in updating the 1996 Zoning Ordinance.
The revised plan would be presented to the mayor and division heads by next week, he added.
“We have to also brace for immigrating households to the city,” he said, adding that they needed to upgrade all the programs and projects to be prepared for immigration. (MindaNews)
