Building Coastal Resilience for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation through Green-Gray Infrastructure

Extreme weather events brought about by climate change have caused devastating impacts on communities in many parts of the world; affecting people’s lives and infrastructure in an unprecedented manner. Extreme weather events are the most prominent risk facing humanity and 2017 was the most costly hurricane season on record. As extreme weather events increase in both intensity and frequency it is critical that preemptive solutions to mitigate disasters are found. Nowhere is this more true than in the Philippines where 62% of the country’s population lives in coastal zones. The scale of devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 revealed a high degree of vulnerability among coastal and small island communities in a region regularly hit by tropical cyclones. The situation is expected to worsen with more frequent extreme events compounded by sea level rise. Conservation International (CI) in collaboration with Bechtel Corporation’s Building Resilient Communities Program is piloting a new approach for coastal protection at two sites in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. The project integrates ecological solutions with engineering structures, providing green-gray infrastructure to alleviate the impact of extreme weather events. By blending green and gray techniques the environment becomes more adaptable and resilient than either technique applied alone. The concept designs, planned for implementation in 2019, use civil engineering techniques to establish and support the rehabilitation of mangrove communities. The long-term benefits of rehabilitating coastal mangrove forests in the region will mitigate climate change impacts and support community adaptation strategies.