Parks and other green spaces provide both health and environmental benefits, making them a key element in making towns and cities more livable and climate-resilient. Photo: ADB.

greatermekong – Vulnerable towns in Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and Viet Nam are using “green infrastructure” to stave off the impacts of climate change.

The towns of Battambang, Kaysone Phomvihane, and Dong Ha are very different but they have a few things in common. Each is threatened by flooding that stands to get worse in the face of climate change, and each is undergoing a climate resilience makeover to address the problem.

Battambang, Cambodia has a large flood- and drought-prone watershed area and sits near the Tonle Sap Lake. Kaysone Phomvihane in Lao People’s Democratic Republic faces frequent extreme flooding along the Mekong River. Dong Ha in Viet Nam is a typhoon-prone coastline city threatened by sea level rise, storm surge, and flash flooding.

These communities face long-term harm because of the diversion of their scarce resources from social services and other activities to emergency responses to floods and other climate-related disasters. Tiếp tục đọc “Building tough, resilient towns in the Greater Mekong Subregion” →