Inside Story : Building resilience to climate change locally - The case of Valenzuela City, Metro Manila

This case study examines climate resilience efforts in Valenzuela City, Metro Manila, focusing on its vulnerability to flooding and its participation in the Partners for Resilience (PfR) programme to integrate climate change adaptation and ecosystem management into disaster risk reduction.

• Valenzuela City is highly vulnerable to flooding due to its low-lying geography and its location at the confluence of the Tullahan, Polo, and Meycauayan rivers. Flooding occurs during high tides and regularly as flash floods during the rainy season, with stagnant water sometimes remaining for up to 4 weeks because of improper solid waste disposal, insufficient drainage, and excessive water volume. These events lead to health risks including leptospirosis, dengue, coughs, and colds, and cause economic losses for office workers and small businesses such as fish-food processors, furniture makers, street vendors, and small-scale autorepair shops.
• In 2011, Valenzuela City became one of five project areas in the Philippines under the Partners for Resilience (PfR) programme, a collaboration between five Netherlands-based organisations and 30 civil society partners in the global South. The programme seeks to build resilient communities by combining ecosystem management and restoration, climate change adaptation, and disaster risk reduction.
• The case study identifies several factors for building urban resilience: the use of partnerships and networking to sustain programmes and innovation; the integration of climate science and information across different timescales; and the use of local ordinances and national laws. It notes that while climate- and ecosystem-smart disaster risk reduction is feasible at the city level, it requires resources, time, and commitment from community members and local chief executives. Furthermore, local governments are advised to plan holistic interventions rather than treating disaster risk reduction, ecosystem management, and climate change adaptation as isolated concepts.

APA

Climate and Development Knowledge Network (2015). Inside Story : Building resilience to climate change locally - The case of Valenzuela City, Metro Manila. https://cdkn.org/resource/inside-story-building-resilience-climate-change-valenzuela-manila

Chicago

Climate and Development Knowledge Network. Inside Story : Building resilience to climate change locally - The case of Valenzuela City, Metro Manila. 2015. https://cdkn.org/resource/inside-story-building-resilience-climate-change-valenzuela-manila.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |title=Inside Story : Building resilience to climate change locally - The case of Valenzuela City, Metro Manila |date=18 March 2015 |url=https://cdkn.org/resource/inside-story-building-resilience-climate-change-valenzuela-manila |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climateanddevelopmentknowledgenetwork2015inside, author = {{Climate and Development Knowledge Network}}, title = {{Inside Story : Building resilience to climate change locally - The case of Valenzuela City, Metro Manila}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2015}, month = mar, url = {https://cdkn.org/resource/inside-story-building-resilience-climate-change-valenzuela-manila}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }