Webinar: Supporting Beijing's water eco-restoration strategy

During the two roundtable discussions in March and October 2021, the knowledge and experience shared by international experts received positive feedback from the partners in Beijing. They have helped in shaping the final city water eco-restoration plan submitted to the Beijing municipal government at the end of 2021, for consideration and decision.

Throughout the consultation and exchange in 2021, the Chinese partners showed keen interest in the governance component in overall adaptation activities including in the water sector, due to the cross-sectoral nature of climate adaptation issues.

The aims of this roundtable were:

• Exchange of knowledge and experience among cities globally on adaptation governance at the city level;
• Sharing of Beijing’s experience in governance using the example of the water eco-restoration plan project and beyond.

The roundtable series invited experts participated in planning and coordination of urban resilience initiatives and projects, as well as the Beijing partners, to share their experience and explore further collaboration opportunities.

Chair:

Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez, Senior Advisor, Africa of the Global Center on Adaptation

Participants:

Global Center on Adaptation

Beijing Institute of City Planning & Design (BICP)

Beijing Institute of Water (BIW)

Invited international experts from Beijing, New York and Milan

Program

12:00-12:10 Opening & Introductions

• Short remarks by Joep Verhagen, Program Lead Water & Urban, and Aiping Chen, Regional Director of the China Office, GCA
• Short remarks by ZHAO Dan, BICP
• Introduction of key participants

12:10 - 12:55 Presentations by international experts

• "Beijing Water Ecological Restoration and Conservation Planning and Implementation under the Background of Climate Adaptation". Presentation by Mr. WEI, Baoyi, Senior Engineer, Deputy Head of the Institute of Ecological Planning, BICP.
• Presentation by Ms. Marina Trentin, Project Manager, City Resilience Department, Milan Municipality. 
• Presentation by Mr. Elijah Hutchinson, Vice President of Waterfronts, New York

12:55 - 13:10 Facilitated discussion with special guests

• Katrin Bruebach, Global Director Programs, Innovation & Impact, Resilient Cities Network
• Arnoud Molenaar, Chief Resilience Officer of the City of Rotterdam and lead cities at GCA

13:10-13:50 Discussion

Based on the presentations and framing questions, this section was for all participants to interact on interested topics. See below.

13:50-14:00 Summary takeaways and closing

1. Coordinated cooperation among different functional institutions relevant to natural resource management, e.g. water, parks & forests, agriculture & rural areas, and design & planning. In particular, resolving the conflicts among the institutions on the management of lands used for water management, forestry and farming;
2. Coordination among different river basins and systematic governance within each river basin, including e.g.:
   
   1. Management relationships between upstream and downstream, left and right riverbanks, and surface water and ground water;
   2. Collaborative governance among different regions considering their gaps in development status and the uneven distribution of resources and benefits;
3. Integration of design & planning, standards, policies, projects and funding, towards a joint governing force.

Working with Beijing on its water eco-restoration plan

In this first roundtable of the knowledge exchange, GCA brought together officials from Beijing and international experts to discuss how environmental pressures in Beijing could be mitigated through a water restoration strategy that covered the three principles of water-sensitive or sponge cities. The link to the article and video is here.

Complexities of eco-restoration involve multiple authorities

In this second roundtable, GCA brought together officials from Beijing and international experts to discuss the main objective of IWRM,  communication across sectors and methods of coordination, the responsibility of the government for climate adaptation and disaster resilience through information and experience sharing between cities. The link to the article and video is here.

Effective governance is the key for climate resilience

In this third roundtable, hosted by GCA and Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design in March 2022, experts from experts from Beijing, Milan and New York presented their city's governance in pursuit of becoming climate resilient. Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez, senior advisor to the CEO, GCA chaired the meeting. The link to the article and video is here.