Penang Nature-based Climate Adaptation

Creation of new green areas, Knowledge creation and awareness raising

The intervention has several goals focusing on many levels ranging from aspects that specifically address the community's needs to larger challenges pertaining to the cities involvement as well as the country of Malaysia: 1. To reduce flooding and the urban heat island effect (UHI) and overall temperatures (surface temperatures) by employing a variety of nature-based solutions (urban greening, urban agriculture, and green rooftops). 2. To strengthen the capacity of local communities to respond to extreme weather events by raising awareness and capacity development training, focusing on women, youth, and other vulnerable communities. 3. To promote urban agriculture and food security at different levels, including training. 4. To strengthen institutional capacity and coordination between different stakeholders in climate-related issues, improving response to extreme weather events. 5. To develop the first municipal climate change adaptation programme, providing reference and methodology (as well as specific tools), for other cities in Malaysia to adopt, via a knowledge transfer platform. 6. To develop a list of climate-resilient trees for Malaysia. 7. To develop a public health programme that will include a pilot project to monitor heat-related illness in selected hospitals in Penang providing reference and methodology (as well as specific tools), for other cities in Malaysia to adopt. (Ref 3)

The planning stage of the project started in 2019 in partnership with UN-Habitat, Ministry of Environment and Water (KASA), Majlis Bandaraya Pulau Pinang (MBPP), Jabatan Pengairan Dan Saliran (JPS), and Think City (a consultancy and project delivery partner). During the development of the programme, a multipronged community and stakeholder consultation methodology was undertaken that included a series of one-on-one meetings, two workshops, six focus group discussions (FGD) and a survey. The FGDs were held in communities vulnerable to climate change impacts, a) UNESCO World Heritage Site (vulnerable to floods, heat stress and extreme weather events), b) Sungai Pinang community (the most flood-prone area of the city), c) Air Itam (low-income communities). The workshops were attended by 77 local people, the focus groups by 53 and the survey were answered by 324 people. An additional workshop on climate adaptation was held by the Penang State Government in November 2019 as part of its Penang 2030 initiative and was attended by 35 participants from multiple organisations. It was also mentioned that remote sensing will be involved with scenario and impact modelling (to be developed by the National Hydrological Institute Malaysia (NAHRIM) and local university Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) experts will also assist in developing the detailed plans (Ref 1, 2, 3). In 2022 an opening session for the whole project was organized with the participation of the stakeholders. The session contributed to the issuing of an inception report that discusses plans pertaining to the greening stages of the intervention. Discussions revolved around deciding what types of trees, resistant to climate change, should be introduced, how they can be monitored, and what can be measured to prove their benefits (Ref 6). It is expected that the project will plant around 31,000 trees. (Ref 4)

• National-level government
• Local government/Municipality
• Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)
• Non-government organisation/Civil Society
• Researchers/University
• Citizens or community groups
• Marginalized groups: Socio-economically disadvantaged populations (e.g. low-income households, unemployed)
• Young people and children