Aligned with the first pillar of the Urban Infrastructure Resilience Programme (UIRP) - Capacity Building - CDRI, in collaboration with Deltares and with the support of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management of the Government of the Netherlands, has developed an e-learning course on Building Resilience of Urban Water Infrastructure Systems: Managing Floods and Water Scarcity. This course aims to strengthen the capacities of policymakers, local government officials, academia, and training institutions from the Global South to address the growing challenges of climate- and disaster-induced risks to urban water infrastructure.

The course is divided into five modules :

• Module 1: Introduction to urban water infrastructure resilience and course overview
  • Trainer - Hans Gehrels, Strategic Advisor on Urban Resilience
• Module 2: Risk Assessment for infrastructure resilience and urban development 
  • Trainers - Hans Gehrels, Strategic Advisor on Urban Resilience; Philip Ward, Senior Specialist Disaster Risk Management and Climate Adaptation
• Module 3: Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for urban resilience — their benefits, integration with traditional systems, and lessons from global case studies
  • Trainers - Floris Boogaard, Nature-based Solutions Specialist; Begoña Arellano Jaimerena, Spatial Planning and Nature-based Solutions expert
• Module 4: Multi-level Governance for water-resilient cities — aligning disaster and climate risk management with water governance
  • Trainers - Jim Lilly, Disaster and Flood Risk Management specialist; Ana Nunez Sanchez, Transformative Governance specialist
• Module 5: Sustainable Finance for resilient urban water systems — exploring best practices, strategies, and challenges
  • Trainers - Viviane Cavalcanti, Climate Adaptation and Disaster Risk Financing specialist; Åse Johannessen, Transformative Governance and Systems Ecology specialist; Peter Jansson, Climate Adaptation Economics specialist; John Kucharski, Climate Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptive Planning expert

CDRI has conducted a pilot in-person training to test and refine the course modules. The training was attended by over 30 participants from Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, which involved a diverse stakeholder group consisting of infrastructure professionals, urban planners, city officials, and academicians.

This course can be adapted to deliver bespoke in-person training programmes for CDRI Member Countries. As a next step, training programmes will be organised for the countries covered under CDRI’s Urban Infrastructure Resilience Programme (UIRP). Additionally, CDRI will partner with training institutes and organizations across the Member Countries to broaden the reach of these programmes and engage wider audiences.