Effective solutions start with a shift in perspective: recognizing that vulnerability isn’t a blanket issue, but a shifting landscape of unique hazards that must be mapped community by community.

Urban flooding is not  a uniform hazard. From the industrial corridors of the ULHOA community in Valenzuela to the Nalumville community that lies within bends of multiple creeks in  Davao City, every community contends with a highly localized set of risks. Project RURBANISE addresses this by integrating the results of aerial survey mapping that uses drone technology and geohazard data with lived experiences of community members through participatory workshops, capturing vulnerability from both 100 meters above and directly on the ground. 

From April to August 2024, the Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC) spearheaded the Community Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (CVCA) workshops across seven RURBANISE project sites. These participatory sessions empowered Homeowners Associations (HOAs) to  review and assess their exposure and vulnerabilities to hazards and their adaptive responses. The resulting report captures a narrative of ‘common but differentiated‘ resilience. 

The Methodology: Merging Science with Lived Experiences 

Building resilience moves beyond reading a map, but also understanding the real stories behind it. The CVCA workshops followed a four-step process:

1. Development of HOA Fact Sheets 

The partner HOAs were profiled based on their location, history and background, membership, land tenure status, relationship with local governments, and social and environmental concerns. 

A critical feature of the HOA fact sheets is the identification of the watershed where the HOA is located,  thus providing an understanding of the broader hydrological context. With this, the fact sheets illustrate how land-use changes in upland areas—such as deforestation or increased urbanization—exacerbate flooding in downstream floodplains.

Geohazard data from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and from the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (NOAH) of the University of the Philippines (UP) were obtained for the specific HOA locations. These  provided the  hazard information such as flooding, landslides, and storm surges in each partner community. 

2. Pre-Workshop Meetings 

The team held pre-workshop consultations with HOA leaders to ensure that the  objectives are understood and clarified,and that there is participation from the HOA and representatives from local government, apart from finalizing logistics and ensuring the  workshop fits the  each community’s schedule.

3. Transect Walks 

The assessment began with a community-led transect walk, providing an essential firsthand look at the local environment. The transect walk is a participatory, systematic tool where researchers and community members walk together along a defined path across an area to observe, ask questions, and document local conditions, resources, and challenges. It is used to quickly gain spatial understanding, verify data, and build rapport with community. The transect walks are part of the CVCA process and provide an opportunity to closely view identified community concerns such as frequently flooded areas in the community, blocked drainage canals and waterways due to garbage, at-risk housing, evacuation centers, and other infrastructure.

Transect walk at Nalumville

The workshops are designed as a multi-stakeholder forum presided by HOA officers. After a brief orientation on the RURBANISE objectives by ESSC and TAMPEI, the sessions transition into a strategic knowledge exchange. A critical part of the session involves understanding and connecting  ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ perspectives, as  localized coping mechanisms are presented alongside the broader disaster risk reduction management plans of  local governments. 

The workshops are divided into four modules: a) Hazard Reference Events, b) Mapping Exercise, c) Coping Strategies, and d) Socio-Organizational Arrangements.

The Resilience Spectrum 

The seven RURBANISE sites share a common thread: the pursuit of long-term security in an unpredictable climate.

The CVCA workshops however revealed that while some communities grapple with  surviving rising waters, the other communities with safer areas  focus on sustaining their safety.

There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ risk reduction solution. Instead, a nuanced roadmap is revealed where every community, regardless of  their current hazard level, has a specific contribution  in the landscape of urban resilience. 

ESSC divided the communities into five clusters: 1) Flood-Prone, 2) Erosion-Prone, 3) Safe and Strong, and 4) Safe but Needing Re-Engagement, and 5) Need to Re-Build. 

The Front Line: Flood-Prone Communities 

For ULHOA (Valenzuela), Nalumville (Davao), KABALAKA (Iloilo), and SMASH (Mandaue), flooding is a common environmental and social risk. Situated in low-lying floodplains, in riversides and meandering creeks and in coastal catch-basins, these communities are along waterways with some located in the “final destination” for their respective watersheds. Their primary challenge is to get out of harm’s way during extreme rainfall events when flooding and landslides are imminent. 

However, the “differentiated reality” within this cluster reveals that the problem is not about rainfall but how people and the built environment interacts with the hydrological flow: 

• The Infrastructure Traps 

In the industrial and high-density corridors of Valenzuela and the compromised relocation site in Mandaue, natural drainage systems are  significantly compromised by rapid urbanization. For communities like ULHOA and SMASH, resilience is hindered by “infrastructure traps” such as raised roadways and industrial blocks that  impede the flow of floodwaters, a problem worsened by poor garbage disposal and lack of drainage. Furthermore, these densely-populated sites face the threat of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, which elevates the risk of fire. 

In ULHOA, survival strategies are centered on asset protection and internal relocation to higher elevations, and rebuilding efforts that prioritize fire-proofing. For the SMASH community, adaptation means evacuation preparedness, information dissemination for early warning and managing the waters from the river and from the city canal beside the housing site.

• The Watershed Recipients 

In Nalumville and KABALAKA, the risk is defined by their “downstream” status, being situated in proximity to three creeks and a river respectively. For the residents of Nalumville, survival is a shared responsibility. This community is most at risk as the houses are located along meandering creeks that in extreme rainfall events can develop flash floods that can wash away the houses completely. Their coping mechanism is centered on community-wide awareness of climate threats and organized cleanups. Meanwhile, KABALAKA demonstrates a high degree of technical resourcefulness; residents proactively deploy ‘flood-proofing’ measures, such as improvising traplines and erecting trampas (bridge). These localized structures are essential lifelines that allow the community to navigate inundated streets and protect homes from the Batiano River’s overflow.

The Shifting Ground: Erosion-Prone Site 

In APSHAI (Montalban, Rizal), the resilience challenge is defined by its topography r. While the community’s high elevation  reduces the risk of flooding, this same terrain  has a critical  vulnerability, soil erosion that can lead to landslides during rainfall events. 

The APSHAI community  emerged from previous residents at the Payatas dumpsite in Quezon City who relocated to a  three-hectare property acquired through community savings following a tragic landslide in 2000 that claimed over 200 lives. Given the site’s steep elevation, slope stability and landslide susceptibility are primary concerns for the residents. This sloping terrain also presents significant structural challenges for housing construction. Furthermore, establishing consistent access to potable water and a reliable electricity supply remains a continuous challenge for the community.

APSHAI strengthens its resilience through targeted mitigation efforts. By institutionalizing proactive steps like roof maintenance and drainage clearing, the community ensures that its infrastructure remains robust and its pathways for water remain unobstructed, directly reducing the likelihood of property damage during extreme weather. 

The Resilience Blueprint: Safe and Strong Community 

The CASIDHAI community in Camarines Norte is in an upland rura area and established in 2014 for families displaced from the town center by road widening, local insurgencies, and proactive resettlement from disaster-prone areas. The community acquired  an-eight-hectare relocation site that is generally safe from flooding but with steep slopes.. At the moment, only 17 of the 255 members currently reside in the site due to the significant financial investment required for housing construction. Consequently, flooding remains a critical concern for offsite members, particularly those still situated in high-risk areas. 

With the community about an hour from the town center, immediate access to critical services is limited, such as medical facilities during emergencies. However, the site is equipped with basic  infrastructure, including paved roads, a multi-purpose covered court, and a dedicated evacuation center that government agencies provided in coordination with the barangay.

Several members maintain agricultural land for rice and coconut farming, while others are engaged in fishing. Onsite, the HOA is active in developing livelihood opportunities and maintains partnerships with the private sector and government agencies for citronella and soap production, virgin coconut oil processing, and livestock poultry initiatives, including cattle and poultry. Furthermore, Labo’s natural landscape and fresh water sources , present significant potential for ecotourism as a sustainable income source. 

The adaptive capacity of the community is driven by disaster protocols and local coordination. Key strengths include an active partnership in barangay-level DRRM, a clear and actionable evacuation plan, and the implementation of preventative measures aimed at reducing disaster-related vulnerabilities.

The Untapped Potential: Safe but Needs Re-Engagement 

Resilience extends beyond mere physical protection from hydro-meteorological hazards like flooding and landslides. For HOA 1 in Kidapawan, Cotabato, building adaptive capacity is an exercise in multi-stakeholder engagement, requiring active collaboration with the local government and supporting organizations. To reflect this, the CVCA workshop methodology was specifically tailored to address the unique institutional landscape and evolving needs of this community. 

The relocation history of HOA 1 is marked by a gradual transition that began in 2002. Although only 30 of the 136 member households currently reside onsite, the community maintains a low profile with the local government. Despite this being a fraction of the total membership, city officials were largely unaware of the community’s presence, as revealed during the CVCA workshop.

Currently, the pioneering residents are developing community gardens and open spaces to incentivize the remaining offsite members to begin construction.

The overall location is categorized as generally safe from climate-related hazards. Hazard assessment data confirm that the site is safe from storm surges. While it remains partly susceptible to flooding, its risk level for rain-induced landslides is classified as least to moderate, suggesting manageable geological vulnerabilities. However, the residents identified four critical infrastructure gaps: 1) issues in water access, 2) land encroachment and residential proximity to high-voltage transmission posts, 3) poor drainage system, and 4) limited power connections for electricity. 

The association is actively seeking strategic collaboration with the city government, encouraged by a perceived institutional openness toward community-led partnerships.

The Fragile Foundation: Need to Re-build 

During the preparatory consultations, it became evident that two partner communities face critical, non-climate-related threats that required immediate attention. Smart Tower (Muntinlupa City), situated within the compound of the New Bilibid Prison, was navigating an imminent eviction threat and tenure insecurity. Meanwhile, the ASHAI community (Talisay, Cebu) suffered a devastating fire in March 2024 damaging 125 houses, mere days before the scheduled workshops. Recognizing these urgent crises, the team deferred the standard CVCA workshops in favor of specialized situational assessments to better understand the communities’ changed priorities. 

Despite these challenges, hazard assessments were conducted for both sites. Regarding hydro-meteorological hazards, data from Project NOAH indicate that SMART Tower is safe from flooding, landslides, and storm surges. However, MGB data classifies the area as having least susceptibility to rain-induced landslides due to the community’s elevated, hilly topography. Conversely, while ASHAI’s immediate priority remained post-fire recovery, its hazard assessment reveals significant environmental risks; the site is characterized as highly susceptible to flooding and storm surges during intense tropical cyclones due to its low-lying coastal location, though it remains safe from landslide hazards.

The Next Steps 

The Community Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (CVCA) workshop, a core participatory element of the RURBANISE project, provided a vital venue for the communities to transform post-disaster experiences into a structured analysis of local risks. Moving forward, these insights would be integrated with flood model simulations and household surveys to develop a comprehensive understanding of “differential vulnerability.” This data-driven approach ensures that the project accounts for how the unique intersection of urbanization and geography affects each community differently. 

At the institutional and local levels, the focus shifts toward actionable validation and organizational strengthening. The team would revisit each site to validate findings and provide targeted support for the immediate action points identified by residents, ensuring that the transition from assessment to implementation is both community-led and sustainable. Moreover, the results would be a critical element in HPFPI strategic plan review, addressing the need for internal leadership re-orientation to build more resilient social structures. 

As Project RURBANISE moves from assessment to implementation, the goal remains clear: to ensure that every partner community—whether on the flood-prone front lines or the shifting ground of relocation—has the structural and social foundation to thrive in an era of urban uncertainty.

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CLARE is a £110m, UK-Canada framework research programme on Climate Adaptation and Resilience, aiming to enable socially inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards. CLARE is an initiative jointly designed, funded and run by the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and Canada’s International Development Research Centre. CLARE is primarily funded by UK aid from the UK government, along with the International Development Research Centre, Canada. 

The UK is the majority funder of the initiative, providing 85% of the ‘CLARE Research’ funding and funding CLARE Services and Partnerships. Canada provides 15% match-funding towards CLARE Research and is its main delivery partner. Both organisations work closely to set the strategic and technical directions of the initiative.

This blog was initially published on the TAMPEI website: https://www.tampei.org/post/watersheds-and-workshops-the-science-of-community-resilience