Worldwide, rapid urbanization of urban regions is contributing to an increase in disaster risks. The phenomenon of informal settlements in hazardous areas poses a particular challenge. While focusing on global city competition and urban economy efficiency, extremely marginalised urban poor have often been excluded from national planning agendas, including those in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries. »Urban risk governance«, risk-based land use planning to reduce the inhabitants’ socio-economic vulnerability and improving their adaptability – those are the main goals of LIRLAP. As poorly managed urbanisation is a major driver of disaster risk and poor people are often the ones most severely affected by disasters, it is imperative to introduce risk-informed spatial planning mechanisms in areas where the urban poor mainly live.

LIRLAP takes a dynamic perspective and assesses the impact of future urban growth and densification scenarios in Metro Manila, especially for informal settlements. It takes into account the urban morphology, the socio-economic factor and the future availability of land suitable for resettlement. This is deepened in field work on upgrading and resettlement of informal settlements, complemented by knowledge transfer to and from Thailand and Vietnam. This leads to two pilot studies for resilient upgrading and resettlement designs in the field and application guidelines. The aim is to embed upgrading and resettlement strategies into urban risk management. The same applies to tailor-made training courses and a joint PhD programme in which knowledge and solutions are generated, transferred and disseminated.

All results of the R&D phase are transferable to partner countries and countries with similar development contexts. The R&D phase aims to develop urban growth models under different resettlement or in-situ upgrade options for Metro Manila and transfer the risk trend model to partner cities in Thailand and Vietnam. A cross-country analysis will be developed on these topics. Pilot studies with upgrade design guidelines will be politically approved at the end of the R&D phase. They will be replicated at other upgrade sites of informal high-risk settlements in Metro Manila. Concrete upgrade measures will be tested in the implementation phase and are expected to lead to commercial follow-up activities for »KaiserIngenieure«. A resettlement policy will address a strategy of selective resettlement. Mainstreaming activities will influence policy and decision-making at different planning levels in the Philippines. In particular, it will promote risk-based spatial planning involving multiple stakeholders and institutions. Building on the themes of LIRLAP, training and a PhD programme will be conducted.