The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) requires that, for the
implementation of the Sustainable Urban Development Network (SUD-Net) Cities and
Climate Change Initiative (CCCI) in Walvis Bay, through working with the Walvis Bay City
Council, the Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP) / Environmental Planning and
Management (EPM) approach be followed.
The SCP process activities are as follows (UN-HABITAT and UNEP, 1998):
Preparation of an Environmental Profile;
Conducting the City Consultation;
Establishing and Operationalizing Working Groups;
Negotiating/formulating Strategies and Action Plans; and
Institutionalizing the EPM Process (cutting across and initiated in parallel to the
above-mentioned activities).
Key EPM Principles include: cross-sectoral/institutional and system wide coordination;
broad-based public/private/popular participation; priority problem-solving implementation
focus; building city capacities and partnerships; using demonstration projects and upscale;
attitudinal changes through joint actions or interventions; relying on bottom-up/demand led
actions; feedback for national-level policy changes; central focus on
development/environmental interactions; and mainstreaming environmental issues in
urban planning.
The focus of this study is to report on the vulnerable areas, environmental hotspots and
areas susceptible to the effects of climate change within Walvis Bay. Even though
information on the activity sectors (including the environmental setting) is provided, and
the generic Environmental Profile table of contents (UN-HABITAT and UNEP, 1998) was
considered, the report should not be regarded as an Environmental Profile for the town of
Walvis Bay, but rather as a first draft for the preparation of a comprehensive
Environmental Profile for the town.