What Is Resilience Building?

100 RESILIENT CITIES What Is Resilience Building? Why Focus on Cities? The world's population is concentrating in cities. 1914 2014 2050 0% 70% OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION BY 2050, THAT NUMBER WILL LIVED IN CITIES ONE HUNDRED 0/ OF THE WORLD LIVED IN URBAN 0/ GROW TO APPROXIMATELY 7o 0 %0 AREAS AS OF 2014 YEARS AGO PERCENT The rapid concentration of the world's population in 308 2013 ALONE MAJOR DISASTER EVENTS IN THERE WERE WORLDWIDE, ACCORDING TO GLOBAL REINSURANCE COMPANY SWISS RE cities puts more people at risk from both acute disasters and chronic challenges 150 shocks and stresses. NATURAL DISASTERS 158 MAN-MADE DISASTERS THESE DISASTERS HAD HEAVY COSTS 4,000,00 s140 26,000 PEOPLE WERE LEFT HOMELESS BY A SINGLE EVENT, TYPHOON HAIYAN BILLION IN PEOPLE DEAD ECONOMIC LOSSES O ten billion OR MISSING o one thousand AND 2013 WAS A MILD YEAR IN THE 10 s160 68,000 PRECEDING YEARS BILLION IN DEATHS ANNUAL DISASTER ECONOMIC COSTS AVERAGED DAMAGE O ten billion O one thousand HOW CAN CITIES BUILD RESILIENCE? When departments within a government don't communicate well or work together, they are worse at responding when disaster strikes; one disruption can lead to another and another, a cascade of failures that impacts every body in the city. POLICE A fundamental aspect of City Resilience is dealing with this problem. Cities can change how they communicate and plan by integrating agencies and sectors of society. An integrated approach that looks at the entire city as one cohesive organism lets cities get more from their resources, recover quicker from disasters, and become better in both bad times and good. AN INTEGRATED CITY Cities need an organizing principle to make these changes. They need to understand the qualities of a resilient city. QUALITIES OF A RESILIENT CITY Resilient cities exhibit seven qualities that reflect how they behave when threatened by shocks and stresses. REDUNDANT ROBUST Has Backup INCLUSIVE Limits Сарacity REFLECTIVE Broad Spread of Able to Learn Consultation & Failure INTEGRATED Communication Systems Work FLEXIBLE Together Has Alternative Strategies RESOURCEFUL Can Easily Repurpose Resources REFLECTIVE The ability to learn from past experiences enables cities to plan and respond to likely events more effectively, working to identify vulnerabilities that would make disaster's impact more severe. RESOURCEFUL During disruptions, cities find alternate ways to use resources to maintain essential functions. They continually assess strengths and resources on the fly to allocate resources efficiently. ROBUST By understanding the interdependencies of systems within the city, and thus designing and managing infrastructure well to account for that, cities limit the spread of failure when a disaster or disruption occurs. REDUNDANT Redundancy refers to the deliberate creation of spare capacity. Cities provide essential fallbacks to limit the likelihood that one disruption will completely interrupt a system and precipitate a cascade of failures. FLEXIBLE Flexibility enables cities to adapt during difficult times by offering alternate methods to provide vital services based on changing circumstances – for example, using city buses for emergency evacuations if flooding is imminent. INCLUSIVE Inclusive cities provide social justice by ensuring that a variety of people – including government workers, the business community, and the entire public – have access to and a voice in the system. INTEGRATED Resilient cities include a variety of integrated systems – such as transportation services and emergency services – which communicate and work well together to overlap and support one another effectively. Cities need to change how they plan and operate to address the physical, social, and economic challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century. City resilience is about making cities better and stronger, so they can respond more effectively to disruptions and improve quality of life for everyone, now and in the future. 100 RESILIENT CITIES E- il.