Developing an Urban Resilience Strategy

Cities consist of vast networks of individuals, institutions, and systems. The same networks are shaped by centuries-old structures that make deep collaborations and innovation within government agencies and across sectors all too rare.

In the 21st Century, it is financially and socially imperative for cities to operate differently. The Urban Resilience Strategy is one of the core tools that propels and guides cities through the process of building resilience. The strategy is a product of a six-to-nine month process which unites people, projects, and priorities, and surfaces crucial new solutions so that cities can collectively act on their resilience challenges. Resilience Strategies are more than a milestone — they are a roadmap, a call to action, and an expression of the cities’ priorities for building resilience.

Cities around the world, from New York and Buenos Aires to Melbourne and Rotterdam have produced their first-ever resilience strategies. As more and more cities prepare to take this important step, we want to share more about the process of developing a sound resilience strategy, so that other can learn from this work.

The City of Paris seeks to apply a “resilience lens” to its most pressing challenges, evaluating its risks in an inclusive and holistic way, inviting citizens and communities to participate in the city’s future and pursuing integrated, multi-benefit solutions.

The Essential Ingredients

One of the core principles in the Strategy Development Process is to avoid reinventing the wheel, building on the existing activities, processes and projects that are already underway. A city’s Chief Resilience Officer can analyze existing efforts and determine ways to integrate the city’s activities into a unified agenda that supports resilience-building. Building on existing work also brings together many different public and private stakeholders across the city, which can lend valuable political support and technical expertise to the city’s resilience work.

Developing a resilience strategy is not a linear process, but rather an iterative one. The city will continually collect new information, synthesize and evaluate it, ask questions to help identify topics of focus, and bring in new partners and stakeholders from across the city.

Each city’s strategy process culminates with the release of a Resilience Strategy, a concrete action plan that outlines projects and initiatives specifically tailored to the city’s strengths and vulnerabilities. This Strategy gives the city a strong foundation to build resilience and triggers action: spurring coordination, integration, prioritization, and resilience thinking; connecting the city to private sector solution providers that will help them address their challenges, and signaling to the market what additional tools need to be created; and establishing an ongoing global practice of resilience.

Chicago’s Resilience Strategy seeks to address four principle challenges by creating a more connected city where residents, neighborhoods, institutions, corporations, and government agencies are successfully connected in pursuit of economic opportunity, safety, security, and sustainability for all.

How It Works

The development of an Urban Resilience Strategy is made up of two phases: which are led by the CRO and 100RC with significant stakeholder engagement and input, support from partners, and peer learning with other cities around the world.

In the first phase of strategy development , the city’s focus is to gather data, engage the community and stakeholders, understand how the city is already functioning, and create a preliminary work plan outlining where the city will focus and why.

In the second phase of the strategy development process, the city turns these diagnostics and assessments into actionable initiatives and projects. Exploring and analyzing each focus area, the city can evaluate its opportunities, and initiate workshops and closer study of areas such as financing or risk modeling.

The final step is to implement the city’s Resilience Strategy. The strategy serves as a guide, articulating the city’s priorities and the specific initiatives to reach them in both the near and long-term. Rather than a static road map, the resilience strategy is a living document to be continuously fine-tuned as priorities are addressed and initiatives are implemented.

What Comes Next

As of May 2019, more than 50 cities around the world have released comprehensive urban resilience strategies. More than 80 cities in our network have hired CROs. Dozens of cities have committed to funding offices dedicated to resilience, ensuring that this crucial work is carried forward long-term.

The resilience strategy process is a critical first step. We are thrilled to see how cities around the world move toward a more resilient future.