City Resilience, Resource Efficiency and the Urban Nexus Kimberly Junmookda The Rockefeller Foundation June 18, 2015
RESILIENCE We define urban resilience as the capacity of cities to function, so that people living and working in cities particularly the poor and vulnerable survive and thrive no matter what shocks and stresses they encounter. Supporting the planning and development dialogue in second-tier and emerging cities, especially as they experience rapid growth and as more than half of the world s population lives in cities, many of the most poor and vulnerable. As a lens, we find resilience to be useful in considering a wide possibility of disruptive future events, and not only one hazard or type of event.
THE CITY RESILIENCE FRAMEWORK The City Resilience Framework (CRF) was developed by Arup in 2013. Based on extensive research and fieldwork in six cities that had experienced a recent shock or were suffering from a chronic stress. A lens to understand the complexity of cities and the drivers that contribute to their resilience.
THE CITY RESILIENCE FRAMEWORK The framework allows us to view how various complex and interconnected systems contribute to the city s resilience. These are critical functions the city needs. Water-food-energy constraints cut across several aspects of a city s resilience, such as fostering long term and integrated planning, ensuring the continuity of critical services and provides natural and manmade assets and others. Like an immune/health system, the city needs to have capacities across all areas.
URBAN RESILIENCE Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) 100 Resilient Cities Pre-selection of cities 6 countries; 40 second-tier cities Competition 100 global cities
The Resilience Planning Process
THE RESILIENCE PLANNING PROCESS Engaging city stakeholders Starting a discussion through the City Resilience Framework Formulating working groups Appointing Chief Resilience Officers Conducting assessments Prioritizing actions Developing a city resilience strategy Testing solutions that support the city s broader resilience
Examples: Integrative Solutions
SOLUTION: PERI-URBAN AGRICULTURE IN GORAKHPUR, INDIA Gorakhpur, India The city was expanding into existing agricultural land on the city s periphery. The area was prone to recurrent floods and there is now water logging, now exacerbated by urban development. Through resilience planning, the city developed a solution that integrated various needs, including restoring peri-urban land for agricultural use and developing a climate-resilience livestock system. Food supplies were able to be made available locally; and the land was able to serve as a flood buffer. By seeing the issue across sectors and scales, and looking at the whole, the city was able to devise an integrated solution with benefits across multiple areas.
SOLUTION: WATER REHABILITATION IN INDORE, INDIA Indore, India Indore faced urban flooding, poor drainage and waterlogging from roads and bridges from more frequent and severe rainfall. The effects were especially felt on the most poor. The city had to rely on costly and energy-intensive water transported from a river 35 kilometers away. Poor communities often had little access to water. Integrated solutions involved: Rainwater was harvested using traditional methods and recharging groundwater, to mitigate flood risk and provide a water supply; the nearby Indore Lake was restored to provide a local source of freshwater; the city developed a multi-sectoral partnership with the Indore Zoo to manage a water treatment plant. Requiring the use of reused water for gardening and construction purposes.
SOLUTION: URBAN PLANNING QUY NHON, VIETNAM Quy Nhon, Vietnam The city faced a catastrophic flood in 2009, with 16 deaths, exacerbated by new pressures such as urbanization and urban construction. While individual households were individually safer, this did not mean the city and system as a whole were becoming more resilient. Climate projections showed the city would be increasingly susceptible to major flooding in the future, and would need to continue building more elevated infrastructure. Through the city resilience strategy process, the city was able to begin a conversation to consider an integrative approach which included a combination of urban planning to protect natural floodways, and developing an early warning system.
HOW INTEGRATED RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IS CENTRAL TO RESILIENCE Resource efficiency and integrated resources management are key components of a city s overall resilience. It is important to integrate across sectors, and water-food-energy constraints inevitably factor into the vulnerability of cities. Urban nexus issues matter to other parts of the city s system as well: the way water resources are managed may not only be more energy efficient, but can produce health benefits in lowering incidences of vector-borne disease. In addition to the relevance of the resilience framework, the resilience planning and resilience-building process which promotes coordination across sectors and departments in the cities, can also be a helpful and relevant tool to putting into practice integrated resources planning.
www.rockefellerfoundation.org https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/report/city-resilience-framework/ www.acccrn.net www.100resilientcities.org