Making Cities Resilient Report 2012

CHAPTER 3 | Key Trends on Resilience-Building in Cities
KEY TRENDS ON RESILIENCE-BUILDING IN CITIES
There response to urban risk varies widely at city level, depending on the
environmental context, the size of the city, and the stage of the city’s
development. A comparison of how cities are addressing risk offers unique
insight into the meaning of resilience at city level – how it is understood and
how it is implemented – with notable differences in the type of activities
undertaken by cities in different environmental and developmental contexts,
and those at the early versus more advanced stages of resilience building.
This section explores some of the key trends emerging, based on the
activities cities are pursuing.
Across all the cities analysed in this report, the five types of activities occurring most frequently are:
1. Taking disaster risk reduction into account in new urban planning regulations, plans and
development activities;
2. Establishing councils/committees/disaster management structures dedicated to disaster risk
reduction;
3. Constructing hazard-resistant infrastructure or improving existing facilities;
4. Establishing education/awareness/training programmes;
5. Organizing multi-stakeholder dialogues.
Another important trend is the extent to which cities are integrating disaster risk reduction into other
local government activities, including education, livelihoods, health, environment, and planning, either by
incorporating risk considerations into existing activities or initiating projects that address multiple issues
simultaneously. This trend is noteworthy for those who identify the reduction of baseline vulnerability
factors as a prerequisite to resilience (see Wisner et al 2004).
Early versus advanced resilience-building activities
Among the responses observed in cities at the early stage of resilience building is the creation of new disaster
risk reduction committees or working groups that provide a dedicated space to discuss risk issues.
An example is in Rwanda, where UN-Habitat has assisted the central government to roll out a national programme
institutionalizing disaster risk committees in self-selecting urban municipalities. Other activities
taking place among cities at early stages of resilience building include:
• Undertaking risk assessments (Pune)
• Applying simple structural solutions to mitigate hazard impacts (Siquirres)
• Taking environmental protection measures such as tree planting or wetland conservation (Kampala)
• Writing city development plans (Thimphu).
Read more about what these cities are doing in Chapter 4.
Making Cities Resilient Report 2012 | 33