Advocacy for urban resilience: UNISDR’s Making Cities Resilient Campaign

Abstract

This paper reviews what local governments in more than 50 cities are doing with regard to disaster risk reduction. It draws on the reports of their participation in the global Making Cities Resilient Campaign and its 10 "essential" components, and on interviews with city mayors or managers. These show how resilience to disasters is being conceived and addressed by local governments, especially with regard to changes in their institutional framework and engagement with communities and other stakeholders, also in mobilizing finance, undertaking multi-hazard risk assessments, upgrading informal settlements, adjusting urban planning and implementing building codes. The paper summarizes what city mayors or managers view as key milestones for building resilience, and further discusses their evaluation of the usefulness of the campaign to them. It also discusses how a local government-focused perspective on disaster risk reduction informs our understanding of resilience. This includes how development can contribute much to disaster risk reduction as well as a more tangible and operational understanding of resilience (resistance + coping capacity + recovery + adaptive capacity) that local governments can understand and act on.

Unpacking resilience policy discourse

“…In academic debates, most attention has been given to the definition (e.g. Johnson and Blackburn, 2014) and the development of models of resilience (Christoplos, 2014). In practice, governments and other institutions have adopted the term in policy documents and strategic plans aiming at enhancing resilience in the built environment and society.…”

Urban Resilience in Climate Change Adaptation: A Conceptual Framework

“…This is discussed as an overall cumulative activity that encompasses everything from building a city and infrastructure investment to socioeconomic progress [54]. Governance means that quality infrastructure and services must be steadily provided and maintained at the city level; the political process involved in decision-making is critical.…”

“…The increasing concentration of populations and assets and the embedded conditions of socio-economic and spatial vulnerabilities make urban centers more susceptible to the risk of being severely affected by natural disasters than rural settings. With the potential adverse impacts of climate change, vulnerability in urban areas deserves special attention for disaster risk reduction [54,66]. From this point of view, cities are important as spatial units; they are well equipped to acquire capabilities needed to effectively implement risk-reducing measures.…”

“…Thus, urban climate resilience needs to be seen as the degree to which cities can tolerate stress before they must restructure and reform [53], and urban climate resilience and related discussions must constitute a significant portion of policy design [67]. This leads to a discourse about maintaining a system designed to lessen disaster risks and about cities and local governments' executive power to successfully implement changes [54,68]. Local governments' executive power means they have the ability to design comprehensive resilience policies with participation from various stakeholders during the decision-making process to bring about innovative changes.…”

Resiliência urbana e a gestão de riscos de escorregamentos: uma avaliação da defesa civil do município de Santos - SP.

“…Holling, aos quais alguns autores referem-se como sendo a origem do termo (JOHNSON; BLACKBURN, 2014;LEICHENKO, 2011;LHOMME et al, 2013;LORENZ, 2010 (CUTTER et al, 2008;MANYENA, 2006;MANYENA et al, 2011, SULAIMAN, 2014. Garantir que a redução de riscos de desastres seja uma prioridade nacional e local com forte base institucional para sua implantação.…”