Following a Step by Step Development of a Resilience Action Plan

Abstract

According to the United Nations, by 2030, 60% of the world’s population will live in cities, and 70% by 2050. Both consolidated and fast urbanizing areas face diverse acute shocks from natural disasters and long-term stresses, such as the effects of climate change. Therefore, there is a need for cities to implement plans for increasing resilience and improving preparedness to cope with both acute shocks and long-term stresses. Development of resilience action plans (RAP) constitutes an important process for the cities to plan their resilience enhancement in the long, medium, and short terms. These are key tools for the city, considering the associated complexity, uncertainties, data scarcity, interdependencies among urban services provided in the city, as well as involved stakeholders. Herein, a framework is presented to support city resilience action planning related to climate change through a multisector approach. The framework was applied step by step to three cities—Barcelona, Bristol, and Lisbon—and their RAPs to climate change provide roadmaps for resilience, having the urban water cycle as the core. In these plans, urban services are included, given their interactions and contributions to city’s resilience. Addressed services are water supply, wastewater, storm water, waste, electric energy, and mobility.

Assessing the Inclusion of Water Circularity Principles in Environment-Related City Concepts Using a Bibliometric Analysis

“…Each concept provides enriched and useful insights for city roadmaps and other policy instruments. This underlines the contributions of Cardoso et al [5] regarding the importance of water resilience in cities and the contributions of Sánchez Levoso et al [9] regarding the role of urban systems in the transition towards CE and the development of related roadmaps.…”

“…Cities are the hub of large agglomerations with significant water consumption patterns (human consumption, production activities, cleaning of urban spaces, among others) that challenge water infrastructures, practices, and intensities of their use, increasing the complexity of urban water systems and threatening the path to sustainability [4]. As the center of numerous water-related environmental challenges such as floods, droughts, and quality issues aggravated by overconsumption, cities are making considerable efforts to mitigate water scarcity and improve urban resilience with innovative solutions that require technology, governance, knowledge capacity, and reliable roadmaps [5]. However, the integration of water sustainability criteria into investment decisions remains a blind spot, evident by the unclear formulation of water policies [6].…”

Telluric and Climate-Related Risk Awareness, and Risk Mitigation Strategies in the Azores Archipelago: First Steps for Building Societal Resilience

“…The willingness of the local population to invest and protect against hazards should be tested in a more robust way than that presented here, as exemplified in a Sardinian study [11], due to a lack of analysis on climate change and hazard insurance adoption at regional, national and global levels. In addition, societal resilience could be enhanced by using an analytical method that helps to interpret strengths and weaknesses to identify opportunities and threats of a system (SWOT analysis), as showcased in recent European examples [44,45].…”

Exploring Strategic Directions of Pandemic Crisis Management: A Text Analysis of World Economic Forum COVID-19 Reports

“…The absence of relevant practical knowledge about pandemic response raises the levels of ignorance and uncertainty, and thus, another dimension of the crisis appeared [29]. While the pandemic crisis itself has produced diverse issues and problems from social, economic, and cultural aspects, the recognition of inability and ignorance is a new issue and allows for setting an agenda regarding preparation for future events [30][31][32].…”