The Rise of Resilience Planning

Preparing for disasters is something of a growth industry. Climate change promises rising sea levels, more intense storms, and searing desertification, even as rapid urbanization puts more pressure on cities to absorb ballooning populations.

To help plan for these and other risks, The Rockefeller Foundation launched the 100 Resilient Cities initiative in 2013. The organization funds a chief resilience officer to work full-time within the government of each participating city to incorporate resilience thinking into the way business is done. The cities then have to produce a resilience strategy, charting out how they will focus their efforts across sectors to be able to bounce back from both sudden shocks and slow-onset disasters. Those officials also network with each other to share their best ideas, and benefit from an array of companies and NGOs that have volunteered their services to help.