Building Urban Resilience Doesn't Require Much Building At All

Disasters happen – from floods to fires to earthquakes, natural and unnatural catastrophes have always and will always strike cities. That these extreme events take place is less important than how well cities are able to withstand and bounce back from these inevitable and unfortunate events.

A disaster-free city is a fantasy. More realistic and more desirable is a city that's resilient in the face of disaster. This pragmatism is spreading to cities across the world as officials try to figure out what they can do to reduce the impact of disasters and to help their cities make it through to the other side. It's becoming increasingly important as cities grow and urbanization rates rise, as a new report [PDF] from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction outlines.