The Big Picture

Cities all over the world are facing a growing list of challenges that test the physical, digital, and community infrastructures that form the foundation of prosperous urban areas. In this edition of the Big Picture, presented by Securaxis, we examine the growing conversation on climate adaptation and improving the built environment to better withstand shock,…

“To listen to the noise of a city is to hear a living city. To hear its moments of strength and weakness.” In technical terms, resilience is the ability of materials to withstand shock. A city is made up of both material things and living beings – humans, animals, and plants – that together form…

We are in an era where daily lives are regularly disrupted by extreme weather events that continue to increase in intensity and frequency, breaking previous records. In the past six months alone, many parts of the world were impacted by a series of super strong storms including Cyclone Idai in Southeastern Africa, Hurricane Dorian in…

The last 10,000 years has marked a period of unusual climate stability during Earth’s history. What we have always accepted as the “norm” has actually not been normal at all. As it turns out, geologically-speaking, change is NOT the new normal – stability is. And now that is coming to an end. While this recent…

Infrastructure Enables City Life Infrastructure powers, heats, cools, hydrates, connects, mobilises, and sanitises our cities. It supports the movement of food, people, goods, services, and ideas to, from, and within cities. It makes possible the provision of social infrastructure services to city residents. It enables a range of social and economic activity that simply could…

Urban risk governance serves a critical role for increasing resilience and ensuring inclusive and sustainable development in our cities. Local governments need to form coalitions and work with a variety of stakeholders that will transcend power dynamics to achieve disaster risk reduction (DRR) and resilience building in their communities. However, recent assessments have shown that…

The Dutch have a long-lasting tradition of managing water and doing so effectively has become part of the national identity. Much of the country sits below sea level, and that is why it’s protected by 3,700 km of dikes. The country lies within a river delta and is built up from sediment which is in…

Resilience is the bedrock of our communities. The numerous challenges our communities are grappling with underscores the importance of implementing comprehensive resilience measures across multiple policy areas. Total greenhouse gas emissions attained a historic record of 53.5 CO2-equivalent gigatonnes in 2017,[1] and up to 1 million species are at risk of extinction within the coming…

Introduction: Companies Begin Adapting to Climate Change Increasingly severe and frequent extreme weather events and chronic stresses are threatening urban communities and economic stability globally. In September 2019, during Typhoon Faxai almost a million people lost power throughout Tokyo and commuter trains were canceled. Evacuations were ordered, disrupting both residential life and business operations. Sony…

Understood as complex systems, cities depend on how well they work before a crisis to be prepared in the scenario of a turbulent future. Since 2017 when Quito released its resilience strategy, the city has been preparing itself to face challenges of all kinds, to recover, and to be stronger by focusing on its urban…

Today, cities and their inhabitants are facing intensifying challenges as a result of rapid urbanization, growing inequalities, a changing climate, and increasing political instability. We understand that cities need to move beyond the cycle of crisis response, recovery, and status quo rebuilding in order to address the underlying sources of vulnerabilities. Part of breaking this…

Community resilience planning is a dynamic process that involves multiple parties with varying interests, issues, and goals. Many communities are developing and implementing resilience plans, however, the needs and challenges vary considerably from place to place. Within the planning process, strong leadership, inclusive collaboration, and decision-making grounded in equity must be given key consideration.  …