Cities turning crisis into change
Cities serve as crucial centers for the global population, economic activity, and cultural exchange. However, their inherent benefits, such as density and interconnectedness, can also render them susceptible to a wide array of crises, spanning from natural disasters to economic shocks and pandemics. This report extrapolates insights from recent crises in order to offer a strategic framework for urban policymakers to enhance resilience against prospective shocks, such as by fostering sustainability and fostering inclusive growth.
THE ESSENTIALITY OF RESILIENCE
The report emphasizes the significance of resilience in enabling cities to effectively absorb, recover from, and adapt positively to shocks, while also adjusting to long-term transitions. Given the spatial concentration of individuals, businesses, and infrastructure within urban areas, a systemic approach is essential for effectively addressing crises. In such scenarios, a disturbance in one sector has the potential to cascade through to others, thereby magnifying the overall impact. Throughout history, natural disasters, wars, health crises, demographic shifts, technological evolution, and macroeconomic change have acted as challenges and catalysts for transforming urban design, industry, transport, public and social services, and other policy areas. When cities demonstrate multifaceted resilience through proactive planning, investment, and innovation, they maintain their position as drivers of economic growth, ensure the safety of their inhabitants, and protect vital infrastructure in the presence of progressively intricate and interrelated threats.
NINE LESSONS FOR URBAN POLICY
The report articulates nine essential lessons for reconsidering urban policies, derived from the insights gained through recent crises:
1. Addressing inequalities is essential for building resilience. Crises disproportionately affect vulnerable groups. Their impact can be amplified by high levels of inequality across people, places, and firms. For instance, low-wage workers were significantly more susceptible to contracting infections amid the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently conveyed this exposure to their overcrowded residences situated in inadequately serviced locales.
2. Cities must leverage the benefits of density – such as reduced carbon footprints and enhanced public transit – while preserving natural landscapes and preventing sprawl. To enhance resilience against floods and heatwaves, and to promote accessibility and efficient services.
3. Strong social contracts drive effective crisis management. Citizens must have confidence in the government to facilitate an efficient response. The pandemic has unveiled the manner in which the intimate relationships between local authorities and inhabitants facilitate the garnering of support to effectively coordinate, oversee, and provide national-level interventions and assets at the grassroots level.
4. Central governments must adapt crisis responses to fit local conditions. Cities’ unique physical, social, economic, and environmental characteristics play a critical role in influencing the efficacy of centralized budget and infrastructure choices, such as those related to healthcare and emergency services.
5.Aligning national actions to local capacities is crucial for effective crisis response and resilience. The disparate effects of crises across regions with diverse degrees of administrative, political, and fiscal decentralization necessitate concerted efforts to ensure a coherent and efficient response.
6. Assessing short-term needs in light of long-term goals helps avoid unintended consequences and sustaining resilience over time. For instance, fossil-fuel subsidies may provide protection to populations during an energy crisis; however, they should not impede the low-carbon transition envisaged in the Paris Agreement.
7. Digitalization is reshaping patterns of living, work, and travel. The pandemic expedited the process of digitalization and altered lifestyle trends. Remote work has decreased the demand for commercial real estate in urban centers, leading to opportunities for innovative utilization and adaptation. However, it poses challenges for municipal finances and transportation systems.
8. Diversification of value chains can enhance the resilience of locations. Crises have the potential to interrupt global supply chains, thereby creating opportunities for enhancing local economies by providing alternative suppliers through strategies such as ‘re-shoring’, ‘near-shoring’, and other risk mitigation approaches.
9. Crises can serve as potent catalysts for green and just transitions, as they generate urgency and create openings for systemic transformation. Place-based policies can address the unequal impacts of crises on different working, mobility, consumption, and production patterns.
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