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Making Cities Resilient – My City is Getting Ready!
Essential 4: Infrastructure Protection, Upgrading and Resilience “Invest in and maintain critical infrastructure that reduces risk, such as flood drainage, adjusted where needed to cope with climate change.”
Critical areas for flood risk and landslide prevention include: urban drainage and sewerage systems; disposal and control of solid waste; “green management” of the city with increased flood retention ponds; open permeable spaces and trees; slope stabilization and erosion control; dikes and embankments and coastal protection. Recognize that flood defenses increase risks for those outside the protected area and that residents’ over-reliance on defenses can lead to a false sense of security.
Why? Not all hazards are destined to cause disasters. Preemptive measures can help avoid the disruption, incapacitation or destruction of networks, grids and infrastructure, which can cause severe social, health and economic consequences. Collapsed buildings are the greatest cause of mortality during earthquakes. Poorly planned roads or insufficient drains cause many landslides. Lifelines such as roads, bridges and airports, electric and communications systems, hospital and emergency services and energy and water supplies are essential for a city to function during a response to disaster.
What? Strengthen protective infrastructure • Adopt city policies, management strategies and plans for geological, climate-related and technological hazards and extremes that combine structural and non-structural measures to strengthen protective infrastructure. • Assess the risks to each system, review their operation, effectiveness and functions and develop programmes to redesign or strengthen those that are malfunctioning (these measures will also improve service delivery in general). • Recognize physical environmental changes that could potentially alter flood patterns and take into account future impacts of climate change, such as sea level rise, storm surge, and increased rainfall; establish early warning and monitoring systems that alert crisis management agencies to risks that approach coping threshholds. • Ensure that roads and sites are designed to be accessible in case of emergencies, including fire or earthquakes. Ensure that all public buildings follow seismic codes adapted to the area; promote compliance with these codes by all developers and builders.