The Urban Resilience program helps cities prepare for the impacts of climate change through land use policies and development strategies. From rising sea levels to extended droughts, the changing climate poses severe threats to cities and communities, especially communities which have been historically marginalized by land use decisions. The program’s work on city resilience includes research, convenings and technical assistance projects responding directly to the needs articulated by cities and community-based partners.
The Resilient Land Use Cohort (RLUC) brings together 8 ULI District Councils to work with city and agency partners on enhancing resilience through land use and development strategy. Core topics for cities within the cohort have included extreme heat, coastal development and retrofit strategies.
Resilience Advisory Services Panels (ASPs) and Technical Assistance Panels (TAPs) are dynamic workshops which bring together ULI members to provide strategic input for cities’ pressing resilience challenges. The program welcomes partnerships with new cities or community organizations seeking technical assistance related to resilience, land use and development strategy.
Published with Singapore’s Ministry of National Development’s Centre for Livable Cities, Building Resilient Cities Worldwide chronicles international examples of public and private sector collaboration in resilience-building. The report includes five detailed case studies of resilience in coastal cities, with lessons learned sourced from ULI member workshops and focus groups hosted in Singapore, Hong Kong, New York City, Miami and Rotterdam.
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Planning for potential extreme weather events became even more difficult for local governments during the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand how cities could prepare for the compounded challenges of COVID and acute weather events, the Urban Resilience team interviewed several public leaders in early summer 2020.
Ten Principles for Building Resilience distills the key lessons learned from ULI’s resilience-focused technical assistance and partnership projects across the US. The report, which was developed through a ULI member workshop in summer 2017, considers the economic, environmental and social factors which contribute to resilience, and how the concept of resilience translates to the private sector, municipal decision-makers, and communities.
The Resilient Cities Summit event, hosted in partnership with the National League of Cities and U.S. Green Building Council, brought together mayors, national resilience experts and senior city staff for learning and peer exchange. Hosted annually between 2014 and 2019, the event focused on a range of themes related to resilience, including opportunities related to land use, finance and data.