Strategies to help cities reduce vulnerability and enhance competitiveness.

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From
Vulnerable to Resilient
Cities
Strategies to help cities
reduce vulnerability and
enhance competitiveness

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Did you
know that…
…half of humanity lives
in cities?

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And…
…by 2050, 70% of the global
population will be living in cities?

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What does that mean?
Providing a growing urban population with
energy, water and and security,
energy, water, nutrition food security, as well as
long-lasting, reliable infrastruct
long-lasting, reliable infrastructure and shelter
is the defining challenge of our time.
defining challenge of our time.

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Currently, cities consume
75% of the world’s energy
75% of the world’s energy
and are responsible for 80% of the world’s
carbonof the world’s carbon emissions.
80% emissions.
Cities

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And what
about water?
Water use has been growing at more than twice the
rate of population increase in the last century.

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But…
…every day, we’re
learning more about
how cities can reduce
their energy and
water consumption.

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For example, in
Melbourne, Australia…

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The city’s 1200 Buildings
retrofit program is:
– Saving water, helping to meet Melbourne’s target to reduce potable
water use in the commercial sector by 5 billion liters (1.3 billion gallons).
– Decreasing energy use to meet an annual savings goal of 38% or
383,000 metric tons (422,185 tons) of greenhouse gas emissions.
– Driving private sector reinvestment.
– Creating “green collar” jobs — employing engineers, environmental and
sustainability consultants, builders, surveyors and many other industry
professionals — with a goal of 8,000 jobs upon completion.

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But Melbourne first had to address a few challenges…

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Melbourne’s 1200
Buildings retrofit
program
…To Results
Solution:
The City of Melbourne became the
clearinghouse for information on benchmarking,
auditing, costs and consultants.
From Challenge…
Problem:
Lack of knowledge on
implementation and the
rewards of retrofitting.
Supporting materials have been produced in the
form of advice sheets, tutorials, video/written
case studies, reports, facts on the central
website, and seminars held to provide
information to prospective participants.

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Melbourne’s 1200
Buildings retrofit
program
…To Results
Solution:
From Challenge…
Problem:
Difficulty procuring
financing for projects.
The Victorian Parliament passed legislation
allowing the Melbourne City Council to act as an
intermediary between owners and banks to
facilitate the loan process and reduce owner risk.

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Melbourne’s 1200
Buildings retrofit
program
…To Results
Solution:
Melbourne developed the Environmental
Upgrade Agreement to share costs between
owners and tenants.
From Challenge…
Problem:
“Split incentive”; how do you
convince owners to make
expensive investments that will
mainly benefit tenants?

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Melbourne’s successes
to date
–
Signed three environmental upgrade agreements for projects representing
carbon emissions savings of 5,350 metric tons (5,897 tons) per year.
–
53 public signatories and another 150 buildings being considered for or in
the process of being retrofitted.
–
Recognized with a number of awards, including the C40 and Siemens
Climate Leadership Award in the Energy Efficient Built Environment category
and the United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day
Sustainability Award.

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And then there’s the
challenge of food security…

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Food-production capacity needs
to increase exponentially
If the U.S. continues to produce
food the way it does today, in order
to meet increased demand due to
population growth, the nation will
require an additional 270 million
acres of farmland — equivalent to
2.5 times the area of California.

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But available land for food
production is trending in the
opposite direction…
Every year, 3 million acres of
agricultural land goes out of
production in the U.S.

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Can urban farming help meet
the food security challenge?

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The Motor City is driving
down that road…
Photo: Shawn Wilson via Creative Commons License 1.0. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DetroitSkyline.jpg

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Under the Greening of Detroit
program, the city is…
–
Extending 450 hours of hands-on-training in farming,
agriculture, education and community relationships.
–
Engaging Detroit youth in urban agriculture via a paid
apprenticeship program.
–
Providing assistance with solutions such as passive
greenhouse construction, water catchment systems
and soil testing.
–
Supplementing the Fresh Food Share program,
which delivers fresh produce from local farmers to
customers at wholesale prices.
–
Placing fresh food — from the program and grown in
school gardens — on the menu of 48 area
elementary schools.
Courtesy of Greening of Detroit.

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The Greening of
Detroit includes…
–
Supporting the community, school, family and market
gardens with transplants at MGM Grand Garden,
which is also used to train youth and adult
apprentices to build horticultural and agricultural
skills.
–
Developing the Detroit Market Garden, a 2.5-acre
urban-farm training, production and processing
location.
–
Coordinating the restoration of the 26-acre
Romanowski Farm Park, which includes athletic
fields, a playground with a teaching garden, a living
pavilion, a fruit orchard and a small farm garden.
Courtesy of Greening of Detroit.

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What else makes a
city vulnerable?
Weak infrastructure, which
threatens global competitiveness.

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The American Society of
Civil Engineers’ 2013
Report Card for America’s
Infrastructure gave the
United States a…
D+

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“…failing infrastructure will drive the cost of
doing business up by adding US$430 billion
to transportati costs in the next decade.”
transportation
Failure to Act: The Impact of Current
Infrastructure Investment on America’s
Economic Future

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How do we develop transportation
infrastructure that links to work,
amenities and homes, that also…
–
Withstands force majeure events or quickly
recovers functionality in the aftermath?
–
Better recognizes risks to prevent harm to
life and the constructed environment?
–
Fails gently at specific points?
–
Works in tandem with natural systems?
–
Protects economic and human health?

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Southern California points the way —
and for good reason…
–
Consists of the United States’ #1 most sprawling metro
area.
–
Is home to the world’s third worst traffic congested city.
–
Features the country’s most ozone-smog-polluted city.
–
Includes the nation’s most particle-polluted city.
–
Comprises two of America’s 20 riskiest counties for
developing cancer from toxic air pollution.
–
Ranks as the fifth worst metro area for per capita carbon
emissions from transportation in the United States.

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To address these vulnerabilities, the vulnerabilities,
the region’s infrastructure
Southern California Association of
Governments (SCAG) — an initiative of six
counties representing 38,000 square miles,
191 cities and 18 million residents —
developed the Regional Transportation Plan.

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The 23-year SCAG Regional
Transportation Plan expects to:
–
Increase investment in public transport and walkability.
–
Reduce traffic congestion by 24% per capita.
–
Add 60% more housing in transit-accessible locations.
–
Create 4.2 million jobs.
–
Place 87% of all jobs within ½ mile walk of transit.
–
Save US$1.5 billion in annual health care expenditures by reducing
respiratory illness.
–
Preserve more than 400 square miles of farmland and open space.

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Coastal cities have
even more critical
even more critical
resiliency issues.

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The world’s coastal
cities are
increasingly at risk…
–
21 out of the 33 cities projected to have populations
in excess of eight million by 2015 are located in
coastal regions.
–
100 million people currently live less than 1 meter
(3.28 feet) above sea level.

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Top 20 Cities: Highest Potential
Flood Loss in 2050
Shenzhen
Calcutta
Boston
Surat
Tianjin
Bangkok
Nagoya
Xiamen
New York
New Orleans
Tampa
Guangzhou
Miami
Zhanjiang
Abidjan
Given current flood
protection, this map
displays the top 20 global
cities ranked as the most
vulnerable to monetary loss
from flood risk — with the
larger circles indicating the
cities with the greatest risk
in annual average loss
from flooding.
Guayaquil
Ho Chi Minh City
Mumbai
Chennai
Jakarta
Source: Nature Climate Change (http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v3/n9/fig_tab/nclimate1979_T2.html)

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global cost of flooding
The global cost of flooding in the world’s 136
largest coastal cities could rise to
$52 billion a year
US$52 billion a year in the next few decades.
Nature Climate Change

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Adding to the problem, in some cities, natural buffers have
been consumed to accommodate growth —
allowing urbanization to occur in risk-prone areas
such as flood plains or steep slopes subject to landslides.

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The consumption of natural buffers
exacerbates the impact of natural disasters.

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Unstable deforested slopes
surrounding Port-au-Prince,
Haiti, intensified catastrophic
flooding.
Photo: NASA. http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/42000/42326/portauprince_ali_2010015_lrg.jpg

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The lack of trees and soil to
absorb torrential rainfall
aggravated the impact of flood
waters in Manila, Philippines.
Photo: Trocaire via Creative Commons License 2.0. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tacloban_Typhoon_Haiyan_2013-11-14.jpg

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Some coastal cities and regions
are already implementing
resiliency plans
The U.K.’s Blackpool
Coastal Defence
Scheme…
–
Protects 1,500 homes and businesses
from flooding, and provides defense
against sea-level rise;
–
Was designed to enhance the seafront
experience and allow easy access to
the beach for recreation; and
–
Combines flood protection with highquality open space that promotes
tourism and enhances the community.

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The Baltimore Climate Action Plan
expects to:
–
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15% below 2010
levels by 2020.
–
Grow a green city through initiatives such as increasing the
number of trees planted and composting organic material.
–
Improve land use and transportation by creating high-quality
pedestrian- and transit-oriented neighborhoods.
–
Increase energy savings and supply.

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San Francisco’s
Transportation Pilot Project:
The "Adapting to Rising Tides: Transportation Vulnerability and
Risk Assessment Pilot Project" aims to:
–
Assess the risk to assets and the transportation system as
a whole from projected climate change.
–
Advance existing adaptation assessment activities in
collaboration with state Departments of Transportation and
Metropolitan Planning Organizations.
–
Assist the Federal Highway Administration in test-driving the
pilot project model for national application.

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Produced by AECOM and IBM, the City
Resilience Scorecard aims to:
– Support the United Nations International Strategy for
Disaster Reduction’s goal to promote a “culture of
prevention” and to build resilient nations and communities as
an essential condition for sustainable development.
– Determine resilience strengths and weaknesses across city
systems.
– Identify pathways to increase resilience in cities — attracting
business and investment, and reducing insurance risk and
costs as a result.
– Advance the development of the processes and
infrastructure required to withstand extreme events.

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 Urban population growth…
 Energy reduction…
 Water stewardship…
 Infrastructure improvement…
 Food security…
 Coastal flood protection…
…Interrelated challenges
require an integrated
systems approach to
resilience.
How do
we start?

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Top 10 things cities should be doing…
1. Establish an administrative framework.
Collaboration among government, citizens and businesses in
risk reduction and preparedness is key.
2. Assign a budget.
Disaster risk reduction does not have to add cost; identify and
leverage planned investments to include disaster resilience.
3. Know your risk.
Understanding risk assessment should be a constituent of
every decision-making process.

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Top 10 things cities should be doing…
4. Invest in critical infrastructure.
Maintain, upgrade and protect. Integrated solutions can
leverage benefits across multiple systems; adding resiliencethinking to all design can add value at greatly reduced costs.
5. Protect schools and health care facilities.
These can serve as critical hubs in a quick recovery.
6. Enforce realistic, risk-compliant regulations.
Communities should be building safe buildings on safe land.

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Top 10 things cities should be doing…
7. Train and educate.
Ensure that the public knows what to do in an emergency.
8. Protect ecosystems and natural buffers.
These serve the dual function of amenity and natural defense.
9. Install early warning systems.
Effective preparedness reduces risk and loss of life.
10. Focus rebuilding efforts on the needs of the most
vulnerable.
A community is only as strong as the most vulnerable among it.

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From
Vulnerable to Resilient
Cities
More information on
case studies…
Melbourne’s 1200 Buildings Program
The Greening of Detroit
ASCE 2013 infrastructure report card
Southern California transportation plan
Blackpool Coastal Defence Scheme
City of Baltimore’s Climate Action Plan
San Francisco Bay transportation pilot project
City Resilience Scorecard

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From
Vulnerable to Resilient
Cities
More information on
AECOM’s work…
10 ideas that can change the world
Australia’s Garnaut Climate Change Review
Carbon Disclosure Project —
2013 global cities report
Creating Sustainable Places initiative
Disaster and storm solutions
FEMA climate change report
Future proofing our world