Resilience: The Secret Sauce of Water Cities September/October 2015 Issue World Water Magazine

1. September / October 2015 World Water
6 Feature heading here6 Commentary
September / October 2015 World Water
umans flock to cities as engines
of opportunity, culture, and society.
Around the world and through
the ages, urbanization has
produced some of mankind’s
greatest achievements and
commercial successes. However, leaders of world
cities will tell you that concentrating people into
urban areas also puts larger numbers at risk when
adversity strikes. And the list of possible threats
could make for a year of sleepless nights.
Water issues in all their many forms produce
some of the most acute threats to urban well-
being and survival. As a special class of cities,
those located on the water don’t need news
headlines to grasp the enormous importance of
resilience and risk planning to sustain a thriving
population. It only takes a mention of Hurricane
Katrina, the 2011 Japanese earthquake and
tsunami, Typhoon Haiyan, Jeddah’s flash flooding,
or Superstorm Sandy to start a conversation
about what went wrong. But the downside is that
disaster also drives many cities to define their
needs as a burden, as a litany of all-too-familiar
imperatives. Build levees. Fix aging infrastructure.
Ensure continuity of safe drinking water. Manage
sanitation and stormwater. And the biggest of all,
find a way to pay for it all.
These are indeed critical issues. But it would
be a mistake – and rather gloomy – to approach
risk management as an onerous and endless
to-do list. That’s why some cities are leveraging
their resilience investment to reinvent themselves,
not simply as combatants in the battle against
disruption and decay, but as resilient cities with
identities tied to water.
Cities rethink what it means to be resilient
Resilience isn’t just about safety. In a competitive
world, resilient cities are successful cities –
confident that their multiple lines of defense bring
quick recovery across a range of threats. In turn,
strong resilience provides incentive for economic
development. Businesses looking to grow or
relocate are making resilient infrastructure a
must-have on their checklists. So just as water
and sewage capacity come into play, inadequate
flood defenses and recovery plans can be deal-
breakers if businesses feel their operations
would be at risk in the next storm.
Looking at urban risk management through
the lens of an integrated resilience plan rather
than as an infrastructure problem connects
neighborhoods, leaders, and businesses into a
comprehensive whole. In this way, resilient cities
can bring together stakeholders as never before,
each playing a different part toward a common
vision. In turn, this connectivity is itself a source
of strength.
Of course, resilience is also about a city’s
ability to recover from disaster in an orderly way.
For instance, New York City has built a state-
of-the-art resilience plan that addresses not
only storm surge defense but also the added
threat of sea level rise. The plan, “A Stronger,
More Resilient New York,” puts first priority
on protecting the most vulnerable people and
infrastructure, including hospitals and the elderly.
The next priority is to regain business and
social continuity, facilitating the rapid recovery
of essential services such as water, sanitation,
power, transportation, and telecommunications.
Individual building owners take responsibility
for ensuring their sites are resistant to flood
damage. This multi-layered approach makes
it easier for businesses and individuals to live
and stay connected, even as the rest of the city
assesses damage. The plan may be driven by
business continuity and social cohesion, but in
the long run, it also supports a resilient quality
of life.
This broader concept of resilience is also part
of 100 Resilient Cities, a new, global initiative
supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.
This fast-growing movement takes resilience
far beyond flood risk and helps cities frame
strategies to become more resilient to the
physical, social, and economic challenges of
the 21st century.
From resilient cities to Water Cities
Cities can use their investment in resilience as a
competitive advantage and opportunity to attract
business and development. Today, resilient cities
on the water are embracing their waterfront
exposure, not as a risk but as core to their
identity, proudly branding themselves as Water
Cities. Able to recover faster from disruption,
both natural and societal, water cities are then
free to leverage their resilience and waterfront as
a winning combination for businesses seeking
access to everything from ports to parks.
For example, while flood barriers may play
a role in water cities, life there does not take
place behind walls. Multifunctional levees like
those in Rotterdam integrate roads, commercial
development, and public spaces into flood
barriers. New Orleans, while still a work in
progress as it rebuilds its resilience infrastructure,
again draws a lively mix of music, culture, food,
and entrepreneurship that proves what resilience
is all about.
Water cities are as diverse as their individual
locales, but they share some common principles
and practices. They create a broad, integrated
vision for resilience planning, with multiple lines of
defense based on the value and vulnerability of
each asset. Even cities without waterfronts that
have adapted to water scarcity with alternative
water sourcing and reuse can own the title of
Water City.
Most of all, water cities are attractive places to
live, work, and play. This vibrancy is the many-
fold return for cities that make resilience part of
their urban vision.
John Batten is the Global Director of Water and
Global Cities Director at Arcadis.
Resilience:
The Secret Sauce
of Water Cities
H
John Batten
Global Director of Water,
Arcadis
THAT’S WHY SOME CITIES ARE
LEVERAGING THEIR RESILIENCE
INVESTMENT TO REINVENT
THEMSELVES, NOT SIMPLY AS
COMBATANTS IN THE BATTLE
AGAINST DISRUPTION AND
DECAY, BUT AS RESILIENT CITIES
WITH IDENTITIES TIED TO WATER.