An article in Cities Today explains how the Covid-19 crisis has shifted the focus of local governments from smart cities to resilient ones. For example, cities around the world are appointing Chief Resilience Officers (CROs) or setting up dedicated resilience funds in response to Covid-19 to help them cope with the intertwined challenges of climate change, health crises and economic downturns.
CROs “understand people in a different way and they understand the integration between the challenges that the city might face,” Lauren Sorkin, Executive Director of the Resilient Cities Network (RCN), told Cities Today.
According to the article, the Dutch city of Rotterdam is a leader in the field of resilient cities. It appointed its first Chief Resilience Officer in 2014 and launched its first resilience strategy in 2016. That strategy is now playing a central role in Rotterdam’s Covid-19 recovery plan.
Rotterdam has also recently announced seven urban projects as part of its economic recovery plan that aim to boost the economy and liveability by focusing on green infrastructure and climate adaptation, explains the article. It is also providing training on the city’s Resilience Scan, a checklist that helps spatial planners take into account possible shocks and stresses in their plans.
Arnound Molenaar, Rotterdam’s current CRO, says: “If you think about flexibility in spatial planning related to climate change, you have to take into account a lot of uncertainty and it may be that within 30 or 40 years you have to adjust your plan,” he told Cities Today. “It’s important not to make future adjustments impossible and that’s a kind of flexibility that’s not really common among spatial planners.”
