Scaling Urban Community Resilience: A Scoping Study for Global Action

Cities throughout the world are driving growth in their countries and regions; yet these cities are increasingly at risk to the effects of climate change and other hazards. As urban populations increase as a result of urbanization and migration, the number of people exposed to hazards, shocks, and stresses is rapidly increasing, leading to increased fragility and vulnerability.

At the same time, people living in cities are themselves agents of change and have significant resources, skills, and capacities to bring to resilience efforts both in their own communities and at a broader civic level across their cities or districts.

This study, supported under a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, explores opportunities for scaling up efforts on community resilience in cities and outlines the potential for a new initiative to scale up community and civic action on resilience so that every community has the opportunity to become a resilient community. The concept is for a joined-up initiative for global and local action to encourage and enable a much greater number of communities to initiate and sustain climate resilience activities.