We’re in a time of ‘incredibly complex and challenging global events’, facing impact and disruption, and can we use the same language and frameworks of even a few years ago. Are we keeping up with what we’re facing? That has been the thrust of Dr David Rubens’ work for some time, and was aired by him while chairing an inaugural ‘resilient cities’ webinar. David’s plan is to run under the umbrella of his ISRM (Institute of Stratgeic Risk Management) a monthly themed webinar for the next 12 months. He began with a trio of speakers. While the scope and ambition of city resilience (and David’s ISRM) is global, as likely to mention Jakarta as Manchester, the webinar had a strong British flavour.
Dr Duncan Booker is chief resilience officer for Glasgow City Council. Glasgow was among the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities network, and was the host city for the COP 26 climate change conference in 2021. Duncan stressed the need for open, engaged, democratic conversation so that we can build preparedness. Like other speakers, he was making the point that the problem is not solely or even mainly the natural hazard or climate, but the political reaction (or lack of) to the ‘signals’ of stresses ahead, whether economic or social. Any amount of information, Duncan said, needs interpretation of patterns. His first point, then, was: “We need to be in the room, that we can know who it is calling us on the red telephone when the emergency happens.” While Glasgow was the host of the United Nations global gathering about climate change, and while no one city can stand against global changes (economic or other), any resilience policies require cities to deliver.
Duncan like others on the Zoom call sought to define what resilience is. He recalled the previous emergency planning, of blue light services and scenario planning, and risk registers. Economically, Glasgow had to adjust (like other cities) to de-industrialisation from the late 1970s, to be post-industrial and now ‘post-carbon’. He later raised what may be a paradox, that cities are ‘great places for people’, have historically been where democracy and civilisation developed, yet cities where people live together are at the same time creating the problems and the source of answers. Duncan raised how resilience is partly about ‘agency’; not just data science, but that people feel they have a say in what to do with the data; put another way, resilience being in part about a just and fair city having democratic conversations. Referring to recent anti-immigrant rioting in Britain, he spoke of worrying signs of trust in urban and national governments eroding; as pushed by ‘bad actors’. If people don’t trust (public) services, your ability to manage shocks is very much limited, Duncan suggested. Duncan offered his experience in Glasgow of ‘hard hats’ and social policy; put another way, that response to local weather (and the risk of flooding to riverside cities such as Glasgow) may require physical engineering; while also giving the need to engage with communities – that the changes are done for them, and with them. Duncan also made a point about neighbourliness, and social cohesion: before a 999 call, your neighbour should be your first responder. But if you don’t know, or don’t like, or fear, your neighbours, you are not going to be a more resilient city.
Carina Fearnley is professor of warning and science communication at University College London; and a researcher into natural hazards. Her argument was that warning systems are really important for resilience: “Because warning systems are not just the siren, that goes off, and makes a noise, it is actually the whole system; and a truly effective warning system is one that brings together many, many facets.” Such as, the detection of a hazard or threat; and monitoring; the communication of that to a wide group of stakeholders, and for those to actually be able to respond to it. Warning systems, for Carina, then, are the tool-kit, for disaster risk reduction. Carina’s centre for warning research has reported for the UK Preparedness Commission on enhancing warnings. For that, you have to work across ‘silos’ and Carina warned (pardon any pun) ‘there’s a long way to go’. She gave the example of Fukushima, when an earthquake and tsunami brought about the meltdown of a Japanese nuclear power station. How a nuclear power station prepares, then, might be useful for surgeons making checklists; or for those planning in case of floods. Hence Carina’s centre, to share knowledge across ‘silos’. Warnings, she pointed out, are not so much tech but ‘inclusivity’ – how or whether people are able to pick up and respond to warnings, such as the elderly or children.
Society, David Rubens stated, has been talking about resilience for some years; yet society seems much more fragile, fractured, and susceptible to failure than a generation ago. If politics are so important to resilience, whether finance to make things happen or laws passed, can there be political solutions, let alone consensus? Not if (a case Duncan raised) in a meeting about car use in a city, half those at the meeting want to ban the car, and half say that parking is inadequate.
The opening speaker was Konstantina Karydi, who works at the European Commission. She said that post-covid resilience seems to be the talk of the day; everyone uses the word ‘resilience’, whether about climate or the heat.She questioned whether there’s understanding of resilience, despite (by the European Union) strategy documents and frameworks. We have, as she said, gone beyond disaster management and have an acceptance that crises such as climate change are exacerbated by stresses on the social fabric. That’s leading to risk, that might be unmanageable. Greece in May 2022 asked its municipalities to have resilience strategies; though she questioned whether every cluster of villages should have one.
Summing up, Carina reiterated that warnings are a social process. David spoke of ‘wicked problems‘, and the ISRM helping to support useful policies. “I hope this is just a starting point of a dialogue,” David said.
For the ISRM’s monthly programme on city resilience, visit the ISRM website.
Photo by Mark Rowe, street art, Glasgow city centre.
