RESILIENT CALGARY

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The City of Calgary is developing a Resilience Strategy. Resilience is the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience. Chronic stress is something that weakens the fabric of a city on a daily or cyclical basis (e.g. economic uncertainty, climate change, poverty, etc.) whereas a shock is a sudden event (e.g. extreme weather incident, cyber attack, etc.).

The strategy being drafted is intended to be reflective of current and future stresses and shocks in these four key focus areas:

  • Economic resilience
  • Infrastructure resilience
  • Environmental resilience
  • Inclusive leadership and decision making

Why does urban resilience matter?

In a rapidly changing world, that is sometimes unpredictable, cities are exposed to different challenges and risks. Climate change, economic recessions, increase in migration, aging population, and social inequality are challenges that cities must be able to deal with.

But what do we mean when we talk about a city’s resilience? Cities are complex systems whose cultural, social, environmental and economic wealth is based largely on the extensive network of interdependencies between people, institutions, stakeholders, infrastructure and ecosystems.

Complex urban systems may become very vulnerable to shocks and stresses if the risks and extent of the consequences are not known. It is therefore essential to identify potential shocks and stresses and their impacts on the city.

Thanks to this awareness, a resilient city should introduce bold and innovative initiatives which, with the cooperation of different stakeholders, enable it to address these challenges. #ResilientYYC is collaborating with partners, stakeholders and you to examine these four areas of focus to improve our collective resilience. This information is being used to develop a Resilience Strategy which will be presented to Council in Spring 2019.

FAQ's

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. What is Resiliency?

100 Resilient Cities defines resilience as the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow, no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience. Shocks are typically considered single event disasters, such as fires, earthquakes, and floods. Stresses are factors that pressure a city on a daily or reoccurring basis, such as chronic food and water shortages, an overtaxed transportation system, endemic violence or high unemployment.


2. Who is 100 Resilient Cities?

100 Resilient Cities or 100RC, was created by the Rockefeller Foundation on the foundation’s Centennial in 2013.

100RC is dedicated to helping cities around the world become more resilient to the physical, social and economic challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century.


3. What are the benefits of being part of 100RC?

Benefits of the membership include:

    • Financial support for the Chief Resilience Office (CRO) or a resilience/team
    • Support with creating a Resilience Strategy
    • Access to the platform partners - solutions, service providers, and partners from the private, public and NGO sectors who can help cities develop and implement their Resilience Strategies
    • Networking opportunities with other cities across the world, to learn from them and share our Calgary experience


4. What/Who is a Chief Resilience Officer?

A Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) is a position that champions resilience at The City. Leveraging their resilience knowledge, they ensure that the “resilience lens” is used in projects at The City as well as in decisions made for The City.

Calgary’s CRO is Brad Stevens.


5. When did Calgary join the 100 Resilient Cities Network?

Calgary joined the 100 Resilient Cities Network in May 2016.


6. Are there other Canadian Cities in 100RC?

Yes, there are four Canadian cities, including Calgary, that are part of 100RC. The three other cities are Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. The four cities help each other with ideas, and a platform to share knowledge.


YOUR INPUT

The following tiles list each of the four focus areas and what they each strive to focus on.

Click on each tile for more information.

NEXT STEPS

Thank you for providing your input. Your feedback will be used to help us develop Calgary’s Resilience Strategy. We will be reflecting on the outcomes that are important to you to help guide the recommendations in the Resilience Strategy when we present to Council in April 2019. Your feedback is included in the What we Heard report. To connect to the project page, please visit www.calgary.ca/resilientcalgary.