The Rockefeller Foundation recently announced the final group of cities selected for its 100 Resilient Cities program (100RC). The 37 cities were announced in a press release on May 25. Among the newly cities selected are Atlanta, Calgary, Honolulu, Louisville, Greater Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, Seattle and Washington, D.C., all of which are served by AMWA member agencies. A list of the full 100RC network is available here.
As part of the 100RC network, cities receive grant funding to hire a Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) who is tasked to develop the city’s resiliency strategy, with community input and stakeholder engagement. Cities exchange information and lessons learned through the network of other 100RC participants and receive support from the platform of partners who provide tools, services and technical assistance.
The 100RC program defines urban 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.” 100RC also identifies seven qualities that make cities more resilient: reflective on experience to inform future decisions, resourceful, robust, redundant, integrated, inclusive and flexible. The city resilience framework used by the program is built upon four key components of urban resilience: health and wellbeing, economy and society, infrastructure and environment and leadership and strategy.