Measuring the Resilience of Cities

The aim of the STFC-funded conference ‘Measuring the Resilience of Cities: The Role of Big Data’, held at RUSI on 25 October 2013, was to step back, a decade after the introduction of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, and ask not only how resilience has improved in that time, but how do we measure improvement?

What are the baseline standards by which resilience should be measured? Are we clear on what these baselines are, and on how improvements on them can be identified and quantified? In short: What resilience indicators do we use, and are we sufficiently able to measure how much better we are now, as well as whether or not we are simply better?

Contents

Foreword

Bryan Edwards

Introduction: Measuring Resilience – Challenges and Opportunities of Big Data

Jennifer Cole

Perspectives on Resilience

I. Identifying the Risks to Resilience

John Tesh

II. London: The Resilient City

Hamish Cameron

III. Recovery and Resilience in the US Pacific Northwest

Ann Lesperance

IV. Making Cities Resilient: The Approach of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction

Paola Albrito

V. A Perspective on Organisational Resilience

Charley Newnham and James Crask

Resilience Issues of Urban Environments

VI. The Impact of Climate Change

Lola Vallejo

VII. Radiological Response and the Half-life of Resilience

Malcolm Sperrin

VIII. The Resilience of City Systems: Interdependencies – Synergistic and Antagonistic – and How We Measure Them

Jeremy Watson

Modelling Resilience

IX. Modelling Resilience: The Role of Geospatial Data

Rollo Home

X. Resilience and the Advantages of a System of Systems Approach

John Preston, Layla Branicki, Roy Kalawsky and Jane Binner

XI. Community Resilience Assessments for Localised Mitigation Planning and Visualisation

Paul Kailiponi

Discussion Groups

Rapporteurs: Philippa Morrell, Laura de Belgique and Chris Sheehan

Discussion Group 1: Methodologies for Resilience Research

Chaired by Jennifer Cole

Discussion Group 2: Historical Perspectives on Resilience

Chaired by Lindsey McEwan

Discussion Group 3: Key Stakeholders in Predicting Resilience

Chaired by Andrew Marshall

Discussion Group 4: Health Demographics and Future Resilience

Chaired by Kathryn Humphrey

Discussion Group 5: Smart Citizens – The Human Element in the System of Systems

Chaired by Ashley Truluck

Conclusions and Summary

Research Themes Identified in the Presentations and Discussion Groups