Brief Multidimensional Resilience
Subtitle
Building Resilience across the Physical, Economic, and Social Domains
Rebecca Marx, Diane K. Levy
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Municipal governments and leaders are increasingly thinking about how the physical, economic, and social domains intersect when it comes to planning for resilience, or a city’s ability to bounce back or move forward from disruptions. As part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) program, close to 100 cities around the world developed resilience strategies that were intended to holistically address threats to residents’ well-being and cities’ abilities to prosper. This meant not just adapting to or mitigating physical climate change–induced threats, but also addressing underlying social and economic stressors such as poverty, a shrinking workforce, or social inequities. Although most cities addressed multiple domains of resilience, not every city was able to move from theory—discussing and understanding how these issues intersect—to actually implementing holistic resilience-building projects. This brief draws from data collected during the Urban Institute’s five-year monitoring and evaluation of urban resilience-building activities. We highlight a sample of resilience-building projects in Wellington, New Zealand; Rotterdam, Netherlands; Norfolk, Virginia; Boston, Massachusetts; Paris, France; and Semarang, Indonesia, that addressed multiple dimensions of resilience and the factors that enabled their launches. 

Research and Evidence Housing and Communities Tax and Income Supports
Expertise Climate Change, Disasters and Community Resilience Thriving Cities and Neighborhoods
Research Methods Qualitative data analysis
Tags Planning for climate change Climate impacts and community resilience International development and governance Economic well-being Inclusive recovery Infrastructure International public administration and local government International urban development and the environment
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