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Second Volume of the Resilience Learning Module: Strategies and Actions, which provides practical approaches to resilience-building for local, metropolitan, and regional governments, is launched during the #Innovate4Cities Conference. The second volume of the Learning Module which was authored by CUDRR+R’s Ebru Gencer and Barcelona Tech’s Borja Iglesias, discusses the importance of Enhancing Social Resilience, Managing Resilient Urban Development, Fostering Regional and Ecological Resilience and Effective Response, Recovery and Building Back Better.

The Learning Modules were developed by UCLG in partnership with UN-Habitat and UNDRR as a contribution to the Making Cities Resilient 2030 Initiative. More information about the Learning Modules and its learning activities can be found at https://www.uclg.org/en/media/news/resilience-learning-modules-tools-advance-development-system-based-strategies-and-action

The availability of robust and resilient infrastructure influences the sustainable and resilient development of cities and territories. This paper, jointly written by CUDRR+R’s Ebru Gencer, UNDRR’s Abhilash Panda, and University of Huddersfield’s Dilanthi Amaratunga, examined the role of local governments in addressing resilience of critical infrastructure and the barriers that they face in doing that. It positions the concept of resilient infrastructure within the context of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR), and its localization through the Making Cities Resilient Campaign. The paper examines some of the barriers and challenges in updating and/or building resilient infrastructure at the local level. You can access the full paper at https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-73003-1_8

Traditional knowledge for disaster risk reduction develops through the close relationship of communities with their environment. This accumulated knowledge based on the direct experience with disasters enables the communities to not only build resilience against impending disasters but also respond and recover in post disaster situations. However, rather than merely rediscovering the traditional knowledge, we need to find practical ways of adapting it to contemporary context and mainstreaming it as part of disaster risk management practice. Ebru Gencer attended a webinar organized by the International Centre for the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) based on the “Words into Action Implementation Guide” on this topic that is currently under development as joint initiative of ICCROM and UNDRR.

CUDRR+R Statement on Racial Injustice and Equitable Resilience  

The Center for Urban Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience (CUDRR+R) is a non-profit research center with a mission to produce knowledge and undertake practices and partnerships that will advance urban risk reduction and resilience building to natural hazards and the impacts of climate change.

Our mission is more important than ever as we are facing complex disasters and stresses in our society. The COVID-19 pandemic and its cascading impacts on all aspects of public life, as well as social stresses rising from systemic racial injustice have exposed the vulnerabilities in our communities. It has become apparent to all that African American, indigenous, and other communities of color are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic as well as other shocks and stresses.  Furthermore, the pandemic has currently intersected with social unrest rising from systemic racial injustice, amplifying the complex vulnerabilities and risks of the African American populations in the United States.

In its short existence, CUDRR+R has strived to bring forth research on resilient and equitable urban development. We denounce racism and discrimination in all its forms and commit to developing knowledge and practices that will support resilience-building, particularly of the most vulnerable groups. As academicians, researchers, and the built environment professionals, we will continue seek and disseminate evidence-based knowledge and practices, while ensuring that they advance equity for all.

Executive Director

Ebru A. Gencer

Esra Akcan, CUDRR+R Board Member and Cornell University Professor of Architecture received the prestigious Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellowship. During her time at Harvard, Akcan researched her next book project, Right-to-heal: Architecture in Post-Conflict and Post-Disaster Societies, which explores architecture’s role in transitional justice after intense upheavals and internal conflicts, such as state violence, environmental disasters, civil wars, ethnic cleansing, and economic meltdown. This book aims to critically examine opportunistic responses to crises that foreclose the right to heal and pinpoint best practices that move toward a more meaningful reconstitution.

Listen an excerpt from Esra Akcan’s upcoming book in this lecture at the Radcliffe Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZE4mZoq7tc

Also see Akcan’s discussion on the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on cities and future of architecture and planning in this interview at the Radcliffe Institute https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news-and-ideas/how-to-build-a-better-world

CUDRR+R’s Ebru Gencer chaired “Efficient Post-Disaster Recovery Phase that Supports Well-Being and Diversity” session at the Frontiers of Development: Disaster Resilience Symposium that took place in Istanbul during 2-4 March, 2020.

The session discussed how post-disaster recovery and reconstruction strategies and action-plans can bring together multidimensional factors and crosscut their systems. Speakers provided a wide array of points including from Luis Carvalho, Civil Protection Agency of Amadora, Portugal; Amanda Lamont, Australasian Women in Emergencies Network (AWE), and Zeynep Gul Unal, Yildiz Technical University and ICOMOS ICORP/International Scientific Committee on Risk Preparedness.

 

Effective risk governance at the #urban scale requires participation, from decision-making to planning and implementation. Read more from Ebru Gencer, Center for Urban Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience (CUDRR+R) about how regional and local contexts shape stakeholder involvement in #ResilientCities: http://bit.ly/2OuDXCv

CUDRR+R attended Workshop on Urban Resilience Metrics for Policy Action organized by the Bartlett Development Unit at University College London in September 26-27, 2019.

The aim of this meeting was to bring together practitioners working with different local level risk information methodologies to discuss how information is used for implementing disaster risk management at the local level. In addition to CUDRR+R, participants in the meeting include practitioners working with DesInventar, Action at the Frontline, ReMapRisk, CityRAP, SDI’s Know Your City, UNISDR Resilience Scorecard, 100RC, ARUP City Resilience Index and UN-Habitat City Resilience Profiling Programme.

This workshop aimed to provide a forum for sharing experiences of how risk information is used by local governments, policy-makers, practitioners and communities to act on risks.

 

 

CUDRR+R participated at the Urban Climate Change Research Network’s (UCCRN) Science for 1.5 Degrees Session during the #climatesummit and at its strategic meeting at the Roosevelt House, joining the discussion on how to translate UCCRN’s  Second Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities ( http://uccrn.org/arc3-2/ ) into action within the next 3 to 5 years.

CUDRR+R’s Ebru Gencer attended the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, in Geneva that took place in May 2019. CUDRR+R was represented at the Local and Regional Governments meeting for the Implementation of the Sendai Framework as Ebru Gencer delivered a keynote speech. In addition, she chaired the “Using Gender, Age and Disability Responsive Data to Empower those left Furthest-Behind” side event organized by DRR Dynamics.

Ebru Gencer was also the Lead Author of the Disaster Risk Reduction Strategies in Urban Areas chapter of the 2019 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction.

You can access the full report here.

https://gar.undrr.org/