UR2020 # Cities

   Pathways to Disaster Resilient Infrastructure Organizer: RMSI By 2050, 7 out of 10 people across the globe will be living in urban areas. Rising urbanization forces will drive current and future investment towards infrastructure. History tells us that in most cases, settlements precede infrastructure development. This leads to tremendous challenges especially when coupled with…

   Extreme Wildfire Development: Why, Where and When? Organizer: FM Global In recent years, extreme wildfires have claimed lives in Asia, Europe and North America. These fires can move much faster than current models predict and overwhelm communities and emergency response measures. They are not unique to any one geography and pose the potential of…

   Heatwaves in an urbanising world: Exposing the silent killer Organizer: Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre Heatwaves are surprisingly deadly, killing thousands of people every year… that we know of. There are probably many more deaths that aren’t counted, especially in places where it’s hot all year. The science is also clear: heatwaves are…

   A planet remade? How solar geoengineering may deliberately change (y)our climate – and how we understand risk Organizer: Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre We are entering the era of climate change consequences. Regional and local impacts are becoming more manifest. An increasingly feasible technological option that was once seen as crazy and taboo…

   From black swans to boiling frogs: How to understand risk, visualize risk scenarios, and build agency for early action Organizer: NASA and Earth Observatory of Singapore A myriad of risks exist, but it is our understanding and action in regard to these events that often lead to greater loss of lives and to livelihoods….

   Crossroads: Managing intersecting risks of conflict, violence, disasters and climate change Organizer: GIZ, UNDP, ODI, IFRC, ICRC, EU In many countries of AFR, MENA and EAP, communities are affected by both natural hazards, the impacts of climate change and protracted crisis associated with fragility, conflict and violence (FCV). Furthermore, risks of violence and natural…

   Evaluating COVID-19 transmission in cities: The COVID-19 City Disaster Vulnerability Index Organizer: World Bank Most governments around the world continue to grapple with containing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and determining appropriate measures to keep economies running with minimum costs to health systems and livelihoods. As with disaster risk, one thing we are…

   Multiform flood risk in a complex future flooded world: Earth observation and complex systems for compound risk assessment Organizer: The World Bank Group Risk, and particularly flood risk, can be seen as the resultant of different forces acting on a complex system. Well-accepted and diffused frameworks describe the forces and elements of the system…

   Map your city’s future: A spatial data for resilience workshop Organizer: World Bank City Resilience Program (CRP); GFDRR The cities of today face the challenge of protecting their populations from extreme weather and climate change effects. Many cities of the future will only be larger, denser, and more exposed to natural hazards. What can…

   On Bullshit, Candor and Climate Risk: Reconciling Intent, Words and Actions Organizer: Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre *this session is part of the Development & Climate Days Why a humanitarian event on “bullshit”? The answer is simple: it is our job to care. And as climate risk management practitioners it’s hard to care…

Early warning for early action: Toward more behaviorally-informed early warning systems Organizer: Food for the Hungry “EWSs are only as good as the actions they catalyse; action is an essential part of any warning system. If a warning is sounded, and no one takes the action that the warning was intended to trigger, then the…

   Recalibrating approaches towards urban resilience investments: System thinking and prioritization methods for decision making Organizer: The World Bank The objective of this session is to introduce and debate a set of existing and emerging methodologies to prioritize resilient infrastructure investments (e.g., betweenness centrality/connectivity analysis, accessibility indexes, criticality analysis, community-based participation, etc.) that can be…

   Doing drainage differently: Tackling urban flooding in the future mega-city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Organizer: World Bank Every year floods in the Msimbazi River Valley in Dar es Salaam result in deaths and millions of dollars of infrastructure and economic losses. The Msimbazi Valley is a strategically important area in the city. Two…

   Launch of the Global Model for Earthquake Social Vulnerability and Resilience Organizer: Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Background Social Vulnerability (SVR) modelling is an important aspect of not just understanding risk but also in reducing disaster risk at any given scale. SVR modelling can give disaster management professionals, especially at the country level, the ability…

   Building Urban Resilience in Southern Africa: Dialogue of Mayors and City Leaders Organizer: World Bank, SADC, DIMSUR The session will be an opportunity for city leaders, government representatives and DRR practitioners from across Southern Africa to come together and:- Present the Regional Assessment of urban vulnerability and resilience in Southern Africa. – Share experiences…

   How to construct an inclusive city weather and early warning system Organizer: Resurgence How would you go about creating a forecasting and early warning system in which the principles of inclusivity and co-design are applied to the absolute maximum? Resurgence has been applying a range of approaches and tools under an umbrella service, a…

   Breaking the silos: From single to comprehensive multi-hazard risk frameworks Organizer: Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam; Philippines Red Cross, German Red Cross and 510, an initiative of the Netherlands Red Cross; Deltares; Marsh & McLennan Advantage, Singapore; UN MGCY The conventional multi-hazard framework is still characterized by hazard-silo thinking. This causes disaster…

   How big is your appetite (for making a difficult decision)? Organizer: Satarla Aligning organisations on “how much risk is too much risk” is key to rapid and robust decision making, especially in times of stress. This is often addressed through regulation as “risk appetite and tolerance”…. But what does this actually mean? More than…

   Resilience Academy as a sustainability solution for urban resilience skills development in Africa Organizer: University of Turku – Finland, Ardhi University – Dar es Salaam, Sokoine University of Agriculture – Zanzibar, University of Dar es Salaam – Dar es Salaam, State University of Zanzibar – Morogoro, World Bank Tanzania. Urbanisation challenges Africa’s young labour…

   What do we learn when we map a city? Voices and impacts from Open Cities Africa Organizer: World Bank / GFDRR; Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) Since 2017, the Open Cities Africa program has trained more than 500 neighborhood residents, university students, and civil servants how to use phones, cameras, drones and other tech to…

Reshaping a resilient future in response to COVID-19 Organizer: Global Resilience Partnership (GRP), Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), World Resources Institute (WRI), International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Complex Systems in Transition (CST) *this session is part of the Development & Climate Days The COVID-19 crisis has…

   Risk thinking versus resilience thinking Organizer: Royal HaskoningDHV Our session is focused on risk thinking versus resilience thinking and the use of objective data versus subjective data in urban adaptation and resilience design. During the session we will showcase several modelling tools, two practical cases and explain how objective data and subjective data play…

   Precipitation in Africa: the future of observation, nowcasting and forecasting On the world’s fastest urbanizing continent, Africa, urban floods are a big and growing problem. Early warning is the first important step in flood risk management. This requires continuous and reliable precipitation measurements and forecasts, which are not always available in African cities. Four…

   Fire resilience at the urbanising margins Fire kills an estimated 150,000-180,000 people per year, 95% of whom live in LMICs 1. In addition to the lives lost, 10 million disability adjusted life years (DALYs) are lost each year, and each year fire costs between 1-2% of global GDP 2. All other natural hazards combined…

   Disruptive Tech for Africa: tracking the latest urbanization trends with local validation Organizer: University of Twente, DLR, MindEarth, Ardhi University / Resilience Academy African cities are challenged by rapid uncontrolled urbanization. Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the world’s fastest urbanizing regions. Urban areas were home 472 million people in 2017, and are expected to…

   Tsunami of New Dreams: Filming survivals Organizer: art-science-media.com, ICAIOS International Centre for Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies, Prince Sultan University The producers and film director discuss the process of crafting a story of disaster recovery, future preparedness, and a unique example of stakeholder collaboration. This new documentary feature film focuses on the 2004 Indian…

   Forming radical collaborations to address climate and disaster risk: The Understanding Risk Field Lab Organizer: Co-Risk Labs, Earth Observatory of Singapore, Arup, University of Toronto As an all-of-society challenge, addressing climate and disaster risk issues will require diverse participation and collaboration across boundaries of all sorts, whether they be disciplinary, national, professional, cultural, age,…

   Geo-powering Cities for Resilience Organizer: World Bank’s City Planning Labs This session is part of the Development & Climate Days. The urban data revolution has already started. Over the last decade, cities have been offered unprecedented opportunities to mobilize geospatial data to enhance livability and reduce vulnerability through risk-informed decision making. Data is helping…

   Virtual site visit: Green infrastructure and nature-based solutions for urban flood resilience in Singapore Organizer: World Bank – Urban, Disaster Risk Management (DRM), Resilience, and Land GP; World Bank – Urban Floods Community of Practice (UFCOP); Public Utilities Board (PUB) Singapore; National University of Singapore (NUS) The objective of this technical session is to…

   Earthquake disaster preparedness through public engagement Organizer: Miyamoto International in collaboration with the University of Tokyo (Disaster Management Training Center) If you cannot imagine it, you cannot prepare for it. Using the disaster imagination tool developed by distinguished Professor Meguro at University of Tokyo, a leading hub of innovation around disaster risk reduction and…