IDENTIFICATION TO IMPLEMENTATION THE JOURNEY OF CITY RESILIENCE

IDENTIFICATION TO IMPLEMENTATION THE JOURNEY OF CITY RESILIENCE

Cities are dynamic, living and growing entities. They are centers of art, heritage and cultural pride and their vibrancy attracts visitors, while their wow factors make them unique. These ecosystems work best when economic, social, and physical infrastructure operate together efficiently and in harmony. Cities need to be equipped in order to survive, adapt and grow. With aging infrastructure, climate change and the increased pressure from our growing urban centers, there is a need for cities to be more resilient for the benefit of everyone living and working there. We are experiencing an increased and positive emphasis on resilience, from incorporation into city agendas, such as the Paris Climate Accord, and increased media coverage, to the participation in initiatives such as the 100 Resilient Cities, pioneered by Rockefeller Foundation, and the appointment of Chief Resilience Officers. The people agenda is also becoming more apparent ensuring fairness and equality for citizens and their communities as an important lens for resilience. A proactive resilience strategy safeguards cities from risks and helps ensure their recovery when disaster strikes. The ability to withstand stresses and to rebound quickly and successfully from shocks is essential for a city to remain competitive, investable and liveable. However, there are a number of challenges that present a series of roadblocks for cities wanting to implement their strategy: Knowing where and when to invest Identifying where resilience adds most value Thinking short and long-term simultaneously How to move from identifying the risks to turning them into actionable projects. THE RESILIENCE PATHWAY In order to overcome this, we have developed the resilience pathway; five steps to success: 1. Scoping - identifying the areas of vulnerability. When planning the city program, there must be an integrated approach to connect designers, planners, engineers, developers and financers to reach a consensus view on the issues to focus on 2. Optioneering - bringing high-level engineering and financial thinking together to find promising, fundable and feasible business models around a development or adaptation solution - all leading to an Investment Opportunity Report. This is where commitment from the stakeholders is also fundamental 3. Prioritization - guiding decision makers on where to invest and how to prioritize to ensure full commitment from the complete stakeholder community 4. Deal structuring - funding and financing strategies need to be identified with an output of projects with an acceptable risk-return profile 5. Implementation - investment solutions from citywide to neighborhood-level need to be prioritized and delivered, along with an asset management and monitoring plan.

We live in an age of innovation, technology and data. Cities should harness these resources to help them become safe and attractive havens for their citizens and businesses to ensure their competitive edge. Through using the pathway, they can bridge the gap between identification and implementation so that they are fit for the future it is crucial not just to think about the liveability and resilience of the city now but of the ambitions of the city over a prosperous future. Evolving cities are thriving cities and thriving cities are better places to live, work and invest. It is important to remember resilience is evolutionary it is never complete. As with the natural world, our cities regardless of how grand or impressive they may be need to go on developing and learning from other cities and their own ecosystems in order survive, adapt and thrive in the face of multiple and unpredictable disruptions and improve quality of life. IT IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER RESILIENCE IS EVOLUTIONARY IT IS NEVER COMPLETE THE RESILIENCE PATHWAY CITY AGENDA VULNERABILITY / RISK ASSESSMENT AMBITION AND VISION SETTING LEARNING AND CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT SCOPING ADAPTATION OPTIONS ASSET MANAGEMENT PROJECT REALIZATION IMPLEMENTATION CAPACITY BUILDING + STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT OPTIONEERING FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS FRAMEWORK CONDITIONS DEAL STRUCTURING STRATEGIC CONTROL PRIORITIZATION POLITICAL COMMITMENT FINANCIAL ENGINEERING PRIVATE SECTOR COMMITMENT TECHNICAL ENGINEERING OTHER STAKEHOLDER COMMITMENT

As a platform partner to the 100 Resilient Cities initiative, pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation, Arcadis is committed to helping cities around the world become more resilient to social, economic and physical challenges through supporting the move from their resilience strategy to implementation, using the resilience pathway; allowing cities to become more liveable, sustainable and competitive. 1 Bristol, a coastal city in South-West England, is investing heavily in housing and infrastructure to support growth. A particular challenge with climate change is the city s proximity to the Avon River, presenting tidal flooding risks. We worked with the 100 Resilient Cities initiative to assist the City Leaders in addressing this issue, identifying breakthrough projects. By bringing financial experts, planners, engineers, designers and local stakeholders together, we developed shared and feasible visions for different areas of central Bristol, managing future flood risk and protecting and valuing green space. Two of the visions were taken forward; Spike Island: a transformation from a neglected former industrial area overloaded with road infrastructure, into a green and vibrant destination space in central Bristol and the Malago River Corridor where affordable housing zones will be placed in the heart of the new bluegreen infrastructure to increase livability in the poorer districts.

2 Vejle, located in Northern Denmark, is vulnerable to flooding and rising sea levels pose a significant challenge for the low-lying residential and business areas of the city. Despite this, Vejle continues to see water as an asset rather than a liability or a threat. City officials, citizens and relevant stakeholders from the private sector participated in two Resilient Pathway sessions hosted by Arcadis and the 100 Resilient Cities initiative. In these workshops, they identified bankable opportunities for two city districts both now contributing to building a more resilient, cohesive and sustainable city: In the harbor district of Fjordbyen, the ambition is to install integrated flood systems along the roads. This will in turn increase economic growth through the provision of a safe environment for communities to come together with a sense of pride in where they live. As an additional multi-benefit solution, the area of Rosborg will be transformed into a green neighborhood with a combination of recreational and housing areas as a way to pilot and test innovative solutions that can then be scaled up as best practice across Vejle. 3 In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development launched the Rebuild by Design competition to generate proposals to improve the resilience of waterfront communities through locallyresponsive, innovative design. Along with the Bjarke Ingels Group, Arcadis and partners were selected to develop the Big U, a vision for designing multifunctional flood resilience infrastructure to protect Lower Manhattan in New York City. The East Side Coastal Resiliency Project, protecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan. was one of the first projects resulting from the Big U vision. In close consultation with local communities, the designs include a series of green floodwalls, bridging berms and embankment designs all integrated with East River Park to enhance recreational facilities and community access. These defenses will protect 2.4 miles of valuable urban area from flooding while providing social and environmental benefits to its communities of 200,000 residents and 21,000 businesses.

4 Located on San Francisco s eastern waterfront, Mission Creek is one of the city s lowest lying areas. It is vulnerable to storm surges, flooding and impacts of climate change like future sea level rise. The scope of the study was to understand in greater detail the impacts of sea level rise in Mission bay, and propose a variety of resilient design solutions and implementation strategies. Concepts for solutions include raising seawalls, filling and creating tidal basins through an outboard levee and building a tidal gate that could be closed during extreme high tides. The results are a first step toward imagining what a resilient future dealing with sea level rise could look like for San Francisco, and how the city can benefit from opportunities to maintain and even improve the waterfront as an attractive place for people to visit and enjoy. 5 Together with the Polish Government and city administrations, Arcadis is developing climate resilience plans for Poland s cities. The objectives of the project are to identify and analyze challenges related to adaptation to climate change; to plan required actions on the local level along with indicating sources of funding and to raise awareness of the need for adaptation. The project will cover all 44 cities in Poland with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Each city will be the subject of an individual assessment to determine its resilience, thus creating a basis for planning adaptation measures to be implemented in that city. The project completion is scheduled for two years after the signing of the contract with a value of 5.8million.

6 The Sponge City program in Wuhan, was established in response to the alarming statistic that the number of Chinese cities affected by flooding has more than doubled since 2008. The name Sponge City refers to the innovative solution to create green public spaces to absorb storm water, making the cities more resilient to the impacts of climate change and more attractive and liveable at the same time. Wuhan, with more than 12 million residents, and often subject to intense rainfall that overwhelms the urban drainage system, is one of the first of 16 cities in China to launch the National Sponge City program. We have supported the city on over 400 projects in three years with the end goal to manage 60% of the rainwater and provide an example for other Chinese cities going forward.

CONTACT US John Batten Global Cities Leader E John.Batten@arcadis.com Piet Dircke Global Leader, Water Management Solutions E Piet.Dircke@arcadis.com Richard Bonner Arcadis City Executive, Bristol E Richard.Bonner@arcadis.com @ArcadisGlobal Arcadis www.arcadis.com/cities Arcadis. Improving quality of life.