Learning from crisis
Recognising that we have a unique opportunity to learn from current events to improve infrastructure resilience going forward.
Strengthening supply chain resilience
Which is especially important to deliver the food and supplies that we need to keep society and our critical infrastructure running.
Building long-term resilience
Where following the crisis, measures can be implemented that will help to ensure our resilience to future shocks and stresses.
Learning from crisis
Learning from Cape Town's water crisis
"Communication builds trust ... more information and knowledge is helpful, rather than trying to keep quiet about it"
Learning resources
The Cape Town experience showed how severely trust is eroded by the absence of data and information from authorities, and also how this can be fixed by giving citizens clear, regularly updated data and information.
Modules of particular interest:
- Module 2 – Data, information, communication, trust: importance of information and data sharing to instil trust between organisations and the community. Disparity between truth and not truth. Severity not communicated effectively.
- Module 8 – inequality and social cohesion in a crisis: challenges with sharing of water points and toilets with the community – impact of isolation currently.
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Cape Town Drought Response Learning Initiative: Spotlight series
The Drought Response Learning Library provides a number of interviews with key people involved in the Cape Town Day Zero crisis, which will have similarities in dealing with the current COVID-19 crisis.
Specifically, the following videos may currently be of interest:
Leadership, data and calling a crisis: data and information availability is important to help focus decision-making on crises. Day zero forecasting undertook simulation modelling to say when it was thought that Cape Town would potentially run out of water.
Behavioural nudges: identifies experience of mechanisms to change societal behaviours to reduce water demand in this case.
EARTH EX global resilience exercise
“Excellent exercise! It helps us to prepare for potential disasters and to know what we’re not yet prepared for”
Consideration of implications for electric and water sectors. Consideration of knock-on impacts. E.g. loss of water and power could lead to hospitals being uninhabitable. Ensuring that there is facility backup power available.
Improved cross-sector coordinated planning and all sector emergency communication is key for significant events.
Lessons for infrastructure resilience from the reconstruction of Christchurch
“What is the most important thing in the world? It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.”
Provides learnings from Christchurch's response to the 2011 earthquake. For example, findings showed that the community should be regarded as a system in its own right. The importance of data availability for allowing the area to build back better after crisis was a particular limitation. It is important to obtain the perspectives of those that have lived with and gone through this crisis. Some lessons learned are similar to those of Cape Town after its water crisis.
Useful posts from our blog archive

Paris Climate Agreement leaders join final Resilient Leadership podcast
Resilient Leadership hosts Seth Schultz and Peter Willis welcome resilience royalty, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, for the final Resilient Leadership podcast of the year.

Resilient Leadership the focus of ‘Cities on the Frontline’
What makes leadership resilience during a time of crisis?

Engineering A Safer Future: from disruption to transformation
The Resilience Shift and Lloyd’s Register Foundation together hosted a round table series exploring what can be learned from the Covid crisis and its impact on particular sectors. Among other questions they asked how disruption can become an opportunity for systems transformation.

‘Resilient Leadership: learning from crisis’ report launched – Get the report
The new report captures the emerging lessons for resilient leadership when dealing with a major crisis, the insights gained along the way, and the power of reflective learning to build leadership capability.

TEDxCountdown to set the scene for ‘Resilient Leadership’. Register for launch event
During a crisis, what does it mean to be resilient? What should leaders focus on to build a safe, sustainable and resilient future? The Resilience Shift is launching its new report: ‘Resilient Leadership: Learning from Crisis’ Register for TEDxResilienceShift: 14 October, 15.45-17.00 BST (GMT +1) and sign up for a preview copy of the full report.

Resilient Leadership report previewed at LRF Digital Summit
Resilient leadership and infrastructure’s role in maintaining global safety were under the spotlight at the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Global Summit 2020 with Seth Schultz, chairing a panel on ‘Resilience Matters’, previewing Resilience Shift’s new report ‘Resilient Leadership: Learning from Crisis’.

Use-it or lose-it moment for infrastructure financing
Resilience Shift’s Executive Director Seth Schultz joined transatlantic infrastructure finance roundtable to discuss how to utilise this once-in-a-lifetime moment for infrastructure spending.

Emerging insights into resilient leadership
As part of our mission to understand what resilience means in practice, we are sharing the emerging insights into resilient leadership, distilled from the first eight weeks of interviews with our twelve participants.

Insights into resilient leadership
A new initiative by The Resilience Shift, in partnership with the Global Resilient Cities Network, is shining the light on resilient leadership, capturing the reflections of 12 globally diverse senior leaders faced with the challenges of the coronavirus crisis.

Disaster v crisis? How the nature of the Covid-19 crisis affects our response.
How should we respond to a disaster or crisis such as Covid-19, the Australian bushfires or the floods in Indonesia? Jo da Silva, Resilience Shift Board member, reflects on what we mean by disaster and crisis, and how our understanding of the type of event should inform our response.
Strengthening supply chain resilience
Resilience and Complex Interdependencies within and between Global Food Supply Networks and Transportation Infrastructure
We contributed to this paper in the journal Cereal Foods World that discusses the importance of considering the resilience of the food supply network from a whole systems approach. Provides some essential principles for enhancing food transportation system resilience.
At a time when the resilience of ports for food and commodities supply is most important, this primer identifies opportunities for building resilience in this sector.
Resilience of global food supply chains
25 June, 2019
Having a clear understanding of the governance of the food supply chain and having transparent decision making is important during crisis.
Use of public-private collaboration for supply chain resilience.
Intermodal (e.g. rail, air, road) integration of transport infrastructure and understanding the resilience of this during a time of crisis.
Useful posts from our blog archive

A pivotal moment for the transport sector – and lessons for resilience
Roads and transport are critical for maintaining the movement of essential goods, supplies, services and workers, and ensuring integrity of the supply chain. We share emerging issues from the World Road Association (PIARC)’s series of COVID-19 webinars that have enabled their global community to share real-time pandemic impacts and responses.

“Resilience, diversification, and innovation are needed to safely feed the world”
“There is a very tense situation currently with a huge number of people dying every day from starvation, and 70% of our planet not yet exploited for food. Food safety is all about resilience”. Vincent Doumeizel from Lloyd’s Register Foundation, talks about education, innovation and the potential of seaweed.

From field to fork – global food supply and its dependence on resilient infrastructure
The global supply of food is an incredibly complex system, involving multiple actors and a diverse value chain from production through to consumption. Every part of the chain is dependent on infrastructure systems. We share six principles for enhancing the resilience of food transportation systems from our contribution to Cereal Foods World.

Podcast interview shines the light on infrastructure resilience
Our Technical Director, Dr Juliet Mian was interviewed by CIHT for their series of CIHT podcasts on infrastructure resilience. This episode is relevant to today’s global events as the world looks to respond to, and be resilient to, Covid 19, the global pandemic.

Planning for uncertainty – the resilience challenges for supply chains
Contributing to the research on global supply chains, this guest blog on the initial UK-focused research highlights global pinch points, the impact of politics, and how data analytics and sight upstream are critical to resilience
Building long term resilience
Provides information on common operational measures from around the world to support the resilience of the potable water system.
City Water Resilience Approach
14 March, 2019
The City Water Resilience Approach can help to develop a detailed plan and an ability to prioritise key actions in cities. Tools are provided to help this process (e.g. City Water Resilience Framework and OurWater).
Identification and consideration of additional threats to the electricity system that, during a time of crisis, could lead to further systemic issues. Adaptation examples are provided, and highlights importance of having emergency agreements in place.
Importance of the value chain in the energy sector that is vital to ensure electricity is provided to the end user. Sharing lessons learnt for increasing resilience of the system.
Support on preparedness – having incident response and contingency plans in pace. Availability of diversionary routes.
Lessons learned – e.g. use of technology for monitoring use of alternative routes. Existing and new relationships and communication channels with single point of contact within each organisation.
Undertaking vulnerability and risks analyses of networks, with examples provided in primer.
Importance of systems thinking – linking to food supply chain resilience, role in intermodal transport, and the operation of other infrastructure sectors.
OurWater
OurWater can help map processes, governance, stakeholders and infrastructure networks that make up a city’s water system. This will help enable a more coordinated response to crisis.
Resilience Toolbox
The Resilience Shift has assessed a wide range of tools and approaches to help implement resilience across all stages of an infrastructure lifecycle. The Resilience Toolbox provides a list of available tools and approaches and links to the tool developers.
Useful posts from our blog archive

Tackling the challenges of water stressed cities in Africa
Next steps for our support of the City Water Resilience Approach (CWRA) to build urban water resilience, with plans to roll out to 3 city-regions in Africa in partnership with the Resilient Cities Network and Arup, as part of the WRI’s Urban Water Resilience in Africa Initiative.

Launching a global discussion about the contribution of engineering to all our futures
Over the next 15 years, the OECD has estimated that around $103 trillion investment is needed to support our ageing and deteriorating critical infrastructure systems globally. Is the civil engineering community ready to deliver this investment?

A focus on growth and COP26 at ICSI first anniversary
One year on from the formation of the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI), the ICSI Virtual Symposium highlighted the consensus that engineers are uniquely placed to shape our collective future.

The value of a national ‘Lifelines Forum’ for resilience – insights from Tauranga
In this guest blog, Resilient Organisations’ Tracy Hatton shares her thoughts on her recent participation in the NZ Lifelines Utilities Forum and on the value of bringing together essential infrastructure and service providers.

ICSI Symposium one year since launch – keynote speakers include COP26 Climate Champions
Systemic infrastructure problems cannot be solved without cooperation. The International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI) hosted its Virtual Symposium on Thursday 12 November 2020 (15:00-18:00 GMT).

Highlighting Potable Water Resilience
Resilience Shift’s work on Potable Water Resilience is back under the spotlight at the National Lifeline Utilities Forum in New Zealand.

Pioneering more resilient transport infrastructure – the FORESEE Project
This innovative project promises to make a real difference to resilience – find out more about its work, and join the discussion at its next workshop (27/10) on new adaptation measures

TEDxCountdown to set the scene for ‘Resilient Leadership’. Register for launch event
During a crisis, what does it mean to be resilient? What should leaders focus on to build a safe, sustainable and resilient future? The Resilience Shift is launching its new report: ‘Resilient Leadership: Learning from Crisis’ Register for TEDxResilienceShift: 14 October, 15.45-17.00 BST (GMT +1) and sign up for a preview copy of the full report.

Global coalition launches major Gap Fund to target finance gaps for infrastructure
With gaps in funding identified as a top barrier to the progress of resilient, climate-informed infrastructure, the launch of the City Climate Finance Gap Fund marks a major milestone towards overcoming barriers to progress for resilient infrastructure.

The future of transport resilience
In this guest blog, we invite Nicole Lee and Clement Ho to consider how urban transportation worldwide is changed by the Covid-19 pandemic, what new approaches are being developed, and what it could mean for the future of transport resilience.
External resources
The resources below are taken from the Things We Like section of our site, a wide-ranging and regularly updated database of links to useful resilience information.
Oxford Covid-19 Impact Monitor
15 Apr 20
Covid-19 related risks and challenges for European power and gas utilities
13 Apr 20
What a Coronavirus Recovery Could Look Like
23 Mar 20
50 days with coronavirus: the story so far for UK utilities
Open Letter to Global Leaders – A Healthy Planet for Healthy People
26 Mar 20






Call to Action from the Planetary Emergency Partnership: Emerging from the Planetary Emergency and partnering between People and Nature
[ Op Ed ]
Oxford University launches world’s first COVID-19 government response tracker






The new tracker records and compares governmental measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic worldwide.
[ Article ]
Drinking Water and Wastewater Resilience
COVID-19 tracker from the World Economic Forum
ISRM Coronavirus Fast Learning Project
Water system preparedness and best practices for pandemic influenza
01 Jan 09






Journal of the AWWA: Water system preparedness and best practices for pandemic influenza (01 Jan 2009) According to public health experts and the medical community, an influenza pandemic could occur at any time. The authors conducted a literature review, interviews, and a survey of Ohio water systems to assess how prepared U.S. water systems were for a pandemic flu outbreak and found varying preparedness levels.
[ Article ]
Guide to Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources Protection at the State, Regional, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Level
03 Dec 08






A report by the US Department of Homeland Security. Suggests various strategies and approaches, and leaves it to the discretion of each jurisdiction to determine which approach or combination of approaches, if any, might be suited to their specific needs, operating environments, and risk landscapes.
[ Report ]
Centre for Cities podcast about coronavirus and global city resilience
Transport Research Board Webinar
23 Mar 20
Future Earth Survey






Future Earth has published a rapid foresight survey on Covid-19 exploring global risks and opportunities for recovery and transformation. With this survey, Future Earth, the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and Environment, and other partners seek to spark critical reflection on the challenges, but also the opportunities, that this global crisis presents, and to contribute to what will soon emerge as a global conversation on where we go from here.
[ Survey ]
Coronavirus Government Response Tracker






Governments are taking a wide range of measures in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. This tool aims to track and compare policy responses around the world, rigorously and consistently.
[ Tool ]
Speakers Series on how cities are responding to COVID-19
23 Mar 20
Disaster Versus Crisis?
06 Apr 20
The internet’s resilience to mass homeworking
Thinking ahead: For a sustainable recovery from COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
Corona-crisis hits nuclear sector
Risk-Based Policy Optimization for Critical Infrastructure Resilience against a Pandemic Influenza Outbreak
31 Jan 18
COVID-19 – PIARC’s response
Energy Networks Association coronavirus news
Building transportation supply chain resilience after a pandemic
08 Apr 20






Building transportation supply chain resilience after a pandemic – collated resources of TRB. The transportation industry is relying on the knowledge gained from past freight supply chain disruptions and documented by TRB to successfully handle COVID-19 and its aftermath.
[ Web Page ]
Webcast: Utility Actions to Sustain Operations During COVID-19
20 Mar 20






Recording of webinar: Utility actions to sustain operations during Covid-19. This webinar is designed to share practices that utilities have implemented to prepare and respond to COVID-19. This includes a discussion of workforce issues, facility access and supply chain conditions.
[ Webinar ]
COVID-19: Local Action Tracker
25 Mar 20
New OECD outlook on the global economy
26 Mar 20






New OECD outlook on the global economy shared at G20 Summit – on the OECD’s website hub for Tackling coronavirus (Covid-19). Contributing to a global effort.
[ Article ]