The safety and well-being of millions, if not billions, of people globally depends on the provision of safe, inclusive and resilient infrastructure systems.

In the face of increasing urbanisation, population growth and uncertainty around climate and other natural and man-made hazards, those working across urban water systems need to recognise the three inherent parts of their complex systems: the technical (the physical and cyber components), the ecological (both naturally occurring and designed-in nature-based components) and the social (those who depend upon the system, as well as those who own, operate and maintain them).

Furthermore, in cities, the interdependencies between different systems, different organisations, and public and private sectors are inescapable.

Within and between critical infrastructure sectors, there is a need to equip organisations and individuals across the entire value chain, with the tools and approaches they need to introduce resilience into their decision making.

People need to know what to do differently, and the City Water Resilience Approach fills that gap, taking city water stakeholders through the key stages from system mapping, resilience assessment to option identification and prioritisation, whilst recognising all of the complexities referred to above.

The rigour and collaboration that sit behind it significantly enhance its value in practice. The Resilience Shift believes that this approach has the potential to create genuine and lasting impact in cities globally, and is delighted to have supported this work.

Publication date: 3 October, 2019
Authors: George Beane (Arup), Katrin Bruebach (100 Resilient Cities), Louise Ellis (Arup / The Resilience Shift), Sophie Fisher (Arup), Richard Gine (SIWI), Alejandro Jiménez (SIWI), Iñigo Ruiz-Apilánez (Arup / The Resilience Shift), Panchali Saikia (SIWI), Martin Shouler (Arup) and Martine Sobey (100 Resilient Cities).