Resilience Toolbox

UCRA  

The Urban Community Resilience Assessment

The Urban Community Resilience Assessment (UCRA) helps cities incorporate individual and community capacities—social cohesion, familiarity with local climate risks, early warning systems and disaster readiness—into broader urban resilience evaluations. By analysing these local capabilities, the UCRA provides a snapshot of preparedness behaviours, risk perception and the strength of neighbourhood relationships. These findings enable individuals to identify context-specific adaptation actions and allow policymakers to engage community members in urban resilience planning.

Developed by
World Resources Institute (WRI) and Cities Alliance

UrbanSim  

UrbanSim Modelling Methodology

UrbanSim leverages state-of-the-art urban simulation, 3D visualization, and shared open data to empower users to explore, gain insights into, and develop and evaluate alternative plans to improve their communities. UrbanSim is a simulation platform for supporting planning and analysis of urban development, incorporating the interactions between land use, transportation, the economy, and the environment.

Developed by
UrbanSim Inc.

CB-Cities  

Berkeley group is actively developing such a large-scale and high-fidelity traffic simulation model for several big cities around the world. It builds upon the concept of Agent Based Modelling (ABM), where individual citizens are represented by intelligent agents. An agent is capable of navigating in a graph representation of the city’s road network along an optimum path, while maintaining interactions with other agents and dynamically re-planning the route in response to traffic congestion or road closures. The model can accommodate millions of agents and run simulations as in real time.

Developed by
Berkeley Engineering

CDIA Project Screening  

CDIA Project Screening Tool

This tool aims to help cities identify and profile investments, particularly those prioritized in climate resilience strategies, to enhance opportunities for downstream finance.

CDIA focuses on developing investments in urban infrastructure and service between city-level urban strategies and implementing specific infrastructure projects with domestic, international, public, or private financing.

Developed by
Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA)

HAZUR®  

HAZUR is a piece of software designed to support the design, implementation and management of cities resilience strategy.

1. HAZUR Basic is the online software included in the certification courses of the Resilience Academy. It includes the basic functionalities to build your own city project.
2. HAZUR Assessment helps to summarise all city data, to analyse interdependencies in service networks, to assess impacts aftermaths and cascade effects. It also enables the identification and prioritisation of potential improvement projects, facilitates the definition of crisis management protocols and supports a strategy development process.
3. HAZUR Manager combines the Assessment information with real-time information and enables the simulation of risk situations at city level. It also equips the cities and experts with tools for service network monitoring, risk management and city stakeholder coordination.

View case study

Developed by
OPTICITS

Hazus  

Hazus is a nationally applicable standardized methodology that contains models for estimating potential losses from earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes. Hazus uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to estimate physical, economic, and social impacts of disasters. It graphically illustrates the limits of identified high-risk locations due to earthquake, hurricane, flood, and tsunami. Users can then visualize the spatial relationships between populations and other more Earthquake, Wind, Flood, Tsunami permanently fixed geographic assets or resources for the specific hazard being modelled, a crucial function in the pre-disaster planning process.

Hazus is used for mitigation and recovery, as well as preparedness and response. Government planners, GIS specialists, and emergency managers use Hazus to determine losses and the most beneficial mitigation approaches to take to minimize them. Hazus can be used in the assessment step in the mitigation planning process, which is the foundation for a community’s long-term strategy to reduce disaster losses and break the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage. Being ready will aid in recovery after a natural disaster.

Potential loss estimates analysed in Hazus include:

• Physical damage to residential and commercial buildings, schools, critical facilities, and infrastructure;
• Economic loss, including lost jobs, business interruptions, repair, and reconstruction costs;
  Social impacts, including estimates of shelter requirements, displaced households, and population exposed to scenario floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes, and tsunamis.
• As the number of Hazus users continues to increase, so do the types of uses. Increasingly, Hazus is being used by states and communities in support of risk assessments that perform economic loss scenarios for certain natural hazards and rapid needs assessments during hurricane response. Other communities are using Hazus to increase hazard awareness.

View case study

Developed by
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

OASIS Loss Modelling Framework  

OASIS Loss Modelling Framework (Catastrophe Modelling)

Catastrophe modelling (known as cat modelling) is the process of using computer-assisted calculations to estimate the losses that could be sustained due to catastrophic events such as a hurricane or earthquake.

OASIS is an improved risk assessment through more models, a different view of the risk, transparency, performance, and innovation. The Oasis Loss Modelling Framework provides an open source platform for developing, deploying and executing catastrophe models. It uses a full simulation engine and makes no restrictions on the modelling approach. Models are packaged in a standard format and the components can be from any source, such as model vendors, academic and research groups.

Developed by
Oasis

RESILENS  

Realising European ReSILiencE for Critical INfraStructure

RESILENS will develop a European Resilience Management Guideline (ERMG) to support the practical application of resilience to all CI sectors. Accompanying the ERMG will be a Resilience Management Matrix and Audit Toolkit (ReMMAT) which will enable CI systems (encompassing assets and organisations) to have their level of resilience quantitatively and qualitatively indexed.

View case study

Developed by
H2020 RESILENS Project

REDi  

Resilience-based Earthquake Design Initiative

The REDi Rating System is developed by Arups Advanced Technology and Research team, it proposes a framework for owners, architects, and engineers to implement ‘resilience-based earthquake design’ to new development. It describes design and planning criteria to enable owners to resume business operations and provide liveable conditions quickly after an earthquake, according to their desired resilience objectives. It also presents a loss evaluation methodology for assessing the success of the adopted design and planning measures in meeting the resilience objectives.

Developed by
Arup

CityStrength Diagnostic  

CityStrength is a rapid diagnostic that aims to help cities enhance their resilience to a variety of shocks and stresses. A qualitative assessment developed with support from the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), the diagnostic takes a holistic and integrated approach and encourages collaboration between sectors to more efficiently tackle issues and unlock opportunities within the city. CityStrength is flexible and can adapt to different needs of clients in terms of depth and breadth, and can be implemented in any city or combination of cities within a country regardless of size, institutional capacity, or phase of development.

View case study

Developed by
The World Bank

City Resilience Actions Inventory and Stakeholder Perception Review  

This review aims to document and analyse existing plans, policies and projects in the city. Establish a baseline of where the city is taking action across the 12 drivers of resilience and identify efforts the City Resilience Strategy can further develop and/or advance.

View case study

Developed by
100 Resilience Cities & Arup

Resilience Garage  

The Resilience Garage assembles a group of 20-25 experts from across sectors and disciplines with the aim to peer review and to identify opportunities to better understand or solve challenging problems. This is done through either specific resilient projects (projects that have multiple benefits and address multiple issues) or by developing key focus areas for further consideration. It is practical – aiming for concrete recommendations – as well as fundamental – rigorously applying a rich resilience toolset. It applies the learning and tools developed following a two-year collaboration that explored how to make resilience more actionable.

View case study

Developed by
100 Resilience Cities & Roland Kupers

Resilience.io  

Resilience.io is designed as a computer-based platform that provides an integrated systems view of a city-region. It will be an analysis and decision-support tool for collaboration and resilience decision-making. The resilience.io platform combines computer representations of resource flows, human and business activities and infrastructure systems. The platform contains a growing library of process models of typical human, industrial and ecological systems, the relevant ones of which are used in a local instance to create a tailored integrated systems model for a city-region.

View case study

Developed by
Ecological Sequestration Trust

PREP  

The Partnership for Resilience and Preparedness data tool

PREPdata is a map-based, open data online platform that allows users to access and visualize spatial data reflecting the past and future climate, as well as the physical and socioeconomic landscape for climate adaptation and resilience planning. The platform is continuing to evolve through the input of PREP partners and PREPdata users. It is a flexible tool for climate adaptation planning, designed to address many of the gaps and challenges adaptation practitioners face.

Distinguishing elements of PREPdata:

• A visual, map-based platform that is user-friendly and customized to different contexts and skill levels;
• Active curation of datasets focused on climate resilience, streamlining the process of accessing and navigating to relevant data;
• A commitment to global coverage, with an emphasis on increasing access to datasets for the Global South, and support for applications across different scales and geographies; and
• A user-needs based strategy for platform development, utilizing the knowledge and network of the partners and platform users to enable continuous improvement.

View case study

Developed by
The Partnership for Resilience and Preparedness

ICLEI ACCCRN  

ICLEI ACCCRN Process Workbook

The ICLEI ACCCRN Process (IAP) enables local governments to assess their climate risks in the context of urbanisation, poverty and vulnerability and formulate corresponding resilience strategies. The ICLEI ACCCRN Process has been designed in a step-by-step format, divided into 6 phases. Phases 5 and 6 that guide cities in the implementation and monitoring phases will be included in the following edition of the IAP toolkit. The process is also designed to be a continuous cycle of review and refinement, rather than a closed cycle.

The phases are:

1. Phase 1 of the process will provide all the tools and activities needed to start work with the city. The tools help local governments gain the necessary political and administrative support, establish a climate core team, involve local stakeholders, appropriately share relevant information through a tailored communications plan, and conduct an initial assessment of the city’s progress towards dealing with climate change.
2. In Phase 2 the main impacts of climate change faced by the city are identified through shared learning dialogues and interactions with the climate core team. The fragile urban systems facing climate threats are also identified and prioritised according to their risk status.
3. Phase 3 will assist the city government in producing climate vulnerability hotspot maps, in identifying the vulnerable social groups, and in analysing their adaptive capacities as well as those of the impacted urban systems.
4. In Phase 4, city governments will use the information and analysis from the previous Phases to develop a list of potential resilience building interventions. The tools in this phase help screen and prioritise these interventions, link them to existing city plans, and compile all the information into a City Resilience Strategy.

View case study

Developed by
ICLEI and Rockefeller Foundation

CRAFT  

Climate Risk And Adaptation Framework And Taxonomy

CRAFT provides:

• a framework for cities to perform robust and consistent reporting of climate hazards and associated adaptation planning and implementation that is required by the Compact of Mayors;
• a means to monitor and evaluate adaptation planning progress to help cities improve adaptation efforts by enhancing knowledge of best practices;
• a means for cities to identify priorities and target advocacy for climate adaptation resources;
• the data to improve the ability for cities and their partners to identify peers and aspirational examples to help inform their own adaptation planning process and implementation.

Developed by
Arup

OurWater  

OurWater

OurWater helps users visualize the processes, stakeholders and infrastructure networks that make up their city’s water system.

OurWater has been developed to address the growing need for tools that can help cities share information between different stakeholders and visualize complex interactions. This goal of understanding the city’s water landscape is one critical element of moving towards the goal of building cities’ capacity to endure, adapt and transform in the face of water challenges.

Developed by
The Resilience Shift, Arup, Stockholm International Water Institute

ThinkHazard!  

GFDRR, a unit within the World Bank, has developed a web-based tool ThinkHazard! to enable non-specialists (decision makers, planners and government staff) to consider the impacts of disaster on new developments of project.
Users can quickly assess the level of river flood, earthquake, drought, cyclone, coastal flood, tsunami, volcano, and landslide hazard within their project area to assist with project planning and design. Users are only required to enter their project location – national, provincial or district name. The results interface shows a user whether they require high, medium or low awareness of each hazard when planning their project.

The interface provides links to additional resources such as country risk assessments, best practice guidance, and additional websites. ThinkHazard! also highlights how each hazard may change in the future as a result of climate change.
The tool is a web-based open source mapping platform allowing other developers to improve or alter the platform.
This tool is available in English, French, and Spanish. Data is available for all countries, but the information is most relevant for less developed countries as GIS datasets are more advanced in more developed countries.

View case study

Developed by
GFDRR

TORC  

Training for Operational Resilience Capabilities

The Training for Operational Resilience Capabilities (TORC) approach addresses three distinct training arenas; operational training addresses the exploration of the necessary margin of maneuver in the “compliance vs resilience” space, managerial training addresses the assessment of a reasonable and accountable space of maneuver, while integrated training addresses the active reconciliation of margin and space of maneuver. This facilitates a continual process of updating of rules based on the enhanced knowledge about the professional competence and craftsmanship in the organization at hand.

The TORC approach is designed to be applicable in different contexts; in a normal operation context where pre-existing rules and procedures form the expectations of compliance, in an emergency context in which emergency plans form the presumptions of compliance, and in a “managing the unexpected” context in which the applicable set of rules and procedures must be collected and formed instantly and situation-dependently.

Developed by
SINTEF