This content was originally published on The Resilience Shift website. The Resilience Shift, a 5-year programme supported by Lloyd’s Register Foundation and hosted by Arup, transitioned at the end of 2021 to become Resilience Rising. You can read more about The Resilience Shift’s journey and the transition to Resilience Rising here.
The Resilience Shift talked to Arup Water’s Martin Shouler about cities’ needs for tools and approaches to help them navigate the process of building urban water resilience.
Martin led the Arup team collaborating on the development of the City Water Resilience Approach and he is clear on the importance of water resilience for cities. He says that through Arup’s work with cities using the City Resilience Index, they has seen again and again the water challenges cities face every day, whether too much water or too little. In 2019, “water crisis” was named by the World Economic Forum as the global risk with the fourth biggest impact and it is estimated by the Stockholm International Water Institute that 9 of the 10 risks with above average impact and likelihood have clear linkages to water.
With flooding and drought events repeatedly in the news, and with the perceived risk of water resilience growing, Martin explains in this video interview why the CWRA is such a valuable end to end approach. He details how it can help cities and their multiple stakeholders to work effectively together to secure their water resilience for the benefit of their citizens. He also explains the role of the diagnostic framework and the OurWater digital collaboration tool.
Supported by the Resilience Shift and the Rockefeller Foundation, the City Water Resilience Approach was developed by Arup and the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) with support from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and 100 Resilient Cities along with eight cities worldwide. It includes resources that will help the cities carry out each step of the process.
To register your interest in getting involved with or trialling the City Water Resilience Approach and OurWater, please get in touch.
You can also find the team behind the City Water Resilience Approach at various events this year including the Resilient Cities Congress in Bonn on Thursday 27 June 2019 and at SIWI World Water Week between Sunday 25 August and Friday 30 August 2019.
