The New Zealand capital city of Wellington has published ‘Resilient Wellington’, a comprehensive strategic roadmap to promote urban resilience in the city.
The strategy, an effort led by the Wellington City Council with support from 100 Resilient Cities, proposes concrete actions to build citywide resilience. It was developed in consultation with the more than 200 people in Wellington, including infrastructure managers, researchers, community members, businesses and council staff from across the Wellington region. Led by the Chief Resilience Officer, the city also conducted a wide range of consultation meetings, engaging various stakeholders and organizations through one-on-one interviews and citizen participation in workshops and focus groups. Through this process, Wellington built a consensus and determination for the city’s approach to resilience and prioritized actions and initiatives that will increase urban resilience.
Mike Mendonça, Wellington Chief Resilience Officer, said: “As a modern city, Wellington needs to be prepared to survive, adapt and grow in the face of challenges. I always say that resilience is more than simply having a civil defence kit and strong buildings, because those things should be a given. The strategy, with its comprehensive approach to resilience building, will enable our city to go beyond that, and grow stronger and smarter in dealing with shocks and stresses. This strategy outlines a vision for Wellington to face any future, while taking into account the needs of our community – ensuring that every citizen has a place and voice in our city.”
Resilient Wellington focuses on three interconnected areas for action, each with its own goals, initiatives and projects to strengthen the city and its communities:
- People are connected, empowered and feel part of a community: focuses on community and household based resilience and features initiatives to reduce homelessness, develop disaster risk management plans for heritage areas and improve business continuity planning.
- Decision making at all levels is integrated and well informed: focuses on governance and utilizing information to inform future and risk planning and features initiatives to introduce regulatory tools for resilience, encourage climate adaptation actions and undertake recovery planning for the region to respond to future disruption.
- Homes and natural and built environments are healthy and robust: focuses on the city’s vital infrastructure and includes initiatives to help make homes safe warm and dry, improve water systems and support the widespread adoption of electronic vehicles.
