DEPARTMENT: Office of Sustainability
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Douglas Melnick, Chief Sustainability Officer AICP, ISSP-SA, CNU-A
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: All
SUBJECT:
City of San Antonio Resilience
SUMMARY:
Briefing on resilience definition, current local resilience efforts and a review of other cities' efforts.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Resilience is the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience. Chronic stresses are slow moving disasters that weaken the fabric of a city and can include high unemployment, mobility challenges, poverty, and educational attainment challenges. Acute shocks are sudden, sharp events that threaten a city, including floods, heat waves, terrorist attacks, or disease outbreaks.
Resilience can be social, environmental, and economic in nature, and can be focused in numerous areas including, but not limited to cybersecurity, emergency management, climate change, energy sector, and food security.
El Paso was one of the Rockefeller Foundations 100 Resilient Cities Program that is dedicated to helping cities around the world become more resilient to the physical, social and economic challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century. El Paso's Interim Director of Community and Human Development and Chief Resilience Officer, Nicole Ferinni, will provide an overview of their experience in evaluating their community's vulnerabilities and developing an action plan to improve their urban resilience.
ISSUE:
As part of the implementation of the SA Tomorrow Sustainability Plan and City Council's Paris Climate Agreement resolution, the Office of Sustainability has been coordinating with CPS Energy and the University of Texas at San Antonio on the development of Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP), with climate resilience as a key component. As part of the CAAP, the Office of Sustain...
Click here for full text