DEPARTMENT: Office of Sustainability
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Douglas R. Melnick, AICP, ISSP-SA, CNU-A
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: All
SUBJECT:
City of San Antonio Resilience
SUMMARY:
Continued discussion on resilience with a presentation on El Paso's resilience 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.
Office of Sustainability staff will provide the committee with a brief summary of research regarding several cities that have established resiliency offices.
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 o...
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