Crisis Management and the Hyper-Urban Environment: From Fragility to Resilience

Global crises were traditionally seen through the lens of rural impacts: floods, droughts, famine, but in the modern works it is cities that are most vulnerable.

Whether it is because of the collapse of over-aged and under-maintained systems, their global interconnectedness and hyper-dependencies, technical malfunctions, the pressure of the demands on limited resources, or malicious attack, it feels as though the systems that underpin our urban existence have reached the limit of their capacities and capabilities.

This lecture will look at issues of urban resilience and some of the approaches that are needed to ensure that our cities of the near-future maintain their functionality in the face of ever-increasing pressures.