Resilience Scanner

RESCCUE Web-Based Urban Resilience Modeling Platform

Solution Overview

The RESCCUE Toolkit represents a comprehensive web-based platform developed through a four-year European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation project that ran from May 2016 to October 2020.[1] This approach aims to help urban areas around the world become more resilient to climate change, improving their capability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to and recover from significant multihazard threats with minimum damage.[5] The platform was developed and implemented for three case studies: Barcelona, Bristol and Lisbon, with the Barcelona implementation created in close collaboration with the Barcelona City Council and other local stakeholders.[1]

Technical Components

The RESCCUE Toolkit includes a set of innovative datasets, methodologies, models and tools to analyse urban resilience based on a multisectoral approach.[5] Mathematical modelling was performed using a large set of software packages and tools including GIS, Infoworks ICM, DIgSILENT PowerFactory, TransCAD, MOHID Studio, SIMGES, and HBV hydrology model.[2] The platform takes advantage of the existing HAZUR tool and methodology as the basis of further software developments able to perform the assessment, management and planning of urban resilience in an integrated way.[9] In the holistic approach, the resilience assessment tool (HAZUR) is used to analyse the relations and the cascading effects among the different urban services.[9] The resilience assessment framework defines resilience as a combination of four dimensions: absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, restorative capacity, and transformative capacity.[1] The toolkit is connected to a database that stores all information related to the resilience assessment, including climate change projections, resilience indicators, and adaptation strategies.[1] This database was designed to be flexible and scalable so that it can be easily adapted to other cities.[1] The platform includes a user management system that allows definition of different user roles and permissions to control access to different modules and functionalities.[1]

Implementation Details

The RESCCUE project was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 700174.[3] The project consortium was led by Aquatec (SUEZ Advanced Solutions) and included three city councils (Barcelona, Lisbon and Bristol), UN-Habitat, urban services companies (Endesa, EDP, Aguas de Portugal, and Wessex Water), research centres (Cetaqua, FIC, LNEC and IREC), universities (Exeter and EIVP), and SMEs (Hidra and UrbanDNA).[4] The three cities included as pilot sites served as validation platforms of the improved tool, where integrated analyses of urban resilience were performed throughout the project.[9] Main implementing actors for developing the resilience assessment tool included Ajuntament de Barcelona (Urban Ecology), RESCCUE project partners (Aquatec, Cetaqua, UN-Habitat), and urban service operators (Aigües de Barcelona, Endesa, etc.).[3] The tool was co-developed with service operators and integrated into their management processes.[3] The RESCCUE approach was implemented in three EU cities with support from UN-Habitat to disseminate results among other cities belonging to major international networks.[7]

Benefits and Impacts

The resilience assessment tool was used to assess the resilience of the water, energy, and waste services in Barcelona and to identify the cascading effects between them.[3] The system focuses on cascading failures that involve several urban functions, given the interdependencies existent between the several city services.[7] The urban resilience management tool HAZUR Manager was improved and tested so it can be easily deployed in any other city around the world.[9] By constantly monitoring key infrastructures, the tool is able to detect which infrastructures are affected when shocks occur and supports response efforts.[9] The RESCCUE Resilience Action Plan of Barcelona was built based on RESCCUE's template and guidelines and on the results obtained using the tools and approaches developed in RESCCUE.[6] This thematic plan contributes to the city's global resilience plan.[6] The project published several papers in different peer-reviewed journals, as well as a special issue in the Sustainability Journal entitled 'Integrated assessment of climate change impacts and urban resilience: from climate and hydrological hazards to risk analysis and measures'.[5]

Climate Adaptation Relevance

The RESCCUE Toolkit for Barcelona focuses on four climate hazards: heavy rains and floods, droughts and water scarcity, sea level rise and coastal floods, and heat waves.[1] These tools assess urban resilience from a multisectorial approach for current and future climate change scenarios, including multiple hazards and cascading effects.[7] Recent climate projections for the city of Barcelona show a relevant increment of the maximum rainfall intensities for the period 2071–2100.[10]

Business Analysis

The project generated models and tools to deliver a framework enabling city resilience assessment, planning and management by integrating into software tools new knowledge related to the detailed water-centred modelling of strategic urban services performance into a comprehensive resilience platform.[8] The RESCCUE approach uses the water sector as the central point of the approach to help cities around the world become more resilient to physical, social, and economic challenges.[7] The platform aims to improve urban resilience through a set of models and software tools that assess climate change impacts in strategic urban sectors, such as water, transport, energy supply and solid waste, then interconnects them to assess urban resilience for the current state and a wide range of potential future scenarios.[9] The RESCCUE Toolkit is accessible as a web-based platform at toolkit.resccue.eu.[1] The validation platform formed by three EU cities (Barcelona, Lisboa and Bristol) allowed testing the innovative tools developed in the project and disseminating their results among other cities belonging to major international networks.[8]

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