Resilience Scanner

City Resilience Index Assessment and Measurement Framework

Solution Overview

Los Angeles served as one of the first cities to pilot the City Resilience Index, a comprehensive tool that measures urban resilience in a systematic, globally applicable way.[3][4][5] The City Resilience Index was developed by engineering consultancy Arup with support from The Rockefeller Foundation to provide cities with a quantitative measurement framework.[3][5][6] This diagnostic tool enables municipalities to assess their resilience performance and identify priority areas for action rather than serving as a ranking system.[5]

Technical Components

The City Resilience Index is structured around four dimensions—Health and Wellbeing, Economy and Society, Infrastructure and Environment, and Leadership and Strategy—encompassing 12 goals and 52 indicators.[6] The framework is based on the City Resilience Framework, with its 52 indicators grouped into the 12 drivers of the CRF.[5] Participants complete 156 questions covering issues from health and wellbeing to economy and society, infrastructure and ecosystems to leadership and strategy.[3] Any city can complete the CRI using an online tool that guides multiple users to collaborate over the input of data.[3] The data are scored on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 representing a very low level of resilience and 5 representing a very high level of resilience.[5] The CRI is underpinned by a qualitative scoring methodology that enables cities to assess their resilience and develop a robust evidence base to support investment and programming decisions.[6]

Implementation Details

Los Angeles was selected to join 100 Resilient Cities, pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation in 2014, and Mayor Garcetti appointed the City's first Chief Resilience Officer.[1] The CRO and the Mayor's Office began the resilience strategy development process in 2016, holding an Agenda-Setting Workshop that brought together over 150 stakeholders from across the City to identify resilience challenges.[1] Marissa Aho served as Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Los Angeles during the development of the Resilient Los Angeles strategy.[1] The Mayor's Office developed the Los Angeles Resilience Strategy with the collaboration, financial, and technical support of 100RC, as well as community and expert input.[2] AECOM served as a partner organization in developing the Resilient Los Angeles strategy alongside the City of Los Angeles and 100 Resilient Cities—Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation.[1] Mayor Eric Garcetti, in partnership with 100 Resilient Cities, released Los Angeles' first citywide Resilience Strategy on March 22, 2018.[2] Resilient Los Angeles is organized around four main pillars, which include 15 goals and 96 actions.[2]

Benefits and Impacts

The CRI provides a universal framework for cities to measure and monitor the multiple factors that contribute to their resilience and provides a common language for cities to understand and communicate their resilience.[6] The tool's primary purpose is to help cities understand their resilience performance and identify priority areas for action.[5] Los Angeles joins the ranks of approximately 40 cities around the world, including Paris, New York, and Bangkok, that have implemented similar resilience strategies.[2] The 100 Resilient Cities program provided assistance through funding for a Chief Resilience Officer in each city to lead resilience efforts, resources for drafting a Resilience Strategy, access to private sector, public sector, academic, and NGO resilience tools, and membership in a global network of peer cities to share best practices and challenges.[2]

Climate Adaptation Relevance

The City Resilience Index enables Los Angeles to systematically assess its capacity to withstand and recover from climate-related shocks and stresses across multiple dimensions of urban systems.[3][4][5] The comprehensive measurement framework addresses resilience factors spanning infrastructure and environment, health and wellbeing, economy and society, and leadership and strategy, providing a holistic approach to climate adaptation planning.[6]

Business Analysis

The 100 Resilient Cities program provided financial support for Chief Resilience Officer positions in member cities and resources for drafting resilience strategies, representing a philanthropic investment model in urban climate adaptation capacity.[2] The program facilitated access to private sector, public sector, academic, and NGO resilience tools, creating a multi-stakeholder ecosystem for resilience planning.[2] The CRI's evidence-based scoring methodology supports cities in developing robust justifications for investment and programming decisions related to resilience initiatives.[6] Membership in the global network of peer cities enabled knowledge sharing and best practice exchange among approximately 40 cities worldwide that implemented similar strategies.[2]

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