Latest news with #urbanresilience
South China Morning Post
17-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Taiwan launches ‘urban resilience' drills to test war readiness amid PLA pressure
Taiwan on Thursday launched sweeping civil defence exercises across Taipei and several northern cities, testing society-wide wartime readiness and urban resilience in the face of escalating pressure from Beijing. The drills were held alongside the island's annual Han Kuang military exercise , Taiwan's largest and most comprehensive war games. This year marks the first time that the government has officially integrated its long-running civil response and air defence drills into a single, comprehensive 'urban resilience exercise' At 1.30pm, air-raid sirens sounded across northern Taiwan, prompting a coordinated response that included the evacuation of civilians and vehicles, lighting blackouts, and shelter-in-place procedures. In Taipei, mass rapid transit (MRT) stations implemented 'entry-only' protocols, with passengers instructed to remain underground. Streets emptied, traffic stopped, and businesses shut their doors – transforming the capital into a wartime simulation. The siren pattern – one long and two short blasts over a total of 115 seconds – marked the beginning of the drill, followed by a 90-second all-clear signal at 2pm. Authorities issued real-time mobile alerts to guide citizens through emergency steps. Those who failed to comply risked fines of up to NT$150,000 (US$5,100) under the Civil Defence Act.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Global experts at SMU City Dialogues Vienna: Urban resilience requires trust, equity and 'smart enough' solutions
SINGAPORE and VIENNA, July 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As a partner event of the Mayors Forum of the World Cities Summit 2025, the fourth edition of SMU City Dialogues was successfully organised by Singapore Management University (SMU) in partnership with Urban Innovation Vienna (UIV) on 2 July 2025 at Vienna City Hall. City Dialogues Vienna welcomed over 100 attendees from 20 countries; with representation from more than 20 universities and over 30 private and public organisations – a testament to the diversity and dynamism of our global community, and the urgency and relevance of the dialogue topic of urban resilience. The event opened with a welcome address by SMU Provost, Professor Alan Chan, followed by remarks from Mr Melvyn Ong, Permanent Secretary (Development) at the Ministry of National Development, Republic of Singapore. The keynote address was delivered by Mr Jürgen Czernohorszky, Executive City Councillor for Climate, Environment, Democracy and Personnel of the City of Vienna. Centered around the guiding question "What is the value of urban resilience?", the event brought together urban leaders, policymakers and academics from Europe, Asia and beyond to exchange actionable insights towards resilient, inclusive and future-ready cities. The programme featured three thematic tracks, each addressing a core dimension of urban resilience: Finance and Public-Private Partnerships Social Equity and Environmental Sustainability Innovation and Technology These parallel discussions concluded with a joint key takeaway session led by SMU professors Winston Chow and Orlando Woods, alongside UIV's Johannes Lutter. Their insights made one thing clear: urban resilience is not a buzzword, but a lived responsibility which requires trust, participation, and context-sensitive action. Professor Winston Chow, Co-Chair of the IPCC Working Group II and Professor of Urban Climate at SMU, said, "Resilience isn't just about surviving, it's about thriving. We need to align financial systems with social goals, build trust through good governance, and empower communities to shape their own future." Prof Chow also cautioned against over-reliance on public-private partnerships, noting that "public-private partnerships can be powerful tools, but they are not universal solutions. They require competent, stable governments, extensive due diligence and clear alignment of interest." SMU Professor of Geography Orlando Woods, who is also Director of the SMU Urban Institute, reflected on the limitations of digital solutions in addressing complex urban challenges. While his group was tasked with exploring innovation and technology, much of the discussion shifted toward the structural problems that technology alone cannot resolve. "It's not about being a smart city. It's about being a smart enough city. Smart enough relative to the context, the specific problem we are trying to solve with the technology that we have." He emphasised that overreliance on data and digital tools often leads to oversimplified responses, while masking deeper systemic issues like inequality, mental health, or infrastructural neglect. Dr Johannes Lutter Senior Urban Planner at Urban Innovation Vienna, outlined three key messages on how resilience can be made more socially inclusive and locally grounded. "Given our limited resources, it is essential that we take targeted action—focusing in particular on those who are most vulnerable. To do so effectively, we must have a clear understanding of who is at risk." "We must restore agency to communities—not by shifting responsibility onto them and stepping back, but by fostering a structured dialogue between governments and communities, ensuring genuine collaboration between public institutions and the people they serve," he added. About SMU City Dialogues Initiated in 2019 by Singapore Management University, the City Dialogues series fosters candid exchange among policymakers, academics and business leaders. It aims to generate actionable recommendations for sustainable and inclusive urban development. Previous editions held in Singapore and Bangkok successfully brought together leaders from government, industry, and academia to engage in honest, action-oriented conversations. City Dialogues | City Perspectives View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Singapore Management University Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Associated Press
04-07-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Global experts at SMU City Dialogues Vienna: Urban resilience requires trust, equity and 'smart enough' solutions
SINGAPORE and VIENNA, July 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As a partner event of the Mayors Forum of the World Cities Summit 2025, the fourth edition of SMU City Dialogues was successfully organised by Singapore Management University (SMU) in partnership with Urban Innovation Vienna (UIV) on 2 July 2025 at Vienna City Hall. City Dialogues Vienna welcomed over 100 attendees from 20 countries; with representation from more than 20 universities and over 30 private and public organisations – a testament to the diversity and dynamism of our global community, and the urgency and relevance of the dialogue topic of urban resilience. The event opened with a welcome address by SMU Provost, Professor Alan Chan, followed by remarks from Mr Melvyn Ong, Permanent Secretary (Development) at the Ministry of National Development, Republic of Singapore. The keynote address was delivered by Mr Jürgen Czernohorszky, Executive City Councillor for Climate, Environment, Democracy and Personnel of the City of Vienna. Centered around the guiding question 'What is the value of urban resilience?', the event brought together urban leaders, policymakers and academics from Europe, Asia and beyond to exchange actionable insights towards resilient, inclusive and future-ready cities. The programme featured three thematic tracks, each addressing a core dimension of urban resilience: These parallel discussions concluded with a joint key takeaway session led by SMU professors Winston Chow and Orlando Woods, alongside UIV's Johannes Lutter. Their insights made one thing clear: urban resilience is not a buzzword, but a lived responsibility which requires trust, participation, and context-sensitive action. Professor Winston Chow, Co-Chair of the IPCC Working Group II and Professor of Urban Climate at SMU, said, 'Resilience isn't just about surviving, it's about thriving. We need to align financial systems with social goals, build trust through good governance, and empower communities to shape their own future.' Prof Chow also cautioned against over-reliance on public-private partnerships, noting that 'public-private partnerships can be powerful tools, but they are not universal solutions. They require competent, stable governments, extensive due diligence and clear alignment of interest.' SMU Professor of Geography Orlando Woods, who is also Director of the SMU Urban Institute, reflected on the limitations of digital solutions in addressing complex urban challenges. While his group was tasked with exploring innovation and technology, much of the discussion shifted toward the structural problems that technology alone cannot resolve. 'It's not about being a smart city. It's about being a smart enough city. Smart enough relative to the context, the specific problem we are trying to solve with the technology that we have.' He emphasised that overreliance on data and digital tools often leads to oversimplified responses, while masking deeper systemic issues like inequality, mental health, or infrastructural neglect. Dr Johannes Lutter Senior Urban Planner at Urban Innovation Vienna, outlined three key messages on how resilience can be made more socially inclusive and locally grounded. 'Given our limited resources, it is essential that we take targeted action—focusing in particular on those who are most vulnerable. To do so effectively, we must have a clear understanding of who is at risk.' 'We must restore agency to communities—not by shifting responsibility onto them and stepping back, but by fostering a structured dialogue between governments and communities, ensuring genuine collaboration between public institutions and the people they serve,' he added. About SMU City Dialogues Initiated in 2019 by Singapore Management University, the City Dialogues series fosters candid exchange among policymakers, academics and business leaders. It aims to generate actionable recommendations for sustainable and inclusive urban development. Previous editions held in Singapore and Bangkok successfully brought together leaders from government, industry, and academia to engage in honest, action-oriented conversations. City Dialogues | City Perspectives View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Singapore Management University
BBC News
30-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
'It's insane to build the same thing and expect different results': Can LA fire-proof itself?
Six months after the wildfires tore through Los Angeles, residents are tussling with the urban destruction left behind – and a debate over the future of the city's buildings. Countless Los Angeles streets still contain the charred remains of homes that succumbed to wildfire six months ago. Many of their inhabitants are still living with friends and relatives or in hotels, hostels and shelters. With more than 16,000 homes and buildings destroyed in the January 2025 wildfires, the LA neighbourhoods and nearby communities affected have been left contemplating how best to balance the need to get their homes back as soon as possible with future resilience to wildfire. Today, even as the city faces the new turmoil of immigration raids ordered by President Donald Trump and the extensive protests that have followed, LA is clearing debris and preparing to rebuild. Progress so far has been slow, however, with few permits issued to rebuild (in Palisades, for example, just 125 rebuild permits have been issued out of 558 applications, the LA Department of Building and Safety told the BBC). Many residents have moved to communities far from the homes they lost, according to an investigation by the New York Times. Faced with a daunting rebuild, many contractors and homeowners want to build quickly, with some working to loosen environmental protection code and permit requirements. Meanwhile, wildfire experts tell the BBC they want to ensure new construction is compliant with fire and energy codes, while sustainability advocates say they hope greener methods and materials will enter the market. "There are going to be hard decisions on how we want to rebuild versus what is technically required," says Ian Giammanco, managing director for standards and data analytics at the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS), a South-Carolina-based research group funded by the insurance industry. California's building code was updated in 2008 to establish standards for wildfire-resistant construction. It requires the use of non-combustible materials and for homeowners to maintain defensible space around the home, such as by creating a safety buffer cleared of vegetation or debris. California is one of only five US states to apply a specific building code to areas designated as having very high wildfire risk. Homes which had been constructed after 2008 in the LA neighbourhood of Pacific Palisades, which lost 6,837 structures in the Palisades Fire, were built with these requirements in place. But in Altadena, an area north of downtown LA where many neighbourhoods were affected by the Eaton Fire, many homes did not fall under the fire code. In March, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, a state agency often referred to as Cal Fire, expanded its maps of areas required to use the code, with existing homes at a minimum creating defensible space by clearing brush. The expansion means about 500 additional homes affected by the Eaton Fire will be covered by the code by late July 2025, according to analysis by US broadcaster NPR, but still leaves about 7,800 structures outside the high-risk zone. Some of the proposed methods are already being used in the wider US. In Colorado, for example, where a 2021 wildfire destroyed nearly 1,000 homes in the Denver suburb of Superior, some homeowners have opted to rebuild using compressed earth blocks that have a high resilience to fire. And CalEarth, a California-based nonprofit that pioneered a type of earthbag construction called super adobe, has drawn renewed attention from residents, says Khalili, and is urging state and local officials to work with them on making their designs code-compliant. "Let's do the full tests… and build back prepared for these climate events," Dastan Khalili, president of CalEarth, tells the BBC. "It's insane to build the same thing and expect different results." But bringing alternative building methods to market is costly, especially in California, where materials must prove to be fire-resistant while also passing stringent seismic testing. Any alternative material, such as rammed earth – a building technique using compacted soil mixed with water and stabilisers which has been used for over 1,000 years, including, in recent decades, in California – must be submitted for testing, typically by manufacturers, says Crystal Sujeski, chief of code development and analysis for CalFire. This testing needs to prove they are equivalent to or exceed the standard set by conventional, widely used materials. "A lot of [testing] options are out there," she says. New building materials that pass multiple tests can also be added to a register of approved materials, she says. Khalili says CalEarth has always designed structures to comply with international building codes and has planned tests to meet the fire and seismic requirements of California's code. "All of that is ready to be executed," he says. "The only thing that's stopping us is the funding to go after it and make it happen." Burn tests in a fire lab for a single new material, he says, run at around $40-50k (£30-37k), and the required seismic testing can triple or quadruple this bill. As a result, rammed earth homes and other alternative structures can be costlier than using more conventional methods – and even then, the process of approving construction at the state and municipal levels is arduous. Ann Edminster, a green building consultant and author based in northern California, says that the ease and cost of the permitting process is highly dependent on the jurisdiction and who you work with. "The building official will either be your best friend or your worst enemy," she says. It creates a wall of inertia boxing out those with interest in experimenting with alternative materials, she says. And in any case, if you have just lost your home to fire and don't have a place to live, "you're probably not going to be super enthusiastic about testing some brand new material", she says. Still, there are relatively straightforward options for fire-proofing new builds – especially considering the risks of not doing so. A 2022 report by IBHS and Headwaters Economics, a Montana-based research institute, found that wildfire-resistant construction adds from 2% to 13% to the cost of a new home in California, with the upper cost here going well above current required codes. "Increasing home loss and growing risks require reevaluating the wildfire crisis as a home-ignition problem and not a wildland fire problem," the report said, noting that a home's building materials, design and nearby landscaping all influence its survival. Stephen Quarles, an advisor emeritus at the University of California who has spent decades researching how building materials perform during wildfires, says it's more straightforward to obtain approval for smaller alternative projects. Quarles emphasises that wildfire building codes are flexible and allow for traditional construction to be adapted and use more sustainable materials. For instance, a homeowner constructing a straw bale home can coat the exterior with a fireproof material to get approval from a code official. "You could say, 'My cladding is stucco, which is non-combustible,' and you would be good to go," he says. But he also acknowledges that most homeowners just want to rebuild as quickly as possible. When the June 2007 Angora fire destroyed 280 homes in neighbourhoods around Northern California's Lake Tahoe, some residents raced to rebuild before the stricter code regulations took effect the following January, Quarles recalls. Later that same year, after the Tubbs fire ripped through the Coffey Park neighbourhood of Santa Rosa, the community "built back as if there [hadn't been] a wildfire there", he says. But he believes the latest Los Angeles wildfires – along with the 2023 Lahaina fire on Hawaii's Maui island, which were called the "largest natural disaster in Hawaii state history" – have alerted people to the importance of hardening their homes in the future. A January 2025 study found that the hot, dry weather that gave rise to the LA fires was made about 35% more likely by climate change. The LA wildfire season is getting longer, the study noted, while the rains that normally put out the blazes have reduced. "There's an acknowledgement that these fires can happen in places where you don't expect fires to happen," Quarles says. "I think that's taking hold and there is a desire to genuinely build back better." Giammanco, who contributed to a March 2025 report by IBHS documenting which types of homes survived the fire, agrees. "If you look back at our history of construction, there are inflection points," he says. The report showed that homes compliant with California building codes had a higher survival rate than those which were not. But some homes that took preparatory steps, such as clearing brush and creating defensive space, still succumbed when enough of their neighbours had not taken these steps. "Even the most hardened materials when subject to extreme fire exposure will reach their limit," Giammanco says. "Defending a community is sort of a system that builds on itself." More like this:• The people rebuilding their homes with earth• Could a buffer shield Californian homes from wildfire?• How wildlife survives after wildfires When wildfires spread in urban areas, the homes they ignite become "fuel bombs" and intensify the blaze, says Kimiko Barrett, lead wildfire research and policy analyst at non-profit research group Headwaters Economics. "The home itself is the fuel," she says. "Once your neighbour's house starts to burn, the radiant heat means that your home is threatened as well." This is a particular problem in LA, which despite its sprawling footprint is actually still a densely populated area, especially relative to more rural communities. Slow progress in retrofitting existing homes remains a major problem, says Giammanco – and homes that predate California's 2008 wildfire code are not mandated to do it. But there is precedent for incentive and rebate programmes in the US to help make homes more resilient to extreme weather, from initiatives in arid south-western cities for residents to collect rainwater to an Alabama programme providing grants up to $10,000 (£7,400) to install roofing resilient to wind and rain. Giammanco says similar programmes for wildfire protection could incentivise residents to make their homes more resilient to fire. "I think that's the missing link," he says. Adding fire-resistant materials in retrofits such as fibre cement siding and enclosing roof eaves to make it code compliant costs just a few thousand dollars, Barrett says. Other steps are even easier, such as clearing bark mulch from a home's defensive space. "A lot of these mitigation measures can be done over the weekend by the homeowner," she says. It's still early days in LA for the thousands of homeowners preparing to rebuild, but there are signs that the construction industry is starting to adapt. The LA-based homebuilder KB Home, for example, has designed a fire-resilient community with 64 homes that comply to IBHS standards. When it comes to building new homes, Edminster emphasises that simple structures with minimal openings and overhang can be best, comparing an ideal fire-resistant home to an aerodynamic car. "The same principle could and should apply to homes," she says. "Obviously we don't want to live in little round spaceships or something, but… get your outer shell so that it works really well." Sustainable building advocates are also pushing for greener materials and methods to become commonplace, arguing that they can be used in fire-hardened homes while also reducing emissions and bringing costs down in the longer term. For existing houses, simple retrofitting steps can improve the sustainability as well as the resilience of a home – even when they don't use the greenest materials possible. Some of Edminster's clients have retrofitted homes to be fire-resistant without stripping everything out. "That's a terrible waste of material and the embodied carbon in them," she says. "So there's a trade-off." Edminster is adamant that building codes should stay in place after a disaster. "The whole idea of relaxing code to make it easier for people to rebuild, I think, is nonsense," she says. "[They] have been put in place to protect people and to protect us as a society." And while many of the structures lost in the Eaton fire remain outside the boundaries of California's wildfire code, Barrett believes there is precedent for drastic change. US cities began mandating fire hydrants and sprinkler systems around the turn of the 20th Century after major urban fires in Chicago and San Francisco. Earthquake codes became stiffer in the 1970s, requiring buildings to retrofit for seismic risk reduction "We can do this. We have done it before," Barrett says. "We just need to now think of it through a wildfire lens." -- For essential climate news and hopeful developments to your inbox, sign up to the Future Earth newsletter, while The Essential List delivers a handpicked selection of features and insights twice a week. For more science, technology, environment and health stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Times of Oman
24-06-2025
- General
- Times of Oman
Heat officers help sweltering cities stay cool
Berlin: International cities from Athens to Dhaka, Freetown and Santiago are united in their efforts to protect residents from extreme heat. Vital to this strategy is the appointment of a chief heat officer, someone who, like a fire department chief, can rapidly respond to emergencies — in this case heat waves. Heat officers also help authorities to analyse local conditions, draw up plans and implement protective measures, including longer term solutions such as installing heat-repellent sidewalks or roofs. Reforestation of urban areas is an important city cooling strategy being employed by heat officers in Freetown, Sierra Leone, for example. A smartphone app enables residents to get paid to nurture the city's trees and green spaces. Heat wave prevention before it's too late The concept of a chief heat officer was initiated in 2021 by the Atlantic Council, a US think tank. It acknowledged that extreme heat could impact around 3.5 billion people by 2050 — with half of those effected in urban centers. In response, the council wanted to create a permanent heat officer role to make cities more climate resilient. Cities need to be constantly prepared to adapt to extreme heat, and not only act in times of crisis, said Eleni Myrivili, the global chief heat officer at the Atlantic Council's Climate Resilience Center. "Usually those types of issues are dealt with only when there is a big event, so when there is a heat wave or a fire or a drought and it's dealt with, like a crisis, and then nobody does anything after that," said Myrivili, who was the chief heat officer for Athens, Greece from 2021 to 2023. She said it's important to "try to help the different departments put in long-term plans that have to do with creating cooler cities." Heat resilience must be incorporated into planning for streets, squares, sidewalks and buildings, though such comprehensive planning is the most difficult part of the job. "I can't say that I succeeded with that," Myrivili admitted, adding that she has "been very successful in changing the culture in Athens." She said people now understand that heat poses a significant risk to their health and to that of the city in general, its economy and its society. "So I think that there has been a shift." The Atlantic Council has so far supported eight chief heat officers appointed by governments around the world, from the US to Kenya and India. Myrivili said countries are becoming more proactive, with India passing a law that requires every state to appoint a heat officer. This will be vital, she said, as the duration of heat waves increase globally. Half a million annual deaths linked to extreme heat Between May 2024 and May 2025, around 4 billion people — around half of the world's population — experienced at least 30 additional days of extreme heat, according to analysis by World Weather Attribution, Climate Central and the Red Cross. Compared to a world without human-caused climate change, global heating has at least doubled the number of extreme heat days in 195 out of 247 countries and regions surveyed. Meanwhile, a World Health Organization (WHO) report estimates that some 500,000 deaths a year worldwide are linked to extreme heat. Most of those affected live in Asia, followed by Europe, where the number of extreme heat days — especially in the southeast — was the second highest since records began. At the same time in many countries, there are more and more elderly people, a group at bigger risk from extreme heat. "Every additional fraction of a degree of temperature rise matters because it accentuates the risks to our lives, to economies and to the planet," explained Celeste Saulo, the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, at the presentation of a report on the state of the climate in Europe in April. City action plans to beat the heat Due to extreme temperatures, the city of Phoenix in the US state of Arizona has now set up a team of six people to exclusively focus on extreme heat resilience. For the second year in a row, an emergency heat shelter, several cooling centers and drinking stations will be open around the clock during the summer months. Barcelona in Spain is also using public buildings such as museums and libraries as designated areas to stay cool and rest. In Germany, cities such as Cologne and Freiburg have drawn up the first heat action plans. Initial measures have been implemented, including information campaigns, strategies to protect vulnerable groups such as the elderly, early warning systems and the greening of city "hot spots." Freiburg, for example, focuses on greenery as a cooling method, as well as on quick access to shade. Last year, the city of Cologne expanded sun protection elements like shutters on buildings and other infrastructure. And the Protestant Church in Germany, a federation of various protestant denominations, recently announced that it would be making cool church buildings available as shelters throughout the country in summer. Germany fails to prioritise heat protection But Germany is lagging behind in terms of a comprehensive heat protection strategy. Heat is the greatest health risk in Germany due to the climate crisis, and is responsible for more deaths than traffic accidents, noted Martin Herrmann, chairman of the German Alliance on Climate Change and Health. "We as a society do not understood when it becomes dangerous, nor how dangerous it becomes," he said at a press conference in Berlin in early June. Heat waves are becoming "more frequent, longer and more intense," noted Klaus Reinhardt, the president of the German Medical Association. Society must prepared, he added. "Heat affects everyone, regardless of age and preexisting conditions." The Federal Institute of Public Health in Germany recently launched a new online portal providing practical tips on how to deal with extreme heat in everyday life. These include avoiding the hot midday sun, checking medication for heat tolerance and only ventilating indoor rooms when it is cooler outside than inside. Herrmann said heat resilience is often not considered in plans for climate-friendly housing, and needs to be incorporated into civic infrastructure on a broad scale. Eleni Myrivili also emphasised the need for solutions to be implemented quickly as temperatures continue to rise.
