Community Resilience to Climate Change Disasters: Comparing how Rotterdam and New York City approach community resilience in policy

Community resilience is the ability of communities to withstand and recover from stressors as well as to learn from past stressors to strengthen future response and recovery efforts (Vivian et al., 2015). A resilient community is able to act as competent first responders in an emergency, they are able to communicate to vulnerable citizens that may be out of the municipality’s reach, and they can pass on valuable local knowledge to the municipality. Community resilience as a concept concentrates on enhancing the day-to-day learnings and wellbeing of communities to reduce the negative impacts of disasters. This research will focus on community resilience to climate change disasters, specifically to dangers imposed by flooding and excess precipitation. Addressing these climate change disasters calls for an approach that combines knowledge about preparing for disasters with knowledge about actions that strengthen communities every day. Many of the current efforts to increase resilience remain focused on the physical built environment, however just as crucial as resilient development is the creation of a resilient community. This research explores the dynamics of resilience with a focus on how local governments can influence their communities’ level of resilience. Research Question: What components should the municipalities of Rotterdam (NL) and New York City (USA) include in policy, in order to build community resilience to climate change disasters? The first step in this research was to develop a framework driving from literature and consisting of critical components of municipal policy which aim to build climate change resilient communities. The resulting framework components were: (1) Communication; (2) Education and Training; (3) Governance; (4) Resources; (5) Public Awareness; (6) Urban Identity; and (7) Participation. These components were then tested in the context of two case studies, New York City (USA) and Rotterdam (the Netherlands), both which are frontrunners in climate change and resilience networks. For both case studies the seven components were mapped on a scale relating to the efforts made by the municipality, those being: marginal; in progress; or established. The results of the case study analysis revealed the following new components: Community Leaders, which are crucial to enabling communication between municipality and citizens; and Governance sub component Strategy, which relates to the municipality’s focus as well as disaster influence. In addition, several areas were highlighted as vulnerabilities for both cities: social cohesion; participation; and government accountability. Rotterdam and New York City remain frontrunners in the area of resilience development, however there is much work yet to be done. Recommendations for these two cities, as well as for municipalities in general to improve community resilience, are largely related to improvements in leadership. Improved leadership within the municipality contributes to greater accountability, more organized communication to the public, and better internal communication and coordination, all of which contribute to greater project success. In addition, the designation of community leaders would improve participation amongst the community, awareness of risks as well as training and education opportunities, social cohesion, and communication amongst citizens and with the municipality. This research was done as part of an internship with the municipality of Rotterdam (Gemeente Rotterdam) which allowed for access to researchers and conferences. The internship was from January 1 2016 to July 9th 2016