From smart to resilient: Future-proofing our cities - Making smart cities disaster resilient

This briefing paper draws on research undertaken through the PhD study Making Smart Cities Disaster Resilient with extensive input from the MCR2030 stakeholders. The research examined how disaster resilience can be integrated into Smart City development across theory, policy and practice. Effective Smart City resilience requires a broader, people-centred and context-sensitive approach that considers governance, people, infrastructure, the environment, the economy and quality of urban life.

The research identified several challenges to achieving this integration, including technocentric approaches, fragmented governance, limited policy coherence, gaps in skills and capacity, digital inequalities, privacy concerns, cultural resistance and the potential for cascading impacts when interconnected systems fail. The research therefore highlights the importance of moving from the idea of a “smart” city as primarily a technologically advanced city towards one that is also capable of anticipating, responding to, adapting to and recovering from disasters and other disruptions. For cities and practitioners, this means embedding disaster resilience within Smart City planning and investment from the outset, strengthening coordination across sectors and institutions, ensuring that technological solutions respond to local needs, and establishing mechanisms for continuous assessment and improvement.