This report from Grosvenor, an international real estate company, aims to advance its readers' thinking about long term investment; provide a robust risk management tool to ensure its business sustainability; and play a role in the evolution of cities. It asserts that the ability of cities to thrive as centres of human habitation, production and cultural development, despite the challenges posed by climate change, population growth and globalisation, is determined by their resilience. From a real estate investor’s perspective, it asserts that resilience allows cities to preserve capital values and generate sustainable rental income in the long term. In human terms, cities are resilient if they absorb shocks, like Hurricane Sandy, maintain their output of goods and services and continue to provide their inhabitants with a good quality of life according to the standards of the time.
The report describes how it measures resilience and provides its world city ranking for vulnerability, adaptive capacity, and an overall ranking. It further includes case studies from New York, Shanghai, London, Vancouver and Mexico City.