Currently, half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. This number will increase up to two-thirds by 2050. Rapid and expansive urbanization, however, poses profound challenges. This is exactly the case for the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, more than 90% of the confirmed COVID-19 cases have arisen from the urban areas. This raises critical questions about urban resilience in responding to the crisis. Urban resilience is a composite ability of many different capacities in confronting disasters and crises. One of the biggest challenges in developing policy frameworks for urban resilience is that its concept is still vague to many decision-makers, which can lead to confusion in urban policy directions.
In this context, the session will focus on the multi-sectoral nature, mainstreaming, planning, and governance of urban resilience. It will also examine some cases of urban resilience plans and actions in the COVID-19 context.