Cities need methodologies, solutions and strategies to build urban resilience

What is the commitment of Cetaqua to climate change and how does it understand the concept of urban resilience?

Since its foundation the link of climate change and water has been addressed by Cetaqua in many European and local research projects. We have been focused on how climate change may affect water resources availability, on understanding the damages that climate extreme events can cause on cities and on evaluating the cost-benefit of different adaptation measures and strategies. We are concerned that cities need for methodologies, solutions and strategies to manage build urban resilience, thus assuring urban services continuity and citizens’ wellness and safety.

What makes the RESCCUE project different from other initiatives on urban resilience?

As a main novelty RESCCUE will provide a study and analysis of the interdependencies among urban services. Our urban services (energy, transport, water, telecomunications, etc.) base its functioning on other services. Therefore, the failure cascading effects will be considered and will analyse how strategic infrastructures without a direct correlation can be affected. In any resilience plan, the coordination of different urban services before, during and after risk events is crucial for the proper city response. For this reason RESCCUE expands the concept of urban resilience providing a holistic approach.

What is the role of Cetaqua in the RESCCUE project?

Cetaqua as a partner is the second main contributor to the RESSCUE Project, thus having an active involvement in all its phases and workpackages. The technical contribution of Cetaqua is related to the climate change scenarios downscaling and simulations, the extreme events risks and damage assessment and finally, the definition of urban resilience strategies and their evaluation and prioritization by means of a cost-benefit analysis.  Cetaqua leads and coordinates also all communication activities and the financial control of the project.