Road to Resilience: Synergy for Sustainable Cities

Climate change and increased urbanisation are exerting huge pressure on cities, both in India and elsewhere in the world. In order to anticipate and adapt to changes in climate and related impacts, cities need to build resilience by incorporating lessons from past experience and science into urban development and management.

Sustainability plays a significant role in ensuring long-term resilience. Learning how to life with the resources available, without damaging ecosystems and the environment, is essential. Creating spaces for non-government stakeholders such as citizens, civil society and the private sector to contribute to making cities better places to live is necessary to relieve pressure on governments, and to create a culture of responsibility for the future.

This book is the second in a series on the urban challenges we face in the developing world. As with the first, "Road to Resilience: A guide to increasing the resilience of cities", it provides an optimistic vision that can be easily understood by different stakeholders, with a provocative perspective on how actors need to change in order to cooperate in new ways.

This volume offers a range of proven, practical actions covering policy, implementation and monitoring systems that can be advanced collectively, and is written for multiple audiences with varying knowledge levels. It sets out a framework that can be adapted to diverse urban contexts across developing countries, advocating a blend of technological, institutional and social options to enable transformation towards sustainable cities. Most importantly, it continues in the vital effort of engaging stakeholders in an informed conversation about the future of our cities, and how we can work to increase the well-being of all who reside in them.