Canada swept the top of Grosvenor’s ranking of the world’s most resilient cities, with Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary coming in first, second and third place respectively.
The report defined resilience as “the ability of a city to avoid or bounce back from an adverse event.”
Each of the cities in the report were ranked based on “vulnerability” and “adaptability.” The dimensions of vulnerability include climate, environment, resources, infrastructure and community. The five key themes of adaptability are governance, institutions, technical and learning, planning systems and funding structures. A city’s strength in any of these categories helps to determine its adaptive capacity.
For example, Vancouver had some measure of vulnerability due to its low-lying coastal location, which makes it particularly vulnerable to sea level rise. But in response to these vulnerabilities, British Columbia has researched sea level rise predictions for the purposes of planning and prevention.
“Canadian cities have a strong combination of low vulnerability and high adaptive capacity,” the report states. “There is a high level of resource availability, and Canadian cities are well governed and well planned.”
Grosvenor’s complete top 10 list of overall resilient cities includes:
- Toronto
- Vancouver
- Calgary
- Chicago
- Pittsburgh
- Stockholm
- Boston
- Zurich
- Washington D.C.
- Atlanta
