How cities can use digital initiatives to prepare for the unexpected

The world can feel increasingly divided. Yet by 2050, one characteristic that will unite almost two-thirds of us globally is a shared status as city dwellers. Current projections anticipate urban populations doubling over the next quarter-century. The state of urban resilience - the capacity of urban systems, businesses, institutions, communities and individuals to survive, adapt and thrive, no matter what chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience - should determine the wellbeing of the vast majority of our planet’s inhabitants.

Against this backdrop, cities face complex challenges born of an era of rapid social, economic, environmental and technological transformations. Last year was the warmest global year on record and stresses, such as water scarcity among global urban populations, continue to escalate. Cities also face continued financial crises, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest and global conflicts.

The resilience challenges that city governments face point to the very nature of cities. Cities are complex 'systems of systems' made up of interconnected social, economic, environmental and physical components. Traditional governance paradigms and hierarchies are increasingly inadequate for addressing compounding, systemic resilience issues, like food and energy insecurity, which require the integration of diverse elements, such as water provision, transportation infrastructure and supply chains to tackle. To effectively manage urban environments and ensure inclusivity, a new approach is needed— one that integrates diverse datasets, disciplines and people. Digital technologies play a crucial role in facilitating this process.

Cities are beginning to recognize, as New York City’s resilience strategy describes, that “digital tools can help solve some of the City’s most urgent resiliency challenges, bolster neighbourhood resiliency and social cohesion and improve our ability to withstand disruptive events.” Yet, in Cities that Thrive, a recent report by StateUp, Visa Government Solutions and Resilient Cities Network, based on data collected from over 35 participating cities worldwide, shows that while 70% of cities integrate digital tech into their resilience strategies, there is often a gap in implementation.

Cities rarely use insights from payment data, for example, to predict and plan for food shortages. Less than half the respondents to our survey of city digital and resilience teams use digital-based financial technologies, such as mobile wallets, to deliver emergency funds to residents during crises, like floods or earthquakes, when vulnerable residents may need quick access to financial support and may not be able to travel.

Early evidence from cities suggests that engaging digital technologies more centrally within their resilience toolkit could provide a step-change in the urban resilience infrastructure that city governments offer to, and co-create with, their communities. In the City of Athens, Greece, for example, extreme heat and recent wildfires have underscored the urgent need for urban heat management.

Core to Athens' strategy is the innovative EXTREMA app, which provides real-time, personalized risk assessments for residents and visitors during heatwaves. The app uses real-time satellite data, GIS technology and other city-specific data to evaluate the temperature, humidity and discomfort index for every square kilometre in the city. Integrating these data sources with user data, the app offers precise information on personal risk levels and safety advice. It guides users to the nearest cooling spaces and recommends cool walking routes. It also allows users to monitor the safety of children or elderly relatives.

Another example is Cape Town, South Africa, where an extreme multi-year drought caused an unprecedented water crisis. Cape Town broke down the silos between its data science and resilience teams to explore how municipal and other datasets could be used to identify vulnerabilities, inform crisis response and encourage accountability. Its 'Water Dashboard,' informed by real-time and open data on water levels, was engaged in the city’s ‘Day Zero’ campaign to raise public awareness and promote more responsible water usage behaviour, in a bid to reduce water consumption by 57%.

Given the current and potential benefits of digital innovation to urban resilience, why is uptake still nascent? Our research shows that city governments face key adoption barriers: 83% of respondents cite risk-averse cultures, rigid hierarchies and outdated institutional habits as among the top obstacles; 53% point to organizational silos that hinder collaboration on resilience-focused digital initiatives.

Even as more cities establish resilience teams and chief resilience officers, these teams and digital departments often operate separately, unaware of each other’s efforts, with no clear pathways for collaboration. Budget restrictions at regional or national levels further complicate the sharing of resources between these teams and with other departments.

The divides are not just within city hall. City governments often struggle to identify a diverse range of suppliers with whom to work. Suppliers, in turn, can find procurement processes inscrutable and decision-makers inaccessible, leading to avoidance of the city government market. Local people and communities often continue to feel excluded from contributing to the ecosystem, whether to share their needs or suggest solutions.

In an age of informational overabundance, it is depressing for silos in knowledge and relationships to impede urban resilience. But it is addressable. To overcome the digital-resilience divide and achieve better outcomes for cities and the people within them, many people must play a part. Alongside private-sector innovators and investors, government teams and leadership must advocate and demonstrate new ways of working:

1. City leaders are already highly supportive of resilience initiatives. They must now establish mechanisms and structure city budgets to align digital and resilience-focused priorities and incentives. They should also promote a clear, innovation-friendly governance and regulation framework, lobbying their national counterparts where needed, to enable a fair, competitive marketplace that can produce necessary innovations.

2. Resilience teams can partner with digital and evaluation colleagues to design ways to experiment, measure and assess the resilience outcomes of digital projects. This could involve creating open datasets from project results and embedding resilience indicators into broader government performance measures.

3. Digital teams can collaborate across government domains with vendors, infrastructure operators and other entities to establish unified standards and strengthen data security. Formalizing collaboration between digital and resilience teams could involve establishing a 'surge' data and digital capability to offer strategic support during periods of heightened demand.

4. Regional and national governments often play a key role in designating budgets for cities. They should ensure cities are equipped with the resources, data and skills required to embrace the digital innovations needed to boost place-based decision-making and strengthen local resilience. They can, for example, provide revenue-raising support to fund key projects, facilitating access to decision-support tools and establishing peer-to-peer networks to foster knowledge exchange.

As urban populations grow, the imperative for innovations in technology, often alongside behaviour change and public policy reform, is urgent. There is no one-size-fits-all solution – every city is unique. Their approach to integrating digital technologies for resilience must start with local needs and challenges.

Success stories nonetheless reveal a common theme: action should be collective, involving and led by, participants from across the public-purpose innovation ecosystem, including city government, residents and the private sector. Embracing this approach, cities can set a foundation for thriving, sustainable urban futures.

To find out more about how GovTech champions look to fast-track the digital transformation of government and public services, follow the World Economic Forum's GovTech Network.

.