Resilience
$1 Billion Disaster Recovery Competition Announced
Following the Rebuild by Design competition, which awarded $920 million in June, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced another $1 billion competition for innovative resilience projects in communities recently struck by disasters.
Aggravated 15 Year Olds as a Measure of Place
Is there nowhere in your town to teach a kid to drive? Congratulations. You may be on to something.

National Resilience Agency Needed to Prepare for Continued Disasters
Be Prepared! It's more than a motto: it's how we must respond to continuing large-scale natural disasters.
Celebrating the Botanical Diversity of Cities
The word “ecology” has been co-opted so widely that it has lost real meaning, yet ecological thinking remains a powerful lens for understanding complex adaptive systems. A new book aims for a more rigorous engagement of ecology and design.

Ranking the Most Resilient Cities
Resilience has entered into the planning and urbanism lexicon as a large challenge for all places pursuing prosperous, sustainable futures. A new study examines the world’s leading cities for lessons in resilience.
Rebuild By Design: Building Resilience along the Atlantic Coast
Rebuild By Design, a design competition under the purview of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, released ten final proposals for projects that could protect and strengthen the Atlantic Coast in the event of another Hurricane Sandy.
Oklahoma and Texas Experience the Costliest Natural Disasters
The Insurance Information Institute released a report detailing the insurance payouts for natural disasters in 2013. Oklahoma and Texas topped the list, with $2 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively, in payouts.
Obama Picks Up the Resilience Buzz with $1 Billion Fund Proposal
President Obama is in California today to pitch a $1 billion “resilience fund” to help communities dealing with the weather impacts of climate change—including the state’s current drought.

Our Fragile Emerging Megacities: A Focus on Resilience
The number of megacities is expected to double over the next decade, and many of these growing cities are far from resilient. The solution: frugal engineering and local knowledge.
Critiquing Urban ‘Resilience’
An article by Tom Slater takes on several sacred cows of the current planning discussion, most prominently among them what he describes as “the anaesthetising spell of resilience.”
Stayin’ Alive: The life and death prospects of community ties
Connected communities aren't just about fun and frolic. When the goin' gets rough, they can make the difference between life and death.

Rockefeller's 100 Resilient Cities: 33 Chosen, What's Next?
In December, the Rockefeller Foundation chose the first 33 cities to receive funding and support through its 100 Resilient Cities Challenge. Here's what comes next.
Global Insurance Firms offer Resiliency Tools to Climate Risk Cities
"Building Climate Resilience in Cities" was developed by global insurers and non profits to offer tools and technical assistance to urban areas facing development changes in response to climate change risks.
Obama Signs Resilience Order
In an acknowledgement that significant climate change is a real and growing threat (and unlikely to be averted), President Obama will direct federal agencies to make it easier for localities plan for, and adapt to, a warming planet.
Boston to Require Developers to Detail Resilience Efforts
Hurricane Sandy served as a wake up call for many cities to the dangers of rising seas and more extreme storms. To prepare for these threats, officials in Boston have proposed zoning rules that would require developers to detail mitigation measures.
A Year Later, Sandy Recovery Shows That Building Resilience Takes Time
Despite warnings of the threats posed by rising seas and more extreme storms in the years leading up to Hurricane Sandy, the New York region's preparations lagged behind where experts thought they should be. Has anything changed since Sandy?
Garcetti Proposes "Chief Resilience Officer" to Tackle L.A.'s Earthquake Preparedness
Recent controversies have called into question whether Los Angeles officials have done all they can to prepare the city for its next big earthquake. Mayor Eric Garcetti is making earthquake preparedness a top priority.
Recognizing Lively Urban Spaces as the Heart of Resilient Communities
Based on lessons from recent disasters in Chicago and New York, where lively urban spaces helped communities to survive and recover, Michael Kimmelman suggests that neighborhood libraries could be designed with such a purpose in mind.
Modular Street Squares Turn NYC's "Leftover" Spaces into Public Amenities
New York City's 5.3 million square feet of “leftover” street space provides a prime opportunity to create public amenities and a more resilient city. Eric Tan and his colleagues at Gensler have created modular "Street Squares" to fill the void.
Designing the Indestructible Home
With extreme weather on the rise across the United States, a recent competition asked architects to design the resilient home of the future. The winners offer an impressive "balance between resiliency and livability," writes Emily Badger.
Pagination
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research