A draft Resilience Strategy for Belfast has been launched and Belfast City Council is seeking feedback on plans to improve resilience in the city.
A range of organisations have come together to identify the strategic risks that we face, today and into the future.
There has never been a more important time for Belfast to build its resilience. The combination of economic pressures, climate-related events, and social change happening globally, are now impacting locally. To improve our readiness, and ultimately ensure our recovery, we must have a sophisticated understanding of the risks we face.
The Resilience Strategy is a ‘risk map’ for the city. It sets out the shocks and stresses we face, and it recommends collaborative action to prepare and respond.
Key focus
The strategy proposes that we transition to an inclusive, low-carbon, climate resilient economy in a generation. This goal aims to ensure we deliver the Belfast Agenda priorities and are ready for the challenges ahead.
The strategy identifies three keys areas of focus:
- Climate resilience
- Connectivity
- Children and young people.
Shocks
The strategy identifies the following shocks, defined as a sudden, sharp event that can immediately disrupt a city:
- Waste water treatment capacity
- Investment in existing social housing stock
- Flooding and extreme weather events
- UK Exit
- Preparedness for climate change
- Cybersecurity
Stresses
The strategy identifies the following stresses, defined as a slowly moving phenomenon that weakens the fabric of the city:
- Population change
- Economic recovery capacity
- Lack of housing in the city core
- Prevalence of car use
- Dependency on fossil fuels
- Segregation and division
- Mental health and use of prescription drugs
- Governance and financing of risk.
Feedback
You can download the draft Belfast Resilience Strategy and provide feedback via Belfast City Council’s consultation hub.
The public consultation runs until Friday 10 April 2020 and the strategy will be finalised later this year.
