Broward County, Florida, developed a $29 billion resilience plan funded by public and private interests in a four-year process. Next door, Dade County, Florida, is requiring every infrastructure project in the county to sign an attestation that managers considered sea level rise during design and planning. In Raleigh, North Carolina, city officials are working with UN-Habitat to plant trees to mitigate urban heat islands, demonstrating how cities are building resilience for climate extremes.

These are some of the strategies experts and city leaders at Smart Cities World’s Cities Climate Action Summit shared for dealing with rising sea levels, rain bombs, hurricanes and heat waves. As extreme weather events grow more frequent and intense, cities are turning to resilient design, integrated urban planning, nature-based solutions and AI to bolster their infrastructure and protect residents.

Corinne LeTourneau, founding principal of Resilient Cities Catalyst, said she has partnered with 78 cities and regions in the past five years to accelerate climate resilience action. “Every single one of those cities, communities and regions is grappling with the impacts of extreme weather,” she said. “They’re feeling it in their daily lives.”

Speakers identified three key elements in their planning for building resilience for climate extremes.

Using Data to Build Resilience for Climate Extremes

In 2023, Broward County was in the midst of its resilience planning when 26 inches of rain fell on Fort Lauderdale in less than 24 hours, damaging more than 1,000 structures. “It was unbelievable,” said County Mayor Beam Furr. “It was so deep, so quick.”

County officials were able to gather valuable data on the record-setting flood from the sensors that were in place for the resilience plan’s modeling. That data indicated the county would have to “reconsider our entire capacity” for flood control, Furr said.

“The price tag is huge, though,” Furr added, and the hardest part is getting people to accept the cost. “How do we show the urgency of it? Well, that flood showed the urgency of it very quickly. So, it’s allowed us to quickly bring in the business sector and say, ‘Look, we need to do this now, or you’re going to have property values plummet.’”

Read the full article about building resilience for climate extremes by Robyn Griggs Lawrence at Smart Cities Dive.