International Urban Resilience Forum Seoul 2020

Urban safety underpins citizens' lives and a city's competitiveness. After a run of disasters, COVID-19 among them, strengthening resilience became a central policy task. Climate change, shifts in the international environment and economic and social change have blurred the old line between natural and man-made disasters, which is why many argued that disaster management itself needed a new paradigm.

In a society that is more connected with every technological step, one country's trouble no longer stays inside its borders. To keep developing through economic crises and disasters, cities need to absorb shocks nobody expected. That calls for a risk strategy that limits damage, reduces vulnerability and prepares people for change, not one that only repairs things afterwards.

For about a year after the pandemic began, treating patients and stopping the spread came first. Planning for the post-COVID period shifts attention to rebuilding broken social systems and building long-term resilience. The psychological toll on citizens, and the need to widen social safety nets through psychological preparedness, was singled out as a priority.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution had also pushed smart, safe cities up the agenda, and many countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas had started building them. Safety information pushed down from government is rarely felt by citizens, and scattered situation management weakens integrated safety work. A city where people feel the benefit directly and prevention comes first needs businesses, academics, communities and cities worldwide to cooperate.

The forum grew out of that thinking. Through case presentations and discussion it aimed to exchange information on urban resilience in the COVID-19 era and look for solutions, giving city leaders, experts, organizations and civil society a place to share experience.