Editorial | Rethinking urban spaces

Cities, according to UN Secretary General António Guterres, are where “the climate battle will largely be won or lost”.

The basis of Mr Guterres’ argument is that cities are both the centre of economic life and at the same time highly vulnerable to climate risks. Indeed, as a recent article by World Economic Forum (WEF) on the complexities of urbanisation pointed out, they account for “70 per cent of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions”, while the tightly packed environments (of buildings and people) make them particularly susceptible to the effects of global warming.

The WEF article, ‘How cities are turning urban complexity into coherent climate plans’, published on April 7, explored how some cities are, as it put it, “turning urban complexity into coherent climate plans”, which should find resonance in Jamaica as it rebuilds from Hurricane Melissa, the category-5 storm that severely battered the island’s western parishes last October.

The hurricane left over US$12 billion in physical damage and economic loss.

LONG-STANDING WEAKNESSES

It also exposed long-standing weaknesses in urban planning and enforcement, as was pointed out by Ronald Jackson, a Jamaican disaster management expert, who now works for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

“The absence of effective land-use planning and development control measures contributed to the extent of the damage and losses,” Mr Jackson wrote in an article on the UNDP website, ‘Hurricane Melissa is a call to prepare for bigger storms ahead – More work needs to be done on many fronts to create long-term resilience’ in November last year.

“Informal settlements in flood-prone corridors failed when the hurricane dumped more than the average monthly rainfall as it passed,” he added.

Issues such as those highlighted by Mr Jackson reinforce the need for what the authors of the WEF article term “a systems approach” to planning, which recognises that transport, housing, drainage, energy and land use are connected and should not to be treated in isolation. For, if roads are built without adequate drainage, housing developments expand without proper zoning enforcement, and coastal ecosystems are degraded without considering their role in flood protection, the result is predictable: systemic failure, with each shock exposing the same weaknesses.

The message here for Jamaica is that the resilient planning and development of cities (which Jamaica says is its post-Hurricane Melissa mission) requires a clear vision, “systems thinking” as proffered by the WEF and collaboration between the public and private sectors to ensure financing for projects. Without a coherent plan, investment will remain fragmented and short-term.

INTEGRATED APPROACH

There are cities that have, with good success, deployed this integrated approach to resilient planning, which Jamaica can learn. Chișinău, the capital city of the eastern European country of Moldova, is one of them. The outcome: improvements in drainage, energy systems and public infrastructure, reduced vulnerabilities and improved quality of life.

Put another way, in Jamaica’s reconstruction, a piecemeal approach won’t cut it. Roads can’t be repaired, but drainage remains inadequate. Buildings can’t be (re)constructed in breach of zoning rules, or those rules not enforced.

This approach to development isn’t easy. It demands concerted effort and the patience to bring together and work with, as the WEF article noted, “many stakeholders – from citizens and businesses, to different levels of government”.

And it demands clarity, driven by credible data and deep analysis that answer hard questions. In other words, development or reconstruction can’t be a response to short-term political or economic gains, lest the effort has to be repeated at the next shock.

In that regard, cities must identify priority projects, prepare them properly, and engage financiers early. This includes feasibility studies, technical design and clear implementation plans. In Jamaica, project preparation has often been a weak point, limiting access to international funding. Strengthening this capacity would improve the country’s ability to secure investment for resilient infrastructure.

Hurricane Melissa has exposed the cost of inaction. The rebuilding process, now under way, will determine whether those lessons are applied.