From Risk to Resilience: How Cities Can Plan for a More Livable and Resilient Future

Cities are hubs of opportunity, creativity, and economic dynamism. They host more than half of the global population and generate over 80% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). They are also major engines of private‑sector job creation, attracting people in the pursuit of economic opportunity and improved livelihoods. Yet cities are also at the frontline of disaster and climate risks.

When risk is considered upfront, urban planning becomes a driver of capacity, inclusion, and economic opportunity. It plays a central role in shaping long-term resilience by determining where growth occurs, which land uses are permitted, and how infrastructure investments are prioritized, helping shift the focus from post-disaster response to proactive management of risk as cities grow. The Handbook for Livable and Resilient Cities supports this shift by equipping decision-makers with practical tools to embed risk considerations into planning processes helping cities to pursue green urban growth, social inclusion, resilient built environments, and strengthening local economies. 

WHAT THE HANDBOOK OFFERS

Developed with support from the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery’s City Resilience Program, the Handbook responds to growing demand for practical, decision-focused guidance. It provides a pathway to translate hazard and risk information into clear land‑use rules, investment priorities, and design standards at multiple scales. Adaptable to diverse capacities and contexts, it helps cities to integrate risk information and enforceable measures into their urban development strategies.

A CLEAR FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION: Restrict-Condition-Promote (RCP)

The Handbook demonstrates how risk information can guide zoning, infrastructure siting, and development control, supported by governance arrangements to reduce disaster risk. Using a Restrict-Condition-Promote (RCP) framework, it addresses a wide range of hazards affecting cities today —including floods, landslides, earthquakes, extreme heat, droughts, wildfires, and coastal hazards— paired with targeted measures for each.  The core of the “RCP” framework is intentionally simple:

• Restrict development in high-hazard or risk areas where potential losses are unacceptable; preserve these zones for protection, buffers, or essential ecosystem functions.
• Condition development only if adequate risk studies are available and risk ‑reduction measures—such as elevation, structural reinforcement, drainage controls, or hazard ‑specific design standards—bring risk down to acceptable levels.
• Promote growth toward lower risk and safer areas using public investments, incentives, and encouraging nature-based solutions that enhance resilience and support sustainable urban expansion.

By turning risk analytics into clear rules and planning decisions, the RCP framework enables cities to act decisively, supporting both planning and implementation.

The Handbook includes examples of cities that are already applying risk-informed urban planning principles. The case of Hong Kong illustrates how slope safety governance—integrated into planning and asset management—reduces landslide risk and losses. Guangzhou, China, is implementing cooling strategies using blue/green infrastructure to lower heat risk while enhancing public space. In Beira, Mozambique, aligning land-use decisions with drainage and coastal protection has strengthened flood risk management and shown how spatial plans can direct investments that reduce exposure.

Other examples show how risk-informed planning instruments can be adapted to different hazards, institutional capacities, and urban contexts, while keeping risk reduction at the center of planning decisions. The Handbook draws on these experiences, capturing lessons learned and emerging good practices that can inform future action.

BUILDING LIVABLE CITIES FOR A LIVABLE PLANET

Risk-informed planning delivers high returns, saving lives, protecting assets, reducing losses, and fiscal pressures, and freeing resources for long-term economic and human development. This Handbook provides a framework and tools to help cities translate risk data into better decisions. As climate risks intensify and urban populations grow, risk-informed planning is no longer optional; it is essential to ensure the cities we build today remain resilient and livable for the decades to come.