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Resilience & Sustainability
What do you think of when you hear the words resilience and sustainability? Are they two sides of the same coin? How are they related? Is one more important than the other?
I see resilience and sustainability as interlinked concepts, with sustainability being our impact on the environment, including built, natural and socio-economic environments, while resilience can be considered the opposite — the impact of the environment on us.
While of course there’s more to both than this simplistic definition, it’s easy to see the difference and their respective values. Both are important, but perhaps the value is perceived differently by different stakeholders.
A view from the coast
My background is in coastal science and risk management. The coast is a highly dynamic environment, which means we always have to consider how complex interactions will affect decisions and investments both today and in the future. This forward-looking approach is also critical to the challenges posed by accelerating sea-level rise (SLR). So throughout my career, I’ve focused on the sustainability of coastal interventions
- How will they impact the environment both today and over time?
- Will they continue to perform their intended function?
- Could they have detrimental impacts on adjacent areas?
These considerations explicitly speak to sustainability. However, the ability of the intervention (whatever it is) to continue to operate as the coast changes — from the impact of a single wave, to a storm, to years of SLR — that capacity is its resilience. Simply put, our actions need to be resilient to be sustainable.
Protecting our environment and economies
Let me give you an example. Recently, I led a project in Belize that used satellite and drone imagery and data-driven coastal management planning as the foundation to protect and improve the tourism economy for the future. In this case, our resilience activities will enable a more sustainable tourism economy for the country.
"A coastline is a highly dynamic environment, subject to the impacts of future climate change and sea-level rise. Sound scientific information is critical. In Belize, we used state-of-the-art satellite image analysis techniques to develop a coastal resilience strategy for Corozal Bay to protect and manage this unique coastal area into the future. "
– Adam Hosking Global Solutions Director for Resilience
Rising to the forefront
Resilience as a term is rather new — if anything, it might have been considered risk management in the past. Today, resilience is front and center, and the COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness to a whole new level. Resilience is an all-encompassing term for our ability to navigate the challenges COVID-19 has created — from a personal, business and economic perspective.
The concept of resilience is like what sustainability was to us several decades ago — widely desired, but inconsistently interpreted and not yet part of mainstream business. So while it has indeed taken decades for sustainability to reach its present maturity (including global uptake of the UN SDGs and requirements for sustainability reporting), I’m pretty sure resilience is on a fast-track partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also because it’s a quality we have long sought, but not always prioritized.
Why should we talk about resilience?
So why haven’t we prioritized resilience in the past? Even though it focuses on why people are so poor at handling disastrous risk, The Ostrich Paradox provides an excellent view of why we often don’t prepare for the impact the environment might have on us. Our natural tendency is to believe that detrimental events happen to other people or businesses, to seek the status quo and to avoid costs that have an uncertain return. These are just a few of the reasons why resilience isn’t prioritized. We need to recognize these limitations and proactively address them.
Developing a resilient water supply
The COVID-19 pandemic has openly exposed resilience to be an essential value, rather than an additional cost, and we have outstanding examples of resilience delivered as part of sustainable service programs. The Four National Taps strategy of Singapore’s National Water Agency (PUB) is an excellent example of planned, long-term services sustainability, with an explicit focus on maintaining and protecting the resilience of the country’s robust and diversified water supply. If you’re interested in even more Singaporean innovation, check out the water reuse story of this innovative island nation.