Salvador: Profile of a resilient city?

Abstract

We present how the city of Salvador in Brazil, has applied the resilience approach to its long-term urban planning agenda to both overcome past sequelae and face new challenges such as the increasing urbanization and climate change. Salvador launched its Resilience Strategy, which placed it at the forefront of cities investing in resilience to face their shocks and stresses. Salvador faces various economic and social vulnerabilities, which have been ongoing since the city was established in the 16th century. The lessons learned throughout the city's experience are that resilience plan and climate agendas must be carried out together with adaptation and mitigation actions and include: i) the need to develop a resilience strategy both to ensure disaster risk prevention and address all social and environmental aspects that are fundamental to building a resilient city, especially in contexts of poverty and inequality; ii) the significance of both engaging multiple stakeholders and thinking about inclusive resilience, as a complex and ongoing process of learning. We conclude that urban resilience policies should not only focus on disaster risk prevention by developing brown infrastructure plans but also need to address social and environmental-natural aspects as fundamental to building a resilient city.