Resilience and Sustainability

Resilience: A city's capacity to endure, adapt, and flourish in response to climate-related shocks and stresses is crucial. This encompasses stressors like rising sea levels, aging infrastructure, housing affordability, income inequality, and traffic congestion and shocks like hurricanes, extreme heat events, floods, and pandemics. A resilient city can withstand these challenges while also addressing related risks and maximizing the effectiveness of investments aimed at reducing and preventing future impacts.

Urban Resilience is the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience.

Sustainability: Ensuring Miami’s long-term prosperity while protecting the health of our environment is also crucial. 'Here in Miami, our environment is our economy.' Our city is home to valuable ecological resources, but pollution and greenhouse gas emissions increasingly threaten both our communities and ecosystems. Miami’s future depends on our collective efforts to reduce pollution and protect our natural assets.

Urban Sustainability involves developing a city that seeks to meet the needs of people while protecting our environment and resources for future generations. 

Resilience and Sustainability go hand in hand whether in creating a physical building, planning neighborhoods, or improving economic opportunity for all. 

-taken from 100 Resilient Cities

What is City of Miami doing about climate change?

Our top priorities are:

• Advance City of Miami’s resilience to sea level rise, extreme heat, and hurricanes through internal planning, community engagement, and policy
• Advance City of Miami’s sustainability by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting Biscayne Bay, the Miami River, and the Little River
• Build resilience into City of Miami’s strategic plan, budgeting, policies and capital improvement plans
• Engage and inform City of Miami residents on initiatives to improve resilience and sustainability  
• Create partnerships to seek innovative solutions for pressing environmental challenges   
• Track progress towards achieving City of Miami environmental and climate commitments to ensure transparency, accountability, and continued progress

ORS led the development of these critical resilience strategies and stewards their ongoing implementation. As a key driver in shaping the City of Miami’s climate resilience framework, ORS collaborates with local governments and stakeholders to ensure that these strategies are effectively executed, continuously monitored, and adapted to meet evolving challenges. Programs include Miami Forever Carbon Neutral, Stormwater Master Plan, Miami Forever Climate Ready and Resilient 305.

View Current Resilience Strategies