Collaboration as a strategy delivers different results in different settings. In some industries and disciplines it is almost indispensable, while in others it can still be a tough nut to crack. One of the emerging areas, which in my view will become one of the most dominant in years to come, is our resilience in respect to natural disasters and other major disruptive events. This space is to me personally one of the most exciting areas of work given the level of potential for applying collaboration as part of a solution, as well as its significant positive impact on society. This week’s edition of recommended reading is therefore dedicated to collaboration and resilience (disaster induced or otherwise). Enjoy learning!

Collaboration key to building resilient communities to withstand disasters

 Earthquake preparedness demands taking steps now to build resilient communities that can better withstand and recover from the impacts of natural disasters and other emergencies, Steven Blaney, Canada’s minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, emphasized during a speech in Vancouver yesterday…READ ON

Eight Takeaways from Eight Cities: Cross-city collaboration is key

Around the world, our first 32 cities are kicking off their 100 Resilient Cities Challenge engagements with workshops, and we’ve had great conversations about the cities’ urban challenges and resilience opportunities. There’s a lot more information to come from each of these cities, but eight overarching takeaways from some of our first workshops have stood out so far…READ ON

Resilience, Communication and Collaboration Workshop report

This workshop sought to fill that knowledge gap, using our team as a catalyst for better communication, engagement and collaborative research design. We brought together delegates from key emergency management and disaster resilience organisations with leading researchers and consultants in communication, collaboration and resilience to generate new projects. The workshop aimed to generate new collaborative research…READ ON

Collaborative approach to disaster resilience may cut insurer payouts

Insurance and community risk network Know Risk has endorsed calls for a national approach to natural disaster resilience in the wake of the Australian Business Roundtable recently making the same call – and says it could cut insurer payouts. Know Risk – since its launch in June last year in response to the 2009 Victorian bush fires – has focused on an aim to address a lack of understanding of risk management and appropriate insurance by building a more resilient and better prepared community, through concentrating on two core issues: practical and financial risk…READ ON

After the Napa Quake – San Francisco CRO Patrick Otellini on Regional Resilience Collaboration

Napa Fire Chief John Callanan, SF Chief Resilience Officer Patrick Otellini, SF City Administrator Naomi Kelly and SF Department of Emergency Management Director Anne Kronenberg

At 3:30AM on August 24th, I woke up to heavy shaking. We had just experienced the largest earthquake to hit the Bay Area since the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989. The 6.0 magnitude earthquake was located 3.7 miles northwest of American Canyon near the West Napa Fault. After making sure my family was safe, I did a quick scan to see if our home had experienced any damage. My phone began to ring and I started getting updates right away from our city’s internal notification system. We were very lucky; the City of San Francisco experienced no damage because the epicenter was about 50 miles away, but our City staff did a fantastic job of quickly mobilizing and inspecting our own buildings and making sure that all city services were up and running. We soon got word that the cities of Napa and Vallejo had experienced significant damage…READ ON

Collaboration: An emerging dominance in disaster resilience

Over several decades, disaster management has matured into a profession that at once borrows from a range of disciplines, offers its own unique dimension and lends new insights to other disciplines. This dynamic has become a mainstay of the policy and practice of disaster management as it is applied today. Globally, the practice seems similar, but the policy framework, capacities and the evolution of the discipline varies significantly. For instance, the Australian policy model favours the PPRR framework administered by each State as a lead authority, whereas European countries lean to the C2 (command and control) approach, which Australia and most of the USA has abandoned. While the differences do not end here, the importance of this dichotomy on a global scale may have some implications here in Australia due to the different manner in which disaster resilience is framed and developed…READ ON

New collaboration explores technological solutions to urban resilience

Barcelona, 3 June 2014: UN-Habitat’s City Resilience Profiling Programme and the Autonomous University of Barcelona’s School of Engineering have announced a new collaboration to work together in the design and construction of software to increase cities’ resilience to disasters. One of the main objectives of this collaboration is transforming the City Resilience Profiling Tool into a more robust and user friendly Web Application with greater potential. The software developed will generate urban resilience indicators based on data provided by the partner cities of the programme…READ ON

…and now for something completely different…

Science proves that you love your dog like a baby

(Credit: Sinseeho via Shutterstock)

A PLOS ONE study recently confirmed what many of us already knew: dog love can be extremely similar to maternal love. “Alloparenting,” or adopting and caring for different species– has occurred for tens of thousands of years (the first domesticated dog dates back to 32,000 years ago). Around two-thirds of American households have pets and spend over $50 billion every year on their well-being. In this study, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital sought to directly compare the “functional neuroanatomy of the human-pet bond with that of the maternal-child bond.” To do so, they had women look at photos of their babies and their dogs, as well as babies and dogs that they didn’t know…READ ON