Who we are and what we do.
What is City Resilience?
City 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. Resilience is about making cities better, both in the short and long term, for everyone.
Chennai Resilience Centre
100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation (100RC) started out as a network of 100 global cities integrating resilience thinking in their development efforts.
In December 2014, Chennai joined the 100RC initiative. As a member city, Chennai received the financial and logistical support to establish an innovative new position, a Chief Resilience Officer (CRO), to lead the city’s resilience efforts in collaboration with the city government, citizens and various other stakeholder groups.
Resilient Chennai was granted expert support to establish a robust Resilience Strategy; access to solutions, service providers and partners from across public, private and non-profit sectors; and membership to a global network of member cities to learn from and collaborate.
In July 2017, R Krishna Mohan was appointed as Chennai’s Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) and led Chennai in the strategy phase of its resilience journey which involved engaging stakeholders and understanding the city’s resilience related strengths and challenges to frame actions to build city resilience to existing and future shocks and stresses.
Chennai’s Resilience Strategy, developed with strategy partners Okapi Advisory, was released by the Greater Chennai Corporation in June 2019.
Early in 2020, 100RC was reborn as the Global Resilient Cities Network (GRCN), and together with the Adrienne Arsht – Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre (AARFRC), helped fund and institutionalize the Chennai Resilience Centre as a unit of the Centre for Urbanization, Building and Environment (CUBE), a centre of excellence established through a collaboration of the Government of Tamil Nadu and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM).
The Chennai Resilience Centre’s mandate is to research, develop and implement resilience building projects for the city of Chennai.
Centre for Urbanization, Buildings & Environment
Centre for Urbanization, Buildings & Environment (CUBE) was formed by IIT Madras and Government of Tamil Nadu as an Applied Research, Technology and Consultancy Centre to bring together the research and technological strengths of academia, facilitation and support from the Government, practical and innovative approach of the private sector, as well as functional independence and administrative prowess to act as an enabler to tackle any multifaceted challenges facing the built environment.
Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center
The Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (AARFRC) is a think tank established in Washington DC in April 2019. It’s mission is to reach one billion people with resilience solutions to climate change, migration, and security challenges by 2030. They are focusing efforts on individuals, communities, and a broad spectrum of governments and institutions to help them, and their constituencies and stakeholders, better prepare for, navigate, and recover from shocks and stresses, in order to help build a more resilient world.
AARFRC is a member of the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan organization that galvanizes US leadership and engagement in the world, in partnership with allies and partners, to shape solutions to global challenges.
Global Resilient Cities Network
The new Global Resilient Cities Network (GRCN) emerges from the 100 Resilient Cities Program with a unique reach, strength and legacy to understand and support the challenges of the ever-growing urban society. GRCN is the city-led organization that will drive urban resilience action to protect vulnerable communities from climate change and other physical, social and economic urban adversities and challenges. With support from The Rockefeller Foundation and other funding partners, the Network aims to continue supporting cities and their Chief Resilience Officers in future-proofing their communities and critical infrastructure.
near north Coromandel coast (just south of a small fishing village called Madraspatam) from Nayak rulers to build a warehouse or factory for trading purposes. In 1640 they built Fort St. George which eventually became the core of the colonial city.
the first municipal corporation in the British Commonwealth outside Britain.
The development in Royapuram opened up settlements in low-lying areas.
in the city which existed till 1953
began when Congress Party was elected in State Government at Madras Presidency in the first Provincial Election held in British India and issued an order in April 1938 making Hindi language teaching compulsory in all the secondary schools of the province.
a temporary solution was designed whereby English was to remain the official language for fifteen years while Hindi would be promoted as national language so English could be phased out.
in Tamil Nadu protesting and finally thwarting the possibility of inclusion of Hindi as the official language of India.
allowed defunct lakes to be filled in to accommodate housing schemes.
from 129 sq. km to cover 176 sq. km
Following the earthquake off the Indonesian coast (9.1 on Richter scale), a massive tsunami struck Chennai and surrounding areas wrecking tremendous havoc to livelihood and infrastructure.
Over the course of the Preliminary Research Assessment (Phase I), the Resilient Chennai team worked to understand the city’s context and identify key resilience challenges. The following broad areas have been identified for inclusion into the final Resilience Strategy for the city.
Centre for Urbanization, Building & Environment Partners with Adrienne Arsht – Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center
/in News, Press /by Chennai Resilience CentreThe Adrienne Arsht – Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (AARFRC) has engaged the Centre for Urbanization, Building & Environment (CUBE) to help pursue AARFRC’s objective of providing resilience solutions to one billion people by 2030, by building resilience in the people of Chennai, with awareness of the current urbanization challenges, such as Urban Heat, Water Conservation, […]