Earlier this month, 88,000 residents fled the wildfire burning through Fort McMurray. Only two fatalities were reported, the result of a vehicle collision during the evacuation.
The success of the evacuation effort has been attributed to many factors, ranging from emergency response measures put in place after the 2011 Slave Lake fire to the assistance provided by nearby oil sands companies.
Certainly, though, the cooperation of Fort McMurray residents and the support offered by communities across Alberta also played a major role.
As people left the city, there were reports of residents picking up stranded families whose vehicles had broken down. People living outside the city opened their homes to the evacuees. On Facebook, many Albertans offered up lodging and supplies to those fleeing the fire.
This type of cooperation, also known as social resilience, is critical to emergency preparedness and response, according to Keltie Craig, who wrote a report about resilience in Vancouver as part of UBC’s Greenest City Scholars Program in 2014.
“In the case of emergency preparedness, knowing your neighbours is incredibly important,” she wrote. “Past disastrous events have shown that the most significant sources of help before, during, and after the emergency were reported to be friends, family, and neighbours.”
But social resilience can be difficult to promote in large urban centres. Craig described research showing that 15 per cent of Vancouver apartment dwellers reported having never spoken to a neighbour, while just seven per cent of residents in single detached homes said the same. Renters were also less likely to speak with neighbours than homeowners.
Ashley Lowcock, another Greenest City scholar, found that community gardens aren’t always inclusive, even though they’re often thought of as a way to foster social connections.
“While not necessarily intentional, community gardens may not feel inclusive and welcoming as a result of differences across social barriers, such as: cultural norms with respect to urban agriculture, food preferences, and preparation; as well as technical barriers including physical accessibility and language,” she wrote.
Social resilience is integral to achieving sustainability and strengthening our “adaptive capacity.” Lowcock found that cities can design urban gardens with communal areas to encourage social connections. Craig hosted two “vertical block parties” at specific Vancouver apartment buildings to help neighbours get to know each other and begin to talk about emergency preparedness.
And there are broader initiatives, too. The Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program announced that it has selected its final cities this week as part of a large-scale project to build resilience. The 100 cities will all appoint chief resilience officers and develop resilience strategies to help them deal with unexpected events and long-term pressures.
Program president Michael Berkowitz explained the long-term vision for the program in an interview with the Guardian this week.
“The ultimate change we’re trying to see in cities – more cohesive communities, better infrastructure, more integrated planning, better mobility – these are things that happen over a generation, not just a couple of years.”
By Maura Forrest, 26 May 2016