Chicago

Chicago’s Resilience Journey

Chicago is the third most populous city in the US, an important cultural and economic center, and a bustling transportation hub. However, the city faces a significant challenge in its unequal distribution of resources and access to professional opportunities.

Chicago has been working to map and analyze local neighborhoods with a focus on vulnerable populations. The city has also been promoting a strategy focused on high-quality education in science, technology, engineering, and math, as a pathway to strengthen the city’s digital manufacturing sector and its middle class.

Chicago is developing plans to engage communities more effectively in infrastructure design, including water management. As a city that faces severe weather, Chicago has developed preparation and response plans for blizzards, emphasizing strategy and coordination among various agencies. Flooding is also a challenge, and while the city has begun to plan ways to divert water from high-flow areas, it still needs to increase infrastructure capacity to deal with the amount of water that falls on a regular basis.