💹 Resilience Investment Planning Approaches
Cities develop plans that assess risks, show the cost of inaction, measure multiple benefits and build the economic case for resilience investment to help prioritise and mobilise capital.
How cities are applying it
• New York City’s Resilience Finance Task Force brings together budget offices, infrastructure agencies and emergency management teams to align capital planning with climate risk and long-term resilience priorities. This improves coordination across agencies that influence major investment decisions.
• Cape Town applies a portfolio-based investment approach that evaluates costs, benefits and co-benefits of resilience measures across capital programs and project pipelines. This helps decision-makers identify which interventions deliver the strongest outcomes for communities and infrastructure.
• In Broward County and Lagos, resilience planning integrates economic analysis with hazard modelling to compare adaptation options and assess the cost of inaction. These insights guide investment choices and help direct funding toward measures with the greatest risk reduction.
Together, these examples show how cities are linking financial planning, risk assessment and technical analysis to strengthen long-term decision-making and deliver more strategic investments.
Why it matters
Resilience requires sustained investment, yet cities face tight budgets and competing priorities. Approaches that integrate economic evidence, risk data and multi-benefit analysis enable governments to direct limited capital toward the actions that deliver the highest value. They also help cities make a clearer case to funders and investors, attract new financing and maintain continuity across political cycles.