In this episode of the Urban Exchange podcast, hosts Paul Wilson and Katrin Bruebach speak with Bianca Perez, Head of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office for Quezon City in the Philippines – a city that, in August 2025, experienced an extreme flooding event where the equivalent of five days of rain fell in just one hour.
Bianca explains how Quezon City, the most populous city in the Philippines and part of the wider Metro Manila area, is grappling with more frequent and intense rainfall, legacy urbanisation, and an overstretched drainage system. She shares how the devastating 2009 floods led to a national disaster risk framework, and how the city has since been trying to adapt – with mixed results.
The conversation dives into the critical interdependence of water and energy systems: you need power to pump and treat water, but water is also essential to keep energy systems running. When one fails, the other often follows. Using Quezon City’s experience, the episode explores what happens when national infrastructure projects are misaligned with local plans, including pumping stations that are built but not powered, poorly placed structures that worsen flooding, and a lack of systemic, cross-sector planning.
Bianca also opens a window into the human and operational side of disaster response: command-centre decision-making with only minutes of warning, coordinating rescues and evacuations for thousands of people, and the toll on responders who work through days of continuous crisis.
Finally, the episode looks ahead to energy resilience and clean energy transition in Quezon City – from reliance on generators toward a more integrated approach involving sensors, renewable energy, energy-efficient buildings, and a citywide resilience roadmap.
This is a candid, ground-level account of what climate-driven flooding really means for a major city – and what it will take to build resilient, energy-smart urban systems.
*This episode was recorded on 12 September, just under two weeks after the extreme weather event discussed hit Quezon City
The Speakers
Bianca Perez
Head, Quezon City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office
Katrin Bruebach
Global Director, Programs and Delivery
Resilient Cities Network
Paul Wilson
Advisory Board Chair
SmartCitiesWorld
About Bianca Perez
Yvette Andrews is an experienced engagement and strategy specialist working in local, state and federal government. As Manager, City Engagement for the City of Sydney, she recently led the development of the Resilient Sydney Strategy (2025- 2030) in collaboration with 33 Greater Sydney councils. Yvette has driven engagement at the City of Sydney for 12 years, establishing the City’s reputation as setting the benchmark for organization-wide engagement practice including winning the IAP2 Project of the Year in 2020. In addition, she is an a member of the New South Wales Australian Football Hall of Fame.
About Katrin Bruebach
Katrin oversees all of R-Cities’ program delivery, operations and finance functions while contributing to global thought leadership and driving innovation in urban resilience. She serves as organizational lead on water resilience, sanitation, solid waste and climate adaptation, focusing on identifying, developing, and evaluating new solutions, tools, funding sources and partnerships that add value to R-Cities’ member cities.
Katrin also provides advisory services to cities and represents R-Cities in international working groups and committees. Previously, Katrin served as Director of Water Supply and Sanitation Solutions at 100 Resilient Cities, where she spearheaded global partnerships and designed programs that integrate urban water management, climate adaptation and resilience thinking.
About Paul Wilson
Paul Wilson is the Chair of the SmartCitiesWorld Advisory Board, and Chief Business Officer for the Connected Places Catapult. Paul has more than 25 years’ international leadership, sales and marketing experience in the B2B Technology Media Telecom sector, including being CMO of global digital transformation association TM Forum and $3bn SunGard Financial Systems.
After running the West of England LEP, Paul set up the multi-award-winning Bristol Is Open smart city project in 2014 and created the widely endorsed City as a Platform Manifesto a couple of years later. He went on to advise the UK Government on the design of its 5G Testbeds & Trials programme, and more recently on how the programme should evolve. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol’s Smart Internet Lab.