City Dialogues: What is the Value of Urban Resilience?

City Dialogues: What is the Value of Urban Resilience?

2 July 2025

09:00 AM - 3:30 PM

Vienna City Hall

Vienna, Austria

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The risks associated with urban development in a climate-disrupted and a dynamic digital world are well known, and solutions that can reduce these risks abound. However, the actions that enable – or impede – these solutions vary from region to region and city to city. Hence timely discussion to deploy these actions by governments, corporates and communities is crucial.  

In this City Dialogues, we will explore the multifaceted value of resilience through various lenses, including: economic benefits, social equality, environment sustainability, public-private partnerships, innovation & technology, and more. Effective resilience strategies necessitate the integration of both ‘hardware’ – investment in robust, state-of-the-art infrastructure – and ‘software’ or ‘orgware’ – the capacity to adapt to new challenges, foster innovation and establish new partnerships.

This dialogue aims to illuminate how these elements interplay to enhance urban resilience amidst rapid, and often disruptive, change.

 

Track 1
Economic Benefits & Public-Private Partnerships
  • 1. How might investing in resilience reduce long-term costs and attract private investment?
  • 2. How can collaboration between governments, businesses, and communities build more resilient infrastructure and services?
  • 3. What are the different temporalities of resilience?
  • 4. What are the spatial variabilities of resilience within and between cities/countries?
  • 5. What roles do stakeholders from the public, private, and people sectors play?
Track 2
Social Equity & Environmental Sustainability
  • 1. How can we ensure that resilience protects vulnerable populations and prioritises inclusive development?
  • 2. How can resilient cities contribute to climate adaptation, the reduction of carbon footprints, and the preservation of natural resources?
  • 3. What are the different temporalities of resilience?
  • 4. What are the spatial variabilities of resilience within and between cities/countries?
  • 5. What roles do stakeholders from the public, private, and people sectors play?
Track 3
Innovation & Technology
  • 1. How can utilising data, AI, and smart systems maximise urban resilience and ensure future-ready cities and communities?
  • 2. What are the different temporalities of resilience?
  • 3. What are the spatial variabilities of resilience within and between cities/countries?
  • 4. What roles do stakeholders from the public, private, and people sectors play?

Speaker

Speaker
Mr Jürgen Czernohorszky

Executive City Councillor for Climate, Environment, Democracy and Personnel, City of Vienna

Panellists

Click to view profiles

Agenda

Agenda
  • 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

    SMU City Dialogues Networking Evening

  • 08:30 AM

    Registration

    Refreshments will be provided.

  • 09:00 AM

    Welcome Address

    Prof Lily Kong

    President

    Singapore Management University

  • 9:10 AM

    Keynote Address by Guest-of-Honour

    Jürgen Czernohorszky

    Executive City Councillor for Climate, Environment, Democracy and Personnel, City of Vienna (tbc)

  • 9:30 AM

    Roundtable Discussion

    Moderator

    • Prof Orlando Woods, Director, SMU Urban Institute

  • 10:30 AM

    Coffee Break

  • 11:00 AM

    Roundtable Discussion (Continuation)

  • 12:00 PM

    Lunch

  • 1:00 PM

    Parallel Dialogue Sessions

    Track 1: Economic Benefits & Public-Private Partnerships

    Led by Prof Winston Chow

     

    Track 2: Social Equity & Environmental Sustainability

    Led by Dr. Johannes Lutter

     

    Track 3: Innovation & Technology

    Led by Professor Orlando Woods

  • 3:00 PM

    Wrap-up and Sharing

    1. Prof Winston Chow, Professor of Urban Climate, SMU
    2. UIV Representative

    Presentation of Token of Appreciation

    Group Photo

     

  • 4:00 PM

    Site Visits

    • Wien Museum: Vienna from Past to Present
    • Karl Marx Hof Housing Estate: Affordable Housing

  • 7:00 PM

    Traditional Viennese Dinner

  • 08:45 AM - 11:30 AM

    Site Visit

    Seestadt Aspern: City of Tomorrow

  • 12:15 PM

    Opening Lunch

    For Mayors Forum attendees