SPI Insights

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner launched Resilient Houston on February 12, a plan to help the city mitigate flooding risks and improve climate readiness.

Resilient Houston is a framework for collective action and links existing efforts with new ones that will work collectively to protect Houston against future disasters and chronic stresses such as aging infrastructure, poor air quality, and climate change.

The strategy frames five key visions for Houston’s future along with 18 goals and 62 actions describing the path forward, timeframe, partners, implementation opportunities, and corresponding U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.

Resilient Houston’s five main chapters focus on prepared Houstonians, safe neighborhoods, healthy bayous, accessibility and adaptability, and innovation and integration.

In addition to unveiling the Resilient Houston strategy, Turner signed the Resilient Houston executive order directing all city departments and divisions to support the implementation of Resilient Houston, incorporate resilience in strategic planning and budgeting, and designate Departmental Resilience Officers (DRO) to work directly with the Mayor’s chief resilience officer (CRO). Department directors will have 60 days to appoint DROs who will work cross-departmentally on the implementation of Resilient Houston.

In August 2018, Houston became a member of 100 Resilient Cities, which evolved into the Global Resilient Cities Network (GRCN).