More than half of the world’s population now live in large metropolitan areas.
This is placing enormous pressure on urban infrastructure and makes the availability of the necessities of life – food, water, and shelter – increasingly difficult for many.
Overcrowding, traffic congestion, degraded air quality, unsafe water supplies, and
severely constrained physical infrastructure – roads, buildings, bridges – not only affect the quality of life for residents, they also increase vulnerability to weather-related extremes such as flooding, fire, and earthquakes.
The Building Resilience Coalition believes that the quality of life in our cities and towns is directly related to the quality of the built environment.
When the physical environment of where we live, and work is sustainable and resilient, the potential for personal and community well-being is greatly improved.
That is why careful planning, responsible design, and proper construction and management of the built environment is so important, and why architects, engineers, public officials, and community leaders must work together to make our cities better places in which to live.