Enabling equitable and disaster resilient cities: governance in the covid-19 reset

COVID-19 demands a critical assessment of current governance failures. With over 150 million people worldwide at risk of eviction and being homeless, to “COVID flight” of tech and knowledge based workers fleeing high dense urban centers for “socially distant” suburbs and remote/rural areas, COVID-19 is reckoning a great reset of cities and metropolitan areas, what governance looks like in prioritizing public good and how this governance effects regional resiliency to disasters and future pandemics. This pandemic along with the intersections of colonizing stolen land from Native/indigenous populations, slavery, genocide and the growing amount of disasters such as hurricanes and flooding are perpetuating challenges in governing COVID-19. The role of planning and the planner will be critically examined through a systems approach, addressing anti Asian and Middle East biases in planning, disaster planning and governance for resilient regions, how COVID-19 effects governance and financial viability of mass scale smart infrastructure projects, planning and disaster recovery, and action steps for planners, financiers, government officials and engineering firms can take to address the COVID-19 reset in planning. Western and Western European approaches to planning have directly correlated to increase in COVID-19 cases, deaths and rising racial inequities. Countries like New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, UAE, and Vietnam have been global leaders in managing COVID-19 community spread and deaths. These countries, specifically Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and UAE have been building smart cities at a faster pace than western society. Examining governance patterns and best practices in resilient infrastructure planning, this effect on COVID-19 response, and considerations for governance and which models are best practices for adoption in the great COVID-19 reset will be examined critically in this session.