SINGAPORE — A deadly earthquake that nearly wiped Christchurch off the map in February 2011 laid bare its lack of resilience. It also led to a campaign involving ideas from thousands of residents that enabled New Zealand's second-largest city to again become the thriving urban centre it is today.

The secrets to the revival of Christchurch, which was also subjected to a terrorist attack on the city's mosques in 2019 that claimed 51 lives, were outlined during a panel discussion at the World Cities Summit on Tuesday (Aug 2).

The biennial summit, which started on Sunday and ends on Wednesday, is being held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre. 

Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel, a panellist, spoke about the importance of resilience, a concept that has become increasingly important in the face of climate change and increased occurrences of natural disasters. 

She noted the devastating impact of the magnitude 6.3 earthquake of February 2011, which killed 185 people and caused massive damage to the city. At the time, some people speculated that the city, built near a major geological fault-line, might never be rebuilt.

Ms Dalziel outlined the way residents embraced the city’s “share an idea” community public engagement campaign, which provided an avenue for the public to share ideas and opinions on how the city should be redeveloped.

She called it a “remarkable exercise in co-creation” and more than 106,000 ideas were received from the community, illustrating the way the community, not just the government, was crucial to building resilience. 

In response to TODAY's queries, Ms Dalziel explained that the initiative helped to build "social capital" as people were "engaged in reimagining their city". 

"More importantly, people felt they were listened to, when they could see what they had imagined come to fruition," she added. 

The campaign resulted in key projects to redesign Christchurch, such as widening the banks of the Avon River, which runs through the city, to make it pedestrian- and cycle-friendly. 

Another lesson learnt from the quake was "the importance of getting land-use planning right", Ms Dalziel told TODAY. 

"The building code was increased substantially straight after the earthquakes and land-use planning now factors in future risks such as sea-level rise in consenting requirements particularly in coastal and other low-lying areas." 

Ageing infrastructure was also replaced with modern resilient infrastructure made from modern materials that can flex with seismic activity, she added. 

In response to a question about building resilience among the community during the panel discussion, Ms Dalziel said that it involves not just the capacity to adapt, but for people to come together to “reimagine a new future”. 

She added that it requires the effort of all residents and not just the government. 

Ms Dalziel was part of a panel discussing how cities may adapt to extreme events such as heatwaves and prolonged droughts, which have become more frequent due to climate change. 

It was moderated by Ms Lauren Sorkin, the executive director of Resilient Cities Network, an urban resilience network that builds partnerships to empower its members to build safe and equitable cities.

The other panellists were: 

• Ms Sally Capp, the mayor of Melbourne, Australia 
• Ms Hemaliben Boghawala, the mayor of Surat, India
• Mr Soren Brondum, the managing director of buildings at consultancy company Ramboll
• Mr Amit Midha, the president of Asia Pacific & Japan and Global Digital Cities at multinational technology firm Dell Technologies

Ms Capp also talked about her own city of Melbourne, which endured six lockdowns and more than 260 days under restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, making it one of the most locked-down cities in the world. 

She explained that the city used the quiet time over the lockdown period to “fast-track the delivery of major infrastructure projects” such as the building of protected bicycle lanes. 

Another speaker highlighted the increased frequency of natural disasters due to climate change. Ms Yoo Young Sook, chairperson for the Climate Change Centre in South Korea and keynote speaker for the session, said that 2021 was marked by an increase in the number of natural disasters. 

“There were 432 disastrous events related to natural hazards worldwide in 2021 and overall, they have caused about US$252 million (S$348 million) of economic losses,” Ms Yoo said.  

Agreeing, Ms Sorkin from Resilient Cities Network highlighted that it was important that the panel was having this discussion in Asia because the Asia Pacific is “home to 98 of the most vulnerable cities to climate disasters in the world”. 

“Cities are on the front lines of climate response and are facing more extremes every single day... so we have to make our cities more resilient,” she said. 

Ms Yoo also highlighted the importance of reducing the individual carbon footprint, from a global average carbon footprint per person a year of 4.5 tonnes to under two tonnes, to combat climate change. 

Delivering a keynote address at a different session of the summit, Ms Indranee Rajah, Singapore's Second Minister for National Development, also spoke about the importance of collaboration between cities to help build the country's economic, climate and resource resilience. 

For instance, she noted that Singapore’s main option for tapping renewable energy is solar energy, but it has limitations due to intermittency issues and the need for space to carry out such projects.

“One way to incorporate more renewable energy is through partnership with our neighbours and developing regional grids, that will allow us to tap clean energy from other countries,” Ms Indranee said. 

She added that Singapore has become a “living lab to test-bed such collaborative efforts, from which other cities around the world facing similar challenges may glean ideas.

For instance, Sunseap Group, a solar energy solutions provider based in Singapore, announced that it would build the world’s largest floating solar farm and power storage system on the Indonesian island of Batam.

“The constraints we face make it clear that it is crucial for cities to work together to collectively achieve net-zero emissions. By collaborating, cities can achieve much greater environmental and economic benefits together than they can do alone,” Ms Indranee said.