The Tomorrow’s Cities Decision Support Environment (TCDSE)
The future waits for no one. While cities and governments frequently strive to plan for the long term, such planning is often hindered by short-term political cycles and uncertainties about the future. Marginalised communities, in particular, are often excluded from decision-making processes. But the future can be different. Innovative, future-oriented, participatory, and evidence-based planning approaches can help us overcome these challenges and envision low-risk cities for future generations. This is where Tomorrow’s Cities comes in.
Tomorrow’s Cities future-oriented participatory approach to risk-informed planning
Harnessing the power of interdisciplinarity, Tomorrow’s Cities fosters the collaboration between scientists, engineers, politicians, economists, private sector groups and, critically, representatives of the urban citizens who will live in the cities the Hub is helping to plan and shape.
As we briefly mentioned before, the Hub’s work has been developed with local teams in four ‘learning cities’ - Quito, Istanbul, Kathmandu, and Nairobi. In these cities, the Hub tested and perfected the Tomorrow’s Cities Decision Support Environment (TCDSE), a comprehensive, evidence-based, framework and toolkit designed to shape future cities that uses inclusive decision making processes for equitable disaster risk reduction. The TCDSE consists of six distinct components and a capacity strengthening programme and, additionally to the learning cities, has been deployed in five other Global South urban areas - Nablus, Rapti, Dar Es Salaam, Chattogram, and Cox’s Bazaar.
This framework provides world-class, cutting edge, natural hazard risk assessment (including that of climate change) using physics-based methodologies to inform decision-making towards people-centred future urban development. The TCDSE enables city actors to understand how decisions made today can reduce disaster risk tomorrow.
In which contexts can Tomorrow’s Cities approach be applied?
Many of the cities that have engaged in the Tomorrow’s Cities project share certain characteristics that make the Hub’s approach relevant to their territories and planning processes. These characteristics include:
- A multi-hazard environment, including events related to climate change, entailing significant challenges for future urban populations.
- Concerns with social inclusion in decision-making and equitable urban development for risk reduction (that is, a pro-poor lens for looking at urban challenges towards the future).
- Ongoing urban expansion or significant spatial changes, including development projects or initiatives that the TCDSE framework can help to catalyse, inform, and orient through its risk-informed approach.
- A progressive political and institutional environment where there is openness to new alliances and knowledge exchanges and partnerships, particularly with groups that represent poor and marginalised communities.