2nd Vice Mayor Kim Hak-jin of the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) speaks at the International Urban Resilience Forum Seoul 2020 held virtually on Dec. 9. (Photos: SMG)

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) held the International Urban Resilience Forum Seoul 2020 virtually on Dec. 9.

The forum was designed to help international organizations and 13 cities design integrated solutions to them safer in the COVID-19 era, and share information on urban resilience.

Urban resilience is key to helping cities prevent disasters and restore damage after disasters occur. Ways of strengthening urban resilience have emerged as more important policy tasks in the wake of the impacts of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SMG and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) jointly organized the forum under the theme of “Safe Cities in the New Normal: Resilience, Sustainability, and Adaptability.” The forum was the second rendition following last year.

Due to the spread of COVID-19, the forum was held at a video studio installed at Seoul City Hall. Representative city officials, disaster safety experts, international organization officials and citizens from 13 cities around the world, participated in the forum virtually.

The participating cities included Hoboken of the United States, Makati City of the Philippines, Roma, Athens and London.

The forum had three sessions. The topic of the first session was “Building common residence after COVID-19.” The second session touched on “Smart and resilient urban information.” The third session was on “Tracking cities’ efforts for resilience in the COVID-19 era.”

Mizurori Mami, special representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, gave a keynote speech before the first session began.

Sanjaya Bhatia, chief of UNDRR Office for Northeast Asia and Global Education and Training Institute (GETI), makes a presentation at the International Urban Resilience Forum Seoul 2020.

Prominent figures, including Sanjaya Bhatia, head of Office of United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Anat Caspi, Deputy CRO TLV Resilience Cities Network, and Amit Prothi, managing director of APAC Region at Resilient Cities Network, spoke on the first session.

Kim Hyun-soo, chief of the SMG COVID-19 Psychological Support Team at an onsite video studio, spoke about long-term solutions to relieve excessive fear and anxiety of the novel coronavirus and fortify citizens’ psychological immunity.

Francis Ghesquiere, practice manager for the World Bank East Asia and Pacific Region, Nathan Pierce, head of the Smart London Team based in the Greater London Authority, Choi Joon-young, a senior researcher with the Smart City Research Office at the Seoul Institute of Technology, and Clara Muzzio, minister of public space and urban hygiene in Buenos Aires touched on ways of building smart urban resilience through smart technology in the COVID-19 era during the third session.

SMG Vice Mayor Kim Hak-jin chaired the last, third session. Representatives from 11 cities, including Hoboken, Makati City, Colombo, Vientiane, Roma, Athens, Honolulu and Taipei, as well as international organization officials made a presentation on response parties against the COVID-19 and cities’ future sustainable development in the post-COVID-19 era.

Acting Seoul Mayor Seo Jeong-hyup said, “A great civilization shift, caused by the COVID-19, needs to adopt different responses to urban disasters in post-COVID-19 era, compared to the previous ones, and now is a time to draw new strategies to ensure urban resilience.”

Seoul has already joined UNDRR’s campaign to make cities resilient, and the capital of Korea has made efforts to strengthen urban resilience as Seoul was designated as a model of reducing disaster risks by the United Nations, he said.

Acting Mayor Seo expressed hope the forum would serve not only as an opportunity to build a network among cities, but also a space to share each other’s experiences against global disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss international cooperation.