Prepare your survival kits. Attacks, Covid-19, heatwaves, floods, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East… Crises have multiplied in recent years, and the situation could get even worse in the months to come between explosive geopolitical news and global warming which continues to worsen. acceleration.
However, the latest heatwaves and the 2020 lockdown have shown the extent to which cities, which now house 50% of the world's population, can be fragile in the face of crises. Also to try to prepare for the best for the worst, the City of Paris presented its new “resilience plan” this Friday.
Adapt to resist any type of crisis
To fully understand what it is, it is better to know what urban resilience is. According to the plan presented by Pénélope Komitès, Anne Hidalgo's deputy in charge of the subject, urban resilience is the capacity of people, communities, or institutions in a territory to live better, to adapt and to transform whatever the shocks they experience.
And the best way to absorb a shock is to prepare for it. Thus, Paris presented a strategy based on fifty actions and organized around four major orientations: developing a shared risk culture, strengthening solidarity and social bonds, preparing infrastructure, and cooperating with all stakeholders in the territory.
Parisians in “Survivor” mode
Concretely, the town hall wants to make Parisians high-level survivors and the city a potential Alexandria (you know, the community in The Walking Dead). No question here of learning to make a fire with a plastic cap or to hunt wild boar with a pocketknife anyway. Survivalists learn to get by on their own, Paris intends to do it collectively.
But it starts by equipping residents for crises. Thus, the city aims to carry out regular crisis exercises with the population in the style of a Paris at 50 degrees simulated in 2023.
This type of exercise will be accompanied by the creation of a municipal civil security reserve and raising Parisians' awareness of the risks with first aid training or help in putting together emergency kits. All this could be done through a future “resilience campus” and an annual celebration intended to acculturate citizens to the risks involved.
Basements, an under-exploited resource
Risks of all types for which the city would like to create “refuge spaces” within each neighborhood in collaboration with civil society. Developed and lively places where residents could meet in the event of a crisis. The municipality intends to map the entire city to identify suitable places and will launch its first experiments in 2025.
In the same vein, the city is preparing to explore its basements, a valuable resource in many cases. During a heatwave, these (like places of worship, performance halls or car parks) could prove to be precious islands of coolness. And if well optimized, they could also serve as shelter in the event of conflict or attack, but also for food storage. A sensitive point in the city which could, at present, only be able to live independently for a few days in the event of a blockade and a stoppage of supplies.
Food supply, communications…
And if Paris finds itself deprived of supplies, it could also find itself cut off from the world in the event of a breakdown in telecommunications channels (Internet, telephone lines, satellites). Also, with the help of the National Federation of Radio Amateurs serving Civil Security and the Paris Volunteers, the city intends to guarantee information relay points as close as possible to residents to avoid “black-out”.
Obviously, these situations are the most extreme. But who imagined, just four years ago, that we would find ourselves confined for two months fighting over flour and toilet paper?
Also, the plan presented by the town hall and available on its website also addresses less impressive, but equally serious, situations such as the insulation of buildings, the need to create social bonds to protect the most vulnerable or the prevention of mental health. faced with such events.
