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SMR · Project

City Resilience Toolkit: Measure, Build, and Track Disaster Preparedness

environmentTestedTRL 6

Imagine your city gets a health check-up — not for people, but for how well it can bounce back from floods, cyberattacks, or power outages. That's what this project built: a set of 5 practical tools that score a city's resilience level, show exactly where the weak spots are, and map out a step-by-step plan to get stronger. Think of it like a fitness tracker for disaster preparedness, tested across 3 real pilot sites in Europe. The tools were designed from the start to be sold commercially, not just sit in a research paper.

By the numbers
5
Interconnected resilience tools developed for commercial use
3
Pilot projects validating the guidelines across different security sectors
15
Consortium partners contributing to tool development
8
Countries represented in the consortium
43
Total project deliverables produced
The business problem

What needed solving

Cities, utilities, and infrastructure operators face growing pressure from climate events, cyber threats, and cascading failures — but most lack any standardized way to measure how resilient they actually are, or a clear roadmap for improvement. Current approaches are fragmented: risk assessments sit in one department, emergency plans in another, and public communication is an afterthought. Without a unified system, billions in disaster recovery spending remain reactive instead of preventive.

The solution

What was built

The project delivered 5 concrete tools: a Resilience Maturity Model with measurable levels, a Systemic Risk Assessment Questionnaire, a portfolio of Resilience Building Policies, a System Dynamics Model for diagnosis and monitoring, and a Resilience Engagement and Communication Tool for public-private cooperation. These were wrapped in validated Resilience Management Guidelines and supported by a prototype Resilience Information Portal.

Audience

Who needs this

City resilience officers and municipal emergency management departmentsCritical infrastructure operators (energy, water, telecom, transport)Insurance and reinsurance companies modeling catastrophe riskNational civil protection agencies implementing EU resilience directivesConsulting firms specializing in urban planning and disaster risk reduction
Business applications

Who can put this to work

Municipal government and civil protection
any
Target: City resilience offices, civil protection agencies, and municipal emergency management departments

If you are a city government struggling to assess how prepared you really are for the next flood, heatwave, or infrastructure failure — this project developed a Resilience Maturity Model and Risk Assessment Questionnaire that scores your current readiness level and maps a concrete path to improvement. Validated across 3 pilot projects covering different security sectors, these tools replace gut-feeling planning with measurable resilience levels.

Insurance and reinsurance
enterprise
Target: Property and casualty insurers, catastrophe risk modelers, and reinsurance firms

If you are an insurer needing better data on municipal resilience to price catastrophe risk accurately — this project built a System Dynamics Model that diagnoses, monitors, and projects a city's resilience trajectory over time. With 15 consortium partners across 8 countries contributing real-world data, this gives underwriters a structured way to assess which cities are genuinely investing in preparedness versus those just talking about it.

Critical infrastructure operators
enterprise
Target: Utilities, transport operators, telecom providers, and energy grid managers

If you are a critical infrastructure operator required to demonstrate resilience under EU directives but lacking a standardized method — this project created Resilience Building Policies and an integrated Resilience Information Portal prototype that ties public and private cooperation together. The 5 interconnected tools move you from ad-hoc crisis response to systematic, measurable resilience management across interdependent infrastructure systems.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would it cost to license or implement these resilience tools?

The project objective explicitly states that the 5 tools will be commercialized targeting users in Europe and beyond. However, no pricing information is available in the project data. Contact the coordinator at Universidad de Navarra for current licensing terms.

Can these tools scale to large cities or entire regions?

The tools were validated across 3 pilot projects covering different critical infrastructure security sectors, as well as climate change and social dynamics scenarios. The European Resilience Backbone concept was designed to link adopters from fully committed participants to potential adopters, suggesting scalability was built into the design.

Who owns the intellectual property for these tools?

The project was coordinated by Universidad de Navarra with a consortium of 15 partners. As a Horizon 2020 RIA project, IP typically remains with the consortium members who generated it. The stated commercialization intent suggests licensing arrangements may already be in place.

Do these tools comply with EU resilience regulations?

The project specifically aimed to support implementation of resilience policies and included standardization as a key focus area. The Resilience Management Guidelines were designed to help entities resist, absorb, accommodate to, and recover from hazards — aligning with EU Critical Entities Resilience Directive language.

How long does it take to implement the full resilience assessment?

Based on available project data, the system includes 5 interconnected tools from initial risk questionnaire through maturity scoring to ongoing monitoring via the System Dynamics Model. The 3-year project validated the full cycle, but implementation timelines for individual adopters are not specified in the data.

Can these tools integrate with existing emergency management systems?

The project built a prototype Resilience Information Portal designed as an integrated platform for communication and engagement in resilience building. The System Dynamics Model provides diagnosis, monitoring, and exploration capabilities that could feed into existing command-and-control systems, though specific integration APIs are not detailed in the deliverables.

Consortium

Who built it

The 15-partner consortium spans 8 European countries (DE, DK, ES, IT, LV, NO, SE, UK) but is notably light on industry — just 1 industrial partner and 2 SMEs, giving a 7% industry ratio. The bulk consists of 4 universities and 10 "other" organizations, likely municipalities and public agencies that served as pilot sites and end-user validators. This composition is typical for a public-sector resilience project: strong on domain expertise and real-world testing environments, but the low commercial partner count means commercialization will need external business development beyond the consortium. Coordinated by Universidad de Navarra (Spain), a well-established research university.

How to reach the team

Universidad de Navarra (Spain) — search for SMR project coordinator in their engineering or computer science faculty

Order a report on this consortiumSee UNIVERSIDAD DE NAVARRA profile →
Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want to explore how these 5 resilience tools could work for your city or infrastructure operation? SciTransfer can connect you directly with the research team and help evaluate fit for your specific use case.

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