Over 55% of the world’s population now lives in urban areas; in Canada, we are talking about 80%. Quebec is no exception to this phenomenon of population concentration in cities, large and small. Here, our cities have developed in a context where the energy, matter and land necessary for their growth were abundant, inexpensive and where the environmental issues were generally local and visible: pollution of the air, water , disappearance of green spaces, etc.
Throughout the XXe century, and until today, the growth of our cities seemed to meet no limits. We have therefore inherited energy-intensive, sprawling cities that are greedy in agricultural and natural environments. Cities trapped in elongated and fragile economic circuits, with inefficient transport systems, buildings poorly adapted to climate change, under the threat of sea level rise and the freedoms that large rivers take in a changing climate. It is to contribute to the study and resolution of these challenges that UQAM has set up an interdisciplinary research center on the resilient city, which brings together 40 researchers.
The city has many facets. It is an environment of development, of concentration of populations, of wealth and power, of mixing and proliferation of cultures, of creation and innovation. Cities were the cradle of democracy, the arts, markets and the first universities. Ecologically, however, the city currently exists only through its capacity to extract massive amounts of resources from its environment: food for its inhabitants, energy for infrastructure and vehicles, buildings and residences, purified and waste water, raw materials for industries and construction sites, concentration of waste and residues to be ultimately dissipated. Cities, hotbeds of capital accumulation, are also a place of dispossession and inequalities. Today, the multiple interactions between the urban environment and its environment have become globalized and exert immense socioecological pressures which make them not very resilient as a living environment.
Thus, cities are not only the place where the majority of Quebecers live, but also where our most important socioecological challenges are concentrated: fighting climate change and achieving carbon neutrality, preserving biodiversity, but also fighting exclusion and poverty.
It is these cities that we must transform into resilient environments, capable both of adapting to the existence of ecological limits and of undertaking these changes from a perspective of social justice and the extension of democracy. That is to say a transition that does not happen on the backs of the most vulnerable. Research shows that social equality brings resilience.
This transformation is already underway. Multiple players in the field are innovating to develop a city that is resilient, fair and capable of respecting ecological limits. It is to contribute to this effort that UQAM has brought together many areas of expertise within the Resilient City Pole. It will be a place to deepen research on issues such as the nourishing city, equity, identity and belonging, democracy in ecological transition, cities that work with forests, water and soils for develop natural infrastructure, mobility, construction, the contribution of urban agriculture and heritage to resilience.
Anchored in the life of cities, UQAM’s Pole on Resilient Cities was created to co-construct knowledge and tools with urban actors, citizens, NPOs, elected officials, administrations and economic actors. This mission is in line with the spirit of commitment and local action that has always animated UQAM as an urban and progressive university. As environmental issues mark the elections in many municipalities, it is more important than ever that universities and their partners from all walks of life come together to build resilient cities. We call on future elected officials, as well as current candidates, to become promoters and spokespersons for innovative projects that are up to the transformations required by this shift in the city towards resilience. Researchers from the cluster are at the forefront of supporting this change.
* Claude Codjia is a professor in the geography department of UQAM; Éric Pineault is a professor in the sociology department at UQAM. Consult the complete list of signatories: https://villeresiliente.uqam.ca/signataire-de-la-lettre/
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