Not only is Melbourne the world’s most liveable city – it’s resilient

Melbourne is consistently ranked as one of the world’s most liveable and desirable place to live, but now there’s more!

The city can now add the title of one of the globe’s most resilient cities to its honours.

O.K., maybe I’m biased, but Melbourne was ranked the world’s most liveable city for the 4th year in a row late last year by the by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability survey of 140 cities.

But now we’ve been called resilient.

The New York-based Rockefeller Foundation has set up the 100 Resilient Cities program to help cities to become more resilient to physical, social and economic challenges.

City Resilience is the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience.

The project assesses cities ability to not only deal with major shocks such as fires and floods but also stresses that weaken the fabric of the city such as unemployment, endemic violence, alcohol abuse and water shortages.

“By addressing both the shocks and the stresses, a city becomes more able to respond to adverse events and is overall better able to deliver basic functions in both good times and bad, to all populations,” the program says.

Example of Melbourne’s resilience measures includes annual tree planting in the city which helps improve shade and reduces the city’s temperature on hot days and the network of community groups who swing into action during bushfires and other emergencies.

Maybe that’s why Melbourne’s population growth is so strong.

Melbourne is Australia’s fastest growing city and they’re not coming here for the weather.

Of course our liveability, strong population growth, strengthening economy and job creation are all positives for our property markets