From Risk to Resilience: Solution Pathways for Sinking Cities

This is a networking event at the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF‑13) and will convene the third session of the Sinking Cities Community of Practice (CoP) under the regional initiative “Confronting the Silent Crisis of Asia-Pacific’s Sinking Cities.” The CoP serves as a collaborative platform to strengthen regional cooperation, peer learning, and coordinated action on land subsidence as a critical challenge for sustainable urban development and climate resilience. Building on earlier CoP discussions, the event will advance the dialogue from risk recognition toward solution pathways for addressing land subsidence as a systemic urban challenge, with a particular focus on safe, resilient, and inclusive housing systems.

Aligned with the WUF‑13 theme, “Housing the World: Safe and Resilient Cities and Communities,” the event will explore how land subsidence can be embedded into urban governance, investment, and planning frameworks. Through national and city-level perspectives, financing and partnership insights, and experiences from high-risk and informal urban contexts, discussions will examine integrated technical, institutional, and social approaches to prevention, mitigation, and adaptation. The dialogue will highlight enabling conditions such as coordinated governance arrangements, political leadership, data and monitoring systems, innovative financing mechanisms, and inclusive implementation approaches, while also addressing constraints related to capacity, informality, and fragmented decision-making.

Objectives of the session include:
- Strengthen peer-to-peer connections and partnerships among cities, national governments, development partners, and other stakeholders working on land subsidence, urban resilience, and housing systems;
- Facilitate exchange and mutual learning on how land subsidence risks are being integrated into urban planning, governance, infrastructure investment, and housing strategies, with particular attention to the distinct challenges and realities of informal settlements;
- Bridge global insights, regional policy frameworks, and city-level practice, supporting more coherent, actionable, and solutions-oriented responses to land subsidence and its compounding risks;
- Highlight enabling conditions for action, including governance arrangements, leadership, data and monitoring systems, financing mechanisms, and public–private collaboration that support the implementation and scaling of subsidence solutions;
- Expand and diversify participation in the Sinking Cities Community of Practice, including cities and partners interested in sustained collaboration, follow-up engagement, and collective action beyond the World Urban Forum.