UN-Habitat announced on Thursday that it is seeking city partners to pilot a new integrated urban planning and management model to help cities build reslience against disasters such as the recent superstorm Sandy which crashed through coastlines from the Caribbean and north America's Atlantic seaboard, or tsunamis and earthquakes.

"This is founded on the principles of 'resilience' which dynamically underpin and improve capacity to protect city people and their assets," said Dan Lewis, the agency's Chief of Urban Risk Reduction. "Urban resilience refers to the ability of any urban system, to withstand and recover quickly from so-called 'critical events'."

He said the new City Resilience Profiling Programme (CRPP) will provide forward-looking, multi-sectoral, multi-hazard, multi-stakeholder approach integrating all functional aspects of human settlements to planning and developing urban settlements through a four year research and development initiative.

The participation of a select number of cities in the programme is essential for developing practical, tested tools, standards and systems for all urban stakeholders interested in the goal of making their cities resilient.

"We are seeking 10 partner cities interested in engaging with UN-Habitat and other partners in an ambitious but critical programme developing a methodology for establishing new planning tools and framework integrating resilience targets within a sustainable urban development agenda," Mr. Lewis said. "Pilot cities will be selected to ensure a good balance between developed and developing countries and regions to demonstrate global applicability of City Resilience Profiling."

UN-Habitat invites local government representatives already engaged in the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR ) Making Cities Resilient Campaign, or UN-Habitat's World Urban Campaign to express interest and commitment to a four- year programme to develop the City Resilience Profiles.

The deadline of the competition is extended until Friday, January 20, 2013 and shortlisted candidate city representatives contacted the following week..

For more information, and to submit an expression of interest, click here.