Alessandro Coppola
Chief Resilience Officer
City of Rome
Italy

Biography
Alessandro Coppola is the Chief Resilience Officer for Rome, Italy. He graduated in history and then obtained his PhD in Urban Studies at the University of Roma 3. He has had teaching and research appointments at the Johns Hopkins University, CaFoscari of Venice, Politecnico di Milano and Gran Sasso Science Institute. He has a record of scholarly publications in national and international journals and of contributions to national newspapers and magazines on topics such as urban policy, community development, urban shrinkage and urban informality. He received two prizes for his publishing activity and was a finalist of the "Premionazionale per la Divulgazionescientifica" for his book on planning strategies for shrinking cities. He held the presidency of the largest Italian Students’ union and later worked for CGIL - the main Italian union confederation - working on issues related to urban affairs and youth unionization strategies. Since September of 2014, he has served at the Office of the Planning Commissioner of the City of Rome. He has coordinated and extended the proposal that allowed the City of Rome to be part of the 100 Resilient Cities Initiative. An extensive traveler, he has lived in the cities of Milano, Rome, Paris, Baltimore and New York.

Abstract
Roma Resiliente: Defining, Planning and Addressing Urban Resilience

The city of Rome is part of the 100 Resilient Cities network and has now started the participative process that will lead to the design of its urban resilience strategy. Key stakeholders in city government, private sector and civil society are currently identifying the strengths, weaknesses, trends and actions that appear to be significant in the perspective of the city’s resilience. By the month of July, the city will have identified key priority areas to be further detailed in the second phase of the strategy process: goals and actions will be identified and pursued in the implementation phase. The working group of Roma Resiliente expects priority areas to have a strong data – and more precisely geo-spatial data – component. Currently, the city has a highly fragmented data management landscape that limits the ability of the city to base public decisions on reliable quantitative evidence. From hydraulic risk to the use of public space, from decommissioned buildings to critical assets, a new approach to geospatial data will be key for building a more resilient city.