Resilient Cities

Greater Miami & the Beaches is a unique collaboration among Miami Dade County, City of Miami Beach and City of Miami created to respond to global trends major metropolis’ face: urbanization, globalization and climate change. In the spring of 2015, after a highly competitive process, Greater Miami and the Beaches was selected to join 100 Resilient Cities. This network was then rebranded as Resilient Cities Network or R-Cities.

Resilient Cities Network is a global city-led nonprofit organization that brings together knowledge, practice, partnerships, and funding to empower cities to help them build a safe, equitable and sustainable future for all. The Network integrates the combined effort of urban practitioners, city governments, and communities in a collective, comprehensive, and well-coordinated call-to-action to deliver urban impact-driven resilience solutions. For more information visit, www.resilientcitiesnetwork.org.

R-Cities

Resilient Cities Network co-creates urban solutions to address complex and interrelated urban challenges, so that cities and communities thrive. The Network will focus on three priorities to be delivered through programs of collective action with member cities during the next two years through a holistic resilience approach. It continues to pursue a resilient recovery to reinforce equity, to promote private-public partnerships, and foster stronger local economies. Also, cities need to be prepared to further build climate resilience, not only to protect citizens from water-related challenges but also to strengthen the capacity of communities to cope with the effects of climate change. The third priority is the promotion of circular economies through indigenous and technological solutions to rapidly and sensibly enhance waste management and food systems

Chief Resilience Officer

Amy Knowles

Chief Resilience Officer, City of Miami Beach

Amy Knowles joined the City of Miami Beach in January 2016. As CRO, she oversees the Environment and Sustainability Department as well as the climate resilience strategy, working across city departments and stakeholders.

Amy participates in the work of the Southeast Florida Climate Compact, and in countywide planning. Her resilience planning includes Resilient305, a unique resilience strategy for Greater Miami and the Beaches, and the Miami Beach Strategic Plan through the Lens of Resilience, both unanimously adopted by the City of Miami Beach in 2019. Recent innovative projects are the Urban Land Institute Panel on Stormwater Management and Climate Adaptation, the Business Case Analysis of the Stormwater Program, and working with the city’s Floodplain Manager on the National Flood Insurance Program Community Rating System.

Amy holds an MBA from the University of Miami and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Binghamton University in New York. She is a graduate of Leadership ICMA, the University of Virginia Senior Executive Institute, and the Harvard Kennedy School’s executive program.

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