The rise of chief resilience officers in U.S. cities: A necessary evolution for managing the complex urban challenges associated with disasters?

Abstract

The number of disasters impacting cities continues to increase with growing negative consequences. How cities best address disasters, and their impacts, is a challenge inescapably intermingled with climate change and development, among other issues. The complex and interconnected nature of these concerns has recently translated to a rising demand for cities to approach them through a resilience framing. The chief resilience officer (CRO) has emerged as a new position in local government in the United States, charged with furthering city resilience efforts. The initial novelty of the position has meant no scholarly research has examined who these CROs are and what they do in their job. This manuscript presents the results of an applied research study that collected data from those in CRO positions to explore answers to those questions. The findings are discussed in the context of how cities do, or should, organize to address those urban challenges associated with disasters—recognizing that CROs are not the first, or only, position within U.S. cities to be tasked with confronting them.