The Urban Resilience department of ADPC assists cities and urban communities in Asia and the Pacific in managing and mitigating urban disaster risks. It works towards enabling people, institutions, businesses, and systems in urban areas to have a greater capacity to prepare, respond, adapt, and thrive despite stresses and shocks.

Cities depend on complex and interconnected systems of infrastructure, services, communications, and social interactions, making them more vulnerable to the impacts of hazards and climate change. Asia and the Pacific is home to 60% of the world's population, and the speed of urbanization in this region is overwhelming. Almost half of Asia's 4 billion people live in cities and towns, and it is projected that by 2040, another one billion is likely to be added to the urban population of this region. Thus, ensuring urban resilience is a critical area of disaster preparedness in the region.

ADPC aims to increase compliance with existing safety regulations and risk reduction measures by building capacity and delivering useful information to high-risk sectors including construction, land use planning, and public infrastructure investments.

Integrating risk information into urban planning, systems, and operations:

This involves exploring the dependency of cities on complex and interconnected systems of infrastructure, services, communications, and social interactions, which are vulnerable to the impacts of hazards and climate change. By 2020, the department aims to have helped selected countries in Asia and the Pacific to ensure that integrated risk information is the basis upon which urban planning, systems, and operations are built.

Strengthening the capacity of national-level institutions:

This involves strengthening the capacity of national-level institutions (such as urban development authorities) working in the urban sector in order to expand their influence in exercising urban risk governance. The department aims to increase compliance with existing safety regulations and risk reduction measures by building capacity and delivering useful information to high-risk sectors including construction, land-use planning, and public infrastructure investments.

Developing receptive, resilient and active urban communities:

This involves forming proactive, receptive, and aware urban communities that are capable of undertaking organized approaches in the management of disaster risks by transferring information, technical knowledge and skills to a wider audience. By 2020, the department aims at to have helped communities in selected countries in Asia and the Pacific understand the complexities of urban disaster risk reduction.

Developing data such as spatial distribution of potentially hazardous areas:

Fostering urban resilience through risk assessment and the provision of complex data to the policy-makers are both critical for informed planning. The department helps government institutions identify hazardous areas and vulnerable groups by using different scientific tools for safer urban planning.