In 2020, the City of Nashville and Davidson County (Metro) endured multiple disasters, including an EF3 tornado in early March, a derecho in May, and the Christmas Day bombing. All of this occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic, which had immediate negative effects on the Metro’s economy and public health. For the Metro, 2020 was a profound illustration of how municipal governments must be prepared for climate shocks (i.e., severe, short-term disasters such as tornados) and stresses (i.e., chronic, long-term disasters such as multi-year pandemics) and equip their communities to do the same. Having signed the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, hired a Chief Sustainability and Resilience Officer, a resilience-focused FUSE Fellow, and signed on to the Race to Resilience, the Metro is ready to elevate resilience across all departments.
While most cities develop stand-alone resilience plans, the Metro will embed resilience within each department’s existing strategic planning processes. Metro will partner with FUSE to build the tools and processes necessary to help departments integrate resilience into their plans. The FUSE Executive Fellow will develop a plan to implement this vision and develop the resources that City officials need to develop resilient plans in a standardized way. As a result, Nashville’s policies and programs will be more resilient to man-made and natural shocks and stressors while also building equity in residents’ ability to do the same.
