Extreme weather events often place a significant amount of pressure on the physical and digital infrastructure networks that make up our cities. From heavy storms to earthquakes, heat waves, and wildfires, cities are at particularly high risk of severe power outages, structural damage, flooding, and other costly interruptions to critical service provision and safety. Not only do these interruptions put people and structures in danger and restrict access to basic needs like water, electricity, and food, but they can also devastate budgets and schedules by inducing large-scale repair and maintenance efforts. This is especially costly in dense, urban areas that are strained by the sheer wide-reaching size of their infrastructure networks.
In a recent study performed by Aon, it was found that 2018 witnessed 394 recorded natural disaster events causing an estimated global loss of $225 billion. That staggering tally is made worse given that only $90 billion of those losses were covered by some…