Understanding dependencies: Why safety, security and sustainability are increasingly challenging for cities and regions

Abstract in Undetermined
The increasing effectiveness and efficiency of modern society is not only beneficial, but also liable for new or increased vulnerabilities. The seemingly ever-increasing complexity of modern society is in other words bringing new challenges for safety, security and sustainability. At the heart of these challenges lay an incremental increase in dependencies between sectors, infrastructures, stakeholders, etc, making it more and more difficult for stakeholders to grasp and manage risk to critical flows and functions. Without acknowledging this process and its consequences for the resilience of cities and regions, there is a grave risk that we allow society to slowly drift into danger. Creating a resilient society is a collective endeavour, as most stakeholders depend on each other in fulfilling their responsibilities. Stakeholders thus need to come together to map and address various types of critical dependencies. Although the complexity of modern society is likely to continue to increase for the foreseeable future, there are innovative ways forward to promote resilient cities and regions.