Planning for Municipal Resilience – Safeguarding Critical Infrastructure through Risk-Informed Development

Municipalities play a key role in ensuring the resilience of critical infrastructure and maintaining essential public services in times of crisis. Through this Connective Cities regional learning process, municipalities from South-Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Germany work together to strengthen their capacities for risk-informed urban development and the protection of critical infrastructure.

The learning process combines peer learning, expert input and practical collaboration over several months (approx. 1 year). It begins with an in-person kick-off workshop, where participating municipalities analyse their local challenges, exchange good practices and identify concrete areas for action. Based on these discussions, each municipality develops an initial action plan tailored to its local context.

Between the workshops, participants continue working on their action plans through virtual coaching sessions, peer consultations and expert support. This allows municipalities to refine their ideas, receive feedback from peers and adapt their approaches based on practical experience.

The overall objective is to enable participating municipalities to translate peer learning into concrete local action and create transferable approaches that can benefit other municipalities and regions.

Current status

The regional learning process was launched with the kick-off workshop in Tirana (16–18 June 2026). During the workshop, participating municipalities identified common challenges, shared practical experiences and developed the first drafts of their municipal action plans. The process has now entered the virtual working phase, during which participants are refining their action plans through peer exchange and expert support in preparation for the second workshop in November 2026.