Harmonizing policies to enhance the cross-border regional resilience of the Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macau Greater Bay Area

Abstract

Improving infrastructure and community resilience has become the main focus of many metropolis and regions to pursue sustainable development and tackle multi-hazards including natural disasters, climate change, man-made shocks, and infrastructure and environmental challenges. The international society has made a concerted effort by setting the post-2015 development agenda which is founded on the basis of the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework, the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda. Being a crucial part and motive force of China’s on-going regional development strategy, it is paramount important to build a livable world-class city cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area with due consideration of regional resilience. However, it is a greater challenge for cities within the bay area to make and implement synergized policies to improve cross-border regional resilience due to the complexity and heterogeneity of urban management arising from the different political and legal systems of the three places. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical basis for policy makers to formulate a blueprint for long-term resilient city cluster planning and development in the Greater Bay Area. The policy instruments of the three regions pertinent to traditional disaster and emergency management, climate change and sustainable development are identified and further classified into matrixes according to the widely recognized ‘NATO’ (Nodality, Authority, Treasure and Organization) scheme for public policy analysis and community capitals. A framework developed in this paper is extended and made reference to in order to compare the policies, strategies and plans of the three regions, as well as to investigate the gaps and solutions to align their urban and regional resilience improvement practices. This paper also analyzes the status quo of the cooperation and collaboration initiatives among the three regions regarding to improving the regional resilience. The preliminary findings of this research reveal that regional resilience can only be achieved through concerted policies, seamless communication and information sharing, close governmental cooperation and active citizens’ engagement. Standalone institutions should also be established to govern and orchestrate the policy making and execution processes to improve the resilience of the Greater Bay Area.