Spreading risk for resilience in the urban system

First world cities have an unhealthy dependence on the 'urban machine' — the modern engineering solutions within their infrastructure—making their inhabitants vulnerable to disaster, reports Phys.org. That's according to Victoria University of Wellington's Professor Penny Allan from the School of Architecture. "The infrastructure in the modern city is problematic in that it's designed to operate as a highly connected system of parts, but if one part fails, everything can fail," says Professor Allan. 

"Wellington (New Zealand) is a classic example of where the design of a city actually contributes to the risk."

http://phys.org/news/2015-08-resilience-urban.html