One platform to validate Type II conditions, map sector strain, simulate the futures that worry you, and turn the results into action — built for planners working with limited time and resources.
The Type II Cities model is a planning tool for cities whose services are under sustained pressure from population growth, displacement and climate change. It turns baseline data on population and urban services into clear indicators — service gaps, capacity margins and the population each system can support — and shows how vulnerable each sector is today and over the next five years.
To help municipalities and their partners see which systems are most vulnerable, test scenarios before they happen, and direct limited resources to the actions and investments that matter most.
The model was developed within a regional project funded by the Adaptation Fund and implemented by UN-Habitat in Lebanon and Jordan. The project addresses the intersection of climate change and migration, strengthening the capacity of municipalities to manage water scarcity, urban growth and the pressure that displacement places on host communities.
The same model serves cities in both countries, so planners in Lebanon and Jordan can use a shared, evidence-based approach.
Visit the Zahle Urban Observatory →A Type II city keeps running day to day, yet shows measurable pressure in one or more of its systems. The framework names that pressure, measures it, and tracks it before it hardens into systemic failure.
Growth, migration, and displacement can reshape demand for services faster than plans can respond.
Water, schools, health, waste, power, and other networks can quietly exceed what they were built to carry.
Drought, heat, and flooding stack onto existing strain and sharpen a city's vulnerability.
Cities now change by the month — climate, migration, demand, and economic conditions all shift at once. Rather than betting on one forecast, the platform helps you weigh several futures through ongoing measurement, simulation, and resilience-first decisions.
An ordered workflow that carries raw urban data through to policy and investment guidance.
Check whether the city meets Type II conditions using an indicator-based framework.
Profile current conditions across population, services, infrastructure, and vulnerability.
Run scenarios for growth, displacement, climate stress, and intervention packages.
Rank actions by urgency, impact, feasibility, cost, and sector vulnerability.
Scores city conditions across governance, infrastructure, services, economy, environment, and social resilience.
Builds a detailed snapshot of present conditions and service capacity to measure every future change against.
Tests how pressures and interventions ripple through urban systems and resilience performance.
Turns model outputs into practical actions, ranked by urgency, impact, feasibility, and cost-effectiveness.
Quantify current and scenario-based vulnerability sector by sector, with parameters tuned to each system — from water, health, and schools to jobs, humanitarian aid, and solid waste.
Set current values for a category to anchor the city's service condition.
Adjust stress factors and scenario inputs to probe shocks and interventions.
Read derived gaps, margins, supportable population, and calculated vulnerability.
Climate resilience runs through the whole platform — weigh drought, floods, heat, environmental degradation, and infrastructure exposure as part of every decision.
Probe supply–demand gaps and weigh mitigation through better infrastructure and conservation.
See how rising heat loads health systems, power demand, services, and vulnerable groups.
Fold hazard and exposure factors into service-capacity and resilience planning.
Municipalities, ministries, development partners, and urban observatories.
Decide from measurable indicators and transparent formulas.
Catch stress before a service quietly fails.
Aim funding at the actions with the most resilience value.
Keep watch continuously through an observatory model.
Send scarce resources where impact and feasibility are highest.
Close gaps in water, health, education, and core systems.
Follow stress and capacity over time, sector by sector.
Align ministries, cities, and partners around one picture.
Today's platform is the foundation for something larger. As it grows, GIS layers, live sensor feeds, AI forecasting, and connected observatories can fold in — moving cities from reacting after the fact to anticipating and acting ahead.
Continuous monitoring and adaptive governance — so cities see stress coming, test the response, and act before failure.
See where your city stands, stress-test the futures that worry you, and turn the results into a clear, evidence-based plan.