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Urban resilience and examples in cities
If we look at history, the resilience Urbanization is nothing new, societies have evolved by adapting, adopting elements of resistance, creating and reinventing themselves in order to survive periods of crisis, they are cities that manage to overcome disasters.
In our days we are experiencing a multidimensional crisis (ecological, environmental, energy, economic …) that will predictably manifest itself with singular intensity in urban environments.
The term resilience and its strategies (diversity, learning capacity, innovation and adaptation, self-organization and self-sufficiency) can give us clues on how to reduce urban vulnerability in the face of unfavorable future scenarios.
Along the same lines, an article of interest on how to evaluate urban sustainability with indicators and criteria for the city.
Meaning of resilience and its definitions
The resilience concept Actually, it covers many aspects, it has a variety of synonyms and depending on the topic it addresses, it is assigned a more specific definition adapted to the sector or situation.
The word has its origin in the Latin language, in the term resilio which means to go back, jump back, highlight, bounce and strength. The most common definitions of what is resilience from an ecological and urban planning perspective they are:
- In ecology, the ability of communities and ecosystems to absorb alterations without significantly disrupting their peculiarities of structure and functionality, being able to return to their original state when the alteration has ceased.
- In urbanismIt is the city's ability to resist a threat, as well as absorb, adapt and recover from its effects in a timely and effective manner, including the preservation and restoration of its basic structures and functions.
Relax!… This is a short review to clarify concepts. This is where the interesting begins!
Resilience architecture and urbanism
One of the most relevant questions in the urban landscape is to determine how to develop more resilient cities where different terms enter such as sustainable urbanism or resilient architecture, trying to answer a question that involuntarily affects us all …Why Invest in Disaster Risk Reduction? o Are there really so many natural disasters?
Two graphs on the evolution of natural disasters can show us the existence of what is happening:
We can see the updated charts from HERE from World in Data.
It is not that we have the intention of "frightening" the reader of the article according to data presented in graphs, but the reality is that the trend is not good at all and therefore action must be taken.
Social and environmental models of development as well as incoherent urbanism can increase the exposure and vulnerability of a city or a given local area, therefore they can aggravate the risk of a disaster. We could summarize it in the following equation:
Why cities are at risk
Cities and urban areas are made up of dense and complex service systems; and as such, as interconnected elements they produce inconveniences that contribute to the danger of disasters. Strategies and policies can be applied to minimize the impact, determining a series of risk factors:
- The growth of urban populations and their increasing density, which puts pressure on land and services.
- Little clarity and definition in disaster risk reduction and its responses.
- Weak and incoherent urban and urban planning.
- Inadequate management of water resources
- The decline of ecosystems due to human activities such as the construction of roads, pollution, the restoration of wetlands and the unsustainable extraction of resources. (Infographic of interest on the deceleration of climate change through forests HERE or from wikipedia based on the aspect of ecology HERE)
- Weakened infrastructure and unsafe building standards
- Uncoordinated emergency services.
- Negative effects of climate change.
Among the different risk factors in large cities is the rise in sea level that will undoubtedly affect cities and coastal populations.
To better understand the possible advance of the sea, there is a world flood map where we can observe the possible changes depending on the increase in temperature … HERE. (We can search any city in the world)
By the way, speaking of maps, there is a program to make street sketches very simple and that you can find any city in the world.
Indicators capacity of recovery cities
From portal 100 Resilient Cities , have been dedicated to the study and behavior of cities getting a wheel of indicators. Provides a lens to understand the complexity of cities and the drivers that contribute to their resilience within the concept of resilience of cities.
Looking at these indicators can help cities to assess the extent of their resilience, to identify critical areas of weakness, and to identify action and programs to improve the city's resilience.
We can learn more from the Arup Report… Here.
Resilience goal is universal
In general, the purpose of being resilient it is universal, an ideal at the individual, organizational and / or community level. The great diversity of actors that are part of the complex social fabric of a city makes joint action necessary. Disaster risk reduction is an integral part of the environmental, social and political dimension of the sustainable development. (We can understand more in the article sustainable development)
The different main classes of a modern society act like; The political, social, economic and environmental aspects.
How to achieve resilient cities
In this sense, from a report issued by the United Nations for disaster risk reduction called "How to develop more resilient cities" they propose us a infographic that presents the ten aspects or pillars that cities should comply with:
One of the largest portals that deals with the subject at an international level is the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) where we can find a lot of information and different documents of interest.
An example of sustainable resilience
In this sense we can find many projects and examples that address the issue, mainly aimed at urban development and its landscape aimed at natural systems that prevent or minimize risks. (See also water drainage and planning).
- An interesting project is the "Rebuild by Design" where nine teams on New York City intend to improve the city - community by the sea through a sensitive and innovative design. We leave the video of the winning teams to get an idea of what was intended:
- A research project that continues to study the application of those devices that help to counteract the inherent dangers of climate change on three types of coast.
- Other example of resilience Clearly, it was after the Hurricane Katrina disaster that to rebuild a neighborhood in New Orleans, a reconstruction initiative was initiated based on housing adapted to possible floods and future disasters. The article plans for ecological houses investigates the 28 models of houses that were designed by large architecture firms for free.
A must for many
In many countries of the world the weapon of reinvestment is the simple fact of the survival of many people. An example is found in the Sahel, where hunger is rampant.
Some 11 million people live threatened by the lack of food in the "hunger season" (between June and September), more than a million children die as a result of its most extreme consequence, acute malnutrition.
From this document we delve into food safety and that we can clearly see in the following scheme:
Reference reports in PDF to learn more
- Examples of action in resilient landscapes … HERE
- Resilient urbanism and urban agriculture … HERE
- Cultivate adaptation… HERE
- Urban resilience PDF or cities… HERE
- Practical guide for Self-assessment at the local level of progress in disaster risk reduction … HERE
You can also access our catalog - a compilation of manuals on the design of urban spaces with more than remarkable and quality reports to expand the information on urban planning.
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