Guidance on Resilience in Urban Planning

Citation

Molin Valdes, H. and Holly Purcell, P. (2013), "Guidance on Resilience in Urban Planning", International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Vol. 4 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdrbe.2013.43504aaa.002

Guidance on Resilience in Urban Planning

Article Type: News articles From: International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Volume 4, Issue 1

Urban planning and design has a key role to play in defining a city’s and urban area’s resilience. It can address some of the underlying risk factors linked to natural hazards and related technological and other disasters, and reduce the exposure of people and assets and their degree of vulnerability in the context of rapid urbanization. As part of its mission to improve the ability of local governments to reduce disaster risk, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s Making Cities Resilient Campaign, in conjunction with several partners, is developing Guidance on Resilience in Urban Planning. The aim of the program is to promote and facilitate better integration and understanding of disaster risk into urban plans and land-use management through multi-sector coordination, as well as detailed local data on risks, and a commitment to disaster risk reduction.

The following article outlines the rationale and key objectives of this initiative, which is partly based on the findings of the first Making Cities Resilient Report, published in September 2012 by UNISDR and the IIED. Highlights of the report are available for downloading at: www.unisdr.org/campaign/resilientcities/toolkit/report2012/

The Making Cities Resilient Report highlights how the provision of basic infrastructure and services upon which urban dwellers depend, and the extent to which infrastructure such as drainage systems and paved roads exists and are well maintained, are an essential element of resilience to natural hazards. It also outlines how certain cities are using urban planning to manage risks.

One of the ten essentials central to reducing disaster risk, developed by the Campaign, is the application of realistic risk-complaint building regulations and land-use planning principles, including identifying safe land for urban expansion and upgrading informal settlements wherever feasible. According to the research conducted by IIED, several cities have integrated hazard risk information into their urban planning processes. Albay Province, Philippines, for examples, has supported 18 municipalities to prepare Comprehensive Land Use Plans (CLUPs) that address climate and disaster risk and integrate these risks into provincial plans. This has been institutionalized through a special planning ordinance and an updated provincial CLUP for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and mitigation. However, many other local governments are challenged to incorporate good practices into their planning and investments. This is especially evident in the case of ensuring that low-income households can buy, build or rent housing located on safe sites. Upgrading informal settlements has become the norm in many cities and this can be linked to disaster risk reduction. Other cities are undertaking or considering relocating communities at high risk – but relocation often impoverishes those who are moved as it disrupts their livelihoods and social networks. Upgrading informal settlements (so inhabitants do not have to move) is usually as effective in risk reduction.

According to UN-Habitat, the importance of urban planning in building resilience has many implications. First, urban planning allows towns and cities to be analyzed and planned as a system comprised of various sectors and institutions. This is crucial in coping with interdependencies among failures in infrastructure in disaster situations. Urban planning also contributes to preventing secondary disasters and delays in the rehabilitation and recovery process. Disaster risk assessment, preparedness and planning for recovery, with multiple stakeholders involved in urban management before a disaster is one potential solution that can contribute to foreseeing multiple systems failures.

Second, the planning exercise can reinforce stakeholder relationships, and institutional frameworks and partnerships among all urban stakeholders, particularly planners, architects, engineers, the private sector, communities, and other actors to address risk reduction and resilience in a holistic manner.

Third, it is important to strengthen the legal planning frameworks and codes in urban areas to support resilience. Cities, towns and settlements are expanding and village settlements are becoming towns and cities. A legal framework can guide future planning and integration of disaster risk reduction. It is important to apply and enforce realistic and risk compliant codes that can also meet the needs of low-income citizens and guide upgrading of informal settlements.

Urban planning can contribute to resilience and disaster risk reduction in a number of ways. These include working with multiple stakeholders throughout the planning process to identify known risks, needs and potential solutions and realizing the potential of communities to contribute to risk reduction; incorporating risk assessment – considering exposure, vulnerability and hazards, urban settlements development and services in all urban development designs, projects and programs.

Additional factors and potential benefits to consider in the urban planning process include assessing how urban development contributes to improving the lives of the poor or more vulnerable people in a city; making safe land available for urban development; ensuring that public space for streets, infrastructure and parks is identified and protected; upgrading informal settlements, with attention to access roads, flood-risk, other safety measures; installing risk-reducing infrastructure, including drainage and sewerage systems; protecting ecosystems to allow proper storm water drainage; and developing good information on risk and communicating risk information widely.

As urban areas expand, both organically and through rural-urban migration, how to plan for resilience will continue to raise important questions and challenges for both city governments and planners. Urban planning approaches that recognize these challenges and aim to maximize synergies between municipal governments, the planning profession, hazard scientists, civil society, private sector, residents, and other critical stakeholders, can prove highly effective in managing and reducing disaster risk and emerge as a key component of resilience.

Helena Molin ValdésDeputy Director of UNISDR and Chief of Advocacy and Outreach (molinvaldes@un.org)

Patricia Holly PurcellTechnical and Strategic Adviser, Making Cities Resilient Campaign (holly-davis@un.org)