Spatial Planning Strategies for Resilient Cities

Abstract

Cities worldwide confront numerous urban development issues due to rapid changes in urbanisation. They face persistent challenges such as water scarcity, lack of affordable housing, poor air quality, high unemployment, poverty and inequality, inadequate public transportation, and acute shocks like earthquakes, floods, severe storms, extreme rainfall, and disease outbreaks. In response, various development concepts—such as Smart Cities, Sustainable Cities, Green Cities, and Healthy Cities—have emerged globally. However, these approaches often overlook the critical aspect of resilience. It is essential to integrate resilience and its core principles into the planning, development, and implementation of urban policies and initiatives. This paper explores spatial planning techniques that can support the creation of resilient cities.

Keywords

Resilient Cities, Urban Resilience, Spatial Planning, Infrastructure.

Introduction

In India, the rapid pace of urbanisation and associated challenges aggravate cities’ chronic stresses, making them vulnerable to serious shocks. Cities, being the economic drivers, have the opportunity to provide residents with subjective well–being that has access to better service provision and infrastructure. However, cities are currently underprepared for future urbanisation prospects. The common citizens still have to face numerous challenges in an effort to meet their basic needs. In response to this, multiple new concepts such as Sustainability, Smart Cities, Compact Cities, Green Cities, Zero Waste Cities, etc. have been introduced worldwide, however, the factors of resilience have not been considered. Also, each concept required a detailed study at a large scale and integration among the components for achieving resilient cities.

Although the term resilience is not new, it has recently become prevalent in nearly all fields, including science, environment, technology, and spatial planning. The term resilience is termed as a tendency to adjust to the constant changes occurring at various levels in . Many definitions have been given for different fields. In the context of urban areas, it refers to an ability to absorb, adapt and respond to changes in an urban system so that living and functioning of the area can still be retained (Kevin C. Desouza, 2013). UN-Habitat has defined urban resilience as the measurable ability of any urban system, with its inhabitants, to maintain continuity through all shocks and stresses, while positively adapting and transforming towards sustainability. It is also defined as the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow regardless of chronic stresses and acute shocks, subjected to them. (National Institute of Urban Affairs, 2017).

Figure 1: Characteristics of Resilient CitiesSource: Resilient Cities Network, 2023

Characteristics of Resilient Systems

To build resilience, cities must be planned, designed and operated in a way that must have resilient characteristics. Integration, reflection, resourcefulness, inclusion, flexibility, robustness and redundancy are a few of the qualities of resilience (Turton, 2015) (Figure 1). Integration brings together the different actors and institutions that play a key role in urban development and management. Reflection describes how individuals and institutions use past practices to make future decisions. It covers the modifications in plans, policies, norms and standards at national, regional or local levels. Further, it will help make reflective planning processes to respond to changing circumstances. Resourceful means optimum utilisation of current resources and recognising alternative ways to use resources in a smart way to meet future needs or to achieve benchmarks.

Inclusion means bringing together different associations or communities to provide immediate responses that are realistic for their distinct circumstances and building risk awareness and preparedness to confirm that every individual has the opportunity to contribute to policymaking, planning and response measures meaningfully. Also, it gives a joint vision to build urban resilience. The ability and willingness to change plans when faced with unexpected events or crises is called flexibility. It is possible to increase the flexibility of systems by incorporating new knowledge or technologies, such as acknowledging conventional practices. Robust design is well-conceived, constructed, and managed and it includes making provisions to ensure that failure is predictable, safe, and not disproportionate to the cause. The term redundancy refers to creating extra capacity to handle disruptions caused by extreme pressures, surges in demand, or an external event. It includes diversity where there are multiple ways to achieve a given need (Arup and The Rockefeller Foundation, 2015).

Case Studies

100 Resilient Cities support the adoption and incorporation of a view of resilience features which include not just shocks such as floods, fires, riots, but also stresses such as growing diversity and ageing infrastructure that could threaten and weaken the fabric of the city on a day-to-day or cyclical basis (National Institute of Urban Affairs, 2017). According to Rockefeller Foundation, 2015 three best practices of resilient cities are—New Orleans (U.S.A.), Melbourne (Australia) and Semarang (Indonesia). New Orleans (U.S.A.) has experienced figure of challenges - rising sea levels and climate change, land subsidence and coastal erosion, and lack of equity and opportunity. To cope with these challenges, city developed a vision on topics ranging from equity to energy, from education to emergency planning. The prime goals set up are– Adopt to Thrive, Connect to Opportunities and Transform City System. The government has appointed a Chief Resilience Officer and Resilience Design Review Committee — an inter-departmental committee to review all capital projects that are meant to enhance resilience to ensure consistency, quality, coordination, and public transparency. The city has developed and implemented new resilience design standards for public works and infrastructure, including re-examining street design standards to incorporate stormwater management, multi-modal transit, and recreational amenities. The city has also updated their existing development plans. In addition, the city focuses on educating and advancing understanding of resilience principles at the local, regional and state levels (Rockefeller Foundation, 2015).

The city has developed a pilot project named Gentility Resilience Districts to reduce flood risk, slow land subsidence and encourage neighbourhood revitalisation. The pilot project followed five different strategies: community adaptation, workforce development, reliable energy and smart systems, urban water infrastructure, and resilience strategies. Flood Free Designs, Rain Water Harvesting, Creating Landscape Areas, and Beautify Neighbourhoods are among the proposals that have been encouraged to make it a successful project (Rockefeller Foundation, 2015).

In the case of Melbourne, the city has faced numerous challenges due to its strategic location. Since the city has experienced significant climate change impacts and has many upstream dependencies,it has adopted significant measures to enhance its resilience, including developing adaptation strategies and plans, establishing networks, developing emergency management plans and undertaking risk assessments (Rockefeller Foundation, 2015).

In India, several initiatives have been taken by the Government of India for making the cities resilient. World Bank is working with the Government of India to strengthen its climate resilience, and to promote both adaptation and mitigation measures across a broad range of sectors (World Bank, 2023). A few of the sectors are lowering carbon footprints, restoring the dwindling forest cover, promoting resilient agriculture, strengthening large dams, conserving groundwater, planting mangroves to protect India’s coasts, making flood-prone areas safer, ramping up solar power, green hydrogen, storing renewable energy in batteries, rethinking the development paradigm and many more.

Methodology to Build Urban Resilience Strategies

While preparing an urban resilience plan, be it an action plan, a short-term strategy, or a long-term strategy, the risks and vulnerabilities that the cities confront should be carefully considered. It should also incorporate monitoring, assessment, and adaptation to address emerging trials and prospects. According to Alvarado (2017), to develop urban resilience strategies, the following steps should be followed. The first stage is to assess and analyse the existing risks and vulnerable areas to prioritise key aspects and lay the foundation for long-term strategies.

The next step in the process is to formulate goals and objectives consistent with the city’s vision for resilience and sustainability. It may also include upgrading the existing infrastructure, promoting social cohesion, enhancing economic stability and sustainable development.

Integration, coordination, and participation constitute the third phase. The stakeholders like corporations, government agencies, community organisations, and academic institutions play a vital part in the social and economic development of cities; therefore, they must collaborate and integrate to build urban resilience. It will further encourage the exchange of knowledge, asset and proficiency.

The next step in building the urban resilience process is to develop integrated planning and policies. The organisations must ensure the integration of resilience strategies into the city’s overall planning and policy framework. In addition, it is necessary to include it in sector-specific plans like transportation, housing, land use and disaster management plans. This holistic approach guarantees that resilience becomes a core principle across all sectors.

After preparing the resilience plans, it is critical to determine possible public and private funding sources to ensure the effective implementation of resilience projects and initiatives. The competent administrations pursue creative funding channels and form partnerships with national or international funding agencies to secure funds for long-term resilience investments.

The latter step involves capacity building and education programmes to upgrade the skills and knowledge of city officials, urban planners, and community members in resilience planning and implementation by organising training programmes/workshops/seminars. In addition, it is necessary to promote educational and awareness campaigns that can contribute to resilience efforts for residents and communities.

The last step involves regularly monitoring and evaluating the implemented strategies and re-formulating the objectives if required. This will increase the efficiency of plans, and overcome the problems and gaps. This iterative process further ensures constant improvement and flexibility to changing circumstances. Figure 2 clearly depicts this process.

Figure 2: Process to Build Urban Resilience Strategies

Strategies and Tools to Build Resilient Cities

Building resilient cities requires shifting the approach from an atomistic to a holistic and proactive, encompassing various aspects of city planning and management. The planners must adopt an innovative mechanism for planning, designing, implementation, and monitoring to reduce combined effects. It can be started at the building scale by replacing the old structure with green building concepts. In addition, other strategies are proposed that can be exercised at an urban scale–

-Long-Term Plans with Regular Monitoring: Cities worldwide have long-term strategies, including master plans or development plans, mobility plans, and infrastructure development plans, but resilience, which is a crucial aspect, has not been unified into these frameworks. Consequently, resilience elements must be introduced into existing master plans/development plans. This becomes crucial in enhancing urban sustainability and preparedness for unforeseen challenges and disasters. To ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of resilience-based master plans, it is important to integrate regular monitoring at regular intervals.

-Integrated and Inclusive Planning: Urban resilience can be effective and efficient when integrated as a core component in the planning of different sectors like housing, transportation, infrastructure, environment, industries, etc. The integration and coordination of the stakeholders, policymakers, and community members should be encouraged to identify vulnerabilities, set goals, and implement resilient solutions. The competent authorities should prepare Integrated City Plans that enable a city to deal with multi-disciplinary issues like climate change, disaster risk reduction, or emergency response through coordination. It must be incorporated into the city’s overall planning and policy framework. Also, resilience considerations must be aligned with land use planning, transportation strategies, housing policies, and disaster response plans.

-Risk Assessment and Management: A city may encounter, thorough risk assessments to comprehend the possible risks. This includes evaluating vulnerabilities, identifying the hazards allied with climate change, and creating risk management strategies. Cities may mitigate and respond to potential hazards by identifying them and putting relevant safeguards in place.

-Building Strong and Resilient Infrastructure: The core component for building urban resilience is to have resilient infrastructure. This includes designing and constructing buildings, roads, bridges, and utilities that can withstand natural and manmade disasters. Also, it should be well-integrated with the up-to-date skills that will enhance resilience by enabling real-time monitoring and response. Some examples of strong and resilient infrastructure are building strong transportation that can survive in extreme weather conditions, upgrading water and sewage systems to prevent contamination or advancing renewable energy resources that can provide power during power shutdown.

-Community Engagement and Participatory Planning: Community engagement and participatory planning are critical to urban planning, propelling development towards sustainability and inclusivity. It is considered a vital aspect of building urban resilience. Communities also play a significant role in identifying risks and preparing plans that consider local needs. It enables varied communities to express their distinct viewpoints promoting knowledge sharing, their needs, and aspirations and encouraging a balanced approach to planning. Urban initiatives involving citizens in decision-making might better reflect the collective interest, improving the livability and functionality of the urban environment. Furthermore, community engagement develops residents’ sense of ownership and responsibility, leading to enhanced urban area management and preservation.

-Sustainable Transport System: Sustainability and urban resilience go hand in hand. In addition to being resilient to shocks and strains, resilient cities highly value social, economic, and environmental sustainability. By incorporating sustainable practices, urban planning and development can enhance a city’s resilience and the well-being of its residents. Sustainable transportation system is a crucial component of urban design therefore, it needs to be considered while planning for cities. Encouraging walking and cycling, supporting various initiatives that enhance safety and environmental quality for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transportation users, promoting mass transit facilities, replacing outdated vehicles, and encouraging transit-oriented development are effective ways to promote sustainable transport in our cities. These projects contribute to diversifying city transport options, saving money and energy.

-Promoting Green Infrastructure: Green Infrastructure plays a substantial role in building urban resilience. Cities are facing several challenges such as climate change, urban flooding, pollution, etc. Promoting green infrastructure aids reduce GHG emissions, combating urban heat effects, reducing chances of urban flooding, mitigating climate change effects and promoting better health and life for its residents. Green infrastructure can be provided by encouraging natural features and ecosystem services like adding more trees, parks, wetlands, urban roofs, rain gardens, bioswales, permeable pavements, etc.

-Water, wastewater management and conservation techniques: Water is a key to life and is considered a valuable resource. The current concerns like rapid urbanisation, climate change, and deteriorating and outdated infrastructure have further aggravated the water challenges in the settlements. To guarantee reliable, sufficient, and excellent water services, cities must immediately create resilience-based water management strategies. Effective waste water management helps diminish the pollutants from the water leading towards protecting the urban environment. Also, reducing the potential for catastrophic water supply system and sanitation failure helps make an urban community more resilient.

Solid waste management by 3R approach: Urban areas generate large quantities of solid waste. Poorly managed disposal approaches like uncontrolled dumping, desegregated waste, open-air incinerators, and landfills have negative impacts, including air and water pollution, land dilapidation, methane and hazardous leachate emissions, and climate change. These impacts impose significant environmental and public health costs. Adding recycling/reusing practices leads to less pressure on natural resources and mitigates associated GHG emissions. The emissions can be further evaded by ‘proper processing, treatment and disposal’ facilities which can be done according to the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. Also, various well-established methods are being published by different organisations like the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), World Resources Institute (WRI), International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), and C40 to quantify the GHG emissions from processing, treatment and disposal facilities. This may reduce the adverse well-being and environmental bearings, conserve resources, and improve the livability standards of cities.

-Framing of resilience toolkit as a guide: Implementation of resilience as a key component to planning can only be done with the guiding design principles. Cities follow norms and standards for urban development aspects. However, these have not been updated for so long. Resilience is the need of the time, therefore, it becomes necessary to incorporate resilience-specific standards and publish them as a toolkit that will be helpful for the areas having similar characteristics.

-Good Governance: Strengthening urban governance is key to the effective and inclusive delivery of basic services amid and later shocks and stresses. This includes strengthening the capacity of cities to improve and enforce land use, zoning and other plans and regulations; improving community engagement; strengthening communication, transparency and accountability; and aligning across diverse actors and levels (national/subnational) that contribute to urban governance. Also, an organisation is required to make an effort towards resilient cities. Several administrations have already been set up worldwide that work on the various issues of urbanisation making the environment a major concern like Rockefeller Foundation, ICLEI – Local Government for Sustainability, C40 and United Cities and Local Government. Rockefeller Foundation has identified 100 resilient cities and four Indian cities – Surat, Chennai, Pune and Jaipur have also been acknowledged among them. Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata and Mumbai have been identified by the C40 organisation.

-Innovative financing mechanism: City governments have limited financial resources. Actions to build resilience often require far more financial resources than city governments can mobilise on their own. Strengthening financial resources through resource mobilisation and use, development of blended finance solutions) of cities and help them unlock financial capital for the physical and social infrastructure needed to support resilience.

Conclusion

Due to the complex structure of the cities, changes are occurring continuously. The issues in urban areas are lifting and going beyond their limits. In these circumstances, urban areas have not remained livable. Thus, planners must prepare effective strategies that can hold the present and future development. Resilience is a very imperative mean nowadays. Therefore, it is necessary to rethink design, planning and implementation of the upcoming projects along with incorporating them with the existing plans. It will prevent the urban areas from any vulnerable situation not for present only, but also for the future too. But, above all, there is a need for public participation to involve them in the complete process with the joining hands.

References

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