Dissertations / Theses: 'Urban resilience'

1

Duiculescu, Beatrice Ioana. "Can resilient urban design support social resilience?" Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-22719.

Full text

Abstract:

This research is a small part of a bigger field of research made before by other authorsregarding the humans in the urban public space. It has a small context compared to otherstudies, but a big impact inside the community. It aims at finding answers to questions thatother researchers asked before, but under different circumstances and they displayed them through different ways such as documentary films (The social life of small urban spaces 1980, How to live in a city 1964).After experiencing the city life of Malmö and some questions have been raised, the concept of resilience intersected with the interest of social public life in a neighbourhood. In order to have the theoretical framework to answer the research question, the thesis follows a literature review, where the concepts of resilience, urban resilience, resilient urban design and social resilience have been explored.Next, after exploring the city of Malmö, some case studies have been chosen and studiedthrough direct observation in different months starting with March and various times of theday. In the methodological approach section the methods are explained as well as a detailed presentation of the biggest tool used for this research: observational drawing. The tools used for the observation are field notes, observational drawings and photographs. The cases are spread throughout the city and are located in neighbourhoods with different urban tissues. The results reveal all the observational drawings made during the field visits and the field notes written. They show how people use the spaces in all three case studies depending on the weather or other external factors.The discussion reveals the complexity of the relation between concepts and the empiricaldata, following the initial aim of the research throughout the discussion. This thesiscontributes with important outcomes to the field of urban studies creating awareness about the urban context and its influence on people. The findings of this study show a diversity and creativity of users in using the public space.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

2

MULLER, ZAPPETTINI GUILLERMO HUGO. "Beyond Resilience. Paradigms of Urban Resilience in the 21st Century." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi di Genova, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/11567/1060099.

Full text

Abstract:

Beyond Resilience is a Thesis in the form of an open essay that address the limits of urban resilience concept not only from its current semantic perrsion, but also from a ne perspectie: the resilience itself as a process or as a system, according to Kuhn's approach, and its possible paradigm shift from positie resilience to negatie resilience, till a hypothetical collapse scenario.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

3

Akmentina, Lita. "Resilience to Urban Shrinkage in Riga." Doctoral thesis, Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2018. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-232632.

Full text

Abstract:

Riga has suffered a population loss of more than 29% between 1990 and 2014 which has led to increasing number of abandoned and degraded buildings in the city and optimization of the network of educational and cultural institutions. These trends are characteristics of urban shrinkage – a complex process affecting Riga for more than two decades and resulting in a pattern of growing, shrinking, and stable districts. A similar pattern has also been identified in other shrinking cities in Europe, but it has not been researched in more detail. In the given context, this research aims to narrow the knowledge gap on processes occurring in shrinking cities and to provide some understanding of the determinants of these processes on the city and local level through analysis of single embedded case study of Riga. To achieve this aim, resilience is used as an analytical concept. It allows to conceptualize urban shrinkage as a slow-burn (slowly occurring disturbance) and propose three possible responses - adaptation, transformation, and decline. These responses emerge from actions of actors on various spatial scales and lead to different outcomes. It also provides the basis for analyzing the determinants of these responses by conceptualizing them as sources of resilience and suggesting seven different aspects found in literature: leadership, networks, resources, learning, people-place connection, common cause, and system of institutions and governance. Finally, these theoretical assumptions are used to define two main research questions: (1) what are responses to urban shrinkage in Riga? (2) what are sources of resilience to urban shrinkage in Riga? The need for in-depth research of urban processes led to choosing mixed method strategy for both selecting the embedded units of analysis (districts) in Riga and finding answers to the proposed research questions. Based on combined results of secondary data analysis, controlled expert group discussion, and structured site visits, five districts in Riga were selected – Avoti, Maskavas forštate, Bolderāja, Sarkandaugava, and Ķīpsala. Further data collection and analysis included semi-structured interviews with different actors at the city and district level and document analysis. The study finds that there are four different responses to urban shrinkage in Riga: mitigation, adaptation, transformation, and possible decline. Mitigation can be identified on city (also national) level and is closely linked with the strategic actions proposed by the local and national government in response to population decline. Adaptation can be observed on the city and local level. It is the dominant response type in Riga emerging from strategic actions and different activities by various actors in response to all of the identified processes associated with urban shrinkage in Riga. Transformation, however, can be found only on local level – district (in one specific case) or unit level. It emerges from activities of mostly non-government actors that are making use of the opportunities provided by urban shrinkage in Riga. Finally, further decline is a potential response in several Riga districts resulting from strategic actions of local municipality and inability of some of the actors to deal with the existing situation. The analysis of sources of resilience reveals that there are four main determinants of adaptation and transformation – leadership, networks, resources, and learning. Other sources of resilience (people-place connection, common cause, and engaged governance) function as additional drivers or catalysts. All of these sources of resilience can be identified in Riga, but not consistently across all spatial scales and units or actor groups. The main deficiencies are linked with availability of resources (human and financial) among different actor groups, the existing system of governance (involvement of actors in the decision-making process) and leadership (on city level). The study also shows differences related to responses to urban shrinkage and different sources of resilience, especially leadership, learning, and resources. Overall, the findings support the main theoretical assumptions of the study and allow refining the understanding of responses to urban shrinkage and sources of resilience. The results can be used as the basis for developing an approach for assessment of the level of resilience to urban shrinkage or other slow burns in the urban context.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

4

Gravenstein, Gretchen. "Resilience in urban civic spaces: guidelines for designing resilient social-ecological systems." Kansas State University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/17642.

Full text

Abstract:

Master of Landscape Architecture Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning Blake Belanger Resilience in social-ecological systems, defined by ecologist C.S. Holling (1973), is the persistence of systems after a disturbance. This theory of resilience is becoming increasingly important, especially in urban areas where human systems dominate. Therefore, creating resilient social-ecological systems is emerging as a focus for many landscape architects when designing urban landscapes. Researchers and practitioners have created frameworks and strategies for applying resilience theory, but designers are still lacking tangible methods they can use to implement design strategies to create resilient landscapes. This research presents a set of resilient design strategies, so landscape architects can have a tool to design generally resilient social-ecological systems in urban areas. In order to discover strategies which improve system resilience, I conducted a literature review and created a perceptual model of the social-ecological systems operating in the study site, Washington Square Park in Kansas City, Missouri. The perceptual model determined systems and system components I focused on in this research. These systems are soil, water, vegetation, fauna, and people. Strategies suggested by Jack Ahern (2011), Brian Walker and David Salt (2006), and Kevin Cunningham (2013) for creating resilience determined strategies which were applied to the system components in order to evaluate the park for resilience. The strategies suggested are modularity, redundancy, tight feedbacks, and ecosystem services. In addition, the system components and strategies were used to analyze case studies. I used strategies discovered in the case study analyses along with goals for the redesign of Washington Square Park, discovered by analyzing the site and previous park documents, to create the guidelines. I then used the guidelines to create a design proposal for the park. The current state of the system components in the park and the proposed state from the redesign were used to show the guidelines’ success in increasing the general resilience of Washington Square Park. These guidelines have potential to increase resilience in other urban civic spaces through a similar methodology I used for Washington Square Park. In addition, the guidelines have the potential to further research in applying resilience theory to the design of landscapes.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

5

Dorset, William. "Exploring the Paradox of Sustainable Urban Development: Towards Urban Resilience?" Thesis, University of Canterbury. Geography, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/6385.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis explores the paradox that urban development continues down a cost minimisation approach resulting in low-density, car-orientated, energy-intensive urban form even though the social and environmental benefits of creating resilient residential communities through the adoption of collective sustainable urban designs and practices are well known. Fundamentally the thesis is concerned with exploring the barriers to creating resilient residential communities in order to establish pathways towards reducing cities’ vulnerability to peak oil and impacts on climate change To achieve this, the urban governance configurations and development practices at three ‘innovative’ residential development sites were investigated to understand the barriers to constructing sustainable residential communities. The first site was Wigram Skies, Christchurch, New Zealand which is being produced by an indigenous development corporation, Ngai tahu Property. The second is Kirimoko, Wanaka, New Zealand which is being produced by an environmental developer, and the third is Aurora, Melbourne Australia, which is being produced by a government development agency, VicUrban. There is a particular emphasis on developer values and actor interactions, as well as the political and institutional processes that influence the adoption of sustainable water management initiatives and energy efficient designs and concepts at these sites. This provides an understanding of New Zealand’s and Australia’s progress towards ‘urban resilience’. This is a concept that is increasingly being used to provide a longer-term, holistic view of sustainable urban development. Case study analysis was applied as the main method of enquiry to understanding and conducting this investigation. The case studies draw on data gathered from seventeen semi-structured interviews, two focus groups, two fieldtrips and document analysis. The case studies revealed power relations between actors during the development process resulting in internal and/or external ‘silo-thinking’ and design objective conflicts. Council planners’ and urban designers’ knowledge and experience, coupled with developers’ cost and risk minimisation mindset and potential home purchasers’ housing preferences are regarded as the main factors that influence the design and therefore end product of residential developments. The adoption of sustainable water management initiatives at the three development sites was influenced by council plans and developers’ desire to add amenity for marketing purposes. The complexities of design, maintenance and health concerns were the main factors that can influence the adoption of sustainable water management initiatives. There are no mandates that require energy efficient designs or concepts at the three sites and therefore such initiatives shown at two sites (Kirimoko and Aurora) were voluntary design approaches. The reluctance to incorporating such design approaches stems from a current market and psychological resistance to paying for and realising the benefits of active and passive solar design. This thesis suggests that greater political leadership, financial incentives and further research carried out on urban governance configurations, consumer preferences and the economic benefits of sustainable urban design are required to ensure progress towards urban resilience and reduce cities’ vulnerability to peak oil and impacts on climate change.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

6

MOHABAT, DOOST DANIAL. "Social Equity and Urban Resilience: Investigating the capability of urban resilience theory and planning to address social equity." Doctoral thesis, Politecnico di Torino, 2022. https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2970984.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

7

Gatang'i, Rebecca Nyangige. "Assessing Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality's urban resilience." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/7637.

Full text

Abstract:

The quest for resilient cities has emerged as a strategy to mitigate and adapt the problems created by urban population growth and rapid urbanisation. Resilience has increasingly become an important urban policy discourse that challenge cities to reflect on their adaptive capacity to function in the face of adversity. Urban resilience in particular, amplifies the concern that urban spaces are the hub of heightened complexities of diverse risks. Across the globe, the concept of resilience is gaining momentum with many academic researchers discussing this phenomenon. In South Africa, the concept has been sparingly incorporated in a number of literatures with little focus on local government entities such as municipalities. In order to close this gap in the literature, and in response to the increasing use of the concept locally, this study explores the extent to which factors of resilience resonate within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality urban management practices. Based on the exploration of a wide array of literature from various disciplinary areas, this study examines the concept of urbanisation and the related challenges. It also critically explores the concept of resilience, its application in urban management as well as the attributes of the adaptive capacities that enable urban resilience. This research adopts the City Resilience Framework and Index developed by Arup in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation to assess the levels of resilience in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The framework identifies four main dimensions used to measure resilience: People’s health and wellbeing, Organisation of the economy and society, Place of urban systems and services and Knowledge inherent in leadership and strategy. These dimensions form the basis of an integrative framework that provides an alternative lense through which cities can understand their unique attributes that contribute to their resilience. This research highlights the levels of resilience within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and outlines practical implications for Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s management which can also be applied in other cities. This research adopts a positivist approach and applies statistical empirical measures using a quantitative analysis process. The research instrument in the form of a questionnaire was administered to the target population for data collection. Using the conceptual framework, the researcher applied statistical analysis to derive relationships amongst the variables to determine the degree of resilience in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality using the four main dimensions of the framework. The findings of the study show the varying levels of resilience within NMBM’s practices. NMBM’s principal success areas include; providing basic houses, ensuring water and sanitation facilities, instituting effective labour policies, providing skills development and training facilities especially to the youth, enabling a conducive atmosphere for business development and the presence of an integrated development strategy. However, not much has been done in providing sufficient public health facilities, alternative energy sources, access to financial services, ensuring food security, enabling continuity of projects and activities through a funded budget, providing emergency medical services in the event of a disaster, high levels of corruption and insufficient deterrents to crime. Overall, the results show that NMBM has made good strides in enabling high level of resilience in its day to day operations. The findings of this study suggest that urban resilience is a continuous process that facilitates engagement leading to a dialogue and deeper understanding of a city.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

8

Caputo, S. "Urban resilience : a theoretical and empirical investigation." Thesis, Coventry University, 2013. http://curve.coventry.ac.uk/open/items/099fbc0c-c774-4a44-b6a0-c6919adcbc57/1.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis argues for the significance of urban resilience in sustainable urban development as well as for the necessity for practitioners to engage with this new emerging concept. It does so with a theoretical contribution to the definition of urban resilience, and with case studies analysis that help develop practical pathways to its attainment. For this purpose, the author has used a particular existing method (the Urban Futures method) developed within the EPSRC-funded four-year Urban Futures research programme. The author, as a member of the inter-disciplinary research team and of the sub-team of the ‘Surface Built Environment and Open Spaces’ work package, was instrumental to the development of that method, particularly for those aspects that pertain specifically to urban design and planning. In the section 5.3.3 the personal contribution of the author is described in detail. Moreover, interviews with practitioners presented in the chapter four, which constitute an essential part of the thesis, were conducted together with Dr. Maria Caserio, another team member of the work package mentioned above. She contributed to select interviewees, carry out the interviews, draft the transcripts, and discuss findings. However, the principal input in all these phases of the research comes exclusively from the author. The case studies presented in chapter six were also developed by the author throughout the course of the research programme. The chapter is based on papers that have been published or accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals (Caputo et al, 2012; Caputo et al (forthcoming)), and on conference papers accepted for oral presentation (Caputo and Gaterell, 2011; Caputo and Gaterell, 2012) in two important international conferences: the Sustainable buildings conference - Helsinki, 2011; and the 1st International Conference on Urban Sustainability and Resilience - London, 2012. Likewise, chapter five introducing the Urban Futures method as well as the process of selection and modification of the future scenarios that are at its heart, is based on papers published in peer-reviewed journals, and on a book dedicated to the Urban Futures method printed by the Building Research Establishment, which the author has co-authored (Hunt et al, 2012; Boyko et al, 2012; Lombardi et al, 2012). Finally, chapter three and four presenting the literature review and the interviews to practitioners are based on an article submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, which the author has revised in response to reviewers’ comments and that is in the course of resubmission (Caputo, et al - Designing a resilient urban system. Submitted to Journal of Urbanism).

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

9

Cubol, Eliseo Magsambol. "Building Urban Resilience in New York City." Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1628516458046903.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

10

Mamba, Sipho Felix. "Drought, urban resilience and urban food security in kaKhoza, Manzini, Swaziland." University of the Western Cape, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/6839.

Full text

Abstract:

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD Food security is the ability to secure an adequate daily supply of food that is affordable, hygienic and nutritious and it has become a chronic development problem in most urban areas of the global South. This thesis contributes to the urban food security debate by exploring the connection between drought and food security in urban Swaziland. Specifically, the study examines the effects of the 2015/16 drought on access to food in the informal settlement of kaKhoza in the city of Manzini. The study used climate change and food security conceptual framework to interrogate the connection between drought and food security in the urban context. The framework shows how climate change variables like extreme weather events (e.g. drought) impact food security drivers such as agricultural management, demographic, cultural and socio-economic variables, and how these drivers impact the four components of food security (food availability, access, utilization and stability of access). The study drew from both the positivistic and interpretivistic paradigms and adopted a case study approach based on the mixed methods research design. Data was collected from the informal settlement of kaKhoza using a three step procedure involving a questionnaire survey, in-depth interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. A questionnaire was administered to 145 heads of households using systematic sampling technique. Purposive sampling was employed to select 30 and 8 respondents for in-depth and key informant interviews, respectively. The researcher also engaged the observation method approach to capture additional information about effects of drought as observed in the study site. The researcher adhered to all legal and ethical procedures during the data collection and research writing processes. As such, participation in the research was strictly voluntary without any form of coercion, whatsoever. The results reveal that drought contributes to food insecurity in low income urban spaces by reducing the quantity and frequency of free or low priced rural-urban food transfers. As a result, low income households have had to rely more on food purchases, thereby making them increasingly food insecure. The problem is compounded by reverse food flows from urban to rural areas. The drought induced food price hike, compelled many low-income households to be less dependent on the supermarket as the main source of their food, and to buy increased amounts of food from the vegetable markets and tuck shops. Residents employ different coping mechanisms to deal with drought induced food shortage, some of which are too risky and further expose them to food insecurity. These coping strategies include: skipping meals, begging, use of informal credit, over reliance on informal markets and selling of sexual favours, which expose respondents to HIV and AIDS infection.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

11

Chelleri, Lorenzo. "Worban Resilience and (un)sustainability. Exploring the nexus between resilience and urban systems." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/284025.

Full text

Abstract:

Este trabajo representa una primera exloración de las interpretaciones generales y especificas que se le atributen a la relación ciudad-resiliencia. Como expresa el titulo, WORBAN es un nuevo catchword que quiere llamar la atención sobre la dimensión global de las ciudades fusionando los términos WORld y urBAN. Debido a la existente variedad de enfoques sobre la resiliencia hemos decidido explorar diferentes casos de estudios, desde ciudades en países en desarrollo hasta como este concepto se pueda aplicar en el planeamiento de ciudad en OCSE. No obstante la potencial borrosidad debida a la amplitud de conceptos y casos distintos desarrollados por esta tesis, un hilo conductor muy definido acompaña el lector a lo largo de todo el recorrido de la tesis: la evolución del concepto de resiliencia asociado respetivamente a la vulnerabilidad al cambio climático, al crecimiento incontrolado (en países en vía de desarrollo) y finalmente en los casos de renovación urbana en grande ciudad globales. En una primera parte la tesis hace un exhaustivo estado de la cuestión sobre el concepto de resiliencia y la emergente metáfora de ciudades resilientes. En la segunda parte se desarrolla, como si se tratase de un proceso de aprendizaje desde lo más sencillo a lo más complejo, tres casos de estudios que tratan respetivamente: a) Resiliencia urbana relacionada con la escala temporal: se trata el concepto de resiliencia y vulnerabilidad (a los impactos del cambio climático). El caso de estudio de Holanda expone el link muy fuerte que el enfoque de protección (resiliencia como resistencia del sistema) tiene con el corto plazo, enfatizando la necesidad y utilidad de relacionar la resiliencia no con estrategias de protección, si no de adaptación y transformación del sistema para hacer frente a la sostenibilidad y sobrevivencia en el largo plazo. b) Resiliencia urbana y sostenibilidad: se relaciona la resiliencia de las ciudades en expansión (gracias a la economía global) en países en vía de desarrollo con los efectos de escalas espaciales que suponen estas transiciones urbanas. Desde este punto de vista el caso de estudio de Marruecos enfatiza el problema emergente de ¿“la resiliencia para quien”?, en cuanto los efectos de escala de la resiliencia de este nuevo perfil de ciudad, globalmente conectada a cadenas de productos y ventas, ya no se sustenta desde los recurso locales. De hecho profundas transformaciones insostenibles y socialmente excluyentes son provocadas por este shift del metabolismo urbano, principalmente por indirectos cambios en los sistemas de valores y en la redistribución del acceso de los servicios de los ecosistemas a escala regional. c) La resiliencia tras la renovación urbana en ciudades globales emergentes: se relaciona la resiliencia con asuntos de poder, un poder que influye en los complejos proceso de producción de los nuevos espacios estratégico metropolitano. El caso de Barcelona subraya el gap entre resiliencia general y especifica, en cuanto diferencia entre voluntades de actores urbanos potentes (key stakeholders) y los ciudadanos locales y sus necesidades (peculiares que pueden ir en contra de los intereses de los actores estratégicos de la ciudad). Desde la suma de la primera parte de review teórico y desde los casos de estudios podemos finalmente considerar la resiliencia urbana como “un marco conceptual multidisciplinar para explorar las capacidades de reacción, reconstrucción, adaptación y transformación de (y en) las ciudades”. En hacer esto, la aplicación de este marco teórico ha reconocido la importancia de considerar la autosuficiencia, la redundancia (disminución de la eficiencia y aumento de la diversidad funcional), el proceso de aprendizaje y la innovación como factores claves de cara a transición hacia ambientes urbanos sostenibles y resilientes. Finalmente, la cuestión fundamental de enfocar siempre de manera critica el estudio de la resiliencia urbana atreves de los criterios ¿“resiliencia de quien y de cara a que”? y de ¿”resiliencia para quien”?. This Doctoral Thesis represents a first explorative research work over the generic and specific possible interpretations and meanings referred to the relationships between resilience and urban systems. As the title’s catchword introduces, WORBAN is about the world and urban systems resilience as a result of the complex cross scales nature and dimensions of cities, nested in global networks, which definitely represent the mayor driver of global environmental change. Due to the existing variety of multidisciplinary resilience theoretical perspectives we decided to navigate different possible applications and examples of urban resiliency, from developing countries urban growth to urban planning processes in OCSE. Notwithstanding the potential fuzziness of such too broad framework, a specific conceptual common thread develops along the three case studies, the evolution of (urban) resilience perspectives relating it to (urban) vulnerability, (urban) growth and (urban) renewal capacities. A strong literature review is proposed in the first part of the thesis in order to explore the state of the art on resilience and urban resilience emerging paradigms. In the second part, as in the case of a learning process from the easier to the more complex urban resilience perspective, the case studies explain respectively: a) The urban resiliency and timeline: relating resilience to vulnerability and Climate Change threats. The Netherland example builds strong evidences over the short term links with recovery and (system) protection resilient strategies, underlining the usefulness and necessity of framing urban long term resilience toward system structural and functional changes (transitions). b) The urban resiliency and sustainability: relating resilience to fast urbanization processes in developing countries due to global economy and its cross scale effects. The Moroccan case study underline the “resilience for whom” emergent critical perspective, because of the cross scale consequences of the new urban resiliency (and transition) based on global commodity chains better than be sustained from local and regional resources. Deep unsustainable and inequitable transformations emerge from such urban metabolism shift, related to social justice because of a cultural and behavioural induced changes and essential ecosystem services access and benefits re-distribution. c) The urban resiliency behind urban renewal in global cities: relating resilience to power issues in shaping new forms and functions in emerging global cities. Barcelona case study wants to put at the forefront of urban resilience discussion the gap between generic urban resilience (maintain the global network strategic position benefitting markets chains tradeoffs) versus local citizen resilience and needs. From both theoretic reviews and case studies insights we can definitely consider urban resilience as “a multidisciplinary framework to explore the reactive, recovery, adaptive and transformability capacities of (and in) urban systems”. In doing so, the application of this framework has underlined the need of recognizing the benefits of self-sufficiency, redundancy (less efficiency), learning capacities and innovations as core principles for sustainable urban resiliency and transitions. Last but not least, the fundamental research question (and urban resilience focus) must always critically arise the issue of ”resilience of what to what”, and “resilience for whom” that we try to address.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

12

Spencer, Samuel Summers. "The Fiscal Resilience of American Cities." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/83927.

Full text

Abstract:

This paper brings together the concepts of fiscal health and resilience as they are understood in a contemporary context while seeking to establish whether a quantitative model of analysis can be meaningfully derived and applied to major American cities. Using major recessions from 1977 to 2015 as an exogenous shock, the values for fiscal health are assessed temporally to arrive at an assessment for whether a certain group of cities is inherently more resilient than others. Given subjective nature of the concepts used, this paper also grapples with the fact that any results must be analyzed within a local context. The end result is aimed to produce a tool for cities to compare how they performed in the wake of a recession and eventually work towards an understanding of what policy actions can be done to make a city more resilient. Master of Urban and Regional Planning

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

13

Mascarenhas, Nina(Nina Theresa). "Collaborative governance in regional climate resilience planning : a case study of the Resilient Mystic Collaborative." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128969.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, September, 2020 Cataloged from student-submitted PDF of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 51-53). by Nina Mascarenhas. M.C.P. M.C.P. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

14

DATOLA, GIULIA. "Toward resilient cities: assessing urban resilience performance using a System Dynamics Model-based approach." Doctoral thesis, Politecnico di Torino, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/11583/2966341.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

15

Abdulkareem, M. M. "The resilience of urban design to pluvial flood." Thesis, University of Salford, 2018. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/44882/.

Full text

Abstract:

Resilient urban design has become an essential concern for cities needing to withstand the increasing number of natural and human-induced disasters. Yet cities and their infrastructures are becoming more vulnerable and threatened as flood protection measurements are still following the same line of thinking in terms of nature resistance. The conventional structures of flood protection are increasingly questioned amongst academics, decision makers and communities particularly since many cases of failure around the world. New approaches for characterising the resilience of urban design are urgently needed and worth investing in on local and regional scales. This research calls for a practical approach to investigate the resilience potential of urban design as a man-made solution and to consider the adjacent ecology as the natural surroundings. This aims to develop an ecologically compliant urban design approach that contributes to the mitigation of flood consequences with other infrastructure solutions. This research aims to shed light on the potential of ecological urban design to demonstrate a resilient urban form that can cope with the escalating flood threats in the Muscat area in Oman. A shift in thinking is required, towards a paradigm that calls for a breakaway from the closely confined resistance approach to the much more tolerable concept of living with the reality of water dominance. This is going to be realised by carrying out in-depth analysis of the ecological system services along with the physical aspects of urban design.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

16

Shang, Wenlong. "Robustness and resilience analysis of urban road networks." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/56919.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis investigates the robustness and resilience of urban road networks (URNs) in the presence of either local or global disruptions. The problem is approached from the two perspectives of complex network theory and traffic network modelling. The former mainly considers the topological characteristics of the networks, while the latter explores the flow characteristics, demand distribution, user behaviour, control mechanisms, and their combined effect on the network’s performance under disruption. Building on complex network theory, the thesis conducts a topological analysis of URNs using topological indices such as clustering coefficient (CC) and weighted betweenness centrality (WBC). The relationships among indegree, outdegree, WBC and CC are also examined. Following this, the small-world property and community detections for URNs are conducted. The topological indices are then examined in detail in conjunction with operational indices that take into account link capacity, travel demand and driver behaviour. The potential correlations between these various indices are investigated based on their importance for the nodes/links in the network. The thesis also proposes a new relative area index (RAI) quantitatively to analyse the robustness of URNs afflicted by global capacity disruptions, and this index may shed light on the planning and management of URNs. In the second approach, the thesis employs day-to-day evolutionary dynamics to capture the transient state of URNs in the event of disruption. Both agent-based and continuum modelling approaches are considered for the network simulation, employing novel concepts such as percolation theory to quantify the network performance. Different network control measures, such as variable message signs (VMS) and adaptive signal control are incorporated into the day-to-day models in order to mitigate the congestion and delays caused by unexpected disruptions. Two key performance indicators (KPI), rapidity, and the new relative area index (RAI), are derived to represent and quantify the resilience and robustness respectively. Extensive simulation studies are conducted to assess the performance of networks equipped with various control mechanisms and under different levels of degradation.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

17

Cunningham, Kevin L. "Resilience theory: a framework for engaging urban design." Thesis, Kansas State University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/15776.

Full text

Abstract:

Master of Landscape Architecture Department of Landscape Architecture, Regional and Community Planning Blake Belanger Landscape architects are challenged with finding appropriate solutions to adequately address the dynamic nature of urban environments. In the 1970's C.S. Holling began to develop resilience theory, which is intended to provide a holistic understanding of the way socio-ecological systems change and interact across scales. Resilience theory addresses the challenges and complexities of contemporary urban environments and can serve as a theoretical basis for engaging urban design practice. To test the validity of resilience theory as a theoretical basis for urban design, this thesis is an exploration of the addition of resilience theory to current landscape architecture literature and theory through a three-part methodology: a literature review that spans a breadth of research, case study analyses, and an application of resilience theory through a design framework in two projective design experiments. The resilience framework bridges between complex theory and design goals/strategies in a holistic approach. Through the identification of key connections in the reviewed literature that situate the relevance of resilience theory to landscape architecture and the subsequent case study analysis, specific methods for applying resilience theory to urban design practice are defined within the proposed framework. These methods fit within five main categories: identify and respond to thresholds, promote diversity, develop redundancies, create multi-scale networks and connectivity, and implement adaptive planning/management/design practices. The framework is validated by the success of the projective design application in the winning 2013 ULI/Hines Urban Design Competition entry, The Armory. Resilience theory and the proposed design framework have the potential to continue to advance the prominence of landscape architecture as the primary leader in urban design practice.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

18

Leftwich, Samuel Joseph. "The resilience of forests to the urban ecosystem." Cleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1631645306327862.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

19

Pandit, Arka. "Resilience of urban water systems: an 'infrastructure ecology' approach to sustainable and resilient (SuRe) planning and design." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/53443.

Full text

Abstract:

Increasing urbanization is a dominant global trend of the past few decades. For cities to become more sustainable, however, the infrastructure on which they rely must also become more efficient and resilient. Urban infrastructure systems are analogous to ecological systems because they are interconnected, complex and adaptive, are comprised of interconnected components, and exhibit characteristic scaling properties. Analyzing them together as a whole, as one would do for an ecological system, provides a better understanding about their dynamics and interactions, and enables system-level optimization. The adoption of this “infrastructure ecology” approach will result in urban development that costs less to build and maintain, is more sustainable (e.g. uses less materials and energy) and resilient, and enables a greater and more equitable creation of wealth and comfort. Resilience, or the capacity of a system to absorb shocks and perform under perturbations, can serve as an appropriate indicator of functional sustainability for dynamic adaptive systems like Urban Water Systems. This research developed an index of resilience (R-Index) to quantify the “full-spectrum” resilience of urban water systems. It developed five separate indices, namely (i) Index of Water Scarcity (IWS), (ii) Relative Dependency Index (RDI), (iii) Water Quality Index (WQI), (iv) Index of Network Resilience (INR), and (v) Relative Criticality Index (RCI), to address the criticalities inherent to urban water systems and then combines them to develop the R-Index through a multi-criteria decision analysis method. The research further developed a theoretical construct to quantify the temporal aspect of resilience, i.e. how quickly the system can return back to its original performance level. While there is a growing impetus of incorporating sustainability in decision making, frequently it comes at the cost of resilience. This is attributable to the fact that the decision-makers often lack a life-cycle perspective and a proven, consistent and robust approach to understand the tradeoff between increased resilience and its impact on sustainability. This research developed an approach to identify the sustainable and resilient (SuRe) zone of urban infrastructure planning and design where both sustainability and resilience can be pursued together.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

20

Baron, Nicole [Verfasser], Bernd [Akademischer Betreuer] Nentwig, Zegeye [Akademischer Betreuer] Cherenet, and Gabriela [Gutachter] Christmann. "Natural Urban Resilience: Understanding general urban resilience through Addis Ababa’s inner city / Nicole Baron ; Gutachter: Gabriela Christmann ; Bernd Nentwig, Zegeye Cherenet." Weimar : Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, 2021. http://d-nb.info/1232647713/34.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

21

Rojo, Juan. "URBAN CLIMATE RESILIENCE AND THE PROMISE OF BIG DATA SOLUTIONS : ASSESSING BIG DATA APPLICATION INTO MADRID’S URBAN CLIMATE CHANGE RESILIENCE SCENARIO." Thesis, KTH, Urbana och regionala studier, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-286117.

Full text

Abstract:

In the midst of a climate crisis like the one the world is facing right now, it is essential to try to find new tools that allow better decision-making both to mitigate climate change and to adapt to it. To this day, data science has yet to develop the necessary knowledge to tackle climate change, even though there are large databases with climate data available. With the technological revolution that society is experiencing, and the large amounts of data generated every moment, it is inevitable to think that the necessary responses will inevitably require greater collection and use of data, along with the tools, knowledge, and infrastructure needed. Cities, as great centers of knowledge, population density and innovation, must take the lead to promote data science and Big Data and incorporate them into building urban resilience. For the combination to be productive, both concepts must also be understood in a holistic and complemented way, resilience and Big Data. Both dynamic and relatively new concepts must find the point of union and scientists investigating adaptation must reach out to data scientists to find the skills necessary to clean the data as well as organize, analyze and manage it. Pairing Big Data insights with a well-established and localized urban resilience context can reveal deeper understanding of climate vulnerability, leading to the adaptation of better early-warning systems, more rigorous monitoring and evaluation and ultimately more robust adaptation response based on more accurately defined problems. This study analyzes both concepts, fully understanding what Big Data is, and studying urban climate resilience in a specific setting: the city of Madrid. In this way, the results of this study allow the clear identification of the varied applications of Big Data for a given environment of climate change threats, such as heatwaves, loss of biodiversity and flooding, describing their main data sources, methods, and standing criteria. In addition, the major characteristics of the Big Data use process are explained in the decision-making mechanism, describing the barriers and key drivers of data access, assessment, and application. Such considerations include the correct integration of the different stakeholders in the data collection, cleaning and application processes, ethical considerations of privacy, use and ownership, as well as good governance issues such as fostering citizen participation, encouraging innovation and urging the creation of a solid and robust management infrastructure that promotes the proper operation of the data conditions. The use of Big Data can be a fundamental tool for the development of more robust, flexible and reflexive resilience strategies, which keep climate threats projections updated, allowing adaptation measures to be more relevant and suited for a system’s shocks and stresses. This study broadens the knowledge on which are the correct data sources, the relevance of these data on their application in urban climate resilience and specific Big Data considerations for the city of Madrid.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

22

ELDESOKY, AHMED HAZEM MAHMOUD. "On urban form and urban resilience: Examining the underlying politics and advancing the role of immaterial technology and typomorphology in assessing urban resilience to heat stress." Doctoral thesis, Università IUAV di Venezia, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/11578/319227.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis focuses on one of the emerging research topics within the field of urban morphology that investigates how the concept of resilience, which has recently be-come a buzzword very favored to address the complexity and future uncertainty in cities, can be integrated into the study of urban form, as the raw material of urban de-sign and a key element that can guide cities towards more sustainable trajectories. More specifically, the thesis tackles some of the theoretical and methodological challenges for integrating resilience thinking into urban morphology, where two main re-search gaps have been addressed. The first, is the need to understand the core meaning of resilience in urban morphology and systematically examine its underlying politics (e.g. resilience of/through what? To what? For whom? How? When? Where?) so that it can be effectively operationalized. The second is the need to support urban planning and design decisions with tools and methods that provide an improved understanding of the impact of urban form on urban resilience to different stresses and shocks. In particular, the thesis, through the use of immaterial technology (e.g. Geographical Information Systems, machine learning and remote sensing techniques), focuses on improving and developing quantitative methods to better understand the impact of urban form on urban resilience to heat stress, as one of the most pressing challenges in cities nowadays that has been demonstrated to be exacerbated by urban form. And assessing their applicability in growing contemporary cities in arid areas, as the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and where little research has been conducted. At the core of these methods are the typomorphological classifications, which have been demonstrated to be powerful descriptive-analytical as well as normative/prescriptive means of understanding and designing cities. abstractita

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

23

NEGRETTO, VITTORE. "Emerging patterns of resilience systems in urban design and planning." Doctoral thesis, Università IUAV di Venezia, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/11578/306102.

Full text

Abstract:

The current unfolding of the climate emergency urges cities to take action and lead the transition toward resilience and sustainability. While it is not clear exactly how and with which pace the emergency will develop, it is clear that the challenges of mitigating, adapting, and responding to shocks and stresses are increasingly gaining importance. In a densely urbanised area such as Europe, impacts mainly affect cities and towns' urban systems. Cities are at the forefront of the challenges arising from climate change emergencies both because they have a high concentration of exposed and vulnerable assets and populations and because they are the administrative units that control fundamental aspects of land governance. At the urban scale, planning and urban design practices are among the sharpest tools for reducing risk. The notions and practices of Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Urban Resilience (UR) have been applied to urban systems to tackle these challenges jointly. Since urban environments are complex systems, intervention is not a simple task, especially with urgency. Complexity precludes the certainty of how interventions will fit in the system and how the system will react to them. Based on these premises, the current research investigates the systemic effects of climate action in the domain of urban planning and design at the local level. This investigation is developed through different points of view to explore the fields in which these issues are evolving and apply locally, and it is based on a comparison between theory and practice approaches. To build the concept-to-practice framework, both conceptual contributions from the scientific community and operational contributions for implementation produced by the leading international organisations are considered. Then, the picture is enriched by analysing two European case studies to highlight the approaches that have been followed at the local level and have emerged from practice. The case studies also consider the spatial dimension of the city, where places are part of complex urban systems and have unique characteristics. The research provides an operational framework that sheds light on the relationship between urban systems and climate change. The framework also highlights the intervention principles and planning methods used to shape climate action. In conclusion, different sources of knowledge are compared to develop a better understanding of how planning and urban design are used to intervene in urban systems to face the consequences of climate change.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

24

Willner, Matthew Scott. "Exporting resilience : evaluating US-Netherlands collaborations aimed at enhancing flooding resilience in New York City and New Orleans." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/104979.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2016. This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 69-74). Since Hurricane Katrina, partnerships have developed between the Netherlands and various governmental bodies in the United States with the express goal of helping cities enhance their resilience to serious flooding. At the core of these partnerships is the belief that governmental and non-governmental institutions in the Netherlands have developed technical and conceptual expertise that could benefit cities in the U.S. An unspoken goal of these partnerships has also been to help Dutch engineering, design, and dredging firms compete for contracts offered in the United States under the banner of enhancing resilience. Through interviews with nineteen senior Dutch and American officials involved with these partnerships, the author tests collaborations between the Dutch and the cities of New York and New Orleans against the policy transfer frameworks of Dolowitz and Marsh (1996 and 2000) and Matsuura (2006), and then discusses alternative frameworks through which these collaborations can be considered. In New Orleans, policy transfer frameworks succeed in modeling the dynamics of the relationship, while in New York they do not. In both cases, however, alternative frameworks of policy mobility and knowledge networks may be more appropriate to model the dynamics at play. by Matthew Scott Willner. M.C.P.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

25

Sitko, Pamela. "Urban disaster resilience : learning from the 2011 Bangkok flood." Thesis, Oxford Brookes University, 2016. https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/6f55e5b1-60a2-4662-ae87-a5ecbef64c79/1/.

Full text

Abstract:

Reducing disaster risk, managing rapid urbanisation and tackling poverty is an enormous challenge, particularly in vulnerable neighbourhoods in low and middle-income countries. By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in towns and cities, with 95 per cent of future urban expansion in the global South. At the same time, disasters are increasing in frequency, severity and intensity. Poorer people in vulnerable neighbourhoods are least equipped to cope with the threat of disaster. When flooding struck Thailand’s capital city Bangkok in 2011, the United Nations estimated that 73 per cent of low-income households were badly affected (UNISDR 2013). With disasters in cities on the rise, current thinking suggests that resilience offers valuable insights for reducing risk. This research seeks to develop and validate a conceptual framework for understanding urban disaster resilience in low-income neighbourhoods. It combines two urban approaches. The first, complex adaptive systems (CAS), views the city as a combination of inter-dependent parts working together at a multitude of scales that shapes its overall behaviour. The second, urban morphology, seeks to understand the creation of urban form by establishing connections between the city’s historical economic, political and social transformations to its modern day form. The conceptual framework was applied to three low-income neighbourhoods in Bangkok affected by the 2011 flood. Through a case study approach, qualitative information was gathered and analysed in order to understand city-scale and neighbourhood level transformations that built patterns of vulnerability and resilience to chronic stresses and acute shocks. This research concludes that combining CAS and morphology provides a valuable conceptual framework for understanding urban disaster resilience. Such a framework places people at the centre while providing a scalar and temporal analysis of co-evolving acute and chronic risks in urban areas. Moreover, the intersections of CAS and urban morphology identify dimensions of resilience, where human systems and the built environment affect each other in a positive or negative ways – before, during and after a disaster. Overall, this research concludes that resilience needs to be built both before and after a disaster to be effective, and that disaster itself is a test of how systems and the built environment have learned from history about how to cope with and adapt to shocks and stresses. To these ends, urban disaster resilience can be defined as the ways in which the built environment, complex adaptive systems and people interact to cope, adapt and transform in order to reduce disaster risk.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

26

Raman, Prassanna. "Exploring urban resilience : violence and infrastructure provision in Karachi." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/72629.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012. This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 86-90). The Urban Resilience and Chronic Violence project at MIT extends the scientific concept of resilience to the analysis of chronic conflict. This thesis builds upon the project by testing the usefulness of a socio-spatial capital resilience model for cities confronting persistent violence, which offers alternative strategies for thinking about a violence-resistant city. The first test of the socio-spatial capital model is through the analysis of resilience theory -- how does the definition of resilience change in each discipline? The literature review concludes that the idea of stability is the foundation of any resilience definition, which is problematic for cities suffering from chronic violence. The second test of the model is the examination of violence in Karachi. Using the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) as a strategy of socio-spatial capital formation, the Karachi case study explores the relationship between the expansion of the OPP in the last 30 years and the levels and types of violence in Orangi, an informal settlement in Karachi. Lyari, which also suffers from violence and poor access to sanitation, is its comparison. This thesis finds that in both towns, residents have found innovative ways to cope with violence and poor development at different scales, therefore making both towns resilient. This thesis concludes by arguing that conceptualizing a city resilient against violence does not move a violent city towards peace, and proposes that the field of conflict transformation may be better suited to the study of chronic conflict than resilience. by Prassanna Raman. S.M.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

27

Schaffler, Alexis. "Enhancing resilience between people and nature in urban landscapes." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/6473.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The particular global context that is fundamentally altering the world is one in which the combined resource requirements of cities are unprecedented. This thesis communicates the thoughts, ideas and research observations on contemporary urbanisation dynamics through a synthesis of various perspectives. This conceptual fusion, as an attempt to provide a holistic overview of contemporary urban dynamics, forms the basis for developing a framework from which the multiple dimensions of cities can be addressed. This theoretical framework, which includes empirical analyses on the state of cities, is then applied to Johannesburg as a case study for deepening the understanding of urban dynamics and to assess implementation of the theoretical framework in reality. Despite being guided by the general aims of investigating current urban growth trends and the conceptual frameworks with which urban systems could be better understood, the complexity of the task at hand defied a static and linear research process. The ideas that emerged through the research journey, as opposed to a process, were synthesised using a literature review from which the framework of managing complex social-ecological systems was developed. Central to this framework is the metaphor of resilience, which through the idea of systemic adaptability, prioritises the need for both social and ecological opportunity to be enhanced. This is critical in the face of cross-cutting global challenges and in terms of cities as archetypical complex social-ecological systems. In reviewing literature on contemporary urbanisation dynamics, it was found that the socio-economic, spatial and ecological tensions characterising developing country cities, require strategies to enhance urban resilience rooted in local social and ecological capabilities that differ from developed nations’ contexts. These practical concerns were the catalyst for suggesting green infrastructure as a framework in which the joint social and ecological values of green assets are valued equally. This in line with the logic of enhancing a system’s overall systemic adaptability. The theoretical frameworks included in the literature review, therefore, emerged through the weaving back and forth of thoughts, debates and practical concerns about creating resilience between people and nature in the urban landscapes of developing countries The methodological implications of a green infrastructure framework resulted in the need to determine the total economic value of ecosystem services, as the benefits that society accrues through ecosystem functioning. Valuing both the social and ecological benefits of such ecosystem derivatives, not only relates to the concept of mutual resilience building, but makes the economic case for investment in natural assets. Through experience with this methodology, it emerged that valuation exercises of ecosystem services require primary research that connects physical data on ecosystem functioning to tangible economic values. In the chosen case study, however, this original research is yet to take place and methodologies for valuing Johannesburg’s green assets had to unfold based on data availability. The development of a methodology within a methodology is a major feature of this paper, which is guided by the logic that for overall systemic resilience to be sustained, investment in natural assets needs to explicitly account for the total economic values of ecosystem services. The conclusions suggest that Johannesburg is nevertheless in a unique position to capitalise on the concept of green infrastructure, from which social and ecological opportunity can be mutually enhanced. In a paradoxical way, the city’s tree-planting boom that resulted in the construction of the world’s largest urban forest in natural savannah grassland, has created inventories of ecological and social resilience that represent the multifunctional value of green assets, if valued explicitly. Recognition of these values shows that ecological assets extend beyond publicly delineated open space and that Johannesburg’s culture of greening is potentially playing a significant role in sustaining the resilience between its people and nature. However, until the detailed base research is conducted on the connections between Johannesburg’s green assets and their associated social and ecological dividends, these assets remain potential inventories of resilience whose values are yet to be fully determined. The recommendations of this thesis are therefore largely to strengthen the research and data bases on Johannesburg’s green assets. Original research is needed so that precise valuation exercises of Johannesburg’s ecosystem services can take place. This research is also the foundation from which a more robust and empirically sound case can be made for motivating investment in Johannesburg’s strategically unique green infrastructure, in the context of social-ecological challenges and the global movement towards green economies, jobs and cities. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die spesifieke globale konteks wat die wêreld ten diepste verander, is ’n konteks waarin die gekombineerde behoeftes van stede ongekend is. Deur ’n samevatting van verskeie perspektiewe bied hierdie tesis gedagtes, idees en navorsingswaarnemings oor die hedendaagse stadsdinamika. Hierdie samevoeging van konsepte, as ’n poging om ’n holistiese oorsig van hedendaagse stadsdinamika te bied, vorm die grondslag vir die ontwikkeling van ’n raamwerk van waaruit die veelvuldige dimensies van stede benader kan word. Hierdie teoretiese raamwerk, wat empiriese analises van die stand van stede insluit, word dan toegepas op Johannesburg as ’n gevallestudie om die stadsdinamika beter te verstaan en die gebruik van die teoretiese raamwerk in die praktyk te evalueer. Die gedagtes wat uit die navorsing voortgespruit het, word saamgevat deur ’n oorsig te gee van literatuur waaruit die raamwerk vir die bestuur van komplekse sosio-ekologiese sisteme ontwikkel is. Die kern van hierdie raamwerk is die metafoor van weerstandsvermoë (“resilience”) wat, deur die gebruik van die konsep sistemiese aanpasbaarheid, die behoefte aan sowel meer sosiale as ekologiese geleenthede as die belangrikste prioriteite identifiseer. Dit is deurslaggewend in die lig van deursnee- globale uitdagings en in terme van stede as argetipiese komplekse sosio-ekologiese sisteme. In die oorsig van literatuur oor die hedendaagse stadsdinamika is daar gevind dat die sosio-ekonomiese, ruimtelike en ekologiese spanning wat stede in ontwikkelende lande kenmerk, strategieë vereis wat stadsweerstand, wat uit plaaslike sosiale en ekologiese vermoëns spruit, sal verhoog. Hierdie praktiese kwessies was die katalisator om ’n groen infrastruktuur voor te stel as die raamwerk waarbinne die gesamentlike sosiale en ekologiese waardes van groen bates ewe veel waarde dra, wat in pas is met die logiese gedagte om ’n sisteem se algehele sistemiese aanpasbaarheid te verhoog. Die teoretiese raamwerk wat ingesluit is in die literatuur wat bestudeer is, het dus na vore gekom deur die uitruil van gedagtes, debatte en praktiese benaderings tot hoe weerstandigheid geskep kan word tussen mens en natuur in die stedelike landskappe van ontwikkelende lande. Die metodologiese implikasies van ’n groen infrastruktuur-raamwerk het dit noodsaaklik gemaak om die totale ekonomiese waarde van ekosisteemdienste, as die voordele wat die samelewing deur ekosisteme ontvang, te bepaal. Die belangrikste navorsing om letterlike inligting oor Johannesburg se ekosisteemdienste aan tasbare ekonomiese waardes te verbind, moet egter nog gedoen word, en metodologieë om die stad se groen bates te evalueer moet ontwikkel word afhangende van die beskikbaarheid van inligting. Die ontwikkeling van ’n metodologie binne ’n metodologie is ’n belangrike kenmerk van hierdie tesis, wat gelei word deur die logiese gedagte dat belegging in natuurlike bates baie duidelik die totale ekonomiese waarde van ekosisteemdienste moet bepaal as algehele sistemiese weerstandsvermoë gehandhaaf wil word. Die gevolgtrekkings dui daarop dat Johannesburg nietemin in ’n unieke posisie is om finansiële voordeel uit die konsep van ’n groen infrastruktuur te trek. Op ’n teenstrydige manier het die stad se grootskaalse poging om bome aan te plant, wat gelei het tot die wêreld se grootste stedelike woud in ’n natuurlike grasvlakte, inligting gebied oor ekologiese en sosiale weerstandigheid, en dit verteenwoordig die multifunksionele waarde van groen bates as daar uitdruklik waarde daaraan geheg word. ’n Erkenning van hierdie waarde wys dat ekologiese bates verder strek as ’n openbare afgebakende oop ruimte en dat Johannesburg se groen kultuur moontlik ’n deurslaggewende rol speel om die weerstandsvermoë tussen sy mense en die natuur volhoubaar te maak. Voordat noukeurige grondnavorsing oor die verband tussen Johannesburg se groen bates en hulle gepaardgaande sosiale en ekologiese voordele egter nie uitgevoer is nie, bly hierdie bates potensiële beskrywings van weerstandsvermoë waarvan die waarde nog nie ten volle bepaal is nie. Die aanbevelings van hierdie tesis is daarom hoofsaaklik dat navorsing voortgesit word, en dat die kennisgrondslag van Johannesburg se groen bates verbreed word sodat ’n presiese evaluering van ekosisteemdienste gedoen kan word as die grondslag van sterker en empiries gestaafde redes om in die stad se groen infrastruktuur te belê.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

28

Ragoschke, Adam S. "Social resilience: goals and objectives for engaging urban design." Kansas State University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/17762.

Full text

Abstract:

Master of Landscape Architecture Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning Blake Belanger As the world continues to grow and cities continue to change, landscapes architects are constantly challenged with identifying design solutions that address the endless change of urban environments. In 1973, C.S. Holling developed the term “resilience theory,” which identified how social and ecological systems communicate across different landscape scales (Holling, C.S. 1973). In 2013, Kansas State Graduate Kevin Cunningham tested the validity of Holling’s resilience theory as a theoretical basis for urban design. This report attempts to further test the validity of resilience theory as a theoretical basis for social systems within urban design. Methodology utilized includes literature review with specific attention to current social resilience frameworks and guidelines, case study analyses, and an application of the author’s social resilience goals and strategies through a projective design of Washington Square Park, Kansas City, Missouri. Social resilience goals and strategies were developed to respond to social objectives identified within Washington Square Park RFQ/P, GDAP, Main Street Streetcar, Making Grand “Grand” and KCDC’s plan for the park. Objectives were derived based upon their relationship to resilience theory. The created social resilient goals, objectives and strategies will be specific for the revitalization of Washington Square Park. However, the process of identified social resilience goals, objectives and strategies can be utilized as a tool for designs of other urban, civic spaces. The process of identifying social resilience goals, objectives and strategies utilized within this report has the potential to continually promote landscape architects as the primary leaders in urban design practice.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

29

Costa, Ana Luísa Arrais Falcão Beja da. "Mangroves of Maputo. Towards urban resilience through green infrastructure." Doctoral thesis, ISA, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/21196.

Full text

Abstract:

Doutoramento em Arquitetura Paisagista e Ecologia Urbana - Instituto Superior de Agronomia. Universidade de Lisboa / Faculdade de Ciências. Universidade do Porto / Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia. Universidade de Coimbra Cities in Africa, where the most remarkable forthcoming developments in the global pattern of urbanization are expected, and quite notably in Sub-Saharan cities such as Maputo, are experiencing accelerating population increases. As a consequence of this growth urban infrastructures are being stressed beyond capacity and there is increased pressure on the existent valuable ecosystems. In recent times, and mostly due to foreign intervention, investments have been welcomed into Maputo’s grey urban infrastructure network whereas little attention has been given to green infrastructure. In the city’s coastal plains, the recently constructed Maputo ring road and the Katembe bridge are drawing urban development towards the last stretch of vacant land of the Municipality, compromising the mangrove ecosystems and flood plains of this territory. Based on the hypothesis that mangroves have the potential to become a structuring element for the improvement of resilience in self-produced neighbourhoods on the coastal plains, the aim of this research is to contribute towards the outline of an urban green infrastructure for the coastal areas of Maputo, as a strategy to accommodate current and future urban development challenges, not only as biophysical networks that can create urban socio-ecological networks that improve urban resilience through a stewardship of ecosystems, but also as an ecosystem-based approach for adaptation to climate change. Considering the specific dynamics of Sub-Southern African cities, where research and planning around environmental issues is in very early stages, it is urgent to promote research and design strategies to tackle the problematics of urban development in ecologically sensitive and landscape valuable areas. This research thus expects to anticipate the sustainable development of Maputo, exploring the potential of its coastal landscape for the establishment of an urban green infrastructure N/A

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

30

Astbury, Janice. "Inviting landscapes : resilience through engaging citizens with urban nature." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2015. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/inviting-landscapes-resilience-through-engaging-citizens-with-urban-nature(e46c8dd1-5d7c-40ef-a75e-403d682eb9e7).html.

Full text

Abstract:

The role of citizens working with urban nature in making cities more resilient is under-explored and under-theorised. The social-ecological system (SES) is an appropriate concept to explore these interactions but challenges in applying it to cities have been identified. It has been suggested that there is a need to strengthen the 'social' in the SES. This thesis develops a conceptual framework that splits the social component of the SES into culture and agency and operationalises it through the concept of landscape. Previous scholarship has demonstrated that landscape is a powerful force in how people think about the world and that citizens are increasingly active in transforming urban landscapes. Using a critical realist framework, the SES is approached as an underlying mechanism that can only be apprehended through the landscapes that it produces. This directs attention to people’s experience of and responses to landscape. Three ‘layers’ of landscape are elucidated: the material landscape, the cultural landscape and responses to the landscape, drawing on the disciplines of landscape ecology, cultural geography and others concerned with environmental perception and people-environment interactions. The research surveyed citizen interaction with landscapes across North West England before focusing in on two key case studies in the city of Manchester. This analysis gave rise to development of a new concept, the Inviting Landscape, to describe landscapes that invite citizens to engage with them in ways that enhance the resilience of the underlying SES. The thesis identifies characteristics of Inviting Landscapes and links them to three stages of citizen engagement with landscapes. Potential practical applications of this characterisation of landscapes are discussed. Intellectually, the SES approach is enhanced through a deeper understanding of positive feedback mechanisms whereby landscapes influence citizen-nature interactions, which in turn impact on social-ecological resilience. The thesis concludes by making the case that attending more carefully to the role of culture and agency can strengthen the applicability of the SES approach to cities.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

31

Young, Christian Ronald Phillip. "The resilience of urban Aboriginal children and their caregivers." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/20120.

Full text

Abstract:

The current health and social disparities between Australian Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people pose significant challenges for Aboriginal communities. These disparities are widely attributed to the historical and ongoing trauma associated with European colonisation, including catastrophic population loss, institutionalised discrimination, dispossession of land, loss of culture and language, and the removal of children. In the face of these challenges Aboriginal people have shown remarkable resilience. Resilience is commonly described as ‘positive adaption in the context of adversity’. Despite a rich history of resilience research, the scientific literature describing Aboriginal resilience is sparse. The aim of this research is to investigate resilience within an urban Aboriginal context and identify factors that promote it. This thesis includes a systematic review of the psychosocial correlates of mental health and resilience among Indigenous children from high-income countries, a mixed methods investigation of the resilience of children from four urban Australian communities, a cross-sectional assessment of the resilience of caregivers of Aboriginal children, and a systematic review of peer reviewed studies that evaluated social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) programs for Aboriginal young people. For children, the presence of stable home environments, supportive social networks, connection to culture, regular exercise and the opportunity to set and attain positive goals were all seen to be associated with resilience. Caregivers who lived in stable home environments were more likely to be resilient; however, the poor physical health of caregivers and their families posed a significant threat to resilience. The number of evaluated SEWB programs was small, and the quality of evidence was predominantly low, reflecting the nascent stage of Aboriginal SEWB and resilience research. For Aboriginal families, this thesis highlights risks that are associated with higher order determinants of poor health. Greater provision of initiatives that can promote stable, strong, cohesive and physically healthy Aboriginal families are needed to build resilience. More rigorous program evaluations that have the power to inform large-scale strategies to enhance resilience are warranted.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

32

Peres, Edna M. "The translation of ecological resilience theory into urban systems." Thesis, University of Pretoria, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/56100.

Full text

Abstract:

As an interdependent global society enters an era of unprecedented change, resulting from unforeseen natural and social disasters and vulnerabilities, the resilience of global cities to survive is a pressing concern. This dissertation aims to elucidate the application of resilience thinking by showing how ecological resilience concepts can translate into urban systems, using the capital of South Africa, Tshwane, as the exploration ground. Resilience simultaneously embodies the capacity of urban systems to bounce back, adapt or transform. Translating these concepts into a holistic urban resilience approach answers three questions: a) What is resilience theory? b) What are the core concepts of ecological resilience theory? and c) How might these concepts translate to cities? The dissertation is structured in three parts; to establish the basis of resilience thinking, explore ecological resilience concepts in an urban system and lastly, assimilate findings into an urban resilience approach. Qualitative along with historical-comparative research methods, guided literature studies, and interdisciplinary research designs generated the finding that ecological resilience concepts translate well into the urban system, but that urban resilience is not a panacea for the ills of the urban environment. An urban resilience approach could comprise a) evolutionary or adaptive urban resilience involving an ongoing study and observation of the city system; and b) transformative urban resilience, that actively changes systems that reflect stronger or weaker resilience, so as to purposefully regenerate or collapse? them. This requires responsible and holistic conduct. Urban resilience thinking implies an appreciation for the complexity that underlies life, and modesty about ambitions for managing it. Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2016. tm2016 Architecture PhD Unrestricted

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

33

Keefe, Kathryn Erina. "Beyond one bad day : exploring social, economic, and environmental co-benefits of resilience in the National Disaster Resilience Competition." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118250.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2018. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 64-66). Despite the rise in extreme weather events, communities in the U.S. tend to underinvest in disaster risk management and resilience efforts. This is due in part to prohibitively high costs, which are not justified by the traditional method of determining the benefits of such investment. The benefits of resilience are often unclear, distant, and limited to a narrow understanding of a project's impact. Infrastructure and program investments can offer social, economic, and environmental co-benefits that extend beyond a project's disaster risk reduction and help to meet community needs every day, not just during the rare occurrence of a disaster. Decision-makers need a way to incorporate co-benefits into the evaluation of these investments. However, a standard methodology to assess quantitative and qualitative value of community resilience co-benefits does not exist. The Department of Housing and Development offered a way to resolve the current disconnect between project costs and benefits in a novel requirement for the one-time National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC) of 2014-2015. The NDRC required forty U.S. state, county, and city applicants to develop a qualitative benefit-cost analysis (BCA), encouraging consideration of the hard-to-quantify benefits. This thesis analyzes the perception of social, economic, and environmental co-benefits by these communities as reported through the competition BCAs. It examines which co-benefits were identified across proposals and to what extent assessment methodologies were applied to quantify them. The findings and recommendations in this thesis build the foundation of a standard framework for resilience co-benefits. Through adaption of the traditional BCA model, decision-makers will ultimately be empowered to strengthen the case for resilience investment in their communities. by Kathryn Erina Keefe. M.C.P.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

34

Kim, Chun Il. "Urban spatial structure, housing markets, and resilience to natural hazards." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109024.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis: Ph. D. in Urban and Regional Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2017. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references. This dissertation consists of three essays on urban structure, housing, and environment. The first paper contributes to the existing debate on the co-location hypothesis by devising a proximity measure and controlling for a set of other urban form measures. Multiple regression analysis revealed that job-worker proximity leads to shorter commuting time. In addition, results from subareas suggested that the impact of job-worker imbalance and the impact of job-worker mismatch on the commuting time are both greater in the suburb in comparison with the city center. The second paper examines the impact of the LIHTC construction on nearby housing prices in the Boston metropolitan area by using the AITS-DID method. The paper found that the price gap between the LIHTC micro-neighborhood and the area beyond is reduced by approximately 16.5 percent points after the LIHTC construction. The segmentation of the analysis by sub-region showed spatially heterogeneous results. The findings from this research are contrary to the conventional perception that subsidized housing developments lead to neighborhood decline persistently. Measuring resilience to natural hazards is a central issue in the hazard mitigation sciences. The third paper applied a confirmatory factor methodology to operationalize the biophysical, built environment, and socioeconomic resilience dimensions for local jurisdictions in large urban metropolitan areas in South Korea. The factor covariances showed a trade-off relationship between natural infrastructure and human activities. Densely developed and affluent urban areas tend to lack biophysical resilience. Some local governments, sorted into the same groups, turn out to be located in different metropolitan areas. The spatial variation and inequality in the resilience dimensions suggest the necessity of integrated and flexible governance for sustainable hazard mitigation. by Chun Il Kim. Ph. D. in Urban and Regional Planning

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

35

Katich, Kristina Noel. "Urban climate resilience : a global assessment of city adaptation plans." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/49698.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-80). As policy makers accept climate change as an irrefutable threat, adaptation planning has emerged as a necessary action for countries, states, and municipalities. This thesis explores adaptive responses to climate change in 17 cities, comparing municipal plans created to "battle" a global problem at the local level. Incorporating capitals and megacities from both the developed and developing worlds, this analysis studies whether municipal responses to the impacts of climate change adhere to the conventional understanding of who needs to adapt and how they are planning for adaptation. The three assumptions challenged in this analysis are (1) that mitigation is primarily a responsibility of the global north while adaptation is the primary response of the global south, (2) that adaptive action is planned in response to vulnerability, and (3) that mitigation action and groups pave the way for subsequent adaptation through the creation of knowledge and global networks on climate issues. Through a comparison of the levels of resource and hazard assessment, objective frameworks, levels of coordination, citizen involvement mechanisms, and concern for equity that city governments are using to develop climate action plans, I argue that municipalities are not using the resources and priorities ascribed to them by the global community. Instead, global networks and programs, as they are now, encourage the creation of perfunctory adaptation statements, rather than specific actions. (cont.) Global mitigation relationships are effectively muddling and suppressing the creative development of local strategies for climate change adaptation. Keywords: climate change, adaptation, resilience, vulnerability, municipal adaptation plan, city adaptation plan, risk by Kristina Noel Katich. M.C.P.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

36

Fu, Xin. "Developing an Integrated Scenario-based Urban Resilience Planning Support System." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1505209563652198.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

37

Rafael, Sandra Isabel Moreira. "Urban air quality and climate change: vulnerability, resilience and adaptation." Doctoral thesis, Universidade de Aveiro, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10773/23029.

Full text

Abstract:

Doutoramento em Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente As cidades, áreas que albergam cerca de 70% da população europeia, enfrentam hoje um conjunto de desafios associados a alterações do metabolismo urbano, que num contexto de alteração climática (AC), afectam o microclima urbano e a qualidade do ar (QA). Compreender a interação entre as AC, qualidade do ar e fluxos urbanos de calor (FUC) é um tópico de investigação emergente, reconhecido como área de interesse para a definição e implementação de políticas locais. O principal objetivo do presente trabalho é promover uma avaliação integrada das interações entre medidas de resiliência urbana e as AC, e respectiva influência no microclima urbano, QA e FUC, tendo como caso de estudo a cidade do Porto (Portugal). Pretende-se ainda impulsionar o desempenho dos modelos numéricos para que estes representem realisticamente os fenómenos físicos que ocorrem nas áreas urbanas. Para atingir este objetivo, o sistema de modelos WRF-SUEWS foi aplicado para a área de estudo para avaliar a influência de diferentes níveis de área urbanizada nas trocas de calor entre a superficie e a atmosfera. O modelo foi validado mediante a comparação dos seus resultados com dados medidos obtidos em campanhas de monitorização de fluxos. A influência das variáveis meteorológicas nos FUC, e a forma como estas, por sua vez, são influenciadas pela superfície urbana foi também avaliada. Para tal, o sistema WRF-SUEWS foi aplicado para 1-ano representativo de um período de clima presente (1986-2005) e de clima futuro de médio prazo (2046-2065). O cenário climático futuro foi projetado tendo por base o cenário RCP8.5. Esta análise permitiu quantificar e mapear os efeitos das AC nos FUC na cidade do Porto. Face à necessidade corrente de aumentar a resiliência urbana a futuros eventos meteorológicos extremos (e.g. ondas de calor), o sistema WRF-SUEWS foi ainda aplicado (com uma resolução espacial de 200 m) para avaliar a influência de medidas de resiliência nos FUC. Conhecendo a importância da morfologia urbana para as características do seu próprio clima, um conjunto de parameterizações urbanas (LSM, SUEWS e UCM) foram analisados para área de estudo, por forma a obter uma representação realista das características urbanas no modelo WRF e, consequentemente, obter um melhor desempenho na modelação da QA à escala local. Os resultados revelaram que o modelo UCM é a parameterização urbana que melhor representa os fluxos turbulentos de calor, a temperatura e velocidade do vento à superfície. Como resultado, o modelo CFD VADIS, inicializado pelo modelo WRF-UCM, foi aplicado com uma elevada resolução espacial (3 m) a um bairro típico da cidade do Porto. As simulações realizadas permitiram caracterizar o estado atual da QA na área de estudo, bem como avaliar a influência de diferentes medidas de resiliência nos padrões de velocidade do vento e na concentração de poluentes atmosféricos (PM10, NOX, CO e CO2). Este trabalho constitui uma ferramenta científica inovadora no que diz respeito ao conhecimento dos processos físicos que ocorrem à escala urbana, proporcionando uma visão integradora entre AC, QA e FUC. Estes resultados são relevantes para o apoio à decisão política do que respeita à implementação de estratégias que permitam aumentar a resiliência urbana, nas suas diversas vertentes, a um clima em mudança Cities, home of about 70% of the European population, are facing important challenges related to changes in urban structure and its metabolism, and to pressures induced by climate change (CC) effects, which are affecting urban microclimate and air quality. The better understanding of the interactions between CC, air quality and urban surface energy balance (USEB) is an emerging priority for research and policy. The main objective of the current study is to provide an integrated assessment of the interaction between resilience measures and CC effects, and its influence on the urban microclimate and air quality as well as on the USEB, having as case study the city of Porto (Portugal). The ultimate goal is to improve the accuracy of numerical modelling to better represent the physical processes occurring in urban areas. For this purpose, the relevant parameters to both USEB and air quality were analysed. The WRF-SUEWS modelling setup was applied to the study area to assess the influence of different levels of urbanization on the surface-atmosphere exchanges. To validate the modelling setup, the results were compared with measurements carried out on field campaigns. The way of how the meteorological variables affect the USEB and how, in turn, these variables are themselves affected by urban surface was also assessed. The modelling setup was applied for 1-year period statistically representative of a present (1986-2005) and medium-term future (2046-2065) climate. The climate projection was produced under the RCP8.5 scenario. This analysis gives insights of how the urban-surface exchanges will be affected by CC, allowing the mapping of the FUC over the study area. As result of the need of increase cities resilience to future extreme weather events (e.g. heat waves), the WRF-SUEWS model (with a spatial resolution of 200 m), was applied to Porto city to evaluate the influence of a set of resilience measures on the USEB. Knowing the importance of urban surfaces to its own microclimate, a set of urban parameterization schemes (LSM, SUEWS and UCM) were analysed for the study area, to achieve a more accurate representation of urban features in the WRF model and, in consequence, to improve the capability of air quality modelling at urban/local scale. The results point out that the UCM is the urban parameterization that provides a more realistic representation of the turbulent energy fluxes and the near-surface air temperatures and wind speed. As result, a CFD modelling (VADIS), forced by WRF-UCM, was used to provide a set of numerical simulations with a high spatial resolution (3 m) over a typical neighbourhood in the Porto city. These simulations allow the characterization of the current air quality status over the study area, as well as the assessment of the influence of different resilience measures in the wind flow and air pollutants dispersion (PM10, NOX, CO and CO2). Overall, this research work is a step forward in understanding the physics of urban environments, providing also a linkage between CC, air quality and USEB. These findings are highly advantageous to support policy makers and stakeholders helping them to choose the best strategies to mitigate extreme weather events and air pollution episodes and so increase cities resilience to a future climate.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

38

Pollock, Jody (Jody Tamar). "Tejiendo una red de resiliencia = weaving a web of resilience : Internal displacement, social networks and urban integration in Cartagena, Colombia." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/80908.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2013. This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 111-120). There are over 28.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world today because of conflict, human rights violations and situations of generalized violence. Colombia's protracted internal armed conflict, which has lasted for over six decades, has resulted in the largest population of IDPs - up to 5.4 million as of 2012 - in the world. The vast majority migrates from rural areas to cities, settling on the urban periphery in historically poor neighborhoods. Taking Cartagena, Colombia as a revelatory case of IDP urban settlement, this thesis addresses these questions: In the face of ongoing violence, the disruption of spatial and social communities, and the dissolution of trust between individuals, organizations and the Colombian state, how do IDPs reconstitute social networks as part of integration into host cities? How are those social networks challenged and/or bolstered by the status and experience of displacement? Upon arrival in host cities, IDPs must satisfy basic survival needs (shelter, food, income), deal with trauma, and navigate shifting personal and collective identities in the aftermath of displacement. The individual and family-level strategies that IDPs develop to respond to these challenges ultimately require joining existing or forming new social networks for information sharing, economic support and emotional connection. Despite obstacles to community organizing (including direct threats and violence), these social networks sometimes morph into broader political coalitions, which serve as the base for social movements that make claims on the state. By learning from IDP settlement strategies, policymakers could develop more effective and durable solutions to address internal displacement and lay the groundwork for a more just and sustainable peace. I recommend: focusing on long-term IDP urban integration rather than on return to communities of origin, providing support to complement the foundation laid by IDP civil society organizations, and reframing policy away from short-term, household-level aid to target and support the social networks that form the basis of IDP resilience. by Jody Pollock. M.C.P.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

39

Dolley, Jonathan. "Sustainability, resilience and governance of an urban food system : a case study of peri-urban Wuhan." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2017. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/66462/.

Full text

Abstract:

While it is clear that urban food systems need to be made resilient so that broader sustainability goals can be maintained over time, it has been a matter of debate as to how resilience should be conceptualised when applied to social-ecological systems. Through a case study of peri-urban Wuhan, this research develops and applies a resilience based conceptual framework for periurban food systems analysis in order to explore the potential for an enhanced understanding of resilience that can contribute to promoting sustainability in urban food systems. The evidence of this thesis suggests that the current approach to governance of Wuhan's periurban vegetable system is building an increasingly exclusionary pattern of resilience. It is a form of resilience building which is likely to undermine broader normative sustainability goals around social justice and environmental integrity and have mixed future implications for food system resilience as a whole, particularly in relation to livelihood outcomes for peri-urban farmers and food safety outcomes for urban consumers in general. The key lessons from this research are that the concept of resilience can be used to support either a narrowing down or an opening up of normative framings of system outcomes and can contribute to obscuring or revealing the multiple processes of change unfolding across the levels of system context, structures and actors. These dualities in the way that resilience thinking can contribute to normative and analytical framings need to be explicitly acknowledged if serious unintended consequences of resilience building interventions are to be avoided. Six important principles for conceptualising resilience in urban food systems are suggested: to 1) disaggregate system outcomes, 2) differentiate function and structure, 3) analyse positive and negative resilience, 4) identify external and structural shocks and stresses, 5) analyse resilience in relation to multiple and multi-scale processes of change and 6) recognise the impacts of those processes on marginalised system actors. Finally, a heuristic framework is presented for guiding the design of resilience analyses of human dominated social-ecological systems.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

40

Noriega, Alicia. "Energy resilience on a local level : inclusive planning for disaster." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118238.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2018. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 50-54). The nature of today's energy and technology relationship means that there is a vulnerable relationship between energy delivery systems and the range of social, medical, and fiscal systems they currently support. In the past decade, the fragility of aging electric power grids with inadequate redundant generation, transmission, or distribution capacity, has been clearly revealed by the power losses resulting from Hurricanes Ike, Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, and most recently Hurricane Maria. A single downed pole can disable such traditional systems, leaving thousands without power for a short time, and a more significant event can have far more catastrophic consequences. Endemic financial strife only exacerbates these conditions, causing complicating factors like deferred maintenance and cheap materials selection. For islands' electricity systems especially, shocks could also come in the form of physical shortages of imported fuel, or other supply chain issues stemming from severe weather. Islands in the Caribbean tend to have a confluence of unfortunate factors in this regard; poorly funded and run utilities, dependence on imported fuels, and exposure to some of the highest winds in the western hemisphere. The term 'resilience' is subject to a multitude of interpretations and application across disciplines, therefore, depending on the school of thought and scale of focus (physical infrastructure or social communities) there are various ways to design for resilience. The study of resilience of grid infrastructure systems in Puerto Rico in particular revealed that weak institutions, poor financial management, and lack of citizen participation combined to create a system that did not perform as needed for its main client, the electricity customer. By closely studying the factors which make a system "resilient" and perform well to unanticipated shock, I will propose a participatory planning framework for community enclaves to provide essential services to Caribbean island communities in a cost-constrained context. by Alicia Noriega. M.C.P.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

41

Cai, Hongru M. C. P. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Decoding Sponge City in Shenzhen : resilience program or growth policy?" Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111261.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2017. This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 66-69). Unprecedented urbanization in China, combined with the increase of extreme weather events globally, has led to greater vulnerability of Chinese cities to urban water management issues including non-point source pollution, shortage of fresh water and urban floodings. In response to these problems, a national policy named "Sponge City" was first introduced in early 2014 to form a comprehensive alternative. Since then, two major views of its conceptualization have defined "Sponge City" as (1) a distributed resilience program modeled after Low Impact Development (LID) and Green Infrastructure (GI), and (2) a growth policy justifying the new investment in urban construction sector and the experimental field of financial innovation to involve private investment such as Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). However, a central contradiction has been widely observed in practice as the environmental and economic agendas of "Sponge City" are not always compatible with each other. This thesis examines the phenomenon where local governments, in the face of such dilemmas, have tended to skew "Sponge City" towards pro-growth policies by branding "Sponge New Districts" in urban outskirts, and asks why and how local governments use "Sponge New District" as a potential resolution. This thesis studies the case of Guangming New District in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province and argues two rationales exist behind this strategy. First, the development of such "Sponge New Districts" provides local government with more opportunities for private investors to profit from basic urban infrastructure projects such as roads and amenities. Second, such development justifies the direct intervention of the government in financing and construction by aligning Sponge New Districts with the local expansion agenda. Nonetheless, these "Sponge New Districts" divert the original environmental ideology of Sponge City and suggest that a fundamental gap exists between an idealized resilience program and the execution of pro-growth agendas at the local governmental level in contemporary China. by Hongru Cai. M.C.P.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

42

Ernstson, Henrik. "In Rhizomia : Actors, Networks and Resilience in Urban Landscapes." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Systemekologiska institutionen, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-8137.

Full text

Abstract:

With accelerating urbanization it is crucial to understand how urban ecosystems play a part in generating ecosystem services for urban dwellers, such as clean water, spaces for recreation, stress relief and improved air quality. An equally important question relate to who gets to enjoy these benefits, i.e. the distribution of ecosystem services, and how issues of power and equity influence the management of ecosystems. Through case studies from the urban landscape of Stockholm, this doctoral thesis engages with these perspectives through combining ecological theory with social theory, including social network analysis, actor-network theory and social movement theory. Strategies for how to improve urban ecosystem management are presented along with frameworks for how to analyze issues of power and equity in relation to natural resource management. Paper I shows that ecosystem management can be studied through analyzing the structure of social networks, i.e. the patterns of relations between agencies, stake-holders and user groups. Paper II and Paper III analyze, based on a network survey of 62 civil society organizations and in-depth interviews, a transformational process of how an urban local movement managed to protect a large urban green area from exploitation (The Stockholm National Urban Park). Paper IV discusses, based on several case studies from Stockholm, a conducive network structure for linking managers and user groups (e.g. allotment gardens, cemetery managers, and urban planners) across spatial ecological scales so as to improve urban green area management. Paper V presents a framework to analyze the social-ecological dynamics behind the generation and distribution of ecosystem services in urban landscapes. The thesis points towards the notion of "a social production of ecosystem services" and argues for deeper engagement with urban political ecology and critical geography to inform governance and collective action in relation to urban ecosystems.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

43

Joerin, Jonas. "Enhancing Climate-related Disaster Resilience of Urban Communities in Chennai, India." 京都大学 (Kyoto University), 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/157881.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

44

Ezeji, Joachim Ibeziako. "Increasing the resilience of urban water utilities to extreme weather events." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2013. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/12359.

Full text

Abstract:

The sustainability of municipal drinking water services in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria requires that its water utilities enhance their resilience to a range of risks posed by extreme weather events. Excellence in managing such risks is essential, not only to the bottom line and reputation of the utilities, but also to the wellbeing and prosperity of the people they serve and the preservation of nature in order to sustain ecosystem services. In the context of this study, organisational resilience has been defined as the adaptive deployment of the utility s assets and structures within its continua of inter-dependences to improve and sustain performance even in the face of repeated perturbations. On the other hand, vulnerability is defined as the utility s inability to withstand adverse stress based on limited or constrained capacity to adapt hence creating pathways through which risk impacts the utility. This definition of vulnerability is in tandem with those that argue that the key parameters of vulnerability are the stress to which a system is exposed, its sensitivity, and its adaptive capacity. In view of this, and also based on the findings of the study, the study notes that utility management could be a complex and challenging task, especially, in a multi-risk delta environment where extreme events are intense and frequent. Utility managers can become veterans of risks by dissipating, more than ever before technical competence, watershed/ecosystem awareness, social engagement skills and conceptual ability. The latter includes an understanding of how the complexities of the upstream and downstream environment impacts on the utility s internal environment and operations. The diffusive nature of risk makes every risk a potential high impact risk and the understanding of this, is the key to a resilient organization. Risk analysis and management in water utilities should aim to limit the diffusion of risks across streams in order to retard vulnerability. Utility resilience options will need to vary depending on climate related risks to each system, utility management goals, legislation, local and national water management strategies and finance. Utilities in the Niger delta needs to fully understand that they operate close to the edge by virtue of being below sea level and should cultivate a keen awareness of the consequences of flooding and saltwater intrusion, and the importance to manage them amongst others. The study has shown that there is need now, more than ever before for increased revenue generation, elimination of wastes/inefficiencies, financial investment and strategic management of water services operations in the study area if residents and the unborn generation are to be guaranteed of safe and adequate drinking water.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

45

Hale, James David. "Elucidating the drivers, contextual sensitivity and resilience of urban ecological systems." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2015. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/6238/.

Full text

Abstract:

As the global population urbanises, the benefits derived from contact with nature increasingly depend upon the presence of diverse urban ecological communities. These may be threatened by changes in land-cover and the intensification of land-use. A key question is how to design and manage cities to retain desirable species, habitats and processes. Addressing this question is challenging, due to the dominant role of humans in shaping spatially and temporally complex urban landscapes. Earlier research identified ecological patterns along urban–rural gradients, often using simplified measures of built form and disturbance. The central theme within this thesis is that we require a more mechanistic understanding of the processes that created today‘s ecological patterns, which recognises the interactions between social and ecological sub-systems. Using bats (Chiroptera) as a case study group, I identified a broadly negative association between bat activity and built density. Urban tree networks appeared beneficial for one species, and further work revealed that their role in facilitating movement depended upon the size of gaps in tree lines and their illumination level. Resilience analyses were used to map diverse dependencies between the functioning of urban bat habitats and human social factors; illustrating the value of a more mechanistic systems-based approach.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

46

Wang, Yan. "Tracking Disaster Dynamics for Urban Resilience: Human-Mobility and Semantic Perspectives." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/95913.

Full text

Abstract:

Fostering urban resilience and creating agility to disaster response is an urgent task faced by cities worldwide in the context of climate change and increasing frequencies of natural disasters. Understanding and tracking the dynamic process of resilience to disasters is the first step to operationalize the concept of urban resilience. In this dissertation, I present four related but evolutionary perspectives to investigate the impact of natural disasters on interactive human-environment systems as well as the dynamic process of resilience, including human mobility, spatial networks, and coupled mobility and sentiment perspectives. In the first, human-mobility perspective, I examine the nuanced impact of a severe winter storm on human mobility patterns and the relationship between perturbed mobility during the storm and recurrent mobility under normal circumstances. In the second, where I adopt a spatial network perspective, I investigate the dynamic process of resilience over time by analyzing networked human-spatial systems using an ecology-inspired approach. The third perspective involves sentiment as an additional factor to human mobility to understand urban dynamics during an earthquake. In this perspective, I explore the relation between disaster magnitude and a population's collective sentiment, as well as temporal correlations between sentiment and mobility. Each of the three empirical studies employs a quantitative, empirical research methodology and uses voluntarily reported geo-referenced data collected through a Twitter Streaming API. After multiple investigations on diverse types of natural disaster (e.g. severe winter storm, flooding, hurricane, and earthquake), I develop a Detecting Urban Emergencies Technique (DUET), as the fourth part of my dissertation, for identifying and tracking general types of emergencies in a short period without prior definitions of emergent topics. Research findings from the three empirical studies and the proposed DUET detection technique introduce a new lens and approach for understanding population dynamics and achieving urban resilience. This dissertation contributes to a more complete understanding of urban resilience to disasters with crowdsourced data, and enables more effective urban informatics in the face of extreme events. PHD

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

47

Elmer, Julia Raquel. "Reinventing the Rust Belt: Welcoming Economies, Immigrant Entrepreneurship, and Urban Resilience." The Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1468517928.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

48

Xiong, Yi. "Stormwater Adaptive Resilience and the Assessment of Rotterdam’s Urban Water System." Thesis, KTH, Urbana och regionala studier, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-298519.

Full text

Abstract:

As the global climate gets warmer, local extreme weather becomes more frequent, and it becomes more and more difficult to accurately predict the occurrence of extreme rainfall. At the same time, the threat and destructiveness of stormwater weather to urban water systems and cities are also increasing due to the continuous advancement of urbanization, the continuous gathering of urban population and the increasingly obvious urban heat island effect.Since it was first proposed, resilience thinking has become a very important idea in urban planning and research. With the continuous development of resilience thinking, its concept and connotation are also constantly improved and developed. It has developed from a single state of resilience at the beginning to cover all aspects of social, economic and ecological issues.This research aims to find the resilience level of the urban water system of Rotterdam, and find some typical cases of Rotterdam’s experience for other cities to learn. Based on the resilience thinking, this study takes Rotterdam as an example to comprehensively evaluate the resilience of the urban water system under stormwater disaster and urban flood and waterlogging. The first part of this thesis first introduces the urban water system, resilience thinking and other concept which this thesis use. In the second part, this thesis mainly introduced the specific analytical method and analytical framework, namely ASPIRE model. The third part will combine the analysis model with the example of Rotterdam, and comprehensively analyze the stormwater adaptive resilience of the urban water system. In the fourth part of this thesis, three engineering examples of Rotterdam which worthy of promotion and learning are introduced and summarized in detail. The last part of this thesis is the discussion and conclusion. Through this study, it is found that the urban water system of Rotterdam has high stormwater adaptive resilience and Rotterdam has many successful experiences which can be learned by other cities.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

49

Perry, Elizabeth Eleanor. "Cityscape connections: National Park Service relevance and resilience in urban areas." ScholarWorks @ UVM, 2018. https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/850.

Full text

Abstract:

The National Park Service (NPS) strives to embody U.S. democratic ideals, conserving our collective stories and scenery for their intrinsic value and the enjoyment of current and future generations. However, although these places are conserved for all, they are not enjoyed by all. As with other conservation agencies, the NPS finds itself increasingly concerned with building relevance with diverse potential stewards. In cities, where 80% of the U.S. population and 40% of the NPS portfolio is based, there is a prime opportunity to build relevance with large, diverse, and proximate audiences. Recognizing this opportunity, the NPS initiated its Urban Agenda as a centerpiece of its 2016 centennial. The Urban Agenda seeks to connect people with proximate NPS parks and programs, primarily by using collaborations as pathways to relevance. In doing so, the agency may become a more resilient and value-added component of these larger landscapes. However, connections between relevance, resilience, and collaborations, especially at the organizational level, have rarely been addressed. This dissertation: 1) identifies perspectives on NPS relevance in the urban context; 2) examines the diversity of brokers and roles in facilitating relevance across collaborative networks; and 3) assesses areas of intra-NPS relationship-building for enhanced relevance. A multi-site, multi-methods evaluation was conducted. Detroit, Tucson, and Boston, all cities with Urban Agenda investment but representing different proximities to physical NPS parks, were selected as cases. Qualitative in-depth interviews with NPS staff and community partners were paired with quantitative social network analysis. The first phase of research identifies areas of commonality and difference among perceptions about relevance. Qualitative inquiry found that, across cities, NPS staff tended to conceptualize relevance in agency-focused ways while community partners conceptualized it on broader scales, both in audiences and goals. These differences in scale may be complementary, though, with the NPS further enhancing its relevance by recognizing the larger context and embedding its perspectives within this context. The second phase of research quantitatively examines collaborative network composition and potential, especially regarding network and broker diversity. Study results suggest that building the breadth and depth of a network, as well as targeting specific areas of desired growth, are ways to effectively build network resilience and further connections for relevance. The third phase of research examines relationships among parks, programs, and offices of the NPS. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, this inquiry found that relationships between parks are most numerous and supported by institutional structures. However, connections to and within programs are a desired area for further connection. All relationship-building structures and language must emphasize the utility of internal connections for external relevance. Balancing relationship types while being inclusive of non-park groups may be essential in promoting organizational resilience and relevance. This evaluation contributes to theoretical understanding about and indicators of relevance and resilience. Together, results from these three phases of study can help the NPS understand specific relevance considerations in urban areas, efficiently use their resources to enhance relevance, and continue to strive toward our democratic ideals.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

50

Latim, O. Timothy. "The plant project : an urban agricultural intervention in Marabastad." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/45291.

Full text

Abstract:

The dissertation investigates the notion of resilience in the urban environment. The potential for architecture to adapt to the changing contexts. The study focuses on regenerating decayed urban environments using a relationship between architecture and the landscape. Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2014. Architecture MArch(Prof) Unrestricted

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Urban resilience'

Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles