Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Exploring urban resilience thinking for its application in urban planning: a review of literature

  • Review
  • Published:
International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Environmental and urban problems are rooted in both ecology and urbanism contexts. The main issue in this regard is to plan, design and manage urban settlements where human beings would be able to have the desirable quality of life according to sustainable principles. The increase in social, economic and spatial vulnerabilities in cities, and the excess of degradation factors of natural environment resources show the necessity of considering resilience thinking. This paper aims to apply resilience thinking to urban studies and to identify the required basis for further research on urban resilience through a descriptive analytical review of the theoretical literature. A recent research on urban resilience in urbanization, which is a novel topic in urban resilience studies is addressed in this article. This paper aimed at introducing indices of urban resilience through a particular approach to the relationship between urban form and urban resilience. Given the literature review of urban resilience, our results show that while most research topics rely on environmental dimensions and reduction in natural hazards, such as global warming and climate change, the need for further research on spatial morphology and urban spatial structures is evident. Furthermore, additional research is needed to explore the criteria of urban resilience measurement specifically in the locational-spatial aspect.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. E.g., economic sanctions and terrorism.

  2. E.g., earthquake in Bam, Iran, measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale in 2003.

  3. In the early 2000s, the concept of ecosystem services was defined and categorized into four categories by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA): “The ecosystem services include four general categories: (1) procurement services, e.g., water, fruit and food production; (2) regulatory services, e.g., climate and disease control; (3) supportive services, e.g., food cycle, crop pollination; and (4) cultural services including recreational and spiritual benefits” (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). The diversity, continuity and spatial distribution of homogeneous structural elements of the city, originated from ecosystem services, are important dimensions of resilience in cities.

  4. The English botanist Arthur Tensley was the first person who expressed the concept of ecosystem in 1935 (Walker et al. 2004).

References

  • Abid M (2016) Of resilient places: planning for urban resilience. Eur Plan Stud 24(2):407–419

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ACCCRN T (2014) Asian cities climate change resilience network. The Rockefeller Foundation, Asia Office

  • Adger W (2003) Building resilience to promote sustainability. Germany: IHDP—International Human Dimensions Programme

  • Adger W, Arnell N, Tompkins E (2005) Successful adaptation to climate change across scales. Glob Environ Change 15(2):77–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahren J (2011) From fail-safe to safe-to-fail: sustainability and resilience in the new urban world. Landsc Urban Plan 100(4):341–343

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahren J (2012) Urban landscape sustainability and resilience: the promise and challenges of integrating ecology with urban planning and design. Landsc Ecol 28(6):3–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Albers M, Deppisch S (2012) Resilience in the light of climate change: useful approach or empty phrase for spatial planning? Eur Plan Stud 21:1–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Alberti M, Marzluff JM (2004) Ecological resilience in urban ecosystems: linking urban patterns to human and ecological functions. Urban Ecosyst 7(3):241–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alberti M, Marzluff J, Shulenberger G, Bradley C, Zumbrunnen C (2003) Integration humans into ecology: opportunities and challenges for studying urban ecosystems. BioSience 53(12):1169–1179

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bozza A, Asprone D, Fabbrocino F (2017) Urban resilience: a civil engineering perspective. Sustain J 9: 103. http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability

  • Bruneau M, Chang ES, Eguchi RT, Lee GC, O’Rourke DT, Reinhorn AM, Shinozuka M, Tierney K, Wallace WA, Winterfeldt DV (2003) A framework to quantitatively assess and enhance the seismic resilience of communities. Earthquake Spectra 19(4):733–752

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cadenasso M, Pickett S, McGrath B, Marshall V (2013) Ecological heterogeneity in urban ecosystems: reconceptualized land cover models as a bridge to urban design. In: Cadenasso ML, Pickett STA, McGrath BP, Marshall V (eds) Resilience in ecology and urban design; linking theory and practice for sustainable cities. Springer, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter SR, Folke C, Scheffer M, Westley F (2009) Resilience: accounting for the noncomputable. Ecol Soc 14:140–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapin FI, Power M, Pickett STA, Freitag A, Reynolds JA, Jackson RB, Lodge DM, Duke C, Collins SL, Power AG, Bartuska A (2011) Earth stewardship: science for action to sustain the human–earth system. Ecosphere 2:20–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chelleri L, Olazabal M (2012) Multidisciplinary perspectives on urban resilience. Spain: Basque Center for Climate Change

  • Chelleri L, Waters J, Olazabalm M, Minucci G (2016) Resilience trade-offs: addressing multiple scales and temporal aspects of urban resilience. Environ Urban. http://eau.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/01/09/0956247814550780.full

  • Christopherson S, Michie J, Tyler P (2010) Regional resilience: theoretical and empirical perspectives. J Reg Econ Soc 3(1):3–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark W (2007) Sustainability science: a room of its own. Proc Natl Acad Sci 104:1737–1738

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Colding J (2007) ‘Ecological land-use complementation’ for building resilience in urban ecosystems. Landsc Urban Plan 81(1–2):46–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cutter S, Barnes M, Berry C, Burton E, Evans E, Webb T (2008) A place-based model for understanding community resilience to natural disasters. Glob Environ Change 18:598–606

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davoudi S, Brooks E, Mehmood A (2013) Evolutionary resilience and strategies for climate adaptation. Plan Pract Res 28(3):307–322. https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2013.787695

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dekker S (2014) Climate resilience: the future of cities? International Center for Climate Governance (ICCG)

  • Eraydin A, Tasan-Kok T (2013) Resilience thinking in urban planning, vol 106. Springer, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ernstson H, Barthel S, Andersson E, Borgström S (2010) Scale-crossing brokers and network governance of urban ecosystem services: the case of Stockholm. Ecol Soc 15(4): 28[online]URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/art28/

  • Ernstson H, van der Leeuw S, Redman C, Meffert D, Davis G, Alfsen C, Elmqvist T (2010b) Urban transitions: on urban resilience and human dominated ecosystems. J Hum Environ 39(8):531–545

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feliciotti A, Romice O, Porta S (2016a) Design for change: five proxies for resilience in the urban form. Open House Int 41(4):23–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Feliciotti A, Romice O, Porta S (2016) Urban regeneration, masterplans and resilience: the case of the Gorbals, in Glasgow. In: The 17th international planning history society conference. Delft, pp 1–15

  • Folke C (2006) Resilience: the emergence of a perspective for social-ecological systems analyses. Glob Environ Change Hum Policy Dimens 16:253–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Folke C, Carpenter SR, Walker B, Scheffer M, Chapin T, Rockström J (2010) Resilience thinking: integrating resilience, adaptability and transformability. Ecol Sci 15(4):20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcia (2013) The application of ecological resilience to urban landscapes. A thesis submitted to the victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy: Victoria University of Wellington

  • Godschalk D (2003) Urban hazard mitigation: creating resilient cities. Nat Hazard ASCE 4(3):136–143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grafakos S, Gianoli A, Tsatsou A (2016) Towards the development of an integrated sustainability and resilience benefits assessment framework of urban green growth interventions. Sustainability 8(5):461. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8050461

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grimm N, Grove J, Pickett S, Redman C (2000) Integrated approaches to long-term studies of urban ecological systems. Bioscience 50:571–840

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grimm N, Faeth S, Golubiewski N, Redman CL, Wu J, Bai X, Briggs J (2008) Global Change and the ecology of cities. Science 319:756–760

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gunderson L, Holling C (2002) Panarchy: understanding transformation in human and natural systems. Island Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanson J (2001) Morphology and design: reconciling intellect, intuition, and ethics in the reflective practice of architecture. In: Proceedings of the 3rd international space syntax symposium. Atlanta, Georgia: Georgia Institute of Technology, http://undertow.arch.gatech.edu/homepages/3sss/

  • Hassler U, Kohler N (2014) Resilience in the built environment. Build Res Inf 42(2):119–129. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2014.873593

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodson M, Marvin S (2012) Mediating low-carbon urban transitions? Forms of organization, knowledge and action. Eur Plan Stud 20(3):421–439

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holling C (1973) Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 4:1–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holling C (1996) Engineering resilience versus ecological resilience. In: Schulze P (ed) Engineering within ecological constraints. National Academy Press, Washington DC, pp 31–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Innis G (1975) Stability, sensitivity, resilience, persistence What is of interest? In: Levin SA (ed) Ecosystem analysis and prediction. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Linkov G, Bridges T, Creutzig F, Decker J, Fox-Lent C, Kröger W, Lambert JH, Levermann A, Montreuil B, Nathwani J, Nyer R, Renn O, Scharte R, Scheffler A, Schreurs M, Thiel-Clemen T (2014) Changing the resilience paradigm. Nat Clim Change 7(4):407–409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marcus L, Colding J (2014) Toward an integrated theory of spatial morphology and resilient urban systems. Ecol Soc 19(4):55–67

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meerow S, Newell J, Stults M (2016) Defining urban resilience: a review. Landsc Urban Plan 147:38–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) Ecosystems and human well-being: synthesis. Island Press, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Odum H, Odum E (2001) A prosperous way down: principles and policies. University Press of Colorado, Boulder

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelling D, Wisner B (2009) Disaster risk reduction: cases from urban Africa. Routledge, Abingdon

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickett S, Cadenasso M, Groveb J (2004) Resilient cities: meaning, models, and metaphor for integrating the ecological, socio-economic, and planning realms. Landsc Urban Plan 69:369–384

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pickett S, Cadenasso M, McGrath B (2013) Resilience in ecology and urban design: linking theory and practice for sustainable cities. Springer, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pisano U (2012) Resilience and sustainable development: theory of resilience, systems thinking and adaptive governance. Vienna, Austria: European Sustainable Development Network (ESDN) Quarterly Report No. 26; ESDN

  • Pizzo B (2013) Problematizing resilience: implications for planning theory and practice. eBook of Abstracts of AESOP/ACSP 5th Joint Congress; Planning for Resilient Cities and Regions. Dublin: AESOP/ACSP 5th Joint Congress, pp 35–36

  • Rafieian M, Sheikhi S (2015) Integrating climate change adaptation and mitigation with urban planning for a livable city in Tehran. Space Ontol Int J 4(14):9–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Rafieian M, Rezaei MR, Asgary A, Parhizkar A, Shayan S (2011) Explaining the concept of resilience and its indexation in community-based disaster management. J Spat Plan 15(4):20–41

    Google Scholar 

  • Redman C (2014) Should sustainability and resilience be combined or remain distinct pursuits? Ecol Soc 19:19–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Resilience Alliance (2007) Assessing and managing resilience in social-ecological systems: a practitioners workbook, vol 1. http://www.resalliance.org/3871.php, version 1.0

  • Rezaei M (2013) Evaluation of economic and institutional resilience of urban communities against natural disasters—case study: earthquake in Tehran’s neighborhoods. J Emerg Manag 3:27–38

    Google Scholar 

  • Richard JT, Kleina RJN, Thomalla Frank (2003) Resilience to natural hazards: how useful is this concept? Environ Hazards 5:35–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose A (2007) Economic resilience to natural and man-made disasters: multidisciplinary origins and contextual dimensions. Environ Hazards 7(4):383–398

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Secretariat of the National Committee for Sustainable Development (2003) The report of World summit on sustainable development in Johannesburg in august 2002. Kian Mehr Publications, Tehran

    Google Scholar 

  • Shah F, Ranghieri F (2012) A workbook on planning for urban resilience in the face of disasters: adapting experiences from Vietnam’s cities to other cities. World Bank, Washinton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Smith A (2010) Community-led urban transitions and resilience: performing transition towns in a city. In: Broto VC, Bulkeley H (eds) Cities and low carbon transitions. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Taşan Kok T, Stead D, Lu P (2013) Conceptual overview of resilience: history and context. In: Eraydin A, Tasan-Kok T (eds) Resilience thinking in urban planning, vol 106. Springer, Berlin, pp 39–51

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor N (1998) Urban planning theory since 1945. University of The West of England, Bristol

    Google Scholar 

  • The Rockefeller Foundation (2014) City resilience framework. Ove Arup & Partners International Limited, New York City

    Google Scholar 

  • T. R. Foundation (2013) Ecological understanding: the nature of theory and the theory of nature. Retrieved 2015, from 100 Resilient Cities. http://www.100resilientcities.org/pages/about-us#/-Yz41NzY7MidpPTEocz5j/

  • United Nations (2014) World urbanisation prospects: the 2014 revision, highlights. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Devision, United Nations

  • University College Dublin (2013) Planning for resilient cities and regions. Retrieved from 5th Joint Congress Planning for Resilient Cities and Regions. http://aesop-acspdublin2013.com/

  • Van Bueren H (2012) (Eco)System thinking: ecological principles for building, roads and industrial and urban areas. In: Van Bueren EB (ed) Sustainable urban environments; an ecosystem approach. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 15–70

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Walker B, Salt D (2006) Resilience thinking: sustaining ecosystems and people in a changing world. Island Press, Washington, p 174

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker C, Holling CS, Carpenter SR, Kinzig A (2004) Resilience adaptability and transformability in social-ecological systems. Ecol Soc 9(2):5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu J, Loucks O (1995) From balance of nature to hierarchical patch dynamics: a paradigm shift in ecology. Q Rev Biol volume 70, pp 439–466

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers who allowed us to improve this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    M. R. Masnavi

  2. Faculty of Architecture and Urban Studies, Art University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    F. Gharai

  3. Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Art University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    M. Hajibandeh

Authors
  1. M. R. Masnavi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. F. Gharai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. M. Hajibandeh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

This paper presents part of the findings of Mona Hajjibanda’s Ph.D. dissertation titled “Developing the theoretical and conceptual framework of urban resilience for its application in urban planning focusing on urban spatial organization case study: Tehran city,” at the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Development, Tehran University of Art, under direction of Dr. Fariba Gharei (as a supervisor) and Prof. Mohammad Reza Masnavi (as an advisor). The authors contributed equally to this work and declare no conflict of interest.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Hajibandeh.

Additional information

Editorial responsibility: Zhenyao Shen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Masnavi, M.R., Gharai, F. & Hajibandeh, M. Exploring urban resilience thinking for its application in urban planning: a review of literature. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 16, 567–582 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-018-1860-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-018-1860-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation