Multi-risk approach and urban resilience
International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment
ISSN: 1759-5908
Article publication date: 11 April 2016
Abstract
Purpose
Urban resilience is becoming increasingly important due to increasing degree of urbanization and a combination of several factors affecting urban vulnerability. Urban resilience is also understood as a capacity of a system to prepare, respond and recover from multi-hazard threats. The purpose of multi-risk approach (MRA) is to take into consideration interdependencies between multiple risks, which can trigger a chain of natural and manmade events with different spatial and temporal scales. The purpose of this study is to understand correlation between multi-risk approach and urban resilience.
Design/methodology/approach
To increase urban resilience, MRA should also include multi-risk governance, which is based on understanding how existing institutional and governance structures, individual judgments and communication of risk assessment results shape decision-making processes.
Findings
This paper is based on extensive fieldwork in the test studies of Naples, Italy and Guadeloupe, France, the historical case study analysis and the stakeholders’ interviews, workshops and focus groups discussions.
Originality/value
Multi-risk is a relatively new field in science, only partially developed in social and geosciences. The originality of this research is in establishment of a link between MRA, including both assessment and governance, and urban resilience. In this paper, the authors take a holistic and systemic look at the MRA, including all stages of knowledge generation and decision-making. Both, knowledge generation and decision-making are reinforced by behavioural biases, different perceptions and institutional factors. Further on, the authors develop recommendations on how an MRA can contribute to urban resilience.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The work described in this paper was supported by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program, (FP7/2007-2013) through the agreement no. 265138 of the project MATRIX (New Multi-Hazard and MulTi-Risk Assessment Methods for Europe. The authors would like to thank Paolo Gasparini (AMRA), Angela Di Ruocco (AMRA), Charlotte Vinchon (BRGM), Audrey Baills (BRGM), Fabio Sabetta (Italian Civil Protection), Mendy Begoubou-Valerius (BRGM), Roger Mrzyglocki (German Committee for Disaster Reduction Bonn) and Anthony Patt (ETH Zürich) who were very generous with their time, expertise and feedback providing with important inputs to this work.
Citation
Komendantova, N., Scolobig, A., Garcia-Aristizabal, A., Monfort, D. and Fleming, K. (2016), "Multi-risk approach and urban resilience", International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 114-132. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJDRBE-03-2015-0013
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited