An alternative approach for planning the resilient cities in developing countries

Abstract

Twenty-first century cities in developing countries have been facing development challenges as a result of their fast-growing urban populations and inefficient infrastructures, as well as growing difficulties created by climate change. Though concern for integrating disaster risk management approaches into development planning has been expressed in various policy documents and studies, exact methods of such integration at the spatial level are still being deliberated. The concepts of quality of life (QoL) and disaster resiliency are closely linked and their interrelationship is understood from the definitions and concepts developed in different studies. A disaster can have a negative impact on QoL and resiliency for disaster can protect and maintain QoL. This study develops an approach for integrating disaster resiliency into QoL based on new urbanization models, which can be re-orientated towards achieving resiliency. The Quality of Life with Disaster Resiliency (QoLDR) index offers the integration of resiliency issues arising from the urbanization process as well as natural hazards. It also provides directions for altering urbanization and increases adaptability, which results in resilient urbanization.