Exploring the Role of Planning in Urban Resilience Enhancement—An Irish Perspective

Abstract

Over the past two decades the concept of ‘resilience’, and more specifically ‘urban resilience’, has gained increasing attention within urban planning research, policy and practice. However, the pursuit of resilience encounters a series of grounded challenges for urban planning practitioners and associated stakeholders. Among the most commonly cited challenges is the ‘fuzzy’ nature of the resilience concept or its lack of conceptual clarity. Indeed ‘resilience’ has been employed in a range of diverse fields in varying ways. As such, there are increasing scholarly calls for a more thorough understanding of the term’s migration into, and impact upon, planning practice. This chapter explores this critical question through an Irish lens, outlining the key challenges involved in ‘translating’ the concept from theory to practice. Specifically, this chapter focuses on the role of planning in urban resilience enhancement in the Irish context, with particular attention on large scale infrastructure projects (both critical and non-critical). In doing so, lessons are drawn from the findings of two large EU funded research projects, including INTACT and HARMONISE, both funded under the EU Seventh Framework Programme.