This post has to do with how Urban Planning can contribute towards Disaster Risk Reduction. In particular, this discussion will focus on the Australian handbook on Land Use Planning for Disaster Resilient Communities by the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR, 2020) through some prompting questions:
How might you rank order the planning principles for disaster resilience on pp. 9-10? Why?
The planning principles identified in the handbook would be ranked as follows:
1. Promote multidisciplinary collaboration
I would consider the above principle first of all as an over-arching attitude. Multi-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary and transdisciplinary practices are essential due to the systems-based nature of disaster risk, disaster risk reduction and elements of vulnerability and exposure.
2. Prioritise life and relief of suffering
3. Sustainability
4. Pursue resilient, sustainable and liveable communities
5. Support the preservation, maintenance and enhancement of functional natural systems/ ecosystems
The above three points are aspects of development and sustainability that should form the main core of aims and objectives. Relief of suffering will only work to the fullest if it’s considered holistically; by incorporating sustainability, resilience and liveability of our communities and cities and looking further into the future. Supporting the preservation of the natural world will mean that it will in turn be able to support human life.
6. Consider natural hazards early in and throughout land use planning processes
Natural hazards are not an after-thought to planning. Planning process and design should incorporate natural hazards into the process from the beginning, as part of a system.
7. Recognise that some land may be unsuitable for certain activities or development
By considering natural systems and ecosystems, there are certain aspects of the natural environment that need to be protected. This should be enforced and respected.
8. Consider cumulative impacts of changes in development and demographics
9. Consider how natural hazards vary with climate change for an appropriate planning horizon for development decisions
The time factor in Urban Planning needs to be considered in various lengths – from short-term, medium-term and longer-term.
10. Support evidence-based land use planning processes, risk assessment and scenario
testing
11. Use the full range of risk treatment mechanism options prioritising avoiding risks
12. Monitoring and review of land use planning decisions
The processes involved in land-use planning will need to incorporate ongoing research, evidence-based assessments and reviews throughout. Urban Planning for Disaster Risk Reduction is not a project that takes place once and is completely finished. Land-Use Planning for Disaster Risk Reduction is about ongoing work to set out processes that will help reduce risk and to improve and adapt over time as climate, phenomena, technology, communities, ways of living and cities develop and change.
To what extent do you think Chapter 2 adopts a vulnerability (not an impact) perspective on Disaster Risk Reduction? Why?
Chapter two focuses almost exclusively on identifying and understanding the risks that exacerbate vulnerability. It is not focusing on effects posed by the impacts of disaster, but rather, the conditions and patterns that led to them in the first place. In Systems thinking, this level of thinking is not simply looking at the event (level 1 understanding) but also looking at the patterns of events (level 2), some of the systemic structures that are causing these patterns of events (level 3), and finally, the mental modes in humans that are allowing or have been causing these events, patterns and systemic structures to manifest (level 4). In systems thinking, in order to assess a problem and some ways of how to solve it requires different levels of understanding that are not only targeted to what we perceive to be the initial problem, such as the impact of disaster.
Figure 3: Source: Land Use Planning for Disaster Resilient Communities, AIDR, 2020
Shifting the focus on understanding disaster risk allows all aspects of Disaster Risk Reduction to find solutions at a systemic level and deeper; the underlying causes.
Explain the parallels between land use planning and risk management.
As it is explained in the handbook, both land-use planning and risk management work on a system of continuous feedback and improvement of its system. Both aim to monitor effects, learning and incorporating feedback, modifying where and when necessary as conditions change and understanding refines and improves.
Due to this similarity land-use planning and risk management are continuously developed, it allows both to work together to complement, aid and support both areas holistically with much-needed interconnections between systems.
“Furthermore, they facilitate the integration of risk management considerations throughout the land use planning processes by taking a risk-based approach to planning.” (AIDR, 2020, pp.22)
Someone has said that the five steps in the Planning Framework for disaster resilient communities (p. 23) are not specific to urban planning, i.e., they are too general. If that is the case, how useful is the Framework? Why?
Figure 4: Source: Land Use Planning for Disaster Resilient Communities, AIDR, 2020
It is important in finding solutions and designs for ‘wicked problems’ to cultivate a process of iteration with a structure that will ensure different levels of thinking, understanding and knowledge that is informing and shaping the work that is being done. Even if we say that the framework is not specific to practices of Urban Planning, it is made for the practice to guide how planning takes place on a systematic and mental modes level. The framework provides structure to a complex, iterative, feedback and risk-oriented approach, as a map for navigating the field.
References
Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (2020). Land Use Planning for Disaster Resilient Communities (1 ed.).
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