Proposal for Holistic Assessment of Urban System Resilience to Natural Disasters

Abstract

Abstract. Urban system is a complex mix of interdependent components and dynamic interactions between them that enable it to function effectively. Resilience of urban system indicates the ability of a system to resist, absorb, accommodate to and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner. In the relevant literature, most studies consider individual components separately. On the other hand, the purpose of this paper is to assess the urban system as a whole, considering all relevant components and their interactions. The goal is a study of possibilities for holistic evaluation of urban system resilience to natural disasters. Findings from the preliminary study are presented: (i) the definition of urban system and categorization of its components, (ii) a set of attributes of individual components with impact on disaster resilience of the entire system and (iii) review of different methods and approaches for resilience assessment. Based on literature review and extensive preliminary studies a new conceptual framework for urban resilience assessment is proposed. In the presented paper, a conceptual model of urban system by abstraction of its components as nodes (buildings), patches -specific nodes with spatial properties (open space), links (infrastructures) and base layer (community) is created. In the suggested model, each component is defined by its own quantitative attributes, which have been identified to have an important impact on the urban system resilience to natural disasters. System is presented as a mathematical graph model. Natural disaster is considered an external factor that affects the existing system and leads to some system distortion. In further analyses, mathematical simulation of various natural disasters scenarios is going to be carried out, followed by comparison of the system functionality before and after the accident. Various properties of the system (accessibility, transition, complexity etc.) are going to be analysed with graph theory. The final result is going to be an identification of critical points and system bottlenecks as basis for further actions of risk mitigation.

Urban Resilience Discourse Analysis: Towards a Multi-Level Approach to Cities

“…Assuming that on the larger scale a city belongs to a system of cities (also sometimes called urban systems) that is created through different networks between cities, we focused on the papers talking about "urban networks" and "urban systems". However, this approach did not meet our expectations: All articles using one of these terms either deals with different types of technical networks inside cities [83][84][85], or internal urban systems that consist of such types of networks that include flows of infrastructure, resources, materials, energy and waste [86][87][88]. In other words, they consider different networks inside cities, but they do not study systems of cities where cities constitute networks and interdependencies between each other.…”

Infrastructure resilience curves: Performance measures and summary metrics

“…These metrics were the most frequently adopted summary metric in this survey, spanning conceptual [187], [214], [215], empirical [27], [33], [181], [192] and simulation [24], [53] analyses. Cumulative impact and performance are often perceived to be holistic quantification of system resilience, appropriate for both system assessment [36], [146] and recovery sequencing [53], [216].…”

Assessment of urban resilience based on the transformation of resource-based cities: a case study of Panzhihua, China

“…In contrast, the Rockefeller Foundation focuses primarily on the urban system components, such as individuals, communities, and institutions; acknowledges the presence of disturbance and describes the intensity and duration with descriptors such as "chronic" and "acute"; and emphasizes the urban systems' ability to adapt, change, and further develop in response to gradual and sudden disturbances. (Holling 1996, Yan et al 2012, urban disaster resilience (Hobor 2015, Koren et al 2017, Rus et al 2018, urban economic resilience (Hill et al 2008, Simmie and Martin 2010, Leichenko 2011, and urban social resilience (Adger 2000, Swalheim andDodman 2008). Urban ecosystem resilience considers the whole city as an ecosystem.…”