Learning from Disasters to Enhance Resilience of Urban Complex Systems

This book presents research which gets shaped around three main pillars: Damage and Loss Data, Spatial Planning and Resilience Management. It considers Spatial Planning as key for risk reduction, prevention and climate change adaptation and highlights how post-disaster evidence-based knowledge allows for identifying priorities to mitigate and adapt to existing and future risks. While integrating Resilience Management, this book proposes a methodology to support a proactive Spatial Planning, which by itself can act as an ex-ante mitigation measure. The methodology entails an operational procedure to evaluate resilience in areas exposed to hazardous events after performing stress testing, making use of spatial, quantitative and qualitative data. The methodology has been applied to the case study of Benidorm City (Spain): a model of urbanisation exposed to multi-hazards and characterised by social and institutional vulnerability. By stressing the system under consideration, resilience is framed within the Resilience Matrix to highlight critical areas on which it is necessary to act to boost resilience and to highlight the capacity of the system to respond/withstand and react in case of disruptions.