Adaptive Resilience: The added value to a changing world

Abstract

Presently, the urban and natural systems in the world are trying to balance between coping with the extreme climate conditions and the expanding development. The urgency of accommodating these changes calls for flexible and adaptive response, which can sustain the risks and enhance the performance of the systems. This graduation thesis studies the possibilities of creating urban environments which can withstand and absorb shocks, ultimately increasing their resilience towards climate change. The focus of the research is the Bandung Region in Indonesia, a densely populated metropolitan area, highly exposed to flood risk due to its vulnerable socio-spatial context. The future predictions indicate that by 2035 the population in this area will increase double to the current situation (Djalante, Garschagen, Thomalla, & Shaw, 2017), leading to rise of the social inequalities and escalating vulnerabilities. By further exploring the existing practices for reduction of those risks, the research finds measures improving the safety conditions, but failing to address the issues of well-being and quality of life of the society. This leads to the understanding that overcoming the issues of vulnerability, within the framework of the uncertain future, requires more than just aiming at flood protection. Thus, this graduation thesis explores the added value of flood risk adaptation strategies through the lens of creating safe, healthy and inclusive urban setting.