Improving the integration of urban planning with disaster risk reduction

© 2016 Dr. Maria KornakovaIncreasing numbers of natural disasters worldwide and their impacts on human settlements indicate an urgent need to address these events. Urban planning is acknowledged as one of several mechanisms with the potential to reduce losses and decrease the overall vulnerability of human settlements. This research thesis undertakes an analysis of the integration of urban planning and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). While the importance of this integration has been acknowledged in a number of official frameworks for action (e.g. the Sendai or Hyogo frameworks), there is still limited documented and detailed discussion of how the integration process of various practices should occur, who should be involved, to what degree different stakeholders should be included, and who are the decision-makers of shared decisions. This research project addresses the challenges of integration using a two-stage research method. The first stage employs a heuristic approach towards three practical examples of integrated DRR and urban planning at an international level. These cases cover all four stages of the disaster cycle: the Swiss avalanche prevention and preparedness program, the 2005 Hurricane Katrina case with a focus on the response stage in New Orleans, and the 2007 UK floods focussing on the recovery stage. The findings of this first research stage reveal some general patterns of integration and signify a need for better understanding of the roles of stakeholders and of governance of integration processes. The second stage of this research thesis introduces institutional analysis as a way to understand both the potential and the challenges of integration. It provides an analysis of wider societal arrangements of integration, discusses roles of stakeholders, and indicates a need to address differences of values, views, and goals. The collaborative planning approach focuses on finding consensus between varieties of stakeholders, and is based on the inclusion of all relevant agents in decision-making processes. This concept is proposed as a bridging principle between diverse varieties of stakeholders in the two practices of urban planning and DRR. The collaborative planning approach is analysed in an in-depth case study of changes to bushfire planning policies after the devastating 2009 bushfires in Victoria, Australia using a policy analysis approach. This case reveals that collaborative planning has the potential to be applied to integrated DRR. However, there are some key institutional challenges that must be addressed. These challenges are discussed in four empirically derived themes. The first challenge is the need to maintain the quality of evidence as a basis for DRR solutions. Further, there is an acknowledged need to include professionals with skillsets and knowledge in both fields. Thirdly, a discussion of providing alternative solutions is carried out, suggesting some key characteristics of this process. Finally, the roles of stakeholders, broadly divided into policy users and end-users, are discussed. These elements constitute the framework of governance of integration processes and conclude this research thesis