Urban disaster resilience : learning from the 2011 Bangkok, Thailand, flood using morphology and complex adaptive systems

This chapter describes research undertaken by the author that explores the resilience of lowincome neighborhoods after a large-scale flood. The neighborhoods also have a history of eviction threats. Complex adaptive systems (interdependent systems that adapt and co-evolve with their changing environment) and urban morphology (the study of changes in urban form) are combined to interrogate humanitarian and built environment drivers of urban disaster resilience within three cases, demonstrating that these two urban approaches can be employed to reveal patterns of urban resilience, vulnerability, capacity, risk and opportunity. Morphology and complex adaptive systems (CAS) are combined as an investigative approach for three reasons. First, analysis of the morphological layers and their relationships with complex adaptive systems generates an understanding about the interactions that shape risk, opportunity and vulnerability in the built environment and the degrees of influence each system has at different physical scales. Second, the approaches analyze both disaster and chronic risks, striving to overcome the traditional silos of ‘disaster’ and ‘development’ approaches. Third, the combined approach helps identify issues about which urban actors can collaborate across vertical and horizontal scales that include policy and practice. While neighborhoods and urban professionals recognize the importance of working together, they face challenges in doing so. Leeson (2014) notes that while ‘planners and the humanitarians were not speaking the same language, both groups recognized the incredible wealth of expertise that the other could bring to their work.’ Due to its broad range of applicability, it is imperative to define resilience for whom, and to what, in order to speak about the concept with clarity. The research undertaken as the basis for this chapter is focused on learning about the flood and eviction challenges faced by three low-income neighborhoods in Bangkok, Thailand