Urban Resilience for Risk and Adaptation Governance : Theory and Practice

This book brings together a series of theory and practice essays on risk management and adaptation in urban contexts within a resilient and multidimensional perspective. The book proposes a transversal approach with regard to the role of spatial planning in promoting and fostering risk management as well as institutions’ challenges for governing risk, particularly in relation to new forms of multi-level governance that may include stakeholders and citizen engagement. The different contributions focus on approaches, policies, and practices able to contrast risks in urban systems generating social inclusion, equity and participation through bottom-up governance forms and co-evolution principles. Case studies focus on lessons learned, as well as the potential and means for their replication and upscaling, also through capacity building and knowledge transfer. Among many other topics, the book explores difficulties encountered in, and creative solutions found, community and local experiences and capacities, organizational processes and integrative institutional, technical approaches to risk issue in cities.

Ombretta Caldarice is Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Politecnico and Università di Torino, Italy, in the Inter-University Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning. Her research activity mainly focuses on the relationship between spatial planning and regulation, with particular attention to welfare policies, urban resilience and institutional innovation. She took part in national and international research projects working on the socio-economic planning in regional development. Currently, her research activity is focused on the role (and limits) of planning in complex and adaptive systems. She is junior coordinator of the Risk Management and Adaptation Group of the international programme RESURBE on Urban Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation. Her latest publication is Reconsidering Welfare Policies in Times of Crisis. Perspective for European Cities (Springer, 2018).

Nicola Tollin is Professor WSR in Urban Resilience at the University of Southern Denmark in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering. He is the Executive Director of RESURBE International Program on Urban Resilience, led by Recycling Cities Network RECNET, which he co-founded. Before this, he worked at University IUAV of Venice, Technical University of Denmark, Technical University of Catalunya, and University of Bradford. He has 20 years of international experience in research, capacity-building, education on sustainable development, resilience, climate change, circular economy and innovation focusing on cities and regions; he has coordinated/participated in over 70 research, education and urban development projects worldwide, including 13 EU funded, in several countries including Colombia, Philippines, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Brazil. He authored over 100 scientific publications, delivered over 100 speeches/presentations in 20 countries worldwide, and co-organized over 25 international conferences and UN’s conferences official side events. He has been serving as expert for numerous private and public organizations, including local-authorities, European Commission and United Nations programs and agencies, including UN-Habitat and UNFCCC.

Marti Rosas-Casals is Associate Professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) - BarcelonaTech. His academic and research activity focuses on the fields of applied thermodynamics, energy metabolism and the modelling of complex systems, in particular the study of complex spatial (or geographic) networks, the evolution of technology and the impact of infrastructures on socio-ecological systems. He is the coordinator of the Master's Degree in Sustainability Science and Technology at the UPC, deputy director of the Institute of Sustainability Science and Technology, and head of the SUMMLab (Sustainability Measurement and Modeling Lab) research group. He is also an external member of the Complex Systems Lab at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona).

Jordi Morato is the Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair on Sustainability of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya since 2008. Doctor in Microbiology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), he has 20 years of experience, from which the last 15 years at the international level, in research, education and management of sustainable human development projects related to resources (water, soil, biodiversity), circular economy and participatory community development at local and regional level, such as the Moravia Project in Medellín (2006 to 2014), the Altos de la Estancia Project (2013 to 2014) and the Cordillera project (2015) carried out with the District Risk Management Agency (IDIGER) of the city of Bogotá. He is one of the founding members of the RECICLAR CIUDAD - RECNET network and director of the network of offices UNESCOSOST. He has participated in more than 80 internationally funded research and training programs, working in socio-economic development and environmental restoration, especially for Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Peru. He has made more than 60 scientific and / or dissemination publications, including scientific journals, books and congress communications, and evaluates 22 international journals. Jordi is a consultant for the National Evaluation and Prospective Agency (ANEP) in Spain, the Andalusian Agency and for the INCT (National Institutes of Science and Technology) of CNPq in Brazil.