Defining a Method for Measuring and Enhancing Urban Resilience to Climate Change based on Landscape Ecology Theories (Case study:Yousef Abad Neighborhood,Tehran)

Subject Areas : urbanism

Elmira Shirgir ¹ , Mostafa Behzadfar ² , Reza Kheyroddin ³

1 - Ph.D. Candidate, Urban Design and Planning, Iran University of Sceince and Technology, Tehran,Iran
2 - Professor, Urban Design and Planning, Iran University of Science and Technology,Tehran,Iran
3 - Associate Professor, Urban Design and Planning, Iran University of Science and Technology,Tehran,Iran

Received: 2020-02-13 Accepted : 2021-01-30 Published : 2021-06-22

Keywords: Urban neighborhood scale, Urban green infrastructures, Climate resilience, Yousef Abad in Tehran, Landscape Ecology,

Abstract :

The growing number of cities in the world face a wide range of hazards, which are affected by factors such as the increased urban population and climate change. Urban development and climate change are closely related and interlinked. Today, the direct and indirect effects of climate change can be seen in countries with the lowest effect on global warming and climate change. Cities that are exposed to the risk of climate change are very vulnerable. Climate change is a globally widespread phenomenon. These cities can be said susceptible. In recent years, to cope with the adverse challenges caused by climate change, the concepts of urban ecological resilience, specifically, climate resilience have been introduced. Climate resilience is a type of urban ecological resilience, which is defined as urban resilience to climate change. In this respect, in recent years, two urban resilience concepts have been introduced to reduce these negative effects. Resilience is the ability of a system to absorb the disturbances while maintaining the basic structure in the same way and the functional methods, the capacity for self-organization and the capacity to adapt to stress and change and the capability to build back the system into its condition before a shock or intense change. Adaption to climate change focuses on reducing the vulnerability to these negative changes. Resilience has different aspects, among which climate resilience as a subcategory of urban ecological resilience is considered in this study, which includes the adaptation to and mitigation of the risks and adverse effects of climate. However, urban green infrastructure has various vital functions, including environmental, social, etc. The urban green infrastructure (UGI), according to research, has been effective in reducing the impacts of climate change in cities and enhancing climate resilience. Reviewing existing literature on the urban green infrastructure related to its role in creating urban (climate) resilience, it seems that the features  of green infrastructure and which one is effective based on the development, analysis, and evaluation of urban resilience to climate change. These have not been properly addressed so far, and in general, no exact factors have been provided to assess this kind of resilience. It seems that the characteristics of urban green infrastructure can be used as an important factor affecting climate resilience in cities to achieve such factors for assessing the quality of climate resilience. Moreover, the neighborhood scale has not been fully studied in the existing literature. Given the theoretical gap existing in this field, this question arises: "How and based on which features of the green infrastructure can we assess and analyze climate resilience in a city?” To answer this question, landscape ecology principles and the relationship between them and green infrastructure in cities were studied. The relationship was developed in the Yousef Abad neighborhood of Tehran and was qualitatively tested using aerial images, field surveys, and preparation of basic and analytical GIS maps. Finally, ‘effective qualities in assessing climate resilience in cities using UGI based on landscape ecology were obtained.

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