18. Disaster Risk Reduction by Urban Resilience for Architectural Heritage

With the massive rate of unplanned urbanization and the inherent risks or vulnerability that are faced by dense urban areas, there is a need for an alternative approach for risk reduction or management of heritage by structural resilience measures. Since people, properties, infrastructure and capital stock are mostly concentrated in urban areas, there is always a competition between immediate economic priorities, where heritage sites seldom receive any attention. Man-made and natural heritage sites are both considered vital for the identity of a city and for its passing on to the coming generations. These sites in urban areas are often susceptible to the impact of all types of hazards due to the neglect. Heritage sites are generally associated with some open spaces around, providing a tool for disaster risk reduction (DRR) opportunity. Traditional green-blue-grey (GBG) networking of open spaces provided appropriate urban resilience to reduce vulnerability and disaster risk. This study attempts to integrate these two concepts by identifying the vulnerabilities in an urban area and assessing possible response to contain them in a systematic manner by institutionalizing local resilience approaches through the heritage site integration within the urban planning/design framework. The study also attempts to identify the types of vulnerabilities to urban architectural heritage sites and proposes to reduce their risk from disasters by integrating them with local traditional resilience practices. Study process is based on a logical argumentation of some case scenario analysis with available data mostly from secondary sources. The data analysis is coupled with their historic interpretation and authors’ own experience in the field of urban design and heritage conservation. Certain application of traditional GBG resilience concept of the DRR for architectural heritage conservation proves to be effective. As the preventive DRR measures by improving resilience are found more appropriate for the conservation of heritage artefacts, it needs to be applied at planning stage. In a nutshell, the study advocates for an action plan for DRR on architectural heritage sites in the urban areas right from the awareness campaign to the urban planning and design stages for urban sustainability.