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German Annual of Spatial Research and Policy 2010

Urban Regional Resilience: How Do Cities and Regions Deal with Change?

herausgegeben von: Bernhard Müller

Verlag: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Buchreihe : German Annual of Spatial Research and Policy

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

Resilience is increasingly becoming a catchword in current discussions about urban and regional development. While there has been a strong research focus on sustainability, there is a lack of understanding of the processes and factors that make cities and regions more vulnerable and others more resilient, for example, when dealing with climate change, demographic decline and ageing, as well as economic crises. The German Annual of Spatial Research and Policy 2010 sheds some light on this by discussing examples of how actors deal with change. On the one hand, concepts are described and analysed which are oriented towards increasing urban regional resilience, for example regarding energy consumption, climate change, and urban decline. Moreover, institutional aspects are discussed. On the other hand, barriers for using the concept of resilience in planning are described and suggestions are made about how to deal with these barriers in strategic planning.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Urban and Regional Resilience – A New Catchword or a Consistent Concept for Research and Practice?

Remarks Concerning the International Debate and the German Discussion

Abstract

Resilience seems to have become the new catchword of our times. “Resilience is to the 2000s and 2010s what sustainability was to the 1980s and 1990s ” (Foster, n.d.). The term is highly attractive as, in general, to be resilient refers to something positive: to be able to withstand hardship and disturbance, to recover from disaster and destruction, to regain one’s original shape after deformation, to be cautious enough to prepare for the unforeseen, and to deal with risks in an appropriate way. A high degree of resilience is related to a low degree of vulnerability. The attention the term receives may be“a response to a generalized contemporary sense of uncertainty and insecurity and a search for formulas for adaptation and survival” (Christopherson, Michie, & Tyler, 2010).

Bernhard Müller

Urban Resilience and New Institutional Theory – A Happy Couple for Urban and Regional Studies?

Abstract

Every town and city is affected by trends of transformation and by processes of economic structural change. Some towns, cities, or regions can adapt to such developments while in others, structural change leads to multiple decline. The concept of urban resilience seems to offer ideas that make it easier to understand such differences.

Thilo Lang

Given the Complexity of Large Cities, Can Urban Resilience be Attained at All?

Abstract

Large cities display an exceptional degree of complexity in a network of dynamic ecological, social, economic, cultural, and political interrelationships (Eckardt, 2009). They are characterized by high population density, high resource consumption as well as intensive land use, and they are often the origins of change processes. At the same time, large cities are particularly vulnerable to changes and disruptions because of the concentration of material assets and human lives. The concept of resilience describes the factors that can influence the ability of ecosystems and societies to withstand disturbances (Berkes & Folke, 1998; Folke et al., 2002; Walker & Empirical studies of resilience (e.g., Fleischhauer, 2008; Godschalk, 2003) often employ research approaches which focus on portions of the complex relationships between ecosystems and societies.

Sonja Deppisch, Mareike Schaerffer

Rebuild the City! Towards Resource-efficient Urban Structures through the Use of Energy Concepts, Adaptation to Climate Change, and Land Use Management

Abstract

More and more people live in cities. Within the context of the energy crisis, climate change, and demographic change, one of the greatest challenges is the resourceefficient conversion of urban regions. The level of new housing construction is presently a great deal less than one percent of existing buildings. Current and future urban development will mainly involve existing structures.

Fabian Dosch, Lars Porsche

Urban Restructuring – Making ‘More’ from ‘Less’

Abstract

The restructuring of our cities has developed into an important area of urban development policy in recent years. Governmental urban restructuring programs in eastern and western Germany face entirely different challenges than former urban renewal programs in West German cities. In the early years of urban development grants, the issue was first of all to eliminate ‘unhealthy living conditions’ and to overcome ‘functional weaknesses’ in formally designated urban renewal areas. This occurred against the background of continuous economic growth and unchecked sprawl – and older, pre-World War II neighborhoods were neglected as a result (Zapf, 1969).

Manfred Fuhrich, Evi Goderbauer

Accomodating Creative Knowledge Workers? Empirical Evidence from Metropoles in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

The emergence of creative and cultural industries has attracted much attention in urban research on cities in Western Europe and North America. By contrast, little knowledge can be found on the status of creative workers in Central and Eastern Europe. The debate in Western Europe considers creativity and knowledge as central factors in enhancing the competitiveness of the urban economic base. Creative and knowledge-based industries are also gaining increasing importance in posttransition cities in Central and Eastern Europe.

Joachim Burdack, Bastian Lange

A Strategy for Dealing with Change: Regional Development in Switzerland in the Context of Social Capital

Abstract

For decades regional development in Switzerland was characterized by preserving a traditional spatial structure dealing with change more as a threat than an opportunity in the sense of modern renewal. By promoting innovation, spatial reorganization, and strong, future-oriented, sustainable regions this unsatisfying situation is approached by the Swiss ‘Neue Regionalpolitik’ (NRP). For this purpose a knowledge management system understood as a strategy of social learning has been designed to link social capital-based regional development with elements of sustainability.

Stephan Schmidt

Path Dependency and Resilience – The Example of Landscape Regions

Abstract

Spatial development is caught somewhere between stability and adaptation to new challenges. The reasons for this are natural risks, as well as dynamic processes of economic and social change, and globalization. In view of increasing risks (cf. Beck, 2007), the resilience of cities and regions is becoming more and more of an issue. The resilience concept, which was originally developed to explain ecological processes, has been further developed and applied to social problems. This has led to links with the social science approach of path theory.

Andreas Röhring, Ludger Gailing

Resilience and Resistance of Buildings and Built Structures to Flood Impacts – Approaches to Analysis and Evaluation

Abstract

The global increase in the frequency and intensity of natural hazards as well as the rising number of victims and growing damages make the necessity of improved risk reduction at the societal level abundantly clear (UN/ISDR, 2005). We must assume that climate change will continue to exacerbate meteorological events (IPCC, 2007). At the same time, it is clear that the constantly growing intensity of settlements and concentration of material assets in endangered areas are resultingin distinctly heightened vulnerability (Munich Re Group, 2009).

Thomas Naumann, Johannes Nikolowski, Sebastian Golz, Reinhard Schinke

Planning for Risk Reduction and Organizing for Resilience in the Context of Natural Hazards

Abstract

Contributions to current debates about dealing with natural hazards increasingly refer to both notions of planning and resilience. For instance, some authors argue that reducing the risk related to natural hazards in the context of climate change requires long-term planning and resilience to deal with a high degree of uncertainty (e.g., Overbeck, Hartz, & Fleischhauer, 2008; Müller & Hutter, 2009). Other scholars who use the concept of resilience tend to be rather distant to notions of planning, especially long-term planning (e.g., Weick & Sutcliffe, 2007). They argue that effective problem solving through planning and implementation is a rare case under real-world conditions and that organizations preoccupied with planning are ill-prepared for uncertain futures.

Gérard Hutter

Vulnerability and Resilience: A Topic for Spatial Research from a Social Science Perspective

Abstract

The terms vulnerability and resilience have been the subject of scientific and political discourse for several years. This reflects a growing awareness in the realms of research and politics that potential vulnerabilities and risks must be recognized in a timely manner and that appropriate measures to avoid or contain them must be developed.

Heiderose Kilper, Torsten Thurmann

Adaptability of Regional Planning in Lower Saxony to Climate Change

Abstract

In this contribution, adaptability is considered to be an aspect of resilience with the goal of dealing successfully with change and shaping it in a sustainable fashion. Using Lower Saxony as an example, this contribution discusses the extent to which the institutional framework of regional planning appears to be suitable for confronting the challenges of climate change.

Enke Franck

Dealing with Climate Change – The Opportunities and Conflicts of Integrating Mitigation and Adaptation

Abstract

There are frequent calls to integrate strategies for climate mitigation and adaptation regarding the unavoidable consequences of climate change. Taking an integrated view appears reasonable especially in planning practice; after all, we now have a broad range of experience concerning climate mitigation, in contrast to climate adaptation. This is shown, for example, by the results of a written survey carried out among regional planning agencies in Germany in 2008 by the ‘Climate Change and Spatial PlanningWorking Group’ of the Academy for Spatial Research and Planning (ARL). At the European level, the situation in the Baltic Sea Region is comparable.

Sebastian Ebert

Regional Climate Adaptation Research – The Implementation of an Integrative Regional Approach in the Dresden Model Region

Abstract

Global climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time (IPCC, 2007). Particularly industrial countries are heavily dependent on continuously functioning structures that serve as the basis for future development and prosperity (Stern, 2006). These structures are often vulnerable to meteorological hazards such as heat, extreme precipitation, and flooding. Adapting to the inevitable consequences of climate change is therefore a central task of modern-day society.

Alfred Olfert, Jana Planek

River Landscapes – Reference Areas for Regionally Specific Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change

Abstract

The development of river landscapes poses a particular challenge in the course of climate change. A shifting of annual precipitation from the summer to the winter season and increasing frequencies of extreme events (drought, heavy precipitation) are forecast for central Europe. Triggered by the dramatic flooding events in Germany in recent years (1997, 2002), government action is increasingly focusing on flood prevention as well as on the prevention of extreme low water levels.

Andreas Vetter, Frank Sondershaus

Strategic Planning – Approaches to Coping with the Crisis of Shrinking Cities

Abstract

In eastern Germany the overwhelming majority of cities, especially the mediumsized ones, have been faced with the crisis of shrinkage since the 1990s. Shrinking cities are characterized by the multi-dimensional interaction of different challenges: Demographic problems have been caused by a decline in population due to a lack of births, migration, and the aging of residents. Urban economic problems involve the loss of employment due to de-industrialization.

Manfred Kühn, Susen Fischer

Typologies of the Built Environment and the Example of Urban Vulnerability Assessment

Abstract

Research on the built environment deals with a complex and interdisciplinary subject and, especially concerning the objective of sustainable development, multidimensional and multivariate approaches are needed. Hence, as in other fields of environmental research, linear approaches will usually not be appropriate for structuring a complex reality (de Haan, 2001), in particular if options for action on the microscale level are searched for. Statistical data tends to be very general and at best allows for estimates to be made on a large or medium-scale level, such as for a city as a whole or on the level of a national economy.

Andreas Blum, Karin Gruhler

Backmatter

Titel: German Annual of Spatial Research and Policy 2010
herausgegeben von: Bernhard Müller
Verlag: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-642-12785-4
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-12784-7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12785-4