Development Plan as a Tool to Improve the Disaster Resilience of Urban Areas

Abstract

This chapter argues for the mainstreaming of disaster resilience attributes in local development plans as an overarching adaptive measure with regards to urban areas facing climate related disasters. The chapter is based on empirical research involving a group of professional urban planners and managers who are responsible for formulating development plans for local urban areas in a developing country. Using the key-informant technique, the research investigated the ideas of a set of professional planners and managers regarding the suitable urban planning strategies to improve the resilience of local areas against a common hazard (e.g., flooding) that has a tendency to intensify due to climate change. In the next step, the common attributes of more frequently suggested strategies were identified using the principal component analysis technique. In the last step, the extent to which the local development planning system has responded so far to the vulnerability reduction and resilience improvement needs of the civil society. The findings indicate that local planners are sensitive to the flood risks faced by people. They have incorporated policies and strategies in the local development plan to minimize exposure of the people and property to flood hazard and improve the adaptive capacity of the urban settlements. However, the sector-based organization of the plan prepared by the federal level planners was found to be a hindrance to improving mainstream disaster resilience attributes in development planning. Therefore, the paper calls for strengthening the participatory planning and development capacity of the local authorities to enable more resolute mainstreaming of disaster resilience in local development plans.