Reinterpreting “Sustainability” and “Resilience” in the post-pandemic urban planning paradigm

Abstract

In the past three years, there has been no crisis more "unexpected" than the COVID-19 epidemic, which was deemed as pandemic by WHO on March 11, 2020. Indeed, urban planning must play a significant role in resolving the pandemic dilemma. So, given that pandemics are natural disasters and environmental factors are their primary cause, how is it possible we are still experiencing this outbreak even though “resilience” and “sustainability” principles are ingrained in urban planning paradigms? Accordingly, it is essential to grasp how to incorporate “sustainability” and “resilience” ideas into urban planning processes and to develop the institutional capability to manage and monitor these procedures. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to clarify how sustainability and resilience principles might help to define the essential elements of the "post-pandemic" urban planning paradigm through conceptual analysis and a thorough assessment as the methodology. The first section discusses the necessity of the two most relevant concepts of urban planning paradigms; “sustainability” and “resilience” to tackle with pandemics, followed by the discussion of the “pandemic city” and “post-pandemic city” concepts. Finally, the last chapter explores how the attributes of resilience and sustainability can contribute to “post-pandemic urban planning” paradigm.