Resilience Action Planning for Epidemic and Disaster: Resilient Neighborhoods

Abstract

Understanding the role that urban structure can play in reducing short-medium-long-term risks and increasing the resilience of cities in reducing the negative effects of epidemics and disasters in 21st-century cities and creating resilient urban structures has become important. Generally, efforts made at the macro level to ensure resilience in cities cannot bring fast and healthy solutions. It is understood that the urban resilience approaches that combine more specific or micro solutions in the face of the magnitude of the problem should be developed, and social, economic, and spatial problems in the urban area should be handled from a more local scale. In cities, neighborhoods are the smallest local structures or administrative and social units that can be handled to ensure epidemic and disaster resistance. Neighborhoods are a vital and inseparable part of the society, as well as the lowest points of application for seeking solutions at the local scale, where settlements and human activities are harmonized. For this reason, urban resilience can be achieved within the context of Resilience Action Planning for epidemics and disasters by making neighborhoods both the starting step and one of the most important rings of the chain of resilient. This study aims to create a "Resilient Neighborhood Structure" in line with the characteristics, principles, and criteria of resilience against the negative effects of epidemic and disaster situations within the scope of resilience action planning. This neighborhood will include the following structures; that can show local resilience experiences in urban space, respond to the difficulties of meeting people's social, cultural, economic, and basic vital needs, have a flexible, functional, integrated, and smart urban space setup, improve local government level and governance, represent community resistance and urban health, working as attunement centers. The study can be considered a starting point for developing a more comprehensive knowledge base on the relationship between urban form and resilience.