Building Resilience in Urban Settlements

The 2018 global population of 7.65 billion is predicted to reach 9.7 billion in 2050. Urban growth is accelerated as more people survive to reproductive age, fertility rates change, and migration rates intensify. Climate change is varying existing weather patterns, some of which are life threatening and socially, environmentally and economically devastating. These trends have far-reaching implications for future generations.We need effective planning and governance to deliver transition across all levels, scales and types of development from building to city scale, ensuring infrastructure can support growing populations, changing land uses and new technologies. With adaptation of existing areas to accommodate more people, and as land uses undergo change, we need to consider optimum levels of sustainable development that includes, at the building level, different types and degrees of new development, adaptation and adaptive reuse. Taking action now is embodied in the concept of building resilience to future events. Resilience implies capacity to respond to both chronic stresses or acute shocks, which can be social, economic and environmental, or combinations thereof.Our cities will grow, faster than ever, yet typically only 1-2% is added annually to the total stock of buildings; hence resilient retrofit, resilient adaptation and resilient adaptive reuse are terms we must define, develop and embrace. Resilience, and how it is manifested, varies from location to location, and we need to share our ideas, approaches and practices to inform others.This eBook of IJBPA examines resilience and adaptation in respect of four aspects; (a) pathways to resilience, (b) risks in decision making and managing risk through building rating tools, (c) adapting existing buildings and (d) housing quality.