Application of resilience thinking to evaluate the urban environments; a case study of Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Resilience thinking has recently been proposed as a different way of understanding the world and a new approach to managing urban environments. This research aims to evaluate the environmental quality of Tehran-Iran using some resilience criteria. Based on the comparative analysis of the current related theories, we have extracted and classified some of the resilience criteria into four dimensions, i.e. Pattern and process of socio-economic criteria in urban landscape, responses of human society in urban landscape, pattern of biophysical structure in urban landscape, and urban ecosystem dynamic and function. We have focused on the last two ones. The results show that the composition and configuration of urban green spaces and consequently its ecosystem quality do not fulfill the requirements of a resilient urban landscape. On the other hand, assessment of Tehran air quality shows that the number of unhealthy days has increased over the last decade. Also, Tehran has heavily relied on outer water basins. Besides, the proportion of impervious surfaces within a period of 22 years (1988-2010) has increased by more than two times. These results support the resilience criterion as a more realistic approach to demonstrating both the urban environments situation and the directions of future urban plans.