Resilience Thinking as a Useful Approach to Reduce the Territorial Risks

Abstract

In developing countries, built areas that are most affected by high levels of natural disaster risk are typically areas where there are informal settlements. The mitigation and management of these risks require good availability of economic, professional, technological and human resources and good organizational capacity, aspects that are often lacking in these countries. However, through a resilient approach, it is possible to optimize the scarce resources available and, above all, to leverage human resources, which in developing countries are often relevant to improve the organizational capacities of communities and their institutions. This contribution framed the meaning of resilient thinking and shows the main theoretical references and intervention criteria that characterize a resilient co-evolutionary approach, that is, aimed at seizing the opportunities associated with subsistence or potential critical events to improve the system itself, thus making it less vulnerable and more prepared to respond to both known critical events and other critical events that may occur.