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The current focus of planning and designing public open spaces has been mostly given on creating sustainable cities contributing to its’ three pillars; economic, social and environmental. However, the negative implications of rapid urbanization and the implication of climate change have increased disaster risk in cities mounting more pressure on the path of sustainable development. Therefore, it is imperative to incorporate the enhancements of disaster resilience with the sustainable development strategies. Yet, the integration of disaster management strategies with planning and designing public open spaces remains unrehearsed within the urban planning context. Accordingly, this ongoing research study emphasizes the need for incorporating disaster management strategies with sustainable development strategies when planning and designing public open spaces in cities. This paper first analyses the disaster management literature, providing evidence of the potential use of public open spaces as an agent of recovery, to provide essential life support, as a primary place to rescue and for shelters and potential for adaptive response. Secondly, the paper cross-analyses planning and designing literature with disaster management literature to find out the methods and approaches that can be used to harness the identified potentials. Finally, the paper suggests a set of strategies to plan and design public open incorporating disaster management strategies with sustainable development strategies.

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Disaster induced displacement and relocation is a frequently occurring phenomenon in the Sri Lankan context. Resettlement has been recognized as a regular result of disasters such as landslides due to the large-scale property damage that occurs. This paper

Purpose Public open spaces (POS) in cities are often measured as a strength to enhance cities’ sustainability with a contribution to the three pillars: economic, social and environmental. Nevertheless, the importance of POS for disaster resilience is less recognised and remains under-rehearsed in the urban planning context. Within this context, this research paper aims to investigate the methods and approaches of using POS to enhance the coastal cities’ resilience to tsunamis through planning and designing interventions. Design/methodology/approach This study used the grounded theory as the research strategy. Accordingly, data collection involved 72 unstructured interviews covering a wide variety of participants related to the field of study including tsunami-affected communities, disaster resilience experts, urban planners, sociologists and coastal planners, in the context of Sri Lanka. The grounded theory coding procedure is used to analyse the data that includes transcripts, notes, maps and documents. Findings The analysis reveals that there is a significant potential to use POS to enhance the coastal cities’ resilience to tsunamis as an emergency evacuation directing point, as a primary place for emergency rescue, as an agent for temporary sheltering, as a facilitator for tsunami disaster mitigation and as a mediator to provide tsunami awareness. Finally, the findings propose five guiding factors for planning POS to enhance coastal cities’ disaster resilience to Tsunamis. Originality/value This paper introduces an innovative and unique approach for future urban planners and design professionals, to plan and design POS with a new direction towards disaster resilience while ensuring sustainability.