Understanding the Implementation Challenges of Urban Resilience Policies: Investigating the Influence of Urban Geological Risk in Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract

Urban Resilience has recently emerged as a systematic approach to urban sustainability. The malleable definition of resilience has rendered its operationalisation an intriguing task for contemporary cities trying to address their organisational problems and confront uncertainty in a holistic manner. In this article we investigate the implementation challenges emerging for Resilient Strategies by the inattention paid to urban geological risk. We conceptualise urban geological risk as the combination of urban geohazards, geological vulnerability and exposure of the built environment and focus on the case study of Thessaloniki, Greece, a city that joined the 100 Resilient Cities initiative in 2014 and published its “Resilience Strategy 2030” (RS) in 2017. After a review of the RS, historical records of natural hazard events and with evidence gathered through interviews with city officials, we emphasize on earthquakes and surface flooding as the most relevant geohazards for Thessaloniki to tackle in its journey towards urban resilience. First, we examine geological vulnerability to earthquakes in conjunction with exposure of the built environment, as an outcome of ageing building stock, high building densities and the urban configuration, in Acheiropoietos neighbourhood, within the historic centre of the city. Then, we explore geological risk to surface flooding in Perea, in Thermaikos Municipality, with a particular focus on flash floods, by demonstrating how limited consideration of local geomorphology as well as semi-regulated urban expansion and its limited connection with emergency planning increase exposure of the built environment to surface flooding. Finally, we come up with the major implementation challenges Thessaloniki’s RS faces with regard to urban geohazards.

The Risk-Informed Asset-Centric (RIACT) Urban Resilience Enhancement Process: An Outline and Pilot-Case Demonstrator for Earthquake Risk Mitigation in Portuguese Municipalities

“…In terms of funding, capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX) play very important roles in enabling cities and communities to prepare for and recover from natural disasters, environmental crises, and other disruptions. CAPEX refers to the money spent by an organization to acquire or improve physical assets such as buildings, machinery, or equipment [94]. This spending is generally viewed as a long-term investment, as it aims to benefit the organization over time [95].…”

Estimating urban vulnerability to flood and heat hazards: A case study in the municipality of Thessaloniki, Greece

“…However, the main purpose of this study is to develop a novel space-based approach, in the Municipality of Thessaloniki, to assess its urban vulnerability to climate-related hazards. As far as the authors are aware, there is limited relevant research in the study area, mainly focusing on the estimation of surface land temperature and the urban heat island effect (e.g., Stathopoulou and Cartalis, 2007;Stamou et al, 2013) or to the spatial assessment of separate climate related hazards (e.g., Yannakou and Salata, 2017;Pitidis et al, 2018).…”

Geohazards and Geomorphological Setting in Poznań Urban Area, Poland

“…More commonly, however, geohazard maps are made for regions rather than cities (e.g. Al-Kouri et al, 2013;Dragićević et al, 2011;Faccini et al, 2020;Kusky et al, 2010;Lyu et al, 2018;Mandarino et al, 2021;Pitidis et al, 2018;Wotchoko et al, 2016). Moreover, most geohazard maps are limited to selected processesmainly mass movement and flooding (EGDI, 2019;Guzzetti, 2019;Monserrat & Barra, 2019).…”