Achieving sustainability objectaives such as the SDGs and climate change targets, will requires quicker and more r a more rapid and radical transformation of built environments. However, tThe onset of climate change also means that built environments are faced with face unprecedented environmental hazards such as increasing te, including hotter temperatures, heatwaves, droughts, storms, and flooding. SHowever, sustainability and resilience objectives are oftenoften appear to be in conflict. Sustainability is concerned more with transformation to achieve a better futures and efficient performancecies while resilience has a focus on reliability and robustness which often results in less efficient, equipment and focuses on the maintenance of existing systems. Achieving sustainable development and climate change targets will require built environment approaches that integrate both sustainability and resilience. This can and reliability. A synthesis between these objectives needs to be achieved through the concept of resilo enable efficient sustainable built environdevelopments.
Tohe reach sustainability targets, there must be a quicker and morescale and nature of climate change issues require a much more rapid and radical transformation of change built environments [1][2][3][4][5]. Existing and new built environments need Cto be have characteristics of morthat enable sustainable built environments includeility such as increased densities, mixed-use planning, improved energy and water efficiency and the use of biobased materials and neighbourhoods, renewable energy systems.
H and prowducts and sever, the onset of crvices based on the circular economy.
Climate change also means that built environments aremust faced with unprecedented environmental hazards such as increasing temperatures, heatwaves, droughtsadapt to new and unpredictable weather conditions including extreme heat, storms, and flooding[6][7][8][9][10]. BuThilt environments, therefore, must also be able to respond to environmental hazards. Charas will require characteristics ofwhich support resilient built environments include flood defencece such as increased insulation and cooling systems, strengthened structural elementses, and robust energy and water systems which can withstand extreme weather conditionaised floors and flood walls.
A rTheview of the concepts and characteristics of sustainable and resilientse pressures raise several questions. Can more built environments indicates that there are conflicts between the two approaches.
Sbe created which are both more sustainable builtand environment approaches are concerned with reducing environmental impacts and achievimore resilient? In developing more efficient performance. For instance, bio-based materials and more energy and water-efficient systems are advocated. Rsustainable environments, can resilient built environment approaches on the other hand are concerned with strengthening structure and developing more robust systems. This may be achieved through additional materials which are used to strengthen structures and more reliable, but often less efficient, equipment and systems.ce principles be drawn on to address climate change? How can the apparent conflicts between these approaches be managed?
Achieving sustainable development and climate change targets will require approacthes that integrateion of sustainability and resilience.
This can be achieved through integrating the concepts of sustainability andon can be referred to as resilience in the form of t sustainable resilience. Resilient sustainability can be understood as developing and maintaining capabilities required for sustainability, despite disturbances. is described by López-Ridaura et al., describe this iin the following way:
“..the degree to which a system is sustainable will depend on its capabilities to pro-duce…, a specific combination of goods and services that satisfies a set of goals ..even when facing..‘extreme’ …variations” [11].
Thius definition enables, in built environments, resilient sustainability and resilience objectives to be combined and thatcan be understood as the development must focus on achievingof built environments which enable sustainability capabilities. With these in place, it confirms that these must be, while ensuring that the functionality of these environments is maintained d and enhanced through a focus on resilience.
AResilience in range ofurban and built environment resilience frameworks exist. These includes has been addressed by the City Resilience Index developed by Arup, the City Resilience Profiling Tool developed by UN-Habitat and disaster resilience indicators developed by ISO as well as those the developed for US and South African ccities[12][13][14][15][16].
Suárez et al., points out tThat these frameworks do not include sustainability and focus on the recovery and adaptation of engxisting engineering and ecological systems[17]. They do not foincus on lude transformation and social change central[18] to. definitions of resilient by Folke [18] . ElmqviResilience frameworkst et al., points out that urban systems can have many different development trajectories and that resilience frameworks select thoseare also selected for their ability to reinforce and strengthen particular sectors they wish to strengthen [19]. Thus, Ffor instance, some aim to help cities cope with health, social or natural disaster crisframeworks will address flooding, while others will deal with issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic [17]. The RESUME framework focuses on achieving resilient sustainable development.
The Resilient Sustainability Measurement and Evaluation (RESUME) framework aims to ensure that sustainable development trajectories are maintained. It combines sustainability objectives and resilience principles to propose resilient sustainable built environment capabilities and characteristics[20]. These are shown in the table below.
Sustainability Criteria |
Required performance |
Resilient Sustainable Built environment capabilities and characteristics |
Food: Measured in type and amount of food consumed. |
Occupants can meet their nutritional requirements through affordable, low ecological footprint means. |
Local availability of low ecological footprint foods. This would include local retail and food markets Ability to produce low ecological footprint food. This includes urban agriculture, and intensive farming close to urban areas. |
Shelter: Measured in size, utilization and energy consumption. |
Occupants can meet shelter requirements through affordable, low ecological footprint means. |
Appropriately sized, resource-efficient accommodation. This includes higher density buildings in mixed use developments with highly efficient energy, water and waste systems as well as with renewable energy systems |
Mobility: Measured in the type of transport used and distances travelled. |
Occupants can access daily requirements using low ecological footprint means. |
Daily requirements are accessible within walking distance. This includes mixed use development that enable user to walk to facilities such as workplaces and schools that are used on a daily basis. Access to local public transport. |
Goods: Measured in type and quantity consumed. |
Occupants can access required goods through affordable, low ecological footprint means. |
Appropriate goods available locally. An example includes timber furniture nearby manufactured from timber that is grown locally. Facilities to support efficient usage / shared use of goods. Examples include tool and equipment hire and libraries. |
Services: Measured in type and quantity consumed. |
Occupants can access required services through affordable, low ecological footprint means. |
Appropriate services are available locally. This includes services such as personal and health care services provided by local practitioners. Facilities to support efficient usage of services. This includes the provision of affordable workplaces which enable diverse local services to be provided. |
Health: A long healthy life, measured by life expectancy at birth. |
Occupants can access facilities required for health. |
Access to sports, health, and leisure facilities such as parks, running tracks and gyms. Access to healthy food and clean water. No local hazards such as violent crime and pollution. |
Knowledge: measured by the adult literacy rate and combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrolment ratio. |
Occupants can access facilities required for learning and education. |
Access to primary, secondary, tertiary and ongoing learning facilities. This includes access to high speed internet and evening and online courses. |
Standard of Living: A a decent standard of living, as measure by the GDP per capital in purchasing power parity (PPP) in terms of US dollars. |
Occupants can access opportunities to enable a decent standard of living. |
Access to employment opportunities. Self-employment opportunities including access to low cost rental units and opportunities to provide local products and services. Access to support for small enterprise development including technical support, advice, affordable rental facilities and finance. |
Sustainability Criteria |
Required performance |
Resilient Sustainable Built environment capabilities and characteristics |
Food: Measured in type and amount of food consumed. |
Occupants can meet their nutritional requirements through affordable, low ecological footprint means. |
Local markets with low ecological footprint foods. Ability to produce low ecological footprint food. |
Shelter: Measured in size, utilization and energy consumption. |
Occupants can meet shelter requirements through affordable, low ecological footprint means. |
Appropriately sized, resource-efficient accommodation. |
Mobility: Measured in the type of transport used and distances travelled. |
Occupants can access daily requirements using low ecological footprint means. |
Daily requirements are accessible within walking distance. Access to local public transport. |
Goods: Measured in type and quantity consumed. |
Occupants can access required goods through affordable, low ecological footprint means. |
Appropriate goods available locally. Facilities to support efficient usage / shared use of goods. |
Services: Measured in type and quantity consumed. |
Occupants can access required services through affordable, low ecological footprint means. |
Appropriate services are available locally. Facilities to support efficient usage of services. |
Health: A long healthy life, measured by life expectancy at birth. |
Occupants can access facilities required for health. |
Access to sports, health, and leisure facilities. Access to healthy food and clean water. No local hazards such as violent crime and pollution. |
Knowledge: measured by the adult literacy rate and combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrolment ratio. |
Occupants can access facilities required for learning and education. |
Access to primary, secondary, tertiary and ongoing learning facilities. |
Standard of Living: A a decent standard of living, as measure by the GDP per capital in purchasing power parity (PPP) in terms of US dollars. |
Occupants can access opportunities to enable a decent standard of living. |
Access to employment opportunities. Self-employment opportunities. Access to support for small enterprise development. |
The RESUME tool includes criteria that measure these resilient sustainable built environment capabilities and characteristics and can be used to evaluate urban areas and has been used to assess informal settlements in South Africa.
The RESUME approach differs from conventionalther urban resilience frameworks in two distinct ways.
First, instead of a broad focus on the recovery of engineering and ecological systems, resilient sustainability only addresses thet aims to develop and maintenance and development of urbanain more sustainable systems and characteristics that support . Thus, if climate change damaged an unsustainability. Thus, thele system, its recovery of systems or aspects that do not directly support sustainability is notin its current form would not be prioritized.
Seco and, social transformation and change are central to the tool. Achieving change that enables sustainability is the goal of resilientinstead, a more sustainable adapation or a replacement with a more sustainability which selectively strengthens systems that support this. Thus a disruptive event is used tle system would be prioritised.
Second, change and develop more sustainable systems within a neighborhood instead of trying to support the recovery of systems and characteristicstransformation are integral to the methodology. Rather than reinforcing the status quo, it seeks to promote change and transformation that were uncreate more sustainablee resilient systems.
By combining sustainability and resilience, the concept of resilient sustainability is highly relevant to resource and capacity-constrained areas, as the frameworkand the RESUME methodology provides a mechanism for the prioritization of human and sustainability issues. By addressing both way to address sustainability and resilience simultaneously the. Efficiencies generated by this synthesis approach also enables more efficient and focused implementation and will be of interest to professionals, communities and governments needing to embark on infrastructure development programmesre very valuable given the nature and scale of climate change and sustainable development challenges and the limited resources available to address this.
This paper draws on a paper by Gibberd which develops the concept of resilient sustainability and applies it through the RESUME framework to assess neighbourhoods[20].