Individual resilience to urban flooding and the implications for urban management

Abstract

In this era of climate change, the increase in urban flooding events in terms of frequency and intensity is calling for a more resilient built environment. Nonetheless, the substantial life and property loss caused by urban flooding might not be a pure result of a vulnerable physical environment - social factors, especially the individual attributes and capacities, could have pivotal roles to play in the resilience discourse as well. In light of this, this research investigates the relationship between individual resilience to urban flooding and urban management, endeavoring to identify place-responsive measures for building resilience for residents vulnerable to urban flooding. This study hypothesizes that (1) There are significant differences in individual resilience to urban flooding for residents in different communities; (2) Individual perceptions of urban flooding, living place and living society can influence individual resilience; and (3) Individual resilience cannot be nurtured through resilience-oriented measure, i.e. Sponge City Initiate from central government of China. The study takes Gongming, a sub-district of the Chinese city of Shenzhen that suffer from frequent urban flooding as case area to testify the above hypotheses. First a theoretical framework for the concept of individual resilience to urban flooding is established and the individual resilience is evaluated through self-reported questionnaire. Then regression analysis of a Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) is applied to identify the determinants on two levels (individual and communal levels) of individual resilience. Finally, interview is applied to evaluate the effectiveness of Sponge City Initiative on individual resilience nurturing, and the corresponding recommendations are therefore formulated. Findings of the study indicate that most Gongming residents are deficient in individual resilience to urban flooding. At the individual level, the lack of individual resilience is attributable mainly to the individual’s distorted perception to and inadequate understanding of disasters, place and society. At the community level, social environment is pivotal to nurturing individual resilience than physical environment of community. At the city and national levels, by evaluating the latest Chinese strategic measure of “Sponge City Initiative”, it is revealed that a fundamental gap exists between an idealized resilience program and the pro-growth agendas at the local government level in contemporary China. Recommendations are thus made for facilitating place-responsive, instead of general, management at a city or even national level to enhance individual resilience for residents of Gongming. This study contributes to the study on the emerging concept of resilience in a number of ways. Resilience as a western concept is localized in the Chinese context, demonstrating the possibility of such cross-regional comparative research. The body of literature on urban resilience is also expanded by putting the concept from theory to practice, particularly in the domain of urban management. In addition, the quantitative method of evaluating individual resilience performance developed in this research could be transferrable. Last but not least, incorporating personal perception as an independent variable to the individual resilience performance presents an extension of the concept of urban resilience from a physical to social perspective, providing inspirations for future researches.