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Articles on Urban resilience

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Shops, offices, gyms and apartments dominate Brisbane’s ‘mixed use’ zone. Rachel Gallagher

How we accidentally planned the desertion of our cities

The zoning policies that planners introduced to create vibrant and resilient mixed-use neighbourhoods have had the opposite effect, as services and residential developments crowd out light industry.
One of the successful outcomes of being part of 100 Resilient Cities is Living Melbourne: our metropolitan urban forest, a newly released strategy to increase vegetation cover in the city. Shutterstock

What next after 100 Resilient Cities funding ends?

Melbourne and Sydney are members of 100 Resilient CIties, which the Rockefeller Foundation has said it will no longer fund. So what has the global network achieved? And what can we learn from this?
Cairns has lots of hard grey infrastructure but much less green infrastructure that would reduce the impacts of the city’s growth. Karine Dupré

Cities can grow without wrecking reefs and oceans. Here’s how

Urbanisation is the main reason for rising temperatures and water pollution, but receives little attention in discussions about the health of water streams, reefs and oceans.
Flooding in Sydney last week was the latest example of Australian cities’ lack of resilience to a more extreme climate. Dean Lewins/AAP

Design for flooding: how cities can make room for water

Australia’s coastal settlements are highly exposed to the impacts of climate change. Climate-resilient urban landscapes that can cope with large amounts of water need to become the new normal.
Hurricane Harvey flooded one-third of Houston and displaced more then 30,000 people in the region. Janelle Rios

How Texas is ‘building back better’ from Hurricane Harvey

After disasters, communities often push to rebuild as quickly as possible. A public health expert says they should aim higher and fix problems that exist pre-storm.
If more people live in the Adelaide Hills, they are more likely to be exposed to bushfires. David Mariuz/AAP

Natural hazard risk: is it just going to get worse or can we do something about it?

What decisions can we make today to reduce the future risk of hazards like floods and fire? Particularly in a time of climate change, modelling various plausible futures helps us plan for uncertainty.
The intensity of heavy downpours in Houston has increased dramatically since the 1950s, leading some people to argue the city’s disaster planning and infrastructure are not up-to-date. AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Can cities get smarter about extreme weather?

It’s not just about rebuilding infrastructure after storms: Cities need to systematically rethink their knowledge systems which are at the heart of urban resilience.
It’s hard to see how a city can be good for all its people unless they are involved in its creation. Paul James

What actually is a good city?

Developing principles to create cities that are good for all is not easy. Who decides what is good? And for whom? We desperately need a big and general public discussion about this.
The uniquely weak regulation of high-rise, high-density development exemplifies the market-driven growth of Australian cities. Julian Smith/AAP

Market-driven compaction is no way to build an ecocity

Achieving the goal of sustainable cities depends on rolling back the market after decades of privatisation and deregulation.

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