Developing Strategic Principles of Intervention in Urban Green Infrastructure to Create and Enhance Climate Resilience in Cities—Case Study: Yousef Abad in Tehran

Abstract

Currently cities all over the world are facing a wide range of hazards. These risks are exacerbated by factors such as increasing urban population and climate change. Urbanism and climate change are closely interlinked. Meanwhile, the concept of urban resilience has been introduced, in recent years, to reduce these negative impacts. Resilience is the ability of a system to absorb abnormalities while its basic structure is maintained when at risk. Resilience to climate change focuses on reducing vulnerabilities to these changes. The current research focuses on urban ecological resilience and its subsection of ‘climate resilience’ and also climate change adaptation strategies.

Urban green infrastructure is also effective in reducing the impacts of climate change and enhancing climate resilience in cities. In the face of dangers such as climate change, the resilience approach can be used as a framework for intervention in existing and suggested urban green infrastructures and vice versa.

This research attempts to answer this question: How can intervention in urban green infrastructure (their quality and quantity, maintaining, enhancing and location) lead to developing strategic principles to ensure an urban climate resilient city in times of drought, extreme heat, low annual precipitation and water shortages? The purpose of this research is to develop strategic principles for adaptation to climate change using green infrastructure and their capabilities to enhance urban climate resilience in dry countries. A qualitative method was used here by using aerial photos and producing GIS base and analytical maps of Yousef Abad neighbourhood in Tehran, the capital city of Iran, which lead to producing the above mentioned principles.