Multi-dimensional resilient design: coupling disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in action

The resilience of communities in their built environment facing natural and human-made hazards is consolidating worldwide as a critical requirement in the field of urban planning and design. Current studies and measures in this regard open an array of opportunities for articulating beyond sectorial and scale boundaries by emphasizing an integrated, multi- scale, multi-sectorial, and multi-actor approach. This calls to formulate innovative propositions, able to integrate scales of analysis and prospective interventions, coordinate inter-sectoral knowledge, competences, and attributions, thus extending the diversity of involved stakeholders and their participation and promoting capacity building in local practitioners as well in new generations of professionals. From the perspective of architecture and urban design, this requires inter-sectoral integration with the dimensions of mobility, infrastructure, risk mitigation, building technology, etc. in a synthesis of project and design, which involves a multi-dimensional effort at a political, scientific, planning, design, and community levels. This work explores the problems and potentials of integrating existing capabilities in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) with the knowledge and tools of Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), for the case of Chile. In particular, a focus is put on the potential integration of resilient climate action and risk reduction objectives within multi-dimensional urban resilience with planning and design tools. The research maps the extended field of an integrated approach to Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in Chile, by identifying the relevant formal and tacit knowledge in both areas, differentiating scales of study and intervention, and relating the later to relevant stakeholders.