Amid growing climate, environmental, and governance challenges, strengthening urban resilience has emerged as a global priority. Scholars worldwide recognise the potential of digital tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to enhance local governments' adaptive planning, risk management, and service delivery. However, technological sophistication alone does not guarantee a positive impact—particularly in low-capacity, resource-constrained municipal settings such as aid-dependent Central Asian (CA) countries. The paper contributes to the ongoing debate by shifting analytical focus from GIS as a technical solution to its institutional embedding within local governance processes. It addresses a theoretical gap in the literature regarding the role of institutional absorption and readiness in shaping the sustainability of digital tools. Drawing on the Naryn town case, the study examines how digital governance interventions unfold when tailored to local capacity constraints. Methodologically, the research integrates stakeholder consultations, semi-structured interviews with civil servants, technical system reviews, and field observations of GIS usage and training. Findings reveal that institutional fit, targeted training, and iterative stakeholder engagement were more decisive for the practical uptake of GIS than the system's technical design. The study concludes that adaptive, context-sensitive GIS implementation can serve as a practical decision-support system and a catalyst for institutional transformation, offering lessons for urban resilience in similar governance contexts.
This paper examines governance, institutional fragmentation, and financing constraints affecting sustainable and resilient urban development in the Lebanese cities of Saida, Tripoli, and Byblos. Using a qualitative comparative case-study approach, the research analyzes land use planning systems, cultural heritage governance, and national and local strategies, including the SDATL, CHUD, and the 100 Resilient Cities initiative. Findings reveal that weak regulatory enforcement, fragmented national–local coordination, and donor-driven project cycles hinder the translation of strategic frameworks into tangible urban outcomes. Recent shocks, such as wildfires and the Beirut Blast, further expose gaps in disaster risk reduction and preparedness, which are often addressed through temporary donor or NGO interventions rather than institutional mechanisms. The study argues that advancing sustainable urban development in Lebanon requires strengthened coordination frameworks, outcome-based financing models, and enhanced municipal empowerment to address longstanding structural urban vulnerabilities.
Khalil Christelle, Diab Youssef· Proceedings of the internati...· 0 citations
The risks associated with climate change are escalating in communities, and the benefits of adaptation projects are often assessed by focusing primarily on the technical gains of increased resilience, with comparatively less attention to the social value they create for those communities. This study reviews academic evidence on how climate change adaptation projects implemented in the urban built environment translate these strategies into two outcomes: the city’s resilience and social value, through the lens of the delivery of urban planning and construction projects. The scientometric analysis was carried out on 58 peer-reviewed documents identified from the Web of Science (n=51) and the Scopus database (n=7), with relevance to English-language publications. The results of the keyword co-occurrence analysis using the VOSviewer tool, with a minimum of five occurrences and 22 keywords, clustered into four distinct themes: Policy Frameworks, Urban Resilience, Risk Management, and Planning Governance. The results of the study suggest a highly interconnected body of knowledge networked around the keywords of climate change, adaptation, cities, and resilience, representing a dynamic shift from a traditional framework of risk and vulnerability to a more contemporary approach that focuses on the roles of policy, planning, governance, and sustainability. It is also interesting to recognise the limited appearance of social value as a high-frequency keyword. The paper contributes a cluster delivery logic that links strategy, project selection, design needs, coordination, and implementation management to outcomes of resilience and social value. The discussion of implications suggests the need to integrate a criterion of social value into appraisal, procurement, and review processes, and to develop African evidence through African-led evaluations and context-related delivery research.
Nana Akua Gyadu-asiedu, C. Aigbavboa, Lerato Millicent Aghimien et al.· AHFE International· 0 citations
A growing body of literature shows that cities are key actors in mitigation and adaptation to climate change. However, there is less knowledge about the approaches and challenges urban planners face in building resilience. Existing studies often focus on specific planning tools in selected cities, while limited attention is given to the wider assessment of challenges and tools used in different world regions and across income classes. This paper explores how urban planning-related challenges and measures for strengthening resilience vary across city size, regions, and income groups based on a systematic review of scientific papers applying the ROSES standards. The first analysis includes 3,410 articles, and multiple screening iterations ultimately allow us to consider 398 papers for in-depth review. Data extraction was supported by LLM-based software, and the results were verified through in-person checking. We find that administrative issues (institutional fragmentation and lack of cooperation) are mentioned most frequently as a challenge across regions. In contrast, land-use conflicts differ significantly between world regions, though less so between cities of different size. Differences also emerge, e.g., in terms of the use of nature-based approaches (NbA) and digital tools. NbA are more frequently discussed in the literature that refers to small and very small cities compared to megacities and large cities. NbA are not solely common in Europe, but also in Africa and Small Island States. IT and digital tools are more frequently mentioned in papers that deal with cities in high-income countries. This digital divide points to the fact that the resources available to invest in such tools and technology also depend on income levels and financial resources. Overall, the findings underscore that multi-level governance and development conditions are important factors that influence the challenges faced by urban planning and its capacity to support resilience building.
Joern Birkmann, Maximilian Rembold, Friedrich Hampel et al.· Environmental Research Lette...· 0 citations
In recent years, increasing flood events, driven by human activities and climate change, have caused significant loss of life and property around the globe. Consequently, effective flood risk management strategies have become crucial in response to rising flood risks. This study examines how flood risk management (FRM) is implemented in Rize, Türkiye, with particular attention to the relationship between governance and decision‐making processes and community‐based FRM practices. By applying a key informant interviewing qualitative research design, 51 senior civil servants, appointees, experts, and managers involved in flood risk management in Rize, Türkiye, were interviewed. The findings identify a persistent implementation gap between formal governance arrangements and community‐based FRM, particularly in relation to policy and enforcement, leadership and institutional coordination, practical education, community action planning, and locally feasible preparedness. The results highlight the necessity of a comprehensive, well‐coordinated strategy that connects institutional management systems and community‐driven initiatives. Based on these findings, the study develops an integrated, implementation‐oriented framework that synthesises the relationships between governance and decision‐making and community‐based FRM. The contribution of the framework lies in specifying how weaknesses in the linkages between key components can undermine FRM implementation in practice. While the framework is derived from a single‐region case and requires further validation, it offers a diagnostic structure that may be adapted in comparable flood‐prone settings.
Ayşe Yildiz, Gökhan Sırmalı, Rajib Shaw et al.· Journal of Flood Risk Manage...· 0 citations
This paper addresses the limitations of the collaboration–conflict binary in analysing civil society–institution relationships within contexts of temporary urbanism, particularly in informal and logistics-driven environments in the Global South, capturing the complexity of these “grey zones”, focusing on temporary urbanism, as not merely a tactical design approach, but as a governance interface between communities and authorities. This study develops a two-layer analytical framework combining a typology of interaction regimes with a value-cycle lens to systematically analyse relational configurations and value dynamics in temporary urban practices. Through comparative vignettes spanning (i) circular reuse of vacant/underused urban spaces and (ii) residual logistics landscapes (backlands, corridors, informal clusters) under polycrisis and techno-logistical transitions. The paper contributes both conceptually and practically by offering an interpretive and planning-oriented toolkit intended to support comparative analysis with particular relevance for diverse urban contexts in Southern Countries.
Irina Di Ruocco· Contesti. Città, territori,...· 0 citations
Rapid urbanization and intensifying climate extremes are increasing pressure on conventional urban drainage systems, accelerating interest in digital transformation. Yet how such transformation unfolds in practice, particularly in medium-sized cities, remains poorly understood. Using Lianyungang City, China, as an illustrative case, this study examines stakeholder perceptions of the socio-technical conditions associated with its digital drainage transformation. Drawing on a structured questionnaire survey of drainage professionals, the analysis assesses stakeholder perceptions of system performance, awareness and expectations of digital technologies, governance readiness, and stage-specific barriers. The results reveal strong support for digitalization but persistent constraints. At the initiation stage, progress is limited by aging infrastructure, shortages of interdisciplinary expertise, and financial constraints. During implementation, socio-technical misalignment, legacy-system incompatibility, fragmented data governance, and weak operation and maintenance capacity dominate. Governance limitations are a perceived limiting factor on scaling digital initiatives, while transparency and public participation remain underprioritized. The study advances a capacity-oriented understanding of digital drainage transformation and offers policy insights for medium-sized cities.
Lei Fan, Bowen Tan· Discover Civil Engineering· 0 citations
