Perception of the resilience concept applied to the urban environment

Abstract

Resilience is a term largely applied to the urban environment due to the need to absorb impacts toward minimizing possible damages caused by adversities, such as floods. This research aimed to study the perception of a population sample about the term resilience and its implications for the daily lives of citizens. A conceptual project was proposed to render resilient a region in the city of Londrina, PR, Brazil, periodically affected by this calamity. It consists of lowering a riverside park in order to create a buffer basin into which water is drained on days of heavy rain and prevented from reaching the streets and houses in the region. The sample’s perception was obtained from surveys applied on-site. The collected data indicate that 54% of the respondents have prior knowledge of resilience, 46% out of whom are younger than 30 years old. A total of 87% of the respondents are for the proposal, with the negatively affected ones being more likely to support the idea. The main hindrance is the difficulty in moving around on flooding days, according to 46% of the sample. The theoretical knowledge of the term resilience is greater among the younger ones, but it is not linked to its actual use, as residents and business owners in the region who did not know the word present resilient measures developed by the need for adaptation. Suggestions provided by the participants can be useful for a more in-depth study on means to make a riverside location resilient to flooding.

Keywords

• resiliência
• inundação
• percepção da população
• apoio público.