5 oktober 2020

Earthquakes in Tokyo

Earthquakes are the most frequent and tradition shock to Japan. Megalopolis like Tokyo are extremly vulnerable to earthquakes. This study evaluates the socioeconomic and ethical consequences of earthquakes on Tokyo, and also proposes three types of strategies to increase the sustainability and resilience of Tokyo.

5 oktober 2020

Earthquakes in Santiago

This trend report investigates the resilience of the city of Santiago de Chile against the shock of earthquakes. Chile is situated on the Ring of Fire and has experienced frequent earthquakes for centuries. Moreover, the recently recognised active fault, the San Ramón Fault which runs along the eastern limits of Santiago will test the city’s resilience against frequent and often powerful earthquakes. Since Santiago has experienced a rapid urbanisation there are several critical infrastructures that could be severely damaged in the event of an earthquake such as residential areas, hospitals or transport networks. Furthermore, should a fatal earthquake occur it could also cause a major economic stress on the government and the inhabitants of the city. To increase the city’s resilience in order to adapt to the shock there are solution strategies that could be implemented, such as more efficient emergency management, stricter construction regulations and reinforcement of weak buildings. Further reduction of inequality gap would have a positive feedback as well as implementing the risk of earthquakes in the earliest stages of urban planning. The first part of this trend report will explain the mechanisms behind earthquakes and why Santiago is exposed to frequent seismic activity. Further, the effects of the earthquakes on the city will be described where the focus is on the vulnerable parts of the urban network and other critical infrastructure. Then, several solutions strategies will be identified, as well as recommendations for further reading.

6 november 2025

Byzantium & Friends | 143. Coping with earthquakes in the churches of Constantinople, with Mark Roosien Thursday Nov 06, 2025

A conversation with Mark Roosien (Yale University) about the earthquakes that struck Constantinople in late antiquity and about how emperors and the people of the City reacted to them in the moment. We focus on the church liturgies that commemorated and tried to make sense of them. The conversation is based on Mark's book Ritual and Earthquakes in Constantinople: Liturgy, Ecology, and Empire (Cambridge University Press 2024).

5 september 2021

Shocks and Stresses in Tokyo

This set contains three student trend reports on shocks and stresses in Tokyo. i. Heatwaves in Tokyo ii. Earthquakes in Tokyo iii. Soil Contamination in Tokyo

28 november 2016

Societal Aspects of the Biobased economy

16 november 2021

A practitioner’s view: Santiago, Chile

Cristián Robertson, the Deputy Resilience Officer of Resilient Santiago, talks about the Resilience Santiago Project. Santiago, the capital of Chile, is well known for being an extremely resilient city against earthquakes. Within the project, resilience is understood in a more comprehensive way that goes beyond the absorption of natural disasters. Resilience is also viewed here through a social and economic lens. This 9-minute interview is a good opportunity to see how this broad resilience understanding is being implemented in a real case.

18 april 2019

Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database

This database and website is a virtual museum of images produced between the late 15th through mid-20th century that document the architectural monuments of South Italy (the medieval Kingdom of Sicily) and their decoration (pulpits, mosaics, pavements) prior to destruction and restoration. The images, often produced during the Grand Tour or by artists and architects of a study journey to South Italy, are vital sources of information about the siting and character of the highly significant architecture sponsored by the Norman, Hohenstaufen, and Angevin rulers prior to the devastation of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and particularly the Allied bombardment of World War II.

21 augustus 2021

Japanese Cities: Critical infrastructure design for extreme resilience

HOW TO NAVIGATE THIS CASE STUDY: First, please refer to the Teacher's Guide using the yellow "View Materials" button on the left pane. The teacher's guide outlines the purpose, contents, approach, case structure, and technical information of this case study. This case study was curated from other independently published open educational resources and from existing materials on this platform. These resources are also organized by domain. At the bottom of each resource's page, you can see both the city case study and SURF Resilience domain to which it belongs. Click on the case study or the domain name to navigate to the case study homepage or SURF Resilience collection, respectively. OVERVIEW: This set contains a teaching guide, seven thematic foci, and gaming simulations. In this set, you will discover the challenges and opportunities provided by the concept of urban resilience on mitigating and preventing flooding. Examples of design considerations of hydraulic structures and spillways will show you how resilience can be integrated into urban planning and management. Then, you will dive into the topic of large waves, typhoons, storm surges, and tsunamis. You will see how one natural disaster can pose potential downstream risks for society, as exhibited by the 2011 tsunami and the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant failure. Moreover, you will see how tsunamis impact multiple urban subsystems such as transportation, buildings, sanitation, and environment. You will have the opportunity to think about solution strategies and their ethical considerations. Then, you will look into the process of post-disaster reconstruction after a disaster has uprooted existing systems. Lastly, you will see how man-made climate change has created alternative urban climates. You will also look into how to design for a better, more comfortable urban microclimate. End by playing related resilience games.

5 oktober 2020

Poverty and Informal Housing in Manila

The Philippines, due to its geographical location in the Ring of Fire and the Typhoon belt, gets affected by a variety of natural hazards every year such as typhoons, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. Additional stresses like droughts and sea level rise (caused by climate change), and land subsidence due to excess groundwater extraction, contribute to lowering Manila’s resilience even further. Informal housing, however, is one of the main factors that contribute to lowering the resilience of the city to the multiple natural resources that it is prone to. The urban poor of Manila usually live in informal settlements due to the lack of availability of affordable housing and the increase of unplanned urban migration. This sector of society is therefore the most affected by disasters. Due to the lack of availability of resources before, during and after the occurrence of a natural event, dwellers of informal settlements are significantly more vulnerable to the effects of shocks. For this same reason, they have a lower ability to recover afterwards, which consequently increases their vulnerability to the next natural disaster due to the high recurrence of such events in the region. Furthermore, low to non-existent government intervention in these communities leads to malfunctioning drainage and sanitation systems, which end up affect the city as a whole as they contribute to pump station blockage and surface water pollution in cases of flooding. On the other hand, government interventions involving resettlement plans tend to fail due to lack of popular consultation and community involvement in the decision-making process. Successful relocation plans could significantly reduce the vulnerability of these communities to natural disaster since they would reduce population density in Metro Manila, move the communities to lower risk and more geologically stable areas, and reduce surface water pollution in the city due to better waste management. Proper relocation plans by the government could therefore have a great impact in improving the overall resilience of Manila, but community participation and consultation is primordial for the efforts to be successful. Additional proposed solutions, as well as supplementary resources are provided including reference literature and understanding/discussion questions related to the topics discussed in the report. Answers to the understanding questions are provided separately for lecturers.