Sustainable, Resilient and Safe Cities

Course Description

Objectives

The course "Sustainable, Safe and Resilient Cities" is structured by theory courses and seminars focusing on the preparation of the group assignment which students will effectuate/make. The purpose of the course is to deepen out the principles, criteria and programs for the development of sustainable, resilient and safe human settlements (cities, refugee camps), with a specific focus on the recovery period after environmental, man-made, housing and health crises. The principles and criteria of social and environmental justice as well as of equal access to resilience resources are the cornerstones of this vision.

In the context of the course and the preparation for the student written assignment, the students:

1) familiarize themselves with the criteria, tools and methods for diagnosing development problems in urban areas and cities from the point of view of sustainable development, social resilience and safety,

2) practice into the interpretation and analysis of the above problems (environmental, social, economic, institutional) according to the principles and criteria of sustainable development, social resilience and social innovation,

3) recognize good and bad practices in urban development, resilience and safety programs in light of conservation of natural and cultural capital, intra-generational and intergenerational equity, eradication of poverty and social exclusion, environmental and housing justice, protection of basic human rights (including the right to housing and the city, especially after crises), the satisfaction of basic needs, the assurance of an open, broadly participatory governance system, etc.,

4) are able to leverage old and new innovative tools and processes to correct these problems and advance the goal of urban sustainable development, resilience and safety before and after crises, and 

5) understand the city's relationship with safety – both as an individualized and a collective condition – in light of a multidimensional and multi-level combination of socio-economic and physical parameters.

The semester student assignment includes presentations of student work.

Content

• The concept of sustainable development and its contradictions
• Economic, social, cultural, environmental and political dimensions of Sustainable Development
• Rio and Johannesburg Conferences, Agenda 21, United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
• The concept of (urban) resilience
• Social sustainability, social resilience, urban governance
• Strategic and local planning for urban sustainable development and resilience
• Issues of environmental/climate/housing justice, sustainable mobility, energy saving, environmental and cultural protection, participatory decision-making, co-production and coordination of projects
• The concept of vulnerability and safety
• Protection-recovery-reconstruction planning
• Networking, advocacy and alliances for the promotion of sustainable, resilient and safe cities
• Community architecture and (re)building of human settlements after "natural" and humanitarian crises
• National and European policies of urban sustainable development and resilience
• Sustainable, resilient and safe cities: case studies from Greece, Europe and the USA

Assessment

The course assignment focuses on the analysis of current or completed projects, actions, texts or policy plans that promote/have promoted sustainability, resilience or safety objectives in the context of a Neighborhood, Municipal District or Municipality taking into account the wider context of social, economic, political, environmental, urban planning characteristics of the area under study.

Assessment

1. Successful development of a paper in written form (60%) 

2. Oral public presentation of the paper (40%)