New approach to integrating disaster resilience into public open space planning and design

Public open spaces, such as squares, parks, and sports fields, serve as crucial hubs during and after disasters, fostering a sense of normalcy and community, promoting social cohesion, and facilitating community recovery. Additionally, they offer opportunities for promoting physical and mental well-being during such crises. This study aims to enhance the responsiveness of public open spaces to disasters by prioritizing disaster resilience in their planning and design. This study consists of two main stages. Firstly, a literature review is conducted to explore the current trends in research on public open space planning and design and the incorporation of disaster resilience. Results indicate that the primary focus of the current research on planning and designing public open spaces centers around sociocultural, psychological, environmental, and economic benefits. There is limited emphasis on integrating disaster resilience into public open space planning and design, leading to a lack of clear guidance for planners and architects. The emphasis on disaster resilience in public open space planning and design mainly began after 2010, with a notable increase observed in the last six years (2017–2023). This emphasis notably centers on climate change impacts, followed by floods, and then earthquakes. Secondly, drawing on the pivotal role of public open spaces during disasters, the importance of urban planning and design, and the existing gap in incorporating disaster resilience in current research on public open space planning and design, this study develops a novel framework for enhancing public open spaces’ responsiveness to disasters through resilient urban planning and design, based on four main disaster resilience criteria: multifunctionality, efficiency, safety, and accessibility. The insights gleaned from this study offer invaluable guidance to planners, architects, and decision-makers, empowering them to develop public open spaces that can effectively respond to various circumstances, ultimately contributing to bolstering community resilience and sustainability.