Developing Urban Resilience Criteria Using Multi- Criteria Analysis

Resilience can be defined as the capacity of a system to adapt and re-organize itself to mitigate expected and unexpected disturbance while retaining its essential attributes. The multifaceted dynamics of urban spaces with constant social, institutional and economic changes, and the impact of climate change on space and resources, underscore the need for an examination of this topic through the lens of resilience. This paper presents the application of multi-criteria analysis (MCA), a method suitable for problems with complex goals and many uncertainties, where the nature of the problem changes even during the problem-solving process, to the complex problem of spatial resilience. The AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method was selected among numerous existing MCA methods. Based on the understanding of theoretical fundamentals of multi-criteria analysis, within the framework of a methodological workshop, the students of Urban Studies at the University of Rijeka developed and applied spatial resilience criteria to the space and features present/ existing in the area of the Campus or planned in different alternatives – in the Detailed Urban Plan (Alternative 1) and in newly developed plans presented by the students in the previously completed methodological workshop on the topic of Error Harvest (Alternative 2). The conclusions of the workshop confirmed that the selected scientific and artistic method combination is suitable for developing spatial resilience criteria and that it contributed to the goals of Urban Studies – the development of a well-founded, comprehensive and innovative planning and design approach to the future of urban space.