Urban morphology and risk resilience – Bibliographic analysis and review

Although urban morphology has a long tradition, only recently has its interrelation with the risk and resilience of urbanised communities gained greater prominence. The aim of this paper is to present the framework, current state of the art, and approaches to these topics by addressing the following research questions: Which research areas address urban morphology and risk resilience? What topics are related to urban morphology and risk resilience, and what general overlaps or gaps exist? What are the approaches to urban morphology and to risk resilience? Do these topics correlate with the UN SDGs and the Sendai FDDR? The research finds that this is a topic of growing interest, with many interconnected and overlapping topics and related to various scientific fields. It identifies two distinct groups of papers based on their methodological approaches and tools. It identifies several core contradictions: sectoral approaches versus the complexity of reality; narrative versus analytical approaches; frictions arising from differing needs related to various morphologies; and overlaps and gaps in topics and connections to the UN SDGs and Sendai FDDR. The research highlights the need to shift toward high-tech analytical and generative tools based on improved spatial data, adopt multirisk rather than single-sector scenarios, move from narrative to analytical and actionable social resilience research, and prioritize adaptive redundancy over minimal functionality, thereby creating spaces with adaptive morphologies. It also demonstrates how urban form affects the risk and resilience of urbanised areas and different populations providing a basis for policy-related research and implementation. • identifies evolution of analytical tools and methods used in the field. • identifies approaches to urban morphology definition and indicators. • details resilience strategies and measures proposed in the reviewed studies. • identifies two main groups of papers by their methods and analytical approaches. • identifies research gaps related to UN SDGs and Sendai FDDR.