Abstract

The cities of the future must reach a higher level of sustainability and that is only possible if they are capable of being more resilient against crises produced by natural events and global change (UNISDR 2015). Because of this, it is fundamental that governments and responsible entities develop planning tools that allow developing interaction or synergies between resilient design and sustainability. In spite of the damage that natural disasters can produce in cities, these always offer an opportunity so that an urban system is reinvented and evolves towards a new status, improving and promoting changes that strengthen its reaction capacity. This process is always accompanied by innovation. Currently, there are numerous studies which link sustainability with resilience (Ahern 2011; Childers et al. 2015; Brand 2009), however, difficulties still persist in the definition of terms and the provision of clear examples which serve as reference. This limits the possibility of designing integration tools and strategies between both concepts when planning the city. This research project intends on advancing towards the integration of the concepts of resilience and sustainability in planning tools. It presents the case of post-disaster reconstruction implemented in the town of Dichato in Chile, after the earthquake and tsunami in 2010. By evaluating this case study, it can be shown that there are synergies between sustainable planning and urban resilience against natural disasters. In the conclusions, some suggestions are presented for the definition of tools that will allow transforming and adapting cities to face future changes.