Urban Planning and Urban Resilience in Serbia: The Context of Ecological Risks in the City of Bor

Abstract

Climate change, as a global pressure, pose new challenges for the urban environment. Risk assessments and measures to reduce specific foreseeable risks have an important role in urban planning. Starting from the fact that (1) spatial and urban planning promote sound land use planning and express interests in the sustainable development of land, resources and infrastructure, and (2) urban resilience implies the capacity of a city to survive, adapt, and grow regardless to the expected and the unexpected risks and effects of climate change, the author analyzes land use planning solutions in the context of urban resilience in Bor – a middle-sized, mining and metallurgy city located in the East Serbia. It can be considered that every natural disaster essentially has an ecological nature, so the protection measures against natural disasters are environmental measures, and the risks to emergency situations are - ecological risks. Ecological risk assessment is of particular importance in the City of Bor area, where mining and metallurgy industry is located, especially since the presence of one risk entails the emergence of another, and sometimes even whole chain of risks. This paper (1) provides an overview of the current institutional and planning framework regarding urban resiliece in Serbia (2) outlines the importance of building urban resilience through urban planning, especially in terms of land use solutions. Solutions in the planning documents, developed on various planning levels for City of Bor (municipality level, master plan level and detailed regulation level), clearly present and determine the holistically approach in the planning process, that ensures the city’s resilience.