ABSTRACT
Growing urbanisation and climate extremes prompt urban research on vulnerability and resilience. At the same time, socioecological impacts and interactions are studied in equally affected rural areas as well. However, interlinkages between urban and rural research and vulnerability and resilience also need attention. Mutual interdependencies exist by flows of people, materials and services. As but one cross-cutting topic enabling research on these interlinkages, critical infrastructure services are an important area of methodological development.
In four case study areas, distributed over the planet in Chile, Germany, Iran and South Africa, recent findings of studies on such interlinkages are presented. Novelties are found within place-based research on neighbouring cities and villages, in which research so far has focused mainly on either city or rural areas. Multiple methodological opportunities arise for integrative research by the combination of different stakeholder groups and needs, the combination of natural and human-made hazard and risk topics and the use of multilevel place-based approaches.
This line of research on vulnerability and resilience blends in with current trends of integrating such all-hazard approaches and adopting critical infrastructure as an example within the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) or the inclusive approach of integrating different types of stakeholder groups within the New Urban Agenda.
