Disaster governance and urban collective intelligences for climate resilience in the Global South

Abstract

This work examines the interplay between disaster governance and collective intelligence in the creation and design of solutions (i.e., products and urban interventions) in cities of the Global South, particularly the Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) region. Collective intelligences of construction and design may result in a beneficial source of opportunities for urban climate resilience and disaster risk reduction. In complex contexts such as “informal settlements” where pressures of multiple necessities –i.e., housing, food, and other materials– intersect with other precarious forms of development such as informal employment and social marginalisation, good urban governance and collective intelligences are more important than ever. In the LAC region, for instance, self-construction and informality are significant (e.g., 70% in Bolivia, 70% in Peru). Thus, tacit knowledge and intelligences around resource-saving building materials and construction methods in areas of rapid (informal) urban growth are urgently needed. The authors systematise and draw on discussions from a series of academic roundtables held in 2021 with disaster, governance, and collective intelligence experts: scholars and practitioners. The research considers how collective intelligence can transform social structures related to construction and risk management, including social resilience to disasters, and how formal disaster and urban governance can incorporate collective intelligences. The findings highlight the need to link urban development to resilience, disaster governance, collective intelligence, and architectural production in future research and practice. Our work suggests that timely and contextualised urban solutions, which maximise the reuse of scarce community resources, may be a promising approach to meet the growing demand for housing and new products that enhance resilience to disasters.