Why cities cannot learn

Abstract

For most of the world’s urban history, changes in policies and responses to hazards have proceeded on a timescale that made adaptation possible, however slow or politically contested. The Great Fire of London in 1666 produced building regulations within 2 years of the devastating blaze. Repeated flooding events along the Rhine and Danube Rivers through the late 20th century spurred zoning rules and hazard mapping that are now standard across Europe’s urban planning systems. What drove these improvements was a general pathway in which disruption produced evidence, evidence generated pressure, and pressure forced modifications by agencies responsible for governing a city’s well-being. However, that process has been degrading across every inhabited continent. What has emerged in its place is a volatile urbanism that is threatening resilience.