Planning for Resilience

By Liva Dudareva, Research Lead at Restart

These challenges, which climate change will likely exacerbate globally, highlight the importance of investing in resilient communities. Ukrainian municipalities are increasingly committed to build and sustain such communities, recognizing that resilience not only prepares them for future challenges but also makes them safer places to live today.

Building resilient communities requires a holistic understanding of the city, ensuring the basic needs of citizens while recognizing the effects of global risks, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, war, and socioeconomic confrontations to name a few. 

In search of new methodologies that prioritize sustainability and resilience, Doughnut Economics (DE), coined by Kate Raworth in 2012, offers a promising approach. Initially an economic model, this approach has gained traction in urban planning. Doughnut Economics for Cities and Regions - one of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL) directions - have introduced a City Portrait, which measures local and global factors with a goal to ensure the well being of all citizens within planetary boundaries. The methodology is closely aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Doughnut Economics for Cities and Regions can serve various purposes: provide an overall compass for urban development, inform policy-making guidelines, support data analytics, and shape project monitoring and impact assessment. DEAL supports municipalities, communities, businesses, schools, and civic society in the creation of regenerative cities and economies by providing resources, tools, strategic relationships, and peer-to-peer learning networks with an aim to foster.

The Restart Agency has been adopting the Doughnut Economics to the local Ukrainian urban planning context. In the process of translating the Doughnut Economics to Ukrainian context, local and global factors were revised and relevant data indicators were identified. For instance, in our adaptation of the Doughnut Economics, we updated the global factors based on the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report for 2023-2024 to address the most pressing issues over the span of a generation to come. Similarly, both qualitative and quantitative data indicators should be revised for each sector, and continuous testing and monitoring would be required to best reflect current realities.

Local and Global factors adopted from Doughnut Economics to Ukrainian context.

One of the key challenges among the DEAL for Cities and Regions members is data collection and establishing data indicators according to Leonora Grcheva, Cities and Regions Lead at DEAL. 

She emphasizes that “We need innovative and creative approaches to measure citizens' well-being and environmental impact, as much of the existing data was not originally designed for these purposes.”  Identifying data gaps therefore is crucial for planning and creating pathways for data collection.

Under the “Integrated Urban Development in Ukraine II” project, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German and Swiss governments, Restart Agency applied the methodology of Doughnut Economics to the Under the “Integrated Urban Development in Ukraine II” project, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German and Swiss governments, Restart Agency applied the methodology of Doughnut Economics to the Northern District of Lviv urban development to analyse the current situation and propose strategic directions aligned with the SDGs. 

Northern District of Lviv project site.

The premise for the development of the Northern District of Lviv is to provide the area around the UNBROKEN rehabilitation center with supporting urban infrastructure - extending public transport and the road network and incorporating new residential developments along with the necessary amenities. 

Doughnut for the Northern District of Lviv city identifies long and short term impacts across different sectors.

According to Iryna Vlasiuk, Project Manager at the City Institute in Lviv, Doughnut Economics' approach revealed previously overlooked issues. These include data gaps in food and water resources, the long-neglected need for affordable housing, and temporary housing for patients at the UNBROKEN rehabilitation center.

The key findings by Restart Agency from the application of the Doughnut Economics principles to the development of the Northern District of Lviv were:

Make equality and justice the foundation of the project, factors often overlooked in traditional urban planning but urgent in the context of war.

Focus on health and rehabilitation of the veterans. The unique setting of the project site, which includes large territories of allotment gardens and undeveloped natural areas, presents an opportunity for nature-based therapy, an increasingly important consideration during and post-war time, as well as for novel nature conservation methods and small scale food production.

With significant population changes in Lviv since the full scale invasion, particularly among internally displaced persons (IDPs), there is a pressing need for affordable housing.

The Doughnut Economics provides a comprehensive and flexible framework that focuses on human-centric urban planning within planetary limitations. However, cities may face several challenges when adopting this methodology locally. Introducing new ideas that require a paradigm shift might be met with resistance from some city departments. There might also be fatigue from integrating yet another planning framework, however, it is worth mentioning that the Doughnut Methodology is compatible with other frameworks, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), innovation portfolios, and other initiatives. Lastly, integrating these approaches can be resource-intensive in the short term.

The Doughnut Economics offers a dynamic, adaptable, and continuously evolving framework for research, data analysis, visioning, impact assessment, and monitoring. Through our work at Restart, collaboration with the Lviv City Institute, and ongoing conversations with DEAL and other organizations that work with the Doughnut Economics, we have identified key steps to adapt it to the Ukrainian context:

• Tailor local and global factors to local context;
• Create a database of available data indicators;
• Introduce Doughnut Economics early in the planning process to identify the key sectors for formulation of strategic development directions;
• Validate both local and global factors during participatory workshops.

By tailoring the Doughnut Economics to our unique context, we can better address the specific challenges faced by Ukrainian cities and work towards sustainable, resilient urban development that takes into consideration not only the well-being of the citizens but also global risks and limitations.

Watch the panel discussion “Doughnut Methodology for Urban Planning”, hosted by Restart in 2024. 

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