Comprehensive approach

A comprehensive approach to urban planning also reflects that in urban systems all phases of the common crisis management cycle may be experienced simultaneously in different parts of the city.

While a part of the city may be struck by an incident (such as a natural disaster or terrorist attack), other parts may be under warning, evacuation, or even in an immediate post-disaster phase with restoration (e.g. of supply-related infrastructure) beginning. Still other parts of a city may be in the role of observers and drawing immediate lessons for risk assessment, mitigation, prevention and preparedness. An ideal tool would consider this non-linearity. Adding to this non-linearity, an ideal approach to consideration of security aspects in urban planning should also reflect that resilience in cities should be grounded in a holistic view of sustainability. Research has proposed to consider the following five interconnected functional components: social, economic, political, demographic, and environmental. Several state of the art technologies to integrate security information are available in order to facilitate comprehensive information of urban planners on security aspects.