Determining and evaluating the institutional and social resilience components in spontaneous settlements Case study: spontaneous settlements in Naiser, Sanandaj City

Nowadays, due to different reasons such as low financial affordability, high cost of standard housing, lack of affordable land in cities (especially for a particular population), lack of scientific criteria in finding location (for housing) or in urban development, and as urban development processes surpass rational urban planning and managemen, most cities and urban habitats are located in sites which are exposed to a variety of human-made threats because of natural hazards or technological progresses. In this regard, in the case of a crisis, efforts to achieve circumstances which provide the possibility to restore the conditions before crisis or increasing the flexibility of those cities and habitats are of high importance. Resilience is a new approach proposed as a novel perspective to deal with rapid changes and increasing needs and complications of cities. In most cases, this approach is used to face the unknowns or uncertainties. Resilience is also emphasized over vulnerability. The concept of resilience has evolved over time; in the recent decade, it has peculiarly been the center of attention in scientific and political debates. The present applied research tries to recognize and evaluate the effective factors on social and institutional resilience in Naisar detached urban district of Sanandaj. It also attempts to optimally adapt those factors by using descriptive, analytic and comparative methods. Naisar district is located at the northeast of Sanandaj. It is 309.5 hectares making it the largest spontaneous settlement of the city. At the beginning, this area was in the form of a village in Sanandaj suburbs, but, due to lack of residential land in the city (Sanandaj has many hills unsuitable for residential construction), the village turned into a satellite area for the overflowing population of the city in the 90s. In the census of villages in 1996, the population of Naisar was announced to be 938. The interesting point is the rapid increase in Naisar population over the past 15 years. The population of Naisar was 12480 in 2006. In 2011, it increased by 29.5% and reached 27377. Like many such settlements, Naisar has a very low resilience in the face of incidents. The purpose of this research is to investigate the social and institutional resilience criteria in this settlement. To this end, the indices and influential factors on social and institutional resilience in these settlements were first identified and defined operationally through library research. Then, the resilience level of the spontaneous settlement of Naisar was determined through AIR, RIF and CIR formulas. The results of the research indicated low levels of resilience in this settlement. Based on the findings, it seems that more factors are effective on the evaluation of the resilience level of the spontaneous settlement of Naisar due to its unfavorable conditions. The results also indicate that, in Naisar detached urban district, as one of the particular settlements of Sanandaj which has been recognized as an informal settlement, social resilience has a more favorable situation than institutional resilience.