The Investigation of Sustainability Assessments’ Transformative Role in the Resilience of Arabian Gulf Cities: The Case of Doha, Qatar

Over the last decade, city resilience has received special attention in both scientific and political arenas, as it was introduced to tackle the more recurrent ecological disasters from one hand, and vulnerabilities cities generally suffer from, especially those related to socioeconomic systems, from another hand. Many scholars suggested the presence of overlap between urban sustainability and urban resilience, as evident in academic and intergovernmental shift from the former to the latter. Yet, there are elementary differences between both, which prevent using them interchangeably. Differences start from aim and definition, all the way to tools and techniques. There are, however, ample opportunities to synergize between both and align sustainability objectives with urban resilience ones based on the suggested overlap. During the formulation stage of urban resilience, many of the proposed tools for its measurement started from the well-established sustainability assessments ones which enjoyed relatively long hands-on experience and arrived to mature levels. Others were developed to utilize the basic urban indicators to evaluate city resilience. This thesis provides a study of recently developed urban resilience assessment tools, evaluates their foci, and investigates the role regionally implemented sustainability assessments can perform in supporting urban resilience and filling the gaps of its assessment tools. This study selected four internationally known urban resilience assessment frameworks, some of which have a clear and declared relationship with sustainability assessment frameworks. From the sustainability assessment side, the study selected GSAS Districts scheme widely implemented in the selected case of Doha, Qatar. The study is conducted within a regional but holistic frame seeks for a robust evaluation of the specific and urgent challenges Arabian Gulf cities face. Different qualitative research tools and techniques were used to extract the qualities sustainability assessments can provide for urban resilience, especially where urban resilience assessments fall short.