The use of public open spaces to enhance the coastal urban cities' resilience to tsunamis

Tsunami is a rapid-onset natural hazard that can be considered as one of the extremely destructive hazards. Depending on the location of the origin of Tsunami, there can be limited time available to evacuate people to safe places and to make appropriate response decisions in timely manner. Therefore, it is imperative to increase the inherent capacity of a city to respond this type of a natural hazard. Planning and designing spatial elements are one of the directives to increase the inherent capacity of a city to resist, absorb, accommodate and recover from the effects of a Tsunami. Accordingly, this research paper emphasizes the importance of public open spaces as one of the key spatial elements of a city which can be used as a strategy to enhance the coastal urban cities’ resilience to Tsunamis, as an agent of recovery, as a mode to provide essential life support, as a primary place to rescue, shelters and potential for adaptive response. Moreover, this ongoing research study analyses the current literature on use of public open spaces for Tsunami resilience and also the current problems and issues associated with it. Finally, the analysis suggests set of recommendations to enhance the use of public open spaces to increase the coastal urban cities’ resilience to Tsunamis.