"Urban renewal under the scope of security issues" - case study of Belgrade - glommy parts of the city

Abstract

City center of Belgrade, Serbia, is broadly known for its generally high level of safety, which gives him a special advantage in between the European cities; having in mind its past, postwar trauma oriented inhabitants and migration processes passing through. Never the less, to upgrade the level of safety of certain quarters by urban renewal would lead Belgrade to more resilient city, more enjoyable and open to touristic but primarily with more comfort for its inhabitants. There are, indeed, some less secure spots what the city statistics clearly show; which could be improved through the process of urban renewal: through reconstruction, urban regeneration and conservation – especially places left demolished after 1999. NATO bombing. Along with identifying the factors of urban renewal, professionals should be open to explore concepts which bring new light to how resilience could be enforced. While concept of fragility or “zero tolerance” is defined as a strong sensitivity to a stressor, antifragility is associated to generating positive responses to stress instead of harm. Antifragility describes cautious actions, being strongly related to risk management, and, as we may propose, represents a component to be included within the urban renewal and community resilience factors. As new risks can emerge overnight, constant assessment should be made to detect whether the urban renewal is facing benefits or impairments in coping with unexpected events or in the phases of expecting it. The question, as always, is one of proportion (How much of each concept/strategy?) and relevance (What kinds of dangers deserve the different concepts?), and ultimately, given uncertainty, of bias (When in doubt, which concept should receive priority?). This paper is analyzing those gloomy spots in the city in order to establish the guidelines based on real indicators and parameters targeting public resilience in response to particular known or unknown security risks. For risks with high ambiguity, it can be suggested to adopt a approach which is designed to reach stakeholder consensus on the acceptability and tolerability of a risk based on multi-level governance processes termed ‘distributed responsibility’.