Rebuilding to be Resilient: Climate-Resilient Settlement Planning in Post-Conflict Recovery

About this event

Post-conflict reconstruction is one of the largest sources of newly built settlements in the world, yet it is almost entirely absent from a climate-resilient cities agenda that focuses on upgrading existing urban fabric. Recovery-era construction proceeds under conditions that run counter to resilience: political pressure for visible results, displaced populations waiting to return, degraded or hazardous land, and infrastructure networks that must be built from scratch rather than improved incrementally. Karabakh and East Zangezur offer an unusually well-documented case in which climate and digital criteria were written into settlement design from the outset: settlement-scale renewable energy generation, smart water management, digital service delivery and climate-adapted agriculture. Drawing on a field documentation programme conducted in August 2026, this 60-minute moderated panel will examine the case critically and set out the design and sequencing criteria that can be transferred to other recovery contexts.