Abstract
Natural disasters and the consequences of human activities present heightened uncertainty to the well-being of urban residency. The threats posed by their actions are unpredictable, prompting cities to respond by developing robust, quicker, and more effective means of anticipating and minimizing their impact whenever they occur. The integration of prescient preventative and coping mechanisms into urban design and planning to promote resilience is a major source of intrigue for scholarly interest and local governments, who endeavor to integrate them into their strategic plans (Ribrio & Concalves, 2019). Despite their impressive uptake of the concept in the contemporary planning environment, there has been limited application of social resiliency. Universal Design defines the usability of a space by providing equitable access to every user. The concept appreciates the varying physical capabilities exhibited by the public and endeavors to provide them an equal opportunity for use by all. The paper aims to provide an in-depth insight into the issue by reviewing the literature on urban resilience and examining its positive implications on design theory and practice. An elaborate conceptual foundation will be available to discuss the concept with the social dimension being integrated through the application of universal design. The research relied extensively on evidence established from the literature on the subjects, which will be validated by structured interviews with urban design and planning experts. The findings of the research establish a correlation between universal design principles and social resilience key factors. The research tries to determine that Universal Design can be used to evaluate the inclusivity and social resilience of any given urban space. However, additional scholarly inquiry into the concepts is required to present a greater understanding of how they intersect.
