Abstract
Resilience has been a major concern for cities for years. As natural crises occur along with the development of urbanization, cities have become centers where natural resources and attention to global environmental influences has increased. Uneven urban development in the developing cities like Tehran has elevated the pressure on nature and weakened its resilience and have often had devastating consequences for cities and its inhabitants. While the existence of natural resources in cities and countries is one of the infrastructures of development and one of the main factors in increasing the rate of economic growth, sometimes dependence on some of these resources causes imbalance in various economic sectors. The Middle East, in particular, shows that in long run, the high chances of economic growth are often shaken. Although, sustainable income sources and increasing people's participation – some of the indicators of urban resilience – makes it possible for cities to survive in the face of various crises; resilience and sustainability will be the main goals of future cities. The irreparable consequences of natural disasters and the social, economic and environmental damage of contemporary cities have greatly linked the concepts of sustainability and resilience. Resilience is a concept that is important in the face of crises; it seeks to minimize the adverse effects and consequences of a catastrophe and tries to work with a set of measures including: preparation before disaster, learning skills, crisis management, ability to go back to the past, etc. Although natural and unnatural crises may have irrecoverable consequences for countries with single-product economies, utilizing online platforms in hope of maintaining the economic cycle not only can preserve the social and economic life of cities, but it also free them from dependence on traditional oil economy and accordingly will also make new opportunities. Tehran with more than 12 million population and base location services is going through difficult days because of corona virus outbreak; the development of online infrastructure by urban governance including: the provision of online sales from urban stores, providing online services, Online banking transactions, etc. were able to continue the city's economy in a relatively stable manner. Thus, although this development was forced in Tehran following a global crisis, it helped making the city smarter and provided a virtual network for communication of people seeking social resilience. In the future, these infrastructures will be able to maintain the city's resilience if oil-dependent urban revenues were reduced. Based on in-depth interviews with 25 urban and virtual communication experts in the municipality of Tehran, this article has tried to examine the capacities created after the Corona Virus crises with the help of online platforms for enhancing the urban resilience and at the same time address some of the obstacles to the full realization of this goal, including the lack of smart infrastructures and insufficient education for citizens. Key Words: Urban Resilience, Smart City, Corona Virus, Forced Development, Social Resilience, Tehran
