Urban resilience: Towards a global sustainability

Abstract

This chapter analyses the concept of resilience and its influence on the renewal of disciplines such as urban planning and design. The concept and its ecological framework deal with the ability of a system to absorb and learn from the disorder it is subject to, managing to progress without undergoing substantial changes in its structure. The contemporary literature on regional and community planning and management relates resilience to other aspects such as flexibility, adaptability, self-management and durability. Everything seems to indicate that it will play an important role in the future of cities, especially when facing the uncertain perturbations related to climate change, de-industrialisation, unemployment, poverty or terrorism. Among other strategies resilient approaches seek to restore the loss of functionality of natural systems and cultural heritage in the regions.