Urban Resilience

Resilience has gained significant currency in numerous areas as a remedy for complexity and uncertainty, yet its definition remains contested. This invaluable guide goes beyond critique to show what it means to 'operationalise' resilience in the field of urban planning.' - Simin Davoudi, Newcastle University, UK "Resilience' is an increasingly important concept for planners to consider in developing recovery responses to shock events. This book provides invaluable guidance and case studies for the planning of resilient and sustainable cities in uncertain times.' - Michio Ubaura, Tohoku University, Japan

In the century of the city when crisis has become the new normal, planners are trying to find ways to make cities less vulnerable and to build in resilience. Drawing on international examples and detailed case-studies, this book examines the theory and practice of urban resilience in response to a range of disruptions.As the cities of the world increasingly come under threat from crisis and disaster, planners are searching for ways to build resilience into the foundations of modern urban centres. This important book provides a comprehensive account of the theory and practice of urban resilience in response to a range of disruptions, including terrorism, climate change and economic crises. It examines how the concepts and principles of resilience exert increasing significant influence over the form and function of planning. Discussing a 'politics of resilience' in which fundamental questions of social and spatial justice are posed, this book examines how urban planners are increasingly tasked with the responsibility of safeguarding the future of urbanised centres and those that live in them. Drawing on international examples and detailed case-studies, this book provides a nuanced account of the uses, and misuses, of resilience and points a way forward for planning activity, from an approach that is too often narrowly technical in focus towards an integrated and adaptable model for coping with risk, crisis and uncertainty. It will make essential reading for students of urban planning and researchers alike.