URBAN RESILIENCE DEFINITIONS AND LIMITS OF CONCEPTUAL INTERPRETATION

Abstract

Urban resilience is the capacity of cities to confront any potential and actual challenges through anticipation, adaptation and recovery. There are many definitions of urban resilience, each focusing on a different aspect – government, administration, society, economy, capacity to withstand outside and/or inside threats, ability to grow and so on. When analyzed and taken as a whole, our view is that these theories create the image of the city as a living organism, made up of a number of elements that must work together in order to maintain it resilient to shocks and capable of absorbing shocks. The fundamental unit of this organism is the individual – and the individual’s resilience gives the tone for the resilience of the whole. From this perspective, we can say that urban resilience works like an immune system – its role is mainly to prevent but, when needed, also to withstand actively against any threats and/or shocks.

Keywords

• resilio
• economic shocks
• political shocks
• social shocks
• durable development
• climate changes
• systemic characteristics of resilience
• development of human communities