A framework for urban climate resilience

TLDR

Climate change will inevitably impact urban systems and populations, especially in Asia, making climate adaptation essential for cities. This article reviews diverse concepts and theories to develop an operational framework for urban climate resilience that planners can use. The framework integrates knowledge of urban system characteristics, agents, institutions, and exposure patterns, and operationalizes them through structured, iterative shared‑learning processes that enable local planners to define context‑specific factors and devise practical strategies. Its viability is shown by resilience‑planning examples from 10 Asian cities in the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Abstract

Climate change will have unavoidable impacts on urban systems and populations, especially in Asia where many large cities are exposed. Climate adaptation will be essential, and planning for adaptation can be simplified through operationalizing concepts of climate resilience and vulnerability. This article reviews concepts and theories in a range of diverse fields to illustrate how the general notion of urban climate resilience can be developed into an operational framework for planning practitioners. The framework integrates theoretical and empirical knowledge of the factors contributing to resilience with processes for translating those concepts into practice. The framework includes characteristics of urban systems, the agents (people and organizations) that depend on and manage those systems, institutions that link systems and agents, and patterns of exposure to climate change. It operationalizes these concepts through structured and iterative shared learning approaches that allow local planners to define these factors in their own context, in order to develop practical strategies for local action. The viability of the framework is demonstrated through examples from resilience planning activities undertaken in 10 cities across Asia through the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.