Goals/objectives and Areas

In this track, the objective is to expand our understanding of what makes cities and regions more resilient in the face of escalating global ecological crises and associated changes such as those induced by climate change. The concept of resilience is an interdisciplinary, holistic, and proactive approach to addressing interconnected and complex problems that have a regional perspective, relying on urban-rural cooperation in territorial development. The concept of resilience is closely related to sustainability and integral to the Sustainable Development Goals, but it is not limited only to environmental challenges. It also encompasses social and technological aspects with a future conscious-strategic way of thinking as well as planning. The resilience of the complex socio-ecological-technical systems (SETS) of cities and regions involves various actors, sectors, and systems across spatial and temporal scales. SETS encompass the human-made built environment, including the physical aspects such as buildings, infrastructure, and anthropogenically modified open spaces. The Resilience Alliance defines social-ecological resilience as a system’s ability to withstand change and still maintain the same functions and structures, to self-organize, and to learn and adapt. It is essential to strike a balance between resilience as an attempt to maintain the status quo and transformative resilience, which aims to avoid collapse through change. This regular and rhythmic dance between chaos and order, between stability and transformation is fundamental to complex adaptive systems.

Similarly, urban and regional resilience is not only the ability to survive or recover from crises but also to proactively change unsustainable and unjust systems and behaviours. Human health and wellbeing must be at the heart of any effort to build urban or regional resilience. However, resilience should not only be considered from a human perspective; it should also encompass the impacts on the entire human-shaped environment, including ecosystems. To mitigate negative impacts, it is essential to include circular economy concepts such as closing, slowing and narrowing in resilience thinking. To achieve this, it is necessary to empower key stakeholders in cities and regions to develop a sustainable, adaptable, climate-neutral, and resilient built environment. Building resilience includes adapting to weather extremes such as heavy rainfall, heatwaves, and droughts and their impacts, which comprises not only structural precautionary and adaptation measures but also includes options for behaviour-related measures as well as planning strategies including the identification of potentially necessary changes to the legal framework. This requires methods to integrate risk reduction planning (e.g., through multifunctional, nature-based solutions) and increased awareness of the necessity and effectiveness of self-preparedness by private actors. It necessitates a shared understanding of the necessary changes as well as a better understanding of available courses of action.

It is becoming increasingly clear that urban resilience is not only a concern for cities but also affects entire regions. The sessions in this track aim to bring together the latest insights on what urban and regional resilience means in today’s world in crisis. We also aim to identify various innovations that are enhancing communities’ resilience, including socio-cultural innovations in different urban areas or regions.

Examples of topics that would fit in this track include:

• Strategies, plans, policies, and adaptation measures to enhance urban and regional resilience and cooperation,
• Characteristics and metrics for urban and regional resilience,
• Methodological developments in studying urban and regional resilience,
• Synergies and trade-offs in resilience strategies across different shocks and stresses, systems, or scales,
• Discussing advancements in interdisciplinary approaches to resilience research;
• Changes in people's perceptions and demands as a result of crises and shocks, and how this affects resilience priorities,
• Differing narratives of resilience and how this affects both policy and practice,
• Cases of regional resilience and lessons from applied experiences,
• Critiques of the SDGs concerning urban and regional resilience, and
• Discussing potential improvements or alternative frameworks for achieving resilience in line with sustainable development objectives.

Format and content of expected abstracts:

Proposed abstracts should be between 300 and 500 words (including everything):

1. shall be best organized (without headlines) along usual structures (e.g., intro/method/findings or results/ discussion/conclusions)
2. does not need to, but can include references
3. shall provide in a final section
   a. to which SDG(s) and SDG-target(s) their proposed abstract especially relate to (e.g. “SDG+Target: 14.1.”).
   b. a brief indication how the proposed contribution relates to the topic of the Conference

Potential Publication Channels

Depending on the number and quality of contributions to the track, the following publication opportunities have already been envisioned:

• Sustainable Development  (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10991719; 
• Urban Transformations: https://urbantransformations.biomedcentral.com/about

Recommended Sources:

- Look at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network on Sustainable Cities: Inclusive, Resilient, and Connected