Author(s)

C. E. Cloete

Abstract

Investigation of the resilience of cities has become increasingly important in view of the various natural and man-made threats to the sustainability of urban complexes in which more than half the world’s population lives. The paper provides an overview of the pertinent concepts as well as the various approaches to the assessment of the resilience of cities. It elaborates on the concepts of complexity and dynamic systems and attempts to clarify the concept of resilience itself by analysing its characteristics and contrasting it with related concepts such as sustainability, resistance, equilibrium, stability, durability and robustness. It proposes that the essence of resilience is the ability of a system to absorb changes without a transition to a different state. Keywords: resilience, systems, complexity, cities, sustainability.

Keywords

Keywords: resilience, systems, complexity, cities, sustainability