Resilience Thinking

Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World

Brian Walker and David Salt | 2006

Increasingly, cracks are appearing in the capacity of communities, ecosystems, and landscapes to provide the goods and services that sustain our planet’s well-being. The response from most quarters has been for “more of the same” that created the situation in the first place: more control, more intensification, and greater efficiency. It is publisher by Island Press.


“Resilience thinking” offers a different way of understanding the world and a new approach to managing resources. It embraces human and natural systems as complex entities continually adapting through cycles of change, and seeks to understand the qualities of a system that must be maintained or enhanced in order to achieve sustainability. It explains why greater efficiency by itself cannot solve resource problems and offers a constructive alternative that opens up options rather than closing them down.

In Resilience Thinking, scientist Brian Walker and science writer David Salt present an accessible introduction to the emerging paradigm of resilience. The book arose out of appeals from colleagues in science and industry for a plainly written account of what resilience is all about and how a resilience approach differs from current practices. Rather than complicated theory, the book offers a conceptual overview along with five case studies of resilience thinking in the real world. It is an engaging and important work for anyone interested in managing risk in a complex world.

Bibliography

Walker, B. and Salt, D. (2006) Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World. Washington, D.C., United States: Island Press

The resilient city – state of the art

Nikola Hochholdinger, Alexandra Schantl and Thomas Prorok | KDZ

During the pandemic, the discussion about the resilience of our social system and especially of Austrian cities and municipalities is increasingly becoming the focus of political and social discourse. This working document provides a first overview of the state of scientific discussion on urban resilience, existing literature, research projects and planning tools with a focus on the local level.

In the context of cities and municipalities and public administration, the concept of resilience is primarily related to disaster management. In addition to governance, resilience management also includes other disciplines such as technical, economic, ecological, and social resilience.

The resilient city – state of the art

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