Conceptualizing City Fragility and Resilience

Citation:

Ronak B. Patel, John de Boer, and Robert Muggah. 10/2016. Conceptualizing City Fragility and Resilience. United Nations University Centre for Policy Research. Read Publication

Abstract:

This paper introduces a preliminary analytical framework that re-conceptualizes fragility and resilience at the city level. It aligns the two concepts across a range of political, social, economic and environmental factors enabling comparison across thousands of cities globally based on existing data. The framework was then partially applied to map out fragility in over 2,100 cities. It finds that roughly 14 percent of the sample score in the highly fragile range. Another 66 percent report average levels of fragility while 16 percent report low fragility.4 Of course, fragility and resilience are both dynamic and change over time. The paper finds that all cities are fragile to some degree, though intensity varies in relation to the aggregation of risk.
Last updated on 12/09/2020