There are many definitions of urban resilience, but all are similar. In the academic space, specifically the planning-related academic space, the definition by Meerow et al. appears to be the most widely used:

Urban resilience refers to the ability of an urban system—and all its constituent socio-ecological and socio-technical networks across temporal and spatial scales—to maintain or rapidly return to desired functions in the face of a disturbance, to adapt to change, and to quickly transform systems that limit current or future adaptive capacity.

At this point in my studies on urban resilience, I prefer a less jargon-filled and more practical definition however. For that, I look to the one presented by the Ryerson University Urban Resiliency Studio Group (perhaps now referred to as the TMU Urban Resiliency Studio Group) and published by the Ontario Professional Planners Institute (OPPI):

[Urban resilience] is the ability of an urban area, which includes individuals, communities, institutions, businesses and systems, to prepare for and adapt to change stemming from chronic stresses and acute shocks and bounce back to a functioning state following a disruption.

As with any broad concept, especially those with significant academic interest or applicability, there are contentions. Contentions over its meaning, its scope, and its practicality, all of which are topics of current debate. This article discusses one such topic — adaptive resilience versus inherent resilience — first introduced with respect to economic resilience.

Adaptive Resilience

Rose defines adaptive resilience as “ability in crisis situations due to ingenuity or extra effort.” In simpler terms, adaptive resilience refers to how a system responds during a crisis and typically involves creative solutions. A good example is how a city responds to a climate-related disaster event, such as a stronger-than-normal hurricane.

Inherent Resilience

Inversely, Rose defines inherent resilience as “ability under normal circumstances;” i.e., the ability of a system to cope with challenges during normal times and typically involving capacity-building solutions. An example is how a city invests in green infrastructure to absorb storm water and reduce the impact of smaller climate-related events.

As far as I can tell, unlike the economic literature, the urban climate literature does not view resilience as being either adaptive or inherent. Rather, resilience merely refers to the capacity to prepare for and adapt to change before, during, or after an event of small, medium, or large magnitude.

Adaptive versus inherent resilience deserves further discussion, especially as it relates to, or does not relate to, climate change and urban environments.