The definition of resilience, in regards to sustainability, is “the capacity of a system, be it an individual, forest, city or an economy, to deal with change and continue to develop.” (Stockholm Resilience Center).
Resilience starts from the belief that humans and nature are strongly coupled to the point that they should be conceived as one social-ecological system. This means that in our globalized society, there are virtually no ecosystems that are not shaped by people and no people without the need for ecosystems and the services they provide.
Resilience thinking is about generating increased knowledge about how we can strengthen the capacity to deal with the stresses caused by environmental change. It is about finding ways to deal with unexpected events and crises and identifying sustainable ways for humans to live within the Earth’s boundaries.
3 Pillars of Resilience Thinking
There are complex interdependencies between people and ecosystems
The incredible acceleration of development over the past 200 years has pushed our planet dangerously close to its boundaries. Human activities have reached a point where our existence influences every aspect of the Earth on a scale comparable to the very forces of nature.
The idea that the innovative capacity that has put us in the current environmental predicament can also be used to push us out of it. Resilience thinking embraces learning, diversity and how to adapt to a wide range of complex challenges.
Resilience In Practice
Urban areas are vulnerable to extreme weather related events given their location, high concentration of people, and increasingly complex and interdependent infrastructure.
Impacts of extreme events such as hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, or flooding demonstrate not just failures in built infrastructure, they highlight the inadequacy of institutions, resources, and information systems to prepare for and respond to events of this magnitude.
Each year, these sorts of extreme events cause billions of dollars worth of damage. Approaching these events with resilience thinking allows for humans and nature to use shocks and disturbances like a financial crisis or climate change to spur renewal and innovative thinking versus reactive, business as usual solutions.
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