Urban Resilience and Urban Sustainability

The urban system has been a subject of much attention and inquiry, more so in the past two or so decades. The design of urban systems and juxtaposition of humans with nature has been scrutinized and critically examined by several means and modes. To replicate the natural systems’ balance post human intervention on thus is what societies have strived for, for a long time now (Redman, 2010). The emergence of sustainability in the realm of urban living and more recently the attention imparted to the long known concept of resilient living have been a corollary of this quest. The trend in sustainable development and resilient systems planning of devising frameworks and drawing indicators to help define these vast concepts and help make their manifestation and measurement more tangible is evolving and developing more and more in academic circles and planning disciplines alike (see Alberti, 2012; Arup, 2015). However, the lack of a definite norm and basic sustainability and resilience requirements worldwide has made it more and more difficult for built and planning manifestations to respond directly to these broad-ended goals. It is hypothesized thus that a required innovative framework that incorporates the concepts of sustainability, resilience, a balanced ecological living and an efficient urban system be coined so that these concepts are reflected in manifestations of urban living and not lost in translation. An analysis of existing indicators and frameworks created by both academics and practitioners that currently define sustainability and resilience in urban development are used in identifying gaps in the current methodology adopted by cities in planning for sustainable-resilient living. A new framework and approach is attempted by incorporating the missing links. It is expected that this integrative framework - measuring and defining a resilient, sustainable and more responsible urban systems living - is a paradigmatic shift in the way planning policies are ideated and manifested in cities.