Fundamental challenges exist in an urbanized world facing increasing extreme events and climatic changes. Future urban resilience to these challenges depends on diverse solutions that address the interdependencies within urban social, ecological, and technological systems (SETS). In this talk, we highlight the importance of examining the social (S) component of SETS to address urban resilience. We focus on the co-production of knowledge, as well as understanding the governance and knowledge systems that steer resiliency in cities, including the visions, actor networks, mental models of system vulnerabilities, institutional structures, and decision-making processes. We ask: how is urban resilience governed, and how do city actors and governance systems frame concerns, visions, and preferred solutions for urban resilience and sustainability? To address these questions, we highlight examples from nine US and Latin American cities in the Urban Resilience to Extreme Events (UREx) Sustainability Research Network and the new SETS Convergence project. In both projects, we engage local practitioners—governmental and civic officials—through an iterative, multi-method approach to explore framings of resilience. We present results from multi-city governance surveys, knowledge systems analyses, and a series of participatory visioning workshops and transition labs designed to exchange knowledge and co-produce innovative solutions toward urban resilience.
Results/Conclusions
Across cities, we find diverse ways in which actors frame problems of urban resilience, prioritize resilience strategies, and how networks are structured to implement those strategies. For example, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, we found different actors prioritize distinct strategies, such that planning and education are important for government organizations and maintaining ecosystems is more important in non-governmental organizations. We also examine existing anticipatory capacities being mobilized to address resilience and how the anticipatory capacities align (or not) with climate adaptation pathways. In both Miami and San Juan, actors are more inclined to pursue adaptation pathways that reduce vulnerability and increase adaptive capacities than to pursue climate mitigation actions or undertake transformative sustainability initiatives. In Valdivia, Chile, we found that while practices of anticipation in organizations primarily focus on analytical risk analysis and projection, a third of the organizations address high uncertainty through exploration of alternative, long-term visioning. We also see that while most on-the-ground climate adaptation pathways in Valdivia focus on short-term planning, they are increasingly addressing long-term resilience challenges. Our results highlight how knowledge system innovation and distinct modes of governance, including multilevel and adaptive governance, transitions governance, and co-production, are necessary for urban systems adaptation and transformation.