Habitat III Issue Papers - 15: Urban Resilience

This issue paper aims to improve understanding of the drivers of urban resilience, enable a city system to withstand and recover quickly from multiple and varied shocks and stresses, and improve its performance over time. Resilience provides an overarching framework to address the risks and realise the opportunities associated with the rising incidence and costs of urban disasters, the current and anticipated impacts of climate change, and the protection of critical ecosystem services and natural resources.

This issue paper on "Urban Resilience" is part of a series of thematic reports offering a comprehensive, expert-level view of the processes of urbanisation that characterise today’s century of cities — and look forward to what could and should come next. The 22 “issue papers” were submitted by a range of multilateral institutions. They will ultimately be used to guide discussion by 10 formal “policy units”, which will focus on the six thematic issues deemed important for the Habitat III process. Made up of independent experts, these units touch on housing, resilience, equity and other issues. Eventually, they will each provide formal input regarding the crafting and, especially, implementation of the New Urban Agenda.