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Abstract

Economic resilience is a prerequisite for sustainability. If cities cannot cope with short-run natural and man-made disasters, they will not thrive in the long run. This presentation will explain the role of economic resilience in the survival of cities and how experience with disasters can be transformed into actions that promote sustainability. I begin with a discussion of features of cities that make them both vulnerable and resilient. I then define economic resilience and offer an operational metric. Next I discuss individual tactics to implement it at the micro, meso, and macroeconomic levels. Then I summarize studies of the relative effectiveness of resilience tactics and their costs. I conclude with a discussion of broader strategies to make cities more resilient in the short-run and emphasize the importance of translating them into adaptations for the long-run. A key strategy is to translate ingenuity in coping with disasters into decisions and practices that continuously promote sustainability.

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Rose, A. (2014). Economic Resilience and Its Contribution to the Sustainability of Cities. In: Gasparini, P., Manfredi, G., Asprone, D. (eds) Resilience and Sustainability in Relation to Natural Disasters: A Challenge for Future Cities. SpringerBriefs in Earth Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04316-6_1

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