Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Climate Action pp 1–11Cite as

Making Communities Resilient to Global Climate Change

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:

  • 107 Accesses

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

Definition

Resilience is mostly discussed as the capacity to withstand tough times or spring back from a disaster. At the community level, the concept has been widely applied to rural communities and the natural ecosystem they depend on. It is understood as the ability of the community to overcome disturbance and still retain the basic function and structure and seize opportunities for transformation and improvement. Since the impacts of climate change will be felt by both rural and nonrural communities, resilience is now implemented in small towns to cities to megacities (Lerch 2017a).

The concept of resilience was introduced by Holling in 1973 to explain the persistence of natural systems when faced with significant change such as fires, floods, and human interventions. From that concept two ideas have emerged. One, engineering resilience looks at the time taken for a system to return to its original state after the disturbance. Two, ecological resilience looks at the system’s...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  • Bahadur A, Tanner T (2014) Transformational resilience thinking: putting people, power and politics at the heart of urban climate resilience. Environ Urban 26(1): 200–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bajayo R (2012) Building community resilience to climate change through public health planning. Health Promot J Austr 23(1):30–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • CARE (2013) Community based adaptation; an empowering approach for climate resilient development and risk reduction. CARE International. https://insights.careinternational.org.uk/publications/community-based-adaptation-an-empowering-approach-for-climate-resilient-development-and-risk-reduction

  • CARRI (2013) Definitions of community resilience: an analysis. A CARRI Report. Community and Regional Resilience Institute. Meridian Institute, Washington DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Clayton S, Silka L, Trott C, Chapman D, Mancoll S (2016) Building resilient communities in the fact of climate change: a resource for local communities. The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. Washington DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Gonzalez R (2017) Community-driven climate resilience planning: a framework. National Association of Climate Resilience Planners (NACRP). http://www.nacrp.org/

  • Joseph J (2013) Resilience as embedded neoliberalism: a governmentality approach. Resilience 1(1):38–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhlicke C (2013) Resilience: a capacity and a myth: findings from an in-depth case study in disaster management research. Nat Hazards 67(1):61–76

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lerch D (2017) Introduction. In: Lerch D (ed) The community resilience reader: Essential resources for an Era of upheaval. Post Carbon Institute. Island Press, Washington DC, pp 12–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Lerch D (2017a) Six foundations for building community resilience. In: Lerch D (ed) The community resilience reader: essential resources for an era of Upheaval. Post Carbon Institute. Island Press, pp 21–57

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller A (2017) Conclusion: where to start. In: Lerch D (ed) The community resilience reader: essential resources for an era of Upheaval. Post Carbon Institute. Island Press, pp 339–345

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson GM, Carson DA (2016) Resilient communities: transitions, pathways, and resourcefulness. Geogr J 182(2):114–122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker B, Salt D (2017) A crash course in the science of resilience. In: Lerch D (ed) The community resilience reader: essential resources for an era of Upheaval. Post Carbon Institute. Island Press, pp 168–183

    Google Scholar 

  • Weichselgartner J, Kelman I (2015) Geographies of resilience: challenges and opportunities of a descriptive concept. Prog Hum Geogr 39(3):249–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Winona State University, Winona, MN, USA

    Krishna Roka

Authors
  1. Krishna Roka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Krishna Roka .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. FTZ-ALS, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences FTZ-ALS, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. Ctr Neurosci & Cell Biology, 1 Floor, Univ Coimbra, Edf Fac Medicina, Coimbra, Portugal

    Anabela Marisa Azul

  3. Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo, Brazil

    Luciana Brandli

  4. Ozyegin University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Pinar Gökcin Özuyar

  5. Centre for Work Related Studies, University of Chester, Chester, UK

    Tony Wall

Section Editor information

  1. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Silvia Serrao Neumann

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Roka, K. (2019). Making Communities Resilient to Global Climate Change. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Climate Action. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71063-1_8-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71063-1_8-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71063-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71063-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation