1.4 Difference to Sustainability

Although resilience may share many traits with sustainability, the two are different concepts. It is sometimes referred to as different sides of the same coin.11 Sustainability in reference to urban systems has been the goto phrase since the late 1980’s, though ‘resilience’ is now becoming a more prominent figure in seeking a path for our future cities.

Sustainability can be described as a ‘balance’. It is a state where no change occurs as we have the systems in place to deal with all eventualities. It is understandably a very difficult thing to achieve, maybe even impossible as it is ridged and solid. This is where resilience has come into its own in recent years. Resilience offers a degree of flexibility. As described by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, resilience is the ability to “deal with change and continue to develop”.12 In short, sustainability entirely avoids the problem, but is incredibly difficult to achieve entirely, whilst resilience offers a buffer capacity, adaptability and repair-ability in the face of change.