1.1 What is Resilience?

Defining resilience is a topic which is often discussed within urbanism today.1 If we think of it in terms of an object: the object receives a pressure to the point that it is deformed but not broken before returning to its original shape. This ability to adapt to a pressure, then quickly return to its original shape and strength is what we would call a resilient object.2 This is an accurate metaphor to describe the pressures applied to urban realms we see happening today, more and more often due to the climate crisis.

“Resilience is the answer to the question: how can things change and persist at the same time?” – Steve Carpenter, Professor of Zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

We can break-down some of the factors highlighted through the above analogy, into 3 distinct features;

Persistence This is sometimes referred to in literature as a “buffer capacity”3. This is when a system shows an ability to maintain its function when confronted with sudden change. In a sense, it is a shock absorber for a change (e.g a flood defence stopping an oncoming storm from reaching people’s homes).4

Adaptability Adaptability is being able to act to cope with change. It allows the system to stay operating in a desired state during change by bending around the difficulties faced (e.g Using more of a different water source as the other is struggling to cope with demand).5

Transform-ability Being a good example of a transformable system is one which allows itself to change partly or entirely. This is important at the point when we must create a new system to cope better with new requirements. Flipping a crisis into an opportunity for example (e.g using the financial crisis to change the global economy system to a better one).6

Each of these defining factors can be applied to multiple scales, from global to intimate levels of physical and social resilience. Two other types of resilience are commonly discussed throughout urban resilience literature (Economic & Governance Resilience). However, this report will only briefly discuss them in relation to Stockholm.