Conclusion
The purpose of the paper was to identify a resilience agenda for urban design and identify what value, if any, the field of urban design can offer to resilience research. An analysis of social-ecological resilience has been carried out ‒ resilience as it applies to urban environments and resilience within the current urban design literature. The comparison of crosscutting themes between the three realms allows for the translation of resilience concepts and terminology into urban design. It has been shown that key resilience concepts are evident within urban design; however, important questions are also raised about the current position of resilience within sustainable urban design. The multi-disciplinary nature of urban design may be able to offer resilience ideas of how to break disciplinary silos and encourage collaboration towards shared principles of resilience within urban design.
The foundations for understanding what the key considerations in urban design theory are for embedding a resilience agenda are laid out here, and evidence the unique and significant role for urban design going forward with a resilience agenda. Research should acknowledge both social and environmental systems as integrated. Strengthening the connections between urban design and resilience theory means both fields can build better foundations for addressing new sustainability challenges of responding and adapting to change. This allows for the delivery of a balanced, integrated and holistic approach to shaping places that have a clear structure and purpose, but can innovate and adapt to the changing needs of society which are increasingly uncertain in a globalizing and urbanizing world.
