Community Resilience to Climate Change: Theory, Research and Practice

82 absorb sudden shocks (including those that exceed design thresholds) or the cumulative effects of slow-onset stress in ways that avoid catastrophic failure. Safe failure also refers to the interdependence of various systems, which support each other; failures in one structure or linkage being unlikely to result in cascading impacts across other systems.” Practitioners did not seem to consider this characteristic to be important, and “predictability” or “safe-to-fail” was not mentioned in any of the resilience definitions. In fact, one respondent even commented “why would anyone design a system to fail”, indicating the mismatch between what theoretically is conceived of as being important to resilient systems and what is achievable in practice. According to the literature, efforts to build resilience should be conducted iteratively, providing opportunities for participants to take stock of what has been learned and apply that knowledge to the next step [6,20]. As defined in the survey, an iterative process is “one whereby feedback and lessons learned are continually used to inform future actions”. This characteristic emphasizes the importance of learning, which “includes not only the mobilization and sharing of knowledge but also such factors as basic literacy and access to education. These kinds of factors have been identified empirically as contributing to community resilience to disasters” [6]. Iterative learning is also an important part of the popular adaptivemanagement approach, which is closely tied to resilience theory [59]. While the iterative process characteristic was not rated as important, on average, as other characteristics, the terms “understanding”, “education” or “learning” did appear in almost 10 percent of respondents’ definitions. For example, one respondent wrote that resilience means “a commitment to … learning new skills”, another “an educated community”, and still others noted that residents need to be educated on climate change. Implementing tight feedbacks—or as defined in the survey: “building mechanisms so that information is rapidly fed back to decision- makers or system operators”—can support the iterative process, learning, and ultimately, the resilience of urban systems [24,70]. As previously noted, a number of practitioners referred to education or learning in their conceptualizations of resilience, but none of them mentioned feedback directly. On average, respondents also rated this characteristic relatively low in importance. Transparency and inclusivity are also both process- or governance-related characteristics. The meaning of transparency as described in the survey is “ensuring that all municipal processes and operations are open and transparent”. Survey respondents were prompted to think of inclusivity as “Ensuring that all residents have access tomunicipal infrastructure and services, including providing an opportunity for all people to participate in decision-making processes”. While transparency and inclusivity are not as commonly associated with resilience theory as other characteristics such as diversity and flexibility, both are mentioned in the literature as being important for continued engagement and good governance. For example, Tanner et al. [58] note that a “delivery of climate resilient urban development relies on a municipal system that maintains a relationship of accountability to its citizens, and is open in terms of financial management, information on the use of funds and adherence to legal and administrative policies.” Researchers also emphasize the importance of inclusive, participatory decision-making processes that engage those groups most heavily impacted [6]. This emphasis was not mirrored in practitioners’ definitions of resilience; neither transparency nor inclusivity were mentioned in any of the survey responses. 4.2. Synergies between Theory and Practice While we do see a number of inconsistencies and unresolved issues with respect to resilience characteristics in the academic literature and amongst the surveyed practitioners, there are some promising areas of agreement. Within the urban climate change literature, the concept of resilience is most often traced back to the field of ecology, and therefore the relationship between humans and the environment are often central to definitions of resilience. The survey results reveal that practitioners also consider being environmental, defined as “protecting natural systems and assets”, as quite important for resilience. It was, on average, the third highest rated characteristic. Moreover, several respondents specifically mentioned “ecosystem health”, “ecosystem integrity”, “ecosystem services”, “natural resources”, and “biodiversity” in their definitions of resilience. While resilience theory is often praised for its focus on the interconnections between social and ecological systems, a common critique leveled against resilience theory generally, and urban climate resilience more specifically, is that it fails to address issues of equity [72,73]. These scholars critically ask “resilience for whom?” and argue that because resilience theory traditionally uses a systems approach, it ignores inequalities and trade-offs within the system boundaries [74]. It is therefore interesting that practitioners rated the importance of equity, defined in terms of “ensuring that the benefits and impacts associated with actions are felt equitably throughout the municipality”, fairly high. While the word equity was not used in any of the respondents’ definitions, a number of them did specifically mention assisting vulnerable or less powerful groups within their communities. For example, one respondent wrote that resilience “would also mean we are better prepared to help our citizens respond to the impacts of climate change, especially those least able to take action on their own, e.g., low-income households, the elderly, the young, those with respiratory & other health problems.” Another respondent noted, “our priority is to build resilience in our institutions, systems, infrastructure, and communities [that] must protect the poor, elderly, young and ill against hazards and shocks.” The characteristic integration, as defined in the survey, requires “making sure that plans and actions are integrated across multiple departments and external organizations.” Jabareen [7,75] argues that dealing with the uncertainties and complexities of climate change necessitates an “integrative approach”, one that fosters collaboration across a multitude of public and private stakeholders, agencies, and organizations. Additionally, adaptation planning may be more effective if it is integrated into other local plans, with plans at the state or federal level, or combined with efforts of surrounding municipalities [21,76]. A number of the survey respondents specifically