ABSTRACT
Cities are becoming more complex as their population, size, diversity and networks increase. Many urban systems are emergent phenomena, while others have been deliberately created. Hence, the governance of urban centres and regions amid the issues of climate change, environmental degradation, economic crises, increasing inequality and social unrest demands an appreciation of the complexity of the city. It also requires building resilience on many scales to deal with current and future challenges. This chapter focuses on fostering urban resilience within a smart city and proposes various principles to link these concepts. The proposed principles draw on the characteristics of complex systems which facilitate our understanding of modern, multifaceted, urban environments. The ways in which multiple urban systems operate and interact at different spatial-temporal scales depending on the area’s context are discussed. Through examples from the Global South, the vulnerabilities of urban systems are identified, which smart city planning could have helped address. Principles for the governance of smart and resilient cities that extend beyond disaster risk management to build general resilience through sound planning and governance are then presented.
