Urban resilience and panarchy: Insights from Nanchang City, China

Abstract

Under the influence of rapid urbanization, urban systems are faced with many potential risks that can seriously jeopardize the sustainable development of cities. Resilience has emerged as a novel path to enhance urban sustainability. This study constructs a comprehensive urban resilience assessment framework by integrating the urban structural dimensions with the resilience attributes. It then applies the concept of panarchy, notably the process of regional derivation and its cross-scale relationships, to identify different phases in the adaptive cycle of urban resilience and make resilience policy recommendations. Nanchang City, a typical water network city in southern China, has been chosen as a case study due to its ecological and political significance. The analysis suggests that the downtown and southern suburban areas are in the exploitation phase, where the regional derivation and cross-scale interactions are stable and singular. The peripheral ecological barrier area is in the conservation phase, where the regional derivation and cross-scale relationships are complex. The study demonstrates the unique value of the concept of panarchy and its practical implications in resilience planning, notably through the rapid identification of key areas for resilience governance, predictions of resilience development trends and detailed guidance for fostering urban resilience at the local level.