In an era rocked by climate change and other large-scale disruptions, our cities must be resilient in order to survive and thrive. But what does that mean, exactly? What is known about urban resilience, and what remains to be explored? To help answer those questions, Island Press launched the Urban Resilience Project (URP) in 2015, with support from The Kresge Foundation and The JPB Foundation. We began with a survey of the existing literature on resilience and reached out to a diverse group of organizers, researchers, planners, and other urban change agents. The report Bounce Forward: Urban Resilience in the Era of Climate Change endeavored to capture what we learned during this initial phase of the project.
In the ensuing years, URP worked to imagine and inspire the sustainable, equitable, resilient cities of the future. We brought together thought leaders with a broad range of expertise to generate and cross-pollinate ideas. And we shared those ideas in a variety of media—e-books, articles, podcasts interviews, webinars, and educational coursework. Our content appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, The Nation, The Hill, USA Today, Planning and many other online and print publications. Compilations of our short-form writing can be viewed and downloaded at the link here.
In 2024, the Urban Resilience Project was reimagined as the Island Press Short-form Program.