As ecological and economic disruptions increasingly complicate urban life around the world, more than 100 city leaders, scholars and industry partners gathered in Vienna in summer 2025 to ask a pressing question: What does it mean for a city to be resilient in today’s world? What might it look like to redefine climate resilience?

At the City Dialogues event, co-convened by Singapore Management University and Urban Innovation Vienna, participants agreed that urban resilience is no longer optional. Cities must equip their residents to withstand shocks and thrive in an evolving urban environment. From Singapore to Vienna and beyond, experiments are underway to put theory and ideas into practice and inspire urban centers that want to scale resilience strategies with sustainability at their core.

Too often, urban resilience is narrowly understood as preparedness and recovery: how cities respond to pandemics, natural disasters or economic disruptions. These remain essential considerations, but cities must also proactively be regenerative, replenishing what has been depleted, and restorative, caring for the communities at their core.

Redefining Climate Resilience: Self-Sustaining Ecosystems

Resilient cities anticipate, adapt and respond effectively to disruptions. This involves attention not only to physical infrastructure, but also to social cohesion and institutional foresight. New York City’s work on coastal defenses after Hurricane Sandy and Los Angeles’ heat action plan to cope with record high temperatures show resilience as more than a feat of engineering. These examples prove that resilience also depends on foresight and coordination across communities and institutions. The Economist Impact’s 2023 Resilient Cities Index ranks New York and Los Angeles (the only two U.S. cities in the index) at the top of the table, noting they are well-prepared for shocks in terms of their critical infrastructure, environment, socio-institutional dynamics and economy. However, the preparedness strategies of even the most resilient cities are tested in the event of severe ecological disasters such as the wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles in 2025.

Regenerative cities do not merely bounce back after a shock, but replenish depleted ecological and social systems. In the U.S., the Ecopolis Iowa City project, which was conceptualized in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2008, has sparked conversations about renewal, seeking to reimagine urban life in response to ecological disasters. Elsewhere, the 15-minute city concept illustrates regeneration in practice: it envisions neighborhoods designed so that work, services and recreation are within easy reach, reducing transportation emissions while restoring livability.

Read the full article about regenerative, restorative cities by Lily Kong at Smart Cities Dive.