Measuring Urban Resilience: Global Disparities and Pathways to Sustainable Cities

Resilience is one of the most important components for achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). This study aims to determine city resilience by computing a resilience index using four major dimensions: socio-economic, environmental, disaster risk and sustainability. Data from the Urban Centre Database (2015) were used for city-level estimation of resilience. The min–max and global goal standardization techniques were used to convert variables into a dimensionless measure, accounting for their direct relationship with the resilience index. Spatial distribution maps reveal significant disparities in socio-economic, environmental, disaster safety and sustainability indices across countries. Furthermore, significant variations in resilience were found across regions, countries and urban centres. Cities in Europe and North America exhibited higher resilience, whereas in Asian and African regions, resilience was found to be the lowest. Therefore, countries in the developing world, low-income and low-middle-income groups need to act through policy and programmes to make their cities resilient.