Urban transitions: on urban resilience and human-dominated ecosystems.

Urbanization is a global multidimensional process paired with increasing uncertainty due to climate change, migration of people, and changes in the capacity to sustain ecosystem services. This article lays a foundation for discussing transitions in urban governance, which enable cities to navigate change, build capacity to withstand shocks, and use experimentation and innovation in face of uncertainty. Using the three concrete case cities--New Orleans, Cape Town, and Phoenix--the article analyzes thresholds and cross-scale interactions, and expands the scale at which urban resilience has been discussed by integrating the idea from geography that cities form part of "system of cities" (i.e., they cannot be seen as single entities). Based on this, the article argues that urban governance need to harness social networks of urban innovation to sustain ecosystem services, while nurturing discourses that situate the city as part of regional ecosystems. The article broadens the discussion on urban resilience while challenging resilience theory when addressing human-dominated ecosystems. Practical examples of harnessing urban innovation are presented, paired with an agenda for research and policy.

Sustainability, survivability, and the paradox of New Orleans.

Some precepts of the urban sustainability movement derive from the premise that economic expansion, population growth, and physical sprawl lead to a decline in quality of life, ecological damage, and eventual unsustainability. But what about cities that are failing-losing population, losing investment, losing infrastructure, even losing land? This article challenges conventional sustainability concepts, usually derived from the experiences of ascending cities, with the notion of survivability that confronts declining cities. Should troubled cities, such as New Orleans, located on the eroding Gulf of Mexico coastal region of the state of Louisiana, be held to different sustainability standards? Could urban expansion, in some cases, actually stem environmental degradation and enhance survivability?