Governing Resilient Urban Futures

This book makes a clear argument: resilience will succeed or fail through governance. Beyond design ambition, this volume confronts how decisions are made, enforced, and contested across institutions, data systems, and socio-ecological realities.Structured in three parts, the book establishes a progression from governance mechanisms to systemic transformation. From improving informal settlements to integrated smart city frameworks, Part I explores how urban governance is changing, emphasizing the increasing influence of data infrastructures and artificial intelligence on policy, participation, and accountability. In Part II, the focus switches to socio-ecological thinking, which advances frameworks that reposition nature as an active participant in governance. These frameworks range from landscape intelligence and perception-driven decision-making to rights-based methods. Long-term shifts are covered in Part III, with an emphasis on urban systems' strategic reorganization, circularity, and regeneration in response to resource and climate constraints.The chapters highlight governance inadequacies in a variety of contexts and offer workable strategies that link systemic reform to local realities. The stance is unabashedly straightforward: adaptable, evidence-based, and environmentally grounded governance structures that can not only manage complexity but also transform it are necessary for shaping resilient futures.