Adaptive capacity based water quality resilience transformation and policy implications in rapidly urbanizing landscapes Yi Li a,c, ⁎, Jan Degener a , Matthew Gaudreau b , Yangfan Li c, ⁎⁎, Martin Kappas a a Department of Cartography, GIS and Remote Sensing, Institute of Geography, Georg-August University of Goettingen, Goettingen 37077, Germany 1 b Balsillie School of International Affairs, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON N2L 6C2, Canada c Key Laboratory of Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems (Ministry of Education), College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China 2 HIGHLIGHTS • Integrated framework to analyze the re- silience of urban land-water systems • Addressed the changes of adaptive ca- pacity based resilience and transitions • Applied four transition phases of adap- tive cycle to water quality management GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT abstract article info Article history: Received 14 February 2016 Received in revised form 13 June 2016 Accepted 15 June 2016 Available online xxxx Editor: Simon Pollard Resilience-based management focuses on specific attributes or drivers of complex social-ecological systems, in order to operationalize and promote guiding principles for water quality management in urban systems. We therefore propose a resilience lens drawing on the theory of adaptive capacity and adaptive cycle to evaluate the urban resilience between water quality and land use type. Our findings show that the resilience of water qual- ity variables, which were calculated based on their adaptive capacities, showed adaptive and sustainable trends with dramatic fluctuation. NH 3 -N, Cadmium and Total Phosphorus experienced the most vulnerable shifts in the built-up area, agricultural areas, and on bare land. Our framework provided a consistent and repeatable approach to address uncertainty inherent in the resilience of water quality in different landscapes, as well as an approach to monitor variables over time with respect to national water quality standards. Ultimately, we pointed to the po- litical underpinnings for risk mitigation and managing resilient urban system in a particular coastal urban setting. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Adaptive capacity Adaptive cycle Water quality Land use Urban resilience Urban planning Science of the Total Environment 569–570 (2016) 168–178 ⁎ Correspondence to: Y. Li, Department of Cartography, GIS and Remote Sensing, Institute of Geography, Georg-August University of Goettingen, Goettingen 37077, Germany. ⁎⁎ Correspondence to: Y. Li, Key Laboratory of Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems (Ministry of Education), College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, South XiangAn Road, Xiamen, 361102, China. E-mail addresses: ly463526@gmail.com (Y. Li), yangf@xmu.edu.cn (Y. Li). 1 Previous. 2 Current. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.06.110 0048-9697/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv