Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman Review Urban-centric resilience in search of theoretical stabilisation? A phased thematic and conceptual review Duarte Marques Nunes * , Ana Tomé, Manuel Duarte Pinheiro Civil Engineering Research and Innovation for Sustainability (CERIS), Department of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Georesources (DECivil), Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), University of Lisbon (UL), Lisbon, Portugal ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Thematic evolution Research focuses General/specified resilience Resilience conceptualisations Theoretical stabilisation ABSTRACT Over the last decades ‘resilience’ has particularly arisen as an attractive perspective with respect to cities. As cities continue to expand, their susceptibility to uncertainties and new challenges, such as climate change, has in- creased, rendering ‘urban resilience’ an increasingly favoured concept in the realm of Urban Development, Planning and Management (UDPM). Despite recent reviews, an updated analysis of the concept is required to understand whether there is in fact scientific evidence to support the expansion and favouring of ‘urban resilience’ in UDPM. The need to understand how the concept evolved is further emphasised by the need to perceive how the distinct sciences have con- tributed to its development, and which were the focuses and conceptual underpinnings of such evolution. Thus, the objective of this paper is to provide a broader review of the multidimensional concept of ‘urban resilience’, while understanding how distinct research fields have contributed to its inception and expansion, and how distinct conceptualisations of resilience have influenced its evolution. Supported by a bibliometric analysis of urban-centric publications, this paper highlights the recent extensive growth and expanding application of ‘urban resilience’ to distinct research fields, as well as an apparent theo- retical stabilisation of the concept, which reemphasises the idea of a three-dimensional conceptual resilience perspective in scientific literature: (1) ‘engineering’, (2) ‘ecological’, and (3) ‘social-ecological resilience’. Consequently, this research emphasises that, if the related conceptual underpinnings are clear, ‘urban resilience’ can potentially serve as an ‘integrative metaphor’, adapted by diverse stakeholders, to reinforce UDPM initiatives. 1. Introduction Decades of theoretical research in the empiric and formal sciences have contributed to a better understanding of the dynamics of single- equilibrium, multiple-equilibria, and non-equilibrium behaviours. This knowledge has subsidised the establishment of ‘resilience theory’ (Holling et al., 2001; Redman and Kinzig, 2003; Curtin and Parker, 2014) as a formal approach to understanding how systems respond to, persist under, and adapt to disturbances. Although early literature was conceptual and focused on developing a baseline for ‘resilience theory’ (Bhamra et al., 2011, p. 5380), over time a broad range of practical studies were developed (Redman and Kinzig, 2003; Shaw, 2012; Béné et al., 2014). Resilience-focused research grew from its original for- mulation in Engineering, to its application in Ecology (Mcaslan, 2010; Bhamra et al., 2011; Martin-Breen and Anderies, 2011), and to its ap- plied development in urban-centric research (Cartalis, 2014; Hassler and Kohler, 2014a). The seminal work of Holling and colleagues (Holling and Goldberg, 1971; Holling, 1973, 1986; 1996, 2001; Folke et al., 2002) formed the foundation for the development of resilience studies and reinterpreta- tions (Mcaslan, 2010; Bhamra et al., 2011; Martin-Breen and Anderies, 2011). Their work, along with continuous processes of social, economic and ecological change (Vale, 2014, p. 192), and increasingly unforeseen disturbances (Walker and Salt, 2006; Hodson and Marvin, 2009; Balaban, 2012), have highlighted the value of resilience research (Redman and Kinzig, 2003; Shaw, 2012; Hassler and Kohler, 2014a). Consequently, resilience has been widely used by academics, practi- tioners and policy makers (Mcaslan, 2010; Martin-Breen and Anderies, 2011; Hassler and Kohler, 2014a), traversing several research fields (Mcaslan, 2010; Martin-Breen and Anderies, 2011). Resilience has particularly arisen as an attractive perspective with respect to cities (Meerow et al., 2016), especially in the realm of Urban Development, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.09.078 Received 18 March 2018; Received in revised form 20 September 2018; Accepted 22 September 2018 * Corresponding author. Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal. E-mail addresses: duartemarquesnunes@tecnico.ulisboa.pt (D.M. Nunes), anatome@tecnico.ulisboa.pt (A. Tomé), manuel.pinheiro@tecnico.ulisboa.pt (M.D. Pinheiro). Journal of Environmental Management 230 (2019) 282–292 0301-4797/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T