ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the research progress on urban resilience and discusses the recent practices to facilitate resilient development in China. As mega clusters of population and economic activities, Chinese cities have been increasingly suffering from external shocks including natural disasters. The outdated infrastructure and the lack of public awareness make the cities physically and socially vulnerable to the external shocks in the era of rapid urbanization and massive urban development. Two case studies respectively on urban flooding and earthquakes suggest a mismatch between growing threats from the hazards and limited capabilities to fix the problem in a systematic way. In particular, the common top-down pattern of policy implementation in urban resilient development appears to be inefficient because of ineffective communication between the government, the private sector, and the public.
