Defining Resilience Across Disciplines

The etymology of resilience is the Latin term resilio, meaning to rebound. Although published accounts of its use date back to ancient Rome in Cicero’s Orations (Alexander D, Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci Discuss 1:1257–1284, 2013), and some physicists and psychologists in the early twentieth century (Manyena S, Disasters 30(4):433–450, 2006), ecologists were the first to embrace and make extensive use of the general concept of resilience more than 30 years ago (see, e.g., Holling C, Annu Rev Ecol Syst 4:1–23, 1973). Since then, it has been adapted or re-invented for the case of short-term disasters (see, e.g., Tierney 1997; Bruneau et al. Earthq Spectra 19:733–752, 2003; Rose A, Disaster Prev Manag 13:307–314, 2004; Environ Hazards 7(4):383–395, 2007) and long-term phenomena, such as climate change (see, e.g., Dovers and Handmer, Glob Environ Chang 2(4):262–276, 1992; IPCC, Climate change 2007: mitigation of climate change. Working Group III contribution to the fourth assessment report of the IPCC. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007). The analysis of resilience can benefit from a comparison of its definitions in ecology, engineering, organizational behavior, planning, psychology, sociology and economics over the past 40 years. In the discussion below, we focus on points of agreement. This is the basis for establishing criteria for operational metrics that consistent with fundamental principles, the needs of potential users, and the practical matters of data availability and computational manageability.