Around the globe, cities seek to improve their resilience to face the stresses and shocks that are expected from global climate change and other threats. In implementing urban resilience policies, they are guided by different urban resilience conceptualisations.

Cities currently host more than half of the world population, a number which is projected to continue to rise. Urban centres also create large percentages of national gross domestic product (GDP) and are important sources of employment but also generate large proportions of national greenhouse gas emissions.

Recent decades have seen urban resilience becoming a more popular term internationally both within academic and policy circles. However, relatively little attention has been paid by the literature to the policy implications of striving towards more resilient urban systems and the challenges introduced by the complex, multi-level and multi-actor policy network that forms their context.

Countries across the globe are likely to face significant challenges in coming years that will test the resilience of their cities. However, there is often a lack of proactive evidence-based analysis of available options and their outcomes as well as indicators of success or progress.

This document provides a holistic and integrated sustainable development framework for the development of liveable, economically productive, socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable cities and communities in China. The framework identifies key objectives and principles to achieve urban sustainability and provides specific guidelines for implementation and performance assessment.