Regulating urban resilience: The need for interconnected standards and responsibilities for climate change resilience in UK urban areas

This study examines how infrastructure resilience to climate change is conceptualized, governed and operationalized in the United Kingdom, with a focus on urban areas where multiple infrastructure systems interact and fragmented responsibilities can constrain coordinated adaptation. The authors combined a scoping review of resilience literature with a qualitative document analysis of UK legislation, policy and institutional responsibilities. The analysis reviewed resilience concepts, standards, forecasting approaches and the distribution of responsibilities across government departments, regulators, infrastructure operators and asset owners to assess how resilience theory is translated into policy and practice.

The findings identify four recurring governance themes: fragmented and siloed governance, inequitable vulnerability, policy–implementation mismatch, and the absence of interconnected resilience standards. The study concludes that the principal challenge facing UK climate resilience is not the absence of legislation but the fragmentation of responsibilities across sectors and institutions. The authors propose an ex-ante, place-based resilience benchmark that would provide a common basis for evaluating resilience, supporting interconnected standards, strengthening accountability, identifying adaptation gaps and informing adaptation planning across interconnected infrastructure systems.