Climate change can be considered as one of theudmain environmental topic of the 21st century (IPCC,ud2011). It poses a serious challenge for cities all overudthe world (EEA, 2012): cities show, on the one handuda high level of vulnerability in face of climateudchange, on the other hand, they are responsible forud60% to 80% of global energy consumption andudgreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which representudthe main causes of change in climate conditions. Inud2011, the 73% of European population was living inudurban areas and the level of urbanization is expectedudto be at 82% by 2050 (UN, 2012). Due to theudevidence that in Europe the 69% of all GHGudemissions are currently generated by cities, largerudand larger is the attention devoted, by scientificudliterature and policy makers, to outline strategies forudurban adaptation to climate change, both atudEuropean and local scale. Governments and scholarsudcurrently highlight the need for strengthening urbanudresilience in face of climate change and relatedudconsequences. By this perspective, some actions areudalready running, even though a clear identification ofudthe features which make a city resilient in face ofudclimate change is still missing. To fill this gap, thisudcontribution is mainly addressed to:ud- provide, by integrating different disciplinaryudperspectives, a conceptual model of the set ofudadaptive capacities and properties thatudcharacterize a resilient system;ud- verify, starting from a snapshot of currentudstrategies and actions for urban adaptationudcurrently implemented at European level, theudconsistency between those strategies and theudidentified set of resilience capacities andudproperties.
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