Green, gray, glocal: governing urban resilience in the Tel Aviv metropolitan region

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article addresses theoretical and policy challenges for governing urban resilience in fragmented metropolitan regions. By analyzing practical approaches manifested in plans and infrastructure projects in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Region, we develop an innovative typology of urban resilience governance attuned to metropolitan scale and complexity. Based on analysis of policy documents and interviews with stakeholders in three case studies – Tel Aviv’s City Resilience Plan, Yarqon River Restoration Project, Ayalon Fourth Railway Project – we outline three distinct modalities: Glocal Resilience relates to methodologies promoted by global networks (particularly 100 Resilient Cities) and applied locally by cities, increasing metropolitan disparities; Green Resilience encompasses urban-natural ecosystems and facilitates cross-metropolitan cooperation between multiple stakeholders. Gray Resilience relates to large urban-infrastructural systems and operates through centralized control with limited metropolitan outreach. Together, our typology of Glocal, Green, and Gray Resilience captures the diversity of actually-existing urban resilience governance at metropolitan scale. Highlights Fragmented metropolitan regions are a key challenge for governing urban resilience We outline three modalities of metropolitan scale resilience governance Glocal: boosts city resilience locally but increases disparities in metro-region Green: collaborative yet fragile cross-metropolitan governance of ecosystems Gray: centralized governance of infrastructure impedes metropolitan cooperation