Promoting Resilient and Sustainable Cities: A Three Helices-Based Urban Management Model

Beginning with the first industrial revolution, the rise of cities determined the transition from the Anthropocene to a new epoch: the "Urbanocene". Understanding key trends in urbanisation in the coming years is crucial for implementing SDG 11 of the UN2030 Agenda (Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable). Cities are becoming laboratories of ideas, innovation, social cooperation and wealth creation, but they are also largely responsible for steadily increasing environmental pressures and consequent health impacts. Policymakers are called upon to make crucial decisions for developing sustainable and resilient cities able to cope with the Urbanocene challenges. It is not an easy undertaking: it requires collaboration across all policy areas and levels (i.e. policy coherence) and a synergistic approach to the problem. Moving from these premises, the paper contributes to the stream of research on resilient cities and sustainable urban management models by providing a conceptual framework helpful for policymakers. In particular, after a pervasive literature review on resilient and sustainable cities and the analysis of the Copenhagen case study, the work proposes an urban management model based on three strategic helices whose synergistic interaction acts as a catalytic force for the emergence of sustainable and resilient cities.