Resilient metropolitan regions: Recommendations for action

In an era of polycrisis, characterised by climate change, geopolitical instability, digital transformation, pandemics and widening social inequalities, resilience has become a guiding principle for public policy. As highlighted in the Strategic Foresight Reports of the European Commission (2020, 2025), resilience requires moving beyond reactive crisis management towards proactive anticipation, preparedness and structural transformation. In this context, the metropolitan scale emerges as the most appropriate level to address systemic and cross-boundary risks, as metropolitan regions concentrate critical infrastructures, economic activity, population density and socio-spatial inequalities. Metropolitan resilience is defined as the capacity of actors and institutions within a supramunicipal territory, with a shared strategic vision, to maintain essential functions, adapt to longterm stresses and transform in response to shocks. Adopting an evolutionary perspective, resilience is understood as a continuous process of learning, institutional flexibility and innovation. This paper proposes a set of recommendations for action to foster resilience at metropolitan level focusing on five strategic fields of action: sustainable urbanisation, natural and technological risks, green and blue infrastructures, critical infrastructures and social vulnerabilities. Strengthening metropolitan governance capacities, enhancing inter-institutional cooperation, integrating resilience assessment and strategic foresight into policymaking, and establishing robust institutional frameworks are also essential to ensure coordinated and accountable resilience strategies.