The Union of BC Municipalities has encouraged communities to build their resiliency through “effective community engagement processes, a long-term strategic vision, collaborative partnerships, flexible planning processes, and a comprehensive and robust business development program can help weather the economic storm while also working toward the long-term vision a community sets for itself”.

The practice of managing for resilience should be understood as being a complement to sustainable development. The key to sustainability is to enhance the resilience of social-ecological systems. Resilience in itself is neither good nor bad. Both desirable (e.g., democracy, productive agricultural land) and undesirable systems (e.g., dictatorships, desertification) can be resilient. For this reason, an assessment and measurement of resilience requires answers to the following questions: resilience of what, to what, for whom, by what means, and for what purpose/outcome.