Are cities resilient enough to cope with short-term heavy rainfall? A multi-city comparison in China

Short-term heavy rainfall (STHR) is one of the most common climate-related hazards in cities. Resilience, as an innovative and effective approach for urban disaster research and management, has been widely used to analyse and discuss STHR-triggered urban flooding. However, it is still a challenge to quantify resilience to heavy rainfalls, compare resilience among cities, or enhance resilience for mitigation and adaptation. In this study, we develop a framework for quantitatively assessing urban resilience to STHRs, and perform a cross-sectional comparison of China's megacities under different rainfall disaster regimes. We discuss the key factors that determine cities' coping capacities and examine whether these megacities are resilient enough to cope with the current and future STHR scenarios. These outcomes contribute to enrich quantitative evaluation method for disaster resilience, and provide guidelines to build urban resilience for disaster risk.