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Regional resilience is a new paradigm to explain the local system ability to cope with a negative event, tolerating the effect produced by the perturbing action. The first objective of the paper is to analyze the complex concept of regional resilience, adopting a systemic and holistic approach. Using a multidimensional methodology, regional resilience is described by outcome and driver variables, with focus on sustainability of local systems, broken down into the three pillars of economy, society and environment, whereby the holistic approach means that each dimension of territorial sustainable development is partly determined by its relations with the other dimensions. The second aim of the paper is then to test the relations between determinants and outcome of regional resilience. This framework is different compared to previous empirical studies, which primarily focus on economic performance in terms of income or employment dynamics. The model is applied to the case of European regions, to get a map of regional resilience in its different dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work is to verify a theoretical representation of the multidimensional concept of territorial risk, through a study of Italian provinces. The concept is referred to the exposure of the territorial system to the risk of an exogenous event, as a combination of factors of fragility and resilience. In the proposed framework, elements of the organization of a territorial system had been identified, in its economic, social and environmental dimensions, mostly affecting his exposure to the adverse impact generated by a disturbing event and the ability to answer and to regenerate. According to this scheme of representation, the territorial risk is the result of the combination of these factors that influence the probability of a local system to undergo negative changes as a result of the occurrence of the event. The evaluation of vulnerability and resilience of a system, by adopting a holistic reading of the phenomenon, involves the identification of systemic components and attributes such as openness to the external environment, structural diversification, availability of resources, structural dependence/independence, functional redundancy, adaptability strategy. In the paper the authors propose the construction of an indicator system and composite indices for monitoring, through multivariate statistical techniques, the factors of fragility and ability to recovery. The proposed system is applied to a study of the economic, social and environmental vulnerability and resilience of the Italian provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]