Urban Sustainability Transformations in lights of resource efficiency and resilient city concepts

•Resource Efficient and Resilient City are key for urban sustainability transformations.•Implementation gaps occur despite the existence of technical measures and political will.•To achieve the Resource Efficient City and the Resilient City, people-centred approaches are central.

Based on a review of recent academic literature, this article looks at two interconnected urban concepts, the Resource Efficient City and the Resilient City, which are related to Urban Sustainability Transformations (UST). These concepts, which we analyse with regard to implementation challenges in everyday urban life, particularly address the necessary transformations of cities in the light of climate change. The reviewed articles emphasise that technical measures, as well as the political will to address both concepts, often exist. Nevertheless, implementation gaps still remain. We argue that people-centred approaches that acknowledge perceptions, behaviour, needs and fears of the different actors involved play a decisive role. This calls for joint action by urban actors to foster UST based on deliberative governance processes.