| Engineering resilience | Ecological resilience | |
| Theoretic construct | Resilience = resistance + recovery | Resilience = tolerance + reorganization |
| Assumption |
One equilibrium (one regime) Predictability |
Multiple equilibria (multiple regimes) Unpredictability and uncertainty |
| Concerns | Deviation from the ideal level of system functionality or stable state | Regime shift |
| Focus | Stability/consistency—returning quickly to the equilibrium | Persistence—remaining within the current regime |
| Measurement | The speed of recovery to the previous stable state | The magnitude of disturbance the system can undergo before shifting to a different regime |
| Disturbance role | Disturbances as threats | Disturbances as learning opportunities |