This paper uses Shanghai as an example to analyze urban resilience in relation to the potential shocks and stresses caused by air pollution. Shocks such as smog and acid rain may cause damages to the economy, community and environment of the city. Stresses, on the other hand, will affect the city in the long run. It is also more difficult to remove stresses from the urban systems in comparison to shocks. For air pollution in Shanghai, stresses could be climate change, increasing population, increasing vehicle demand, and increasing emissions due to economic growth. Multi-level solutions are proposed in this paper targeting the shocks and stresses. At personal level, the importance of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and Environment Health and Safety (EHS) policies is discussed; at national level, enforcing environmental tax and investing in New Energy Vehicles (NEV) would also help to reduce the effects of shocks and stresses. In addition, some practical engineering solutions are introduced. For further discussion, ethical issues implied in this paper are raised. For example, some protective measures are suggested
in the paper, but how to evaluate the implementation of these measures and how to ensure the vulnerable groups are protected when they are affected by the air pollution? To summarize, this paper focuses on the urban resilience in shanghai and includes topics about problems, solutions, and open discussions that are related to air pollution.