scholarly journals Climate Resilience and Regeneration: How Precincts Can Adapt to and Mitigate Climate Change

2021 ◽  
pp. 105-120
Author(s):  
Peter W. Newton ◽  
Peter W. G. Newman ◽  
Stephen Glackin ◽  
Giles Thomson

AbstractHealthy urban ecosystems are increasingly recognised as important for resilient cities and need to be considered as part of GPR. Urban nature-based solutions (NBS) comprising green (vegetation) and blue (water) infrastructure need to be considered at multiple scales from the bioregions, through to catchments, neighbourhoods/precincts, blocks, streets, and buildings, including linkages through and in GPR areas. This chapter describes how climate change—particularly extreme urban heat—is expected to affect Australian cities, and how green and blue infrastructure can help GPR to be incorporated into urban adaptation and mitigation solutions. Topics covered include water-sensitive urban design, nature-based solutions, and urban cooling. The chapter outlines how nature-based solutions can be incorporated into higher-density regenerative urban redevelopment through new technologies and supported by planning models, many of which can be best designed and managed at precinct scale. The ‘additionality’ of green and blue nature-based solutions can offer residents of GPR areas increased liveability and enhanced resilience in both normal and extreme weather.

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1218
Author(s):  
Michael A. Kock

Plant related innovations are critical to enable of food security and mitigate climate change. New breeding technologies (NBTs) based on emerging genome editing technologies like CRISPR/Cas will facilitate “breeding-by-editing” and enable complex breeding targets—like climate resilience or water use efficiency—in shorter time and at lower costs. However, NBTs will also lead to an unprecedented patent complexity. This paper discusses implications and potential solutions for open innovation models.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manon Kohler ◽  
Winston T.L. Chow

<p>Urban areas will be subjected to temperature increases from a combination of global-scale climate change and local-scale urban heat island drivers. The resultant combined heat risk – urban overheating – will notably challenge cities in securing the resilience of public health to combined urban overheating. Although global climate change research is ubiquitous, the urban climate and biometeorological research literature of this century reveals a lag of (sub-) tropical Asian regional studies behind Europe and North America. Through a systematic research review of international urban-scale climate and biometeorological literature from 2000-2019, we propose to reflect the state of the art of the urban overheating issue in Asia alongside its penetration in the regional climate resilience discourses.</p><p>The review reveals (i.) a rise of the number of urban overheating studies throughout in the region in conjunction with rapid demographic and developmental change, except for the central Asia region; (ii.) a “metropolitisation” of the urban heat and biometeorological knowledge, meaning a spatial organization of the knowledge reinforcing the leading position of the Asian national and regional primate cities; (iii.) distinct themes of more research into: large focus on remote-sensed urban heat mapping of Chinese and Indian urban clusters, evaluation of heat mitigation strategies from modeling experiments in nations having economies in transition, compared to more focus on urban-wide heat mortality epidemiological studies in countries already facing aging issues.</p><p>Considering the lack of global climate change considerations in urban overheating and biometeorological studies, the review appeals for a more systematic vision of the urban heat issues where urban overheating consequences (i.e. thermal discomfort, heat morbidity, and mortality) are analyzed and discussed conjunctly with the geographical background of the cities, its urban fabric properties, and its socio-demographic dynamics.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Vítor João Pereira Domingues Martinho ◽  
António José Dinis Ferreira

Forest land provides several environmental services and goods with significant implications for different socioeconomic and environmental dimensions. Forestry and its management are determinant activities for sustainable development, specifically in the current context of urgent mitigation of climate change. In this perspective, one objective of this research was to survey the main insights from the literature about the forest and management dimensions put together, highlighting the contributions of these activities to mitigate climate change. Another objective was to explore indicators related to forest management (land, employment, output, and net emissions) in order to obtain a forest sustainability index through factor analysis. As main insights from this study, we can quote that the literature survey pinpoints the most relevant factors framing forest management: soil characteristics, ecology, ecosystems, biodiversity, deforestation, climate change, socioeconomic frameworks, local knowledge, public policies, institutional context, and new technologies. Forest indicators reveal a strong relationship between forest land, employment and output, and a weaker relation with net emissions. We concluded that there is a need for stakeholders to explore and improve the interlinkage with climate change impact, specifically with regard to improving the relationships of forestry greenhouse gas emissions impacts with forest size and output.


Author(s):  
Anita Rønne

Increasing focus on sustainable societies and ‘smart cities’ due to emphasis on mitigation of climate change is simultaneous with ‘smart regulation’ reaching the forefront of the political agenda. Consequently, the energy sector and its regulation are undergoing significant innovation and change. Energy innovations include transition from fossil fuels to more renewable energy sources and application of new computer technology, interactively matching production with consumer demand. Smart cities are growing and projects are being initiated for development of urban areas and energy systems. Analysis from ‘Smart Cities Accelerator’, developed under the EU Interreg funding programme that includes Climate-KIC,——provides background for the focus on a smart energy system. Analysis ensures the energy supply systems support the integration of renewables with the need for new technologies and investments. ‘Smart’ is trendy, but when becoming ‘smart’ leads to motivation that is an important step towards mitigating climate change.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8369
Author(s):  
Mohammad Rahimi

In this Opinion, the importance of public awareness to design solutions to mitigate climate change issues is highlighted. A large-scale acknowledgment of the climate change consequences has great potential to build social momentum. Momentum, in turn, builds motivation and demand, which can be leveraged to develop a multi-scale strategy to tackle the issue. The pursuit of public awareness is a valuable addition to the scientific approach to addressing climate change issues. The Opinion is concluded by providing strategies on how to effectively raise public awareness on climate change-related topics through an integrated, well-connected network of mavens (e.g., scientists) and connectors (e.g., social media influencers).


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 546
Author(s):  
Andreas Matzarakis

In the era of climate change, before developing and establishing mitigation and adaptation measures that counteract urban heat island (UHI) effects [...]


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 385
Author(s):  
Beatrice Nöldeke ◽  
Etti Winter ◽  
Yves Laumonier ◽  
Trifosa Simamora

In recent years, agroforestry has gained increasing attention as an option to simultaneously alleviate poverty, provide ecological benefits, and mitigate climate change. The present study simulates small-scale farmers’ agroforestry adoption decisions to investigate the consequences for livelihoods and the environment over time. To explore the interdependencies between agroforestry adoption, livelihoods, and the environment, an agent-based model adjusted to a case study area in rural Indonesia was implemented. Thereby, the model compares different scenarios, including a climate change scenario. The agroforestry system under investigation consists of an illipe (Shorea stenoptera) rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) mix, which are both locally valued tree species. The simulations reveal that farmers who adopt agroforestry diversify their livelihood portfolio while increasing income. Additionally, the model predicts environmental benefits: enhanced biodiversity and higher carbon sequestration in the landscape. The benefits of agroforestry for livelihoods and nature gain particular importance in the climate change scenario. The results therefore provide policy-makers and practitioners with insights into the dynamic economic and environmental advantages of promoting agroforestry.


Urban Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Robert Dare

This article presents a customized system dynamics model to facilitate the informed development of policy for urban heat island mitigation within the context of future climate change, and with special emphasis on the reduction of heat-related mortality. The model incorporates a variety of components (incl.: the urban heat island effect; population dynamics; climate change impacts on temperature; and heat-related mortality) and is intended to provide urban planning and related professionals with: a facilitated means of understanding the risk of heat-related mortality within the urban heat island; and location-specific information to support the development of reasoned and targeted urban heat island mitigation policy.


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