Urban agglomeration worsens spatial disparities in climate adaptation

AbstractMany countries promote urban agglomeration to enhance economic competitiveness, but the impacts of this strategy on local climate adaptation remain poorly understood. Here, we use variation in greenspaces to test the effectiveness of climate adaptation policy across climate impacts and vulnerability dimensions. Using satellite imagery and logistic regression, we analyze spatiotemporal correlation between greenspace and climate vulnerability in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, an area comprising ~ 70 million people and 11 cities, making it a useful natural experiment for our study. We find that while greenspace increases proportionally with climate exposure and sensitivity, many cities exhibit discrepancies between greenspace variation and climate vulnerability. Green adaptation funnels into wealthier, less vulnerable areas while bypassing more vulnerable ones, increasing their climate vulnerability and undermining the benefits of urban agglomeration. The results suggest that centrally-planned climate adaptation policy must accommodate local heterogeneity to improve urban sustainability. By neglecting local heterogeneity, urban agglomeration policy risks exacerbating spatial inequalities in climate adaptation.

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The Role of Inclusion in Climate Vulnerability Assessment and Equitable Adaptation Goals in Small American Municipalities

10.21203/rs.3.rs-1075793/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Elena Lioubimtseva

Keyword(s):

Climate Adaptation ◽

The United States ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

Vulnerable Groups ◽

Adaptation Planning ◽

Adaptation Measures ◽

Local Climate ◽

Vulnerability Assessments ◽

Climate Vulnerability

Abstract Equity and inclusion considerations are important prerequisites of effective climate adaptation planning, especially at a local scale. This pilot study examines how climate adaptation plans of small American cities and counties consider equity in their climate vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning goals, and how consideration of equity in existing adaptation plans relates to inclusion of diverse categories of stakeholders. Data analysis is based on the content of 23 local climate adaptation plans of small urban and rural municipalities across the United States with population less than 300 thousand people. Correlations between conceptualization of vulnerability dimensions, inclusion of 9 categories of stakeholders, and consideration of equity in 12 different domains of adaptation planning are examined. The study concludes that municipalities, who examine their vulnerability beyond physical exposure to climate impacts and consider sensitivity and adaptive capacity of their populations, appear to be more attentive to social equity and more likely to offer specific adaptation measures focusing on vulnerable groups.

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Continuous Negotiation in Climate Adaptation: The Challenge of Co-Evolution for the Capability Approach to Justice

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su132313072 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (23) ◽

pp. 13072

Author(s):

Lieke Brackel

Keyword(s):

Capability Approach ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

Illustrative Case ◽

Local Climate ◽

Ecological Thresholds ◽

Ecological Capacity ◽

Evolving Systems ◽

Ecosystem State ◽

The Capability Approach

The capability approach is increasingly presented as a promising approach to address questions of justice in local climate adaptation. In an attempt to integrate environmental protections into the capability approach, Breena Holland developed the meta-capability Sustainable Ecological Capacity to establish substantive ecological limits. This article, however, empirically demonstrates that defining ecosystem thresholds in co-evolving systems is subject to conflict and continuous negotiation. Taking the Haringvliet dam in the Dutch South-West Delta as an illustrative case, this paper shows how people uphold different views about the Haringvliet’s most desirable ecosystem state. Future shifts in the socio-ecological system, such as decreased fresh water availability and sea-level rise, are expected to uproot today’s compromise about chloride levels in the Haringvliet. This suggests that anticipatory water management should not only address climate impacts, but also prepare for re-negotiations of established ecological thresholds. The associated politics of climate adaptation deals with questions about which functions to protect, at what costs and for whom. Hence, it is critical to integrate procedural justice and attention to political inequalities in capabilities-based adaptation justice frameworks.

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Evidence for local climate adaptation in early-life traits of Tasmanian populations of Eucalyptus pauciflora

Tree Genetics & Genomes ◽

10.1007/s11295-015-0930-6 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Archana Gauli ◽

René E. Vaillancourt ◽

Tanya G. Bailey ◽

Dorothy A. Steane ◽

Brad M. Potts

Keyword(s):

Early Life ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Local Climate ◽

Life Traits

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Climate Mobility and Development Cooperation

Population and Environment ◽

10.1007/s11111-021-00387-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Robert Stojanov ◽

Sarah Rosengaertner ◽

Alex de Sherbinin ◽

Raphael Nawrotzki

Keyword(s):

Climate Adaptation ◽

Human Mobility ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

Development Cooperation ◽

Climate Variability And Change ◽

Policy Frameworks ◽

And Migration ◽

And Function ◽

Role And Function

AbstractDevelopment cooperation actors have been addressing climate change as a cross-cutting issue and investing in climate adaptation projects since the early 2000s. More recently, as concern has risen about the potential impacts of climate variability and change on human mobility, development cooperation actors have begun to design projects that intentionally address the drivers of migration, including climate impacts on livelihoods. However, to date, we know little about the development cooperation’s role and function in responding to climate related mobility and migration. As such, the main aim of this paper is to outline the policy frameworks and approaches shaping development cooperation actors’ engagement and to identify areas for further exploration and investment. First, we frame the concept of climate mobility and migration and discuss some applicable policy frameworks that govern the issue from various perspectives; secondly, we review the toolbox of approaches that development cooperation actors bring to climate mobility; and third, we discuss the implications of the current Covid-19 pandemic and identify avenues for the way forward. We conclude that ensuring safe and orderly mobility and the decent reception and long-term inclusion of migrants and displaced persons under conditions of more severe climate hazards, and in the context of rising nationalism and xenophobia, poses significant challenges. Integrated approaches across multiple policy sectors and levels of governance are needed. In addition to resources, development cooperation actors can bring data to help empower the most affected communities and regions and leverage their convening power to foster more coordinated approaches within and across countries.

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Multi-Risk Climate Mapping for the Adaptation of the Venice Metropolitan Area

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13031334 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 1334

Author(s):

Denis Maragno ◽

Carlo Federico dall’Omo ◽

Gianfranco Pozzer ◽

Francesco Musco

Keyword(s):

Social Services ◽

Spatial Information ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Local Level ◽

Spatial Knowledge ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

Adaptation Planning ◽

Spatial Decision Support System ◽

Metropolitan City ◽

Climate Adaptation Planning

Climate change risk reduction requires cities to undertake urgent decisions. One of the principal obstacles that hinders effective decision making is insufficient spatial knowledge frameworks. Cities climate adaptation planning must become strategic to rethink and transform urban fabrics holistically. Contemporary urban planning should merge future threats with older and unsolved criticalities, like social inequities, urban conflicts and “drosscapes”. Retrofitting planning processes and redefining urban objectives requires the development of innovative spatial information frameworks. This paper proposes a combination of approaches to overcome knowledge production limits and to support climate adaptation planning. The research was undertaken in collaboration with the Metropolitan City of Venice and the Municipality of Venice, and required the production of a multi-risk climate atlas to support their future spatial planning efforts. The developed tool is a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS), which aids adaptation actions and the coordination of strategies. The model recognises and assesses two climate impacts: Urban Heat Island and Flooding, representing the Metropolitan City of Venice (CMVE) as a case study in complexity. The model is composed from multiple assessment methodologies and maps both vulnerability and risk. The atlas links the morphological and functional conditions of urban fabrics and land use that triggers climate impacts. The atlas takes the exposure assessment of urban assets into account, using this parameter to describe local economies and social services, and map the uneven distribution of impacts. The resulting tool is therefore a replicable and scalable mapping assessment able to mediate between metropolitan and local level planning systems.

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Local climate adaptation and gene flow in the native range of two co‐occurring fruit moths with contrasting invasiveness

Molecular Ecology ◽

10.1111/mec.16055 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Li‐Jun Cao ◽

Bing‐Yan Li ◽

Jin‐Cui Chen ◽

Jia‐Ying Zhu ◽

Ary A. Hoffmann ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Flow ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Native Range ◽

Local Climate

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Dynamic Changes of Local Climate Zones in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area and Their Spatio-Temporal Impacts on the Surface Urban Heat Island Effect between 2005 and 2015

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13116374 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 6374

Author(s):

Yang Lu ◽

Jiansi Yang ◽

Song Ma

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Land Surface ◽

Morphological Changes ◽

Mapping Method ◽

Heat Radiation ◽

Climate Zones ◽

Local Climate ◽

Bay Area ◽

Local Climate Zones ◽

Urban Heat

Local climate zones (LCZs) emphasize the influence of representative geometric properties and surface cover characteristics on the local climate. In this paper, we propose a multi-temporal LCZ mapping method, which was used to obtain LCZ maps for 2005 and 2015 in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), and we analyze the effects of LCZ changes in the GBA on land surface temperature (LST) changes. The results reveal that: (1) The accuracy of the LCZ mapping of the GBA for 2005 and 2015 is 85.03% and 85.28%, respectively. (2) The built type category showing the largest increase in area from 2005 to 2015 is LCZ8 (large low-rise), with a 1.01% increase. The changes of the LCZs also vary among the cities due to the different factors, such as the economic development level and local policies. (3) The area showing a warming trend is larger than the area showing a cooling trend in all the cities in the GBA study area. The main reasons for the warming are the increase of built types, the enhancement of human activities, and the heat radiation from surrounding high-temperature areas. (4) The spatial morphology changes of the built type categories are positively correlated with the LST changes, and the morphological changes of the LCZ4 (open high-rise) and LCZ5 (open midrise) built types exert the most significant influence. These findings will provide important insights for urban heat mitigation via rational landscape design in urban planning management.

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