Infrastructure resilience to navigate increasingly uncertain and complex conditions in the Anthropocene

AbstractInfrastructure are at the center of three trends: accelerating human activities, increasing uncertainty in social, technological, and climatological factors, and increasing complexity of the systems themselves and environments in which they operate. Resilience theory can help infrastructure managers navigate increasing complexity. Engineering framings of resilience will need to evolve beyond robustness to consider adaptation and transformation, and the ability to handle surprise. Agility and flexibility in both physical assets and governance will need to be emphasized, and sensemaking capabilities will need to be reoriented. Transforming infrastructure is necessary to ensuring that core systems keep pace with a changing world.

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Genetic Resources and Adaptive Management of Conifers in a Changing World

Forests ◽

10.3390/f12091213 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (9) ◽

pp. 1213

Author(s):

Csaba Mátyás

Keyword(s):

Genetic Resources ◽

Adaptive Management ◽

Human Activities ◽

Coniferous Species ◽

Changing World

Human activities have widely exploited and transformed the resources of coniferous species and ecosystems [...]

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Design for Change: Five Proxies for Resilience in the Urban Form

Open House International ◽

10.1108/ohi-04-2016-b0004 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 41 (4) ◽

pp. 23-30 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Alessandra Feliciotti ◽

Ombretta Romice ◽

Sergio Porta

Keyword(s):

Urban Design ◽

Urban Form ◽

Urban Morphology ◽

Resilience Theory ◽

Disciplinary Knowledge ◽

Constituent Elements ◽

Changing World

The sheer complexity and unpredictability characterising cities challenges the adequacy of existing disciplinary knowledge and tools in urban design and highlights the necessity to incorporate explicitly the element of change and the dimension of time in the understanding of, and intervention on, the form of cities. To this regard the concept of resilience is a powerful lens through which to understand and engage with a changing world. However, resilience is currently only superficially addressed by urban designers, and an explicit effort to relate elements of urban form to resilience principles is still lacking. This represents a great limit for urban designers, as the physical dimension of cities is the matter they work with in the first place. In this paper, we combine established knowledge in urban morphology and resilience theory. We firstly look at resilience theory and consistently define five proxies of resilience in urban form, namely diversity, redundancy, modularity, connectivity and efficiency. Secondly, we discuss the configuration of, and interdependencies between, several constituent elements of the physical city, as defined in urban morphology and design, in light of the mentioned five proxies. Finally, we conduct this exploration at five scales that are relevant to urban morphology and design: plot, street edge, block, street and sanctuary area / district.

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Consistent risk management in a changing world: risk equivalence in fisheries and other human activities affecting marine resources and ecosystems

10.31219/osf.io/6d8h7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Marie-Julie Roux ◽

Daniel Duplisea ◽

Karen L. Hunter ◽

Jake Rice

Keyword(s):

Human Activities ◽

Human Impacts ◽

Marine Resources ◽

Management Options ◽

Conditioning Factors ◽

Natural Systems ◽

Risk Levels ◽

Alternative Hypotheses ◽

Management Advice ◽

Changing World

This manuscript addresses the need to account for climate change in the management of human activities affecting marine resources and ecosystems. A changing climate makes the evaluation of human impacts on natural systems increasingly uncertain, and affects the risks associated with management decisions. A flexible approach is proposed that involves routine formulation of alternative hypotheses for climate effects and exploration of risk equivalent management options that allow human activities to continue within acceptable risk levels despite shifting or novel conditions. The approach fits within existing risk frameworks and is applicable in all data and knowledge situations where management objectives are specified. Risk equivalence can be achieved either by conditioning the exposure to human pressures on demonstrated, anticipated or projected environmental change, or by conditioning the objectives themselves on a new environmental reality. We exemplify risk equivalence in fisheries management and discuss its applicability to the management of other human activities. Concepts of risk and risk conditioning factors provide a common language and understanding for the inclusion and communication of environmental considerations in management advice. The approach can guide robust and accountable decision-making in a changing world, and facilitate the implementation of ecosystem-based management.

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Applications of Satellite Remote Sensing of Nighttime Light Observations: Advances, Challenges, and Perspectives

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs11171971 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (17) ◽

pp. 1971 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Zhao ◽

Zhou ◽

Li ◽

Cao ◽

He ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Human Activities ◽

Energy Use ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Deep Understanding ◽

Historical Review ◽

Ancillary Data ◽

Nighttime Light Data ◽

Nighttime Light ◽

Changing World

Nighttime light observations from remote sensing provide us with a timely and spatially explicit measure of human activities, and therefore enable a host of applications such as tracking urbanization and socioeconomic dynamics, evaluating armed conflicts and disasters, investigating fisheries, assessing greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, and analyzing light pollution and health effects. The new and improved sensors, algorithms, and products for nighttime lights, in association with other Earth observations and ancillary data (e.g., geo-located big data), together offer great potential for a deep understanding of human activities and related environmental consequences in a changing world. This paper reviews the advances of nighttime light sensors and products and examines the contributions of nighttime light remote sensing to perceiving the changing world from two aspects (i.e., human activities and environmental changes). Based on the historical review of the advances in nighttime light remote sensing, we summarize the challenges in current nighttime light remote sensing research and propose four strategic directions, including: Improving nighttime light data; developing a long time series of consistent nighttime light data; integrating nighttime light observations with other data and knowledge; and promoting multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary analyses of nighttime light observations.

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Consistent Risk Management in a Changing World: Risk Equivalence in Fisheries and Other Human Activities Affecting Marine Resources and Ecosystems

Frontiers in Climate ◽

10.3389/fclim.2021.781559 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Marie-Julie Roux ◽

Daniel E. Duplisea ◽

Karen L. Hunter ◽

Jake Rice

Keyword(s):

Human Activity ◽

Environmental Effects ◽

Human Activities ◽

Reference Levels ◽

Management Decisions ◽

Conditioning Factors ◽

Management Objectives ◽

Environmental Considerations ◽

Management Advice ◽

Changing World

A changing climate makes the evaluation of human impacts on natural systems increasingly uncertain and affects the risk associated with management decisions. This influences both the achievability and meaning of marine conservation and resource management objectives. A risk-based framework that includes a risk equivalence approach in the evaluation of the potential consequences from human activity, can be a powerful tool for timely and consistent handling of environmental considerations in management advice. Risk equivalence permits a formal treatment of all sources of uncertainty, such that objectives-based management decisions can be maintained within acceptable risk levels and deliver outcomes consistent with expectations. There are two pathways to risk equivalence that can be used to account for the short-term and longer-term impacts of a changing environment: adjusting the degree of exposure to human pressure and adjusting the reference levels used to measure the risk. The first uses existing data and knowledge to derive risk conditioning factors applied to condition management advice on environmental departures from baseline conditions. The second is used to formalise the review and update of management objectives, reference levels and risk tolerances, so they remain consistent with potential consequences from human activity under new biological, ecological and socio-economic realities. A risk equivalence approach is about adapting existing practice to frame environmental considerations within objectives-based risk frameworks, systematically exploring alternative scenarios and assumptions, and conditioning management advice on environmental status. It is applicable to the management of all human activities impacting biological and ecological systems. Concepts of risk, risk conditioning factors, and incremental changes in risk, provide a common currency for the inclusion and communication of environmental effects into advice. Risk equivalence can ensure timely delivery of robust management advice accounting for demonstrated, anticipated or projected environmental effects. This can guide management decisions in a changing world, and greatly facilitate the implementation of an ecosystem approach for the management of human activities.

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