scholarly journals The motley drivers of heat and cold exposure in 21st century US cities

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (35) ◽  
pp. 21108-21117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Mark Broadbent ◽  
Eric Scott Krayenhoff ◽  
Matei Georgescu
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Cold Exposure ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Heat Exposure ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Relative Significance ◽  
Metropolitan Regions

We use a suite of decadal-length regional climate simulations to quantify potential changes in population-weighted heat and cold exposure in 47 US metropolitan regions during the 21st century. Our results show that population-weighted exposure to locally defined extreme heat (i.e., “population heat exposure”) would increase by a factor of 12.7–29.5 under a high-intensity greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and urban development pathway. Additionally, end-of-century population cold exposure is projected to rise by a factor of 1.3–2.2, relative to start-of-century population cold exposure. We identify specific metropolitan regions in which population heat exposure would increase most markedly and characterize the relative significance of various drivers responsible for this increase. The largest absolute changes in population heat exposure during the 21st century are projected to occur in major US metropolitan regions like New York City (NY), Los Angeles (CA), Atlanta (GA), and Washington DC. The largest relative changes in population heat exposure (i.e., changes relative to start-of-century) are projected to occur in rapidly growing cities across the US Sunbelt, for example Orlando (FL), Austin (TX), Miami (FL), and Atlanta. The surge in population heat exposure across the Sunbelt is driven by concurrent GHG-induced warming and population growth which, in tandem, could strongly compound population heat exposure. Our simulations provide initial guidance to inform the prioritization of urban climate adaptation measures and policy.

scholarly journals Serious Gaming for Climate Adaptation—Assessing the Potential and Challenges of a Digital Serious Game for Urban Climate Adaptation

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1789 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina-Simone Neset ◽  
Lotta Andersson ◽  
Ola Uhrqvist ◽  
Carlo Navarra
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Game Design ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Serious Game ◽  
School Students ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Serious Gaming ◽  
The Impact

Serious gaming has gained increasing prominence in climate change communication, and provides opportunity to engage new audiences and new platforms for knowledge co-creation and dialogues. This paper presents the design and evaluation of a serious game on climate adaptation, primarily targeted towards high school students, practitioners and politicians. The game aims to provide an experience of the impact of climate adaptation measures, and illustrates links with selected Agenda 2030 goals, which the player has to consider, while limiting impacts of hazardous climate events. The game design builds on the key goals in Education for Sustainable Development combining comprehensive views, action competence, learner engagement and pluralism. This study draws on game sessions and surveys with high school students in Sweden, and aims to assess to what extent different aspects of the game can support an increased understanding of the needs and benefits of adaptation actions. The results of this study indicate that the game can engage players to reflect upon challenges related to climate adaptation decision making, but also point towards the challenge of including a high degree of complexity which can make it difficult to grasp consequences of individual measures, as well as to link these to the natural variability of the occurrence of extreme climatic events.

scholarly journals The Role of Health in Urban Climate Adaptation: An Analysis of Six U.S. Cities

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 777-785 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark M. Shimamoto ◽  
Sabrina McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Recent Climate ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Climate Action Plan

Abstract Climate change threatens the health of urban residents in many ways. This qualitative study aims to understand how six U.S. cities are considering health adaptation when responding to climate change; 65 semistructured interviews were conducted with salient stakeholders across six U.S. cities (Boston, Massachusetts; Los Angeles, California; Portland, Oregon; Raleigh, North Carolina; Tampa, Florida; and Tucson, Arizona), and transcripts were analyzed to identify common themes. Each city’s (or county’s) most recent climate action plan was also analyzed. This study found that interviewees’ ability to understand the connection between climate and health was a major determinant for health adaptation implementation. In addition, institutional fragmentation in governance made it difficult to incorporate health concerns into broader climate planning. However, cross-sectoral collaborations and considerations of health cobenefits were shown to help overcome these barriers. These findings offer valuable insight regarding how policy makers and practitioners can safeguard public health from the effects of climate change.

scholarly journals Urban Pluvial Flood Management Part 1: Implementing an AHP-TOPSIS Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis Method for Stakeholder Integration in Urban Climate and Stormwater Adaptation

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 2422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Axelsson ◽  
Silvio Giove ◽  
Stefano Soriani
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Decision Analysis ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Analysis ◽  
Inclusive Policy ◽  
Stakeholder Integration

Cities are facing increasing pressures to enact adaptation measures due to climate change. While blue-green infrastructure has emerged as a focal adaptation technique for stormwater management, in order to craft adaptation policies cities must consider a multitude of emerging, complex, and competing stakeholder interests around multiple adaptation alternatives. However, accounting for these different interests, analyzing their diverse priorities, and maintaining a transparent decision-making process is not easily achieved within the existing policy frameworks. Here we define and present a combined multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods that easily integrates and quantifies stakeholder priorities while remaining accessible for non-experts engaged in the policy-making process. We demonstrate the method’s effectiveness through analyzing opinions about stormwater adaptation in New York City across several stakeholder groups. The method succeeds in integrating quantitative and qualitative judgements, indicating stakeholder preferential differences and allowing for more inclusive policy to be crafted. It can be extended beyond stormwater to many urban climate adaptation decisions facing multi-criteria considerations.

scholarly journals Entrepreneurial Strategies to Address Rural-Urban Climate-Induced Vulnerabilities: Assessing Adaptation and Innovation Measures in Dhaka, Bangladesh

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 9115
Author(s):  
Jason Miklian ◽  
Kristian Hoelscher
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Entrepreneurial Strategies ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Adaptation And Mitigation

Climate change amplifies social, political, economic, infrastructural and environmental challenges in many Global South cities, and perhaps no city is more vulnerable than Bangladesh’s capital of Dhaka. Climate-induced rural–urban migration is a profound concern, and Dhaka’s political leaders have embraced technology-based innovation as one solution pathway. This article explores the societal impact of Dhaka’s innovation environment strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Employing a case study qualitative methodology, our three findings expand knowledge about innovation for urban climate adaptation and mitigation as understood by Dhaka-based entrepreneurs. First, the most effective innovations were not the most technologically advanced, but those with the highest degree of participant ownership. Second, gaps between recipient, corporate and governmental understandings of effective mitigation and adaptation harmed projects were driven by different definitions of risk and competing understandings of vulnerability. Third, even the most technical climate adaptation measures were inherently political in their application. We discuss how to better position urban climate innovation infrastructures in Bangladesh and beyond, including developing a better recognition of innovation lifecycles for urban climate adaptation and widening our definitions of “innovation” to better incorporate more effective and inclusive climate adaptation solutions.

scholarly journals A new method for fine-scale assessments of the average urban Heat island over large areas and the effectiveness of nature-based solutions

One Ecosystem ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Lauwaet ◽  
Ton De Nijs ◽  
Inge Liekens ◽  
Hans Hooyberghs ◽  
Els Verachtert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Heat Island ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Horizontal Resolution ◽  
Heat Island ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Mean Wind Speed ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
The Impact

People living in cities experience extra heat stress due to the so-called Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. To gain an insight into the spatial variability of the UHI for the Netherlands, a detailed map (10 m horizontal resolution) has been calculated that shows the summer-averaged daily maximal UHI situation. The map is based on a relationship between the UHI, mean wind speed at 10 m height and the number of people living within a distance of 10 km, derived from simulations of over 100 European cities with the extensively validated urban climate model UrbClim. The cooling effect of green and blue infrastructure is also taken into account in the map, based on these simulation results. The presented map will help local authorities in defining target areas for climate adaptation measures and estimate the impact of nature-based solutions.

scholarly journals Legal Aspects of Urban Climate Change Adaptation

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Riccardo Stupazzini
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Adaptation Measures

Much of the climate discourse of today is held the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and reducing humanity’s ecological footprint on Earth. However, as climate change is already impacting our planet, adaptation measures to climate change are also required. Rising temperatures, the multiplication of intense precipitation events and related pluvial and river floods, drought events and water scarcity, the increase of frequency of wildfires represent a few of the multiple climate change impacts that governments and citizens have to deal with. For ecological reasons, climate change affects areas very differently based on geographic location and urban centers represent climate ‘hotspots’ as areas with high vulnerability. As a consequence of this, cities and towns play a crucial role in tackling climate change effects. The aim of this essay is to analyze the legal aspects of climate change adaptation set by local governments to prevent and manage damages related to climate-related risks. More in detail, after determining the international, European and national legal framework on adaptation, the purpose of the article is to identify the legal instruments used by local administrations to develop adaptation measures. In particular, the analysis focuses on the legal aspects related to three dimensions of local adaptation: urban greening as a nature-based solution for heat waves risks; the management of water-related risks; the civil protection planning function of municipalities. Considering the impacts of the mainstreaming process on planning tools, special attention is directed towards the integration and coordination issue between the different urban and sectoral planning instruments required by the Italian multi-level governance legal system.

Repowering Cities

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
York City ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
City Governments ◽  
Participatory Institutions

City governments are rapidly becoming society's problem solvers. As this book shows, nowhere is this more evident than in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto, where the cities' governments are taking on the challenge of addressing climate change. This book focuses on the specific issue of reducing urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and develops a new framework for distinguishing analytically and empirically the policy agendas city governments develop for reducing GHG emissions, the governing strategies they use to implement these agendas, and the direct and catalytic means by which they contribute to climate change mitigation. The book uses a framework to assess the successes and failures experienced in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto as those agenda-setting cities have addressed climate change. It then identifies strategies for moving from incremental to transformative change by pinpointing governing strategies able to mobilize the needed resources and actors, build participatory institutions, create capacity for climate-smart governance, and broaden coalitions for urban climate change policy.

scholarly journals Comments about Urban Bioclimate Aspects for Consideration in Urban Climate and Planning Issues in the Era of Climate Change

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 546
Author(s):  
Andreas Matzarakis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Heat Island ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Heat Island ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Urban Heat

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

From vision to action: roadmapping as a strategic method and tool to implement climate change adaptation – the example of the roadmap ‘water sensitive urban design 2020’

2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 2251-2259 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. U. Hasse ◽  
D. E. Weingaertner
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Process Support ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Water Sensitive Urban Design

As the central product of the BMBF-KLIMZUG-funded Joint Network and Research Project (JNRP) ‘dynaklim – Dynamic adaptation of regional planning and development processes to the effects of climate change in the Emscher-Lippe region (North Rhine Westphalia, Germany)’, the Roadmap 2020 ‘Regional Climate Adaptation’ has been developed by the various regional stakeholders and institutions containing specific regional scenarios, strategies and adaptation measures applicable throughout the region. This paper presents the method, elements and main results of this regional roadmap process by using the example of the thematic sub-roadmap ‘Water Sensitive Urban Design 2020’. With a focus on the process support tool ‘KlimaFLEX’, one of the main adaptation measures of the WSUD 2020 roadmap, typical challenges for integrated climate change adaptation like scattered knowledge, knowledge gaps and divided responsibilities but also potential solutions and promising chances for urban development and urban water management are discussed. With the roadmap and the related tool, the relevant stakeholders of the Emscher-Lippe region have jointly developed important prerequisites to integrate their knowledge, to clarify vulnerabilities, adaptation goals, responsibilities and interests, and to foresightedly coordinate measures, resources, priorities and schedules for an efficient joint urban planning, well-grounded decision-making in times of continued uncertainties and step-by-step implementation of adaptation measures from now on.

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