Climate change and vectorborne diseases in the urban ecosystem in India.

2017 ◽  
pp. 154-164
Author(s):  
R. C. Dhiman ◽  
S Poonam
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Ecosystem

Devising urban ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) projects with developing nations: A case study of Port Vila, Vanuatu

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maibritt Pedersen Zari ◽  
PM Blaschke ◽  
Bethanna Jackson ◽  
A Komugabe-Dixson ◽  
C Livesey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Project Planning ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Project Development ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Regional Environment

As the linked impacts of climate change and degradation of ecosystems continue to be felt, particularly in developing countries, it is vital that methods for development that concurrently address adaptation to climate change, rapid urbanisation, and ecosystem degradation be explored. Further development of approaches which are participatory and embedded in an understanding of the importance of symbiotic relationships between socio-cultural and ecological systems is particularly important. Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is one such method that is gaining recognition and momentum in areas where developing nations face converging pressures and drivers of change. EbA methodologies to date, are often ill-defined in an urban context and lack consideration of future social and ecological scenarios however. In response, this paper describes a methodology for developing urban EbA projects in a small island developing nation context. The methodology was developed and applied by a multi-disciplinary team working under the auspices of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). The application of this methodology in Port Vila, Vanuatu indicated: i) the needs of local people must be at the forefront of project planning, requiring a participatory design process; ii) EbA solutions development must be multidisciplinary and iterative; iii) appropriate quantitative and qualitative data is vital as a basis for EbA project development, requiring adequate time for data gathering; iv) urban and coastal EbA projects must be developed holistically, recognising socio-ecological systems that extend beyond the urban area itself; v) the complex overlapping landscape of governmental and international aid financed projects must inform the development of new EbA projects; vi) potential monetary and non-monetary benefits, costs and risks across multiple factors must be carefully assessed in EbA project development; and vii) project implementation requires ongoing engagement and a readiness to adapt to on-the-ground realities.

scholarly journals Mapping the Life Cycle Co-Creation Process of Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Climate Change Adaptation

Resources ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Marta Irene DeLosRíos-White ◽  
Peter Roebeling ◽  
Sandra Valente ◽  
Ines Vaittinen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Participatory Approaches ◽  
Creation Process ◽  
Living Lab ◽  
The Face

Developing urban and peri-urban ecosystem services with nature-based solutions (NBS) and participatory approaches can help achieve more resilient and sustainable environments for cities and urban areas in the face of climate change. The co-creation process is increasingly recognised as the way forward to deal with environmental issues in cities, allowing the development of associated methods and tools that have been described and published for specific stages. It is argued that the co-creation process comprises various interlinked stages, corresponding stakeholders, and subsequent methods and tools that need to be mapped and integrated across all stages. In this study, a Life Cycle Co-Creation Process (LCCCP) for NBS is developed, building on continuous improvement cycles and Design Thinking methodologies, and for which the stages and substages, involved stakeholders and engagement methods and tools are mapped and defined. For stakeholders, the actors of an Urban Living Lab (ULL) are adapted to the LCCCP; for the engagement methods and tools, the goals of stakeholder engagement are used as a guide to select examples of co-creation methods and tools. The developed LCCCP comprises five stages, i.e., CoExplore, CoDesign, CoExperiment, CoImplement and CoManagement, creating a unique path that can be followed by practitioners for NBS co-creation.

Proposing a typology of nature-based solutions for strengthening resilience of Central Vietnamese cities – First findings from the GreenCityLabHue project

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Scheuer ◽  
Jessica Jache ◽  
Kora Rösler ◽  
Tran Tuan Anh ◽  
Nguyen Ngoc Tung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Urban Ecosystem Services ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
Central Vietnam ◽  
The City

<p><em>Idea and Objectives:</em> This case study presents first findings of the GreenCityLabHue project. The project aims at implementing an urban learning lab in the city of Hue, Vietnam, for the participatory identification and implementation of innovative nature-based solutions for the protection and improvement of urban ecosystem services and climate change adaptation. We will present urgent environmental and societal challenges for the city of Hue, including the estimated impacts of climate change and resulting disaster risks. Subsequently, we will discuss elements of the green-blue infrastructure to tackle these risks in a sustainable and environmentally just manner in the context of a proposed typology of nature-based solutions. This typology specifically shifts the focus from a European perspective towards nature-based solutions that are locally relevant to strengthen the resilience of Hue and comparable cities in Central Vietnam and/or South-East Asia.</p><p><em>Background:</em> Vietnam is a country that faces multiple challenges. It is a country that experiences rapid urban growth, with an estimated 50% of citizens living in urban areas by 2030 up from 35%, resulting in urban expansion that necessitates safeguarding urban ecosystem services, e.g., for the protection of human health and human well-being. Vietnam is also heavily affected by climate change. Particularly in Central Vietnam, cities face increasing risks of flooding, storms, and temperature extremes.</p><p>By providing multifunctional ecosystem services and diverse benefits, nature-based solutions—and in particular green-blue infrastructure elements—may help to address the aforementioned environmental and societal challenges in a sustainable and integrative manner, e.g., for maintaining air quality, stormwater mitigation, climate regulation, and improving environmental equity.</p><p>Hue is the capital of the Thua Thien-Hue province, located in Central Vietnam on the banks of the Perfume River. It has a population of approximately half a million people, represents a touristic and educational hotspot, and is rated a “top priority city” by the Vietnamese government. In Hue, first steps that consider strengthening the green-blue infrastructure were devised in form of the Hue GrEEEn City Action Plan. However, a more holistic urban planning approach that also addresses challenges related to climate change is still lacking.</p>

scholarly journals Evaluating the potential contribution of urban ecosystem service to climate change mitigation

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 989-1006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vahid Amini Parsa ◽  
Esmail Salehi ◽  
Ahmad Reza Yavari ◽  
Peter M. van Bodegom
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Change Mitigation

scholarly journals Urban Ecosystem Vulnerability Assessment of Support Climate-Resilient City Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zipan Cai ◽  
Jessica Page ◽  
Vladimir Cvetkovic
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Ecological Modelling ◽  
System Modelling ◽  
City Development ◽  
Ecosystem Vulnerability ◽  
Geographic Data

Climate change poses a threat to cities. Geospatial information and communication technology (Geo-ICT) assisted planning is increasingly being utilised to foster urban sustainability and adaptability to climate change. To fill the theoretical and practical gaps of urban adaptive planning and Geo-ICT implementation, this article presents an urban ecosystem vulnerability assessment approach using integrated socio-ecological modelling. The application of the Geo-ICT method is demonstrated in a specific case study of climate-resilient city development in Nanjing (China), aiming at helping city decision-makers understand the general geographic data processing and policy revision processes in response to hypothetical future disruptions and pressures on urban social, economic, and environmental systems. Ideally, the conceptual framework of the climate-resilient city transition proposed in this study effectively integrates the geographic data analysis, policy modification, and participatory planning. In the process of model building, we put forward the index system of urban ecosystem vulnerability assessment and use the assessment result as input data for the socio-ecological model. As a result, the model reveals the interaction processes of local land use, economy, and environment, further generating an evolving state of future land use in the studied city. The findings of this study demonstrate that socio-ecological modelling can provide guidance in adjusting the human-land interaction and climate-resilient city development from the perspective of macro policy. The decision support using urban ecosystem vulnerability assessment and quantitative system modelling can be useful for urban development under a variety of environmental change scenarios.

Growing the Urban Forest. From our Practitioners’ perspective to Field Initiatives

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Beatrice Andreucci ◽  
Naomi Zürcher
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Urban Forestry ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Urban Forest Management

<p>The Urban Forestry body of knowledge, incorporating the protection, preservation and care of trees, and their landscapes that enhance our urban areas, has been informed by research in soil science, horticulture, plant form/function/pathology, entomology, climate science, health care and the social sciences.</p><p>Such contributing research was represented in the COST Action FP1204 “GreenInUrbs” book - "The Urban Forest: Cultivating Green Infrastructure for People and the Environment" (Springer 2017).</p><p>But that Urban Forestry body of knowledge also reflects an evolved aggregation from the disciplines of forestry, landscape architecture and arboriculture.</p><p>Chapter 24 “Growing the Urban Forest: Our Practitioners’ Perspective” represented the professional disciplines of Maria Beatrice Andreucci, Landscape Architect, and Naomi Zürcher, Urban Forester/Consulting Arborist - two practitioners’ voices, applying their experiences in “growing” our Urban Forest to the entirety of the book’s submissions:</p><ul><li>scrutinizing the scientific findings’ applicability in project design and implementation as well as day-to-day management;</li> <li>analyzing the functionality of Urban Forest resource management: planning, design, maintenance;</li> <li>evaluating/presenting strategies for participatory stewardship from Third Sector and the informed community;</li> <li>describing/recommending viable, supportive good governance policies that can actually “grow” a healthy Urban Forest and deliver essential Ecosystem Services benefits.</li> </ul><p>All well and good, but chapters in books offering scientific findings, data and its outcomes are only as effective and influential as the actions they initiate. What is essential is actionable plans that make the findings and the data live.</p><p>Those critical actions and initiatives fall to the knowledgeable Practitioner. This presentation will offer outcomes of our Practitioners’ observations, described in the COST GreenInUrbs chapter, translating that experience into actionable projects invested in ecological design and sustainable management of the urban ecosystem:</p><p>1) Mapping multiple benefits of Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI), promoting evidence-based landscape and urban design –Maria Beatrice Andreucci, International Federation of Landscape Architect (IFLA) Advisory Circle member, is providing IFLA practitioners and students, representing professional associations from five continents, with research-based evidence of ecological, environmental, social and economic benefits provided by UGI projects to:</p><ul><li>support informed decision-making and climate-adaptive design strategies at different scales (i.e. architecture, district, city, region, etc.) with metrics and other scientific findings;</li> <li>disseminate knowledge about useful valuation tools and methodologies tested on a large repository of international UGI case studies, with particular emphasis on the assessment of co-benefits and trade-offs, implied in sustainable transformations of the urban ecosystem.</li> </ul><p>2) Creating an i-Tree Eco-based Urban Forest Management Toolbox: Turning i-Tree outputs into Climate-Adaptive outcomes, offering management strategies for growing the Swiss Urban Forest –Naomi Zürcher, an affiliate i-Tree team member, is spearheading this Federally-funded climate change adaptation project in 8 Swiss cities. i-Tree Eco quantified assessment outputs of existing urban tree structure and function are utilized to:</p><ul><li>provide a connective understanding between the quantified values and managing for the protection, preservation and retention of mature urban trees;</li> <li>realize an Urban Forest Management Toolbox, developed by all project participants, comprised of creative planning, design and management strategies from an Ecosystem Services perspective, enabling Climate Change adaptations today for Swiss Cities of tomorrow.</li> </ul><div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div> </div> </div> </div>

scholarly journals Devising urban ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) projects with developing nations: A case study of Port Vila, Vanuatu

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maibritt Pedersen Zari ◽  
PM Blaschke ◽  
Bethanna Jackson ◽  
A Komugabe-Dixson ◽  
C Livesey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Project Planning ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Project Development ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Regional Environment

As the linked impacts of climate change and degradation of ecosystems continue to be felt, particularly in developing countries, it is vital that methods for development that concurrently address adaptation to climate change, rapid urbanisation, and ecosystem degradation be explored. Further development of approaches which are participatory and embedded in an understanding of the importance of symbiotic relationships between socio-cultural and ecological systems is particularly important. Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is one such method that is gaining recognition and momentum in areas where developing nations face converging pressures and drivers of change. EbA methodologies to date, are often ill-defined in an urban context and lack consideration of future social and ecological scenarios however. In response, this paper describes a methodology for developing urban EbA projects in a small island developing nation context. The methodology was developed and applied by a multi-disciplinary team working under the auspices of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). The application of this methodology in Port Vila, Vanuatu indicated: i) the needs of local people must be at the forefront of project planning, requiring a participatory design process; ii) EbA solutions development must be multidisciplinary and iterative; iii) appropriate quantitative and qualitative data is vital as a basis for EbA project development, requiring adequate time for data gathering; iv) urban and coastal EbA projects must be developed holistically, recognising socio-ecological systems that extend beyond the urban area itself; v) the complex overlapping landscape of governmental and international aid financed projects must inform the development of new EbA projects; vi) potential monetary and non-monetary benefits, costs and risks across multiple factors must be carefully assessed in EbA project development; and vii) project implementation requires ongoing engagement and a readiness to adapt to on-the-ground realities.

The Contribution of Riparian Zone on Urban Ecosystems through Climate Change Urban Adaptation Process

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hande Gündel ◽  
Ayşe Kalaycı Önaç
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Riparian Zone ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Urban Habitat ◽  
The City

The riparian zone plays a crucial role in the development and transformation of cities. This zone dramatically changes cities both ecologically and economically and is one of the cornerstones of the future scenarios of the city. These areas constitute significant emphasis throughout the city by providing wildlife, improving the water quality, reducing flood areas, and creating social activity areas in the city. Besides, it influences land use, transportation, energy efficiency, social life. The riparian zones are one of the most significant components of the cities that mitigate the climate change effects. Because, the existence of water creates microclimatic conditions around the cities and this conserves the heat island effect, greenhouse effect, and also air pollution. The deterioration of the sustainability of this important backbone throughout the city causes an important loss in terms of urban ecosystems. Because it is an important connection of natural life and urban life, and any deterioration causes two important characters to be separated from one another. In this regard, ensuring water management in the city is a crucial issue in terms of urban habitat. In the scope of this study, research was conducted on the contribution of riparian zone to the urban ecosystem and also how the presence of this backbone system in the city transforms the urban areas was discussed.

Averting robo-bees: why free-flying robotic bees are a bad idea

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 723-729
Author(s):  
Roslyn Gleadow ◽  
Jim Hanan ◽  
Alan Dorin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Food Security ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Plant Interactions ◽  
Plant Insect Interactions ◽  
Native Habitat ◽  
Insect Pollinators ◽  
Insect Interactions

Food security and the sustainability of native ecosystems depends on plant-insect interactions in countless ways. Recently reported rapid and immense declines in insect numbers due to climate change, the use of pesticides and herbicides, the introduction of agricultural monocultures, and the destruction of insect native habitat, are all potential contributors to this grave situation. Some researchers are working towards a future where natural insect pollinators might be replaced with free-flying robotic bees, an ecologically problematic proposal. We argue instead that creating environments that are friendly to bees and exploring the use of other species for pollination and bio-control, particularly in non-European countries, are more ecologically sound approaches. The computer simulation of insect-plant interactions is a far more measured application of technology that may assist in managing, or averting, ‘Insect Armageddon' from both practical and ethical viewpoints.

Modelling ecosystem adaptation and dangerous rates of global warming

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Millington ◽  
Peter M. Cox ◽  
Jonathan R. Moore ◽  
Gabriel Yvon-Durocher
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Diffusion Rate ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Genetic Evolution ◽  
Rates Of Change ◽  
Rapid Climate Change ◽  
Warming Climate ◽  
Intraspecies Competition ◽  
High Trait

Abstract We are in a period of relatively rapid climate change. This poses challenges for individual species and threatens the ecosystem services that humanity relies upon. Temperature is a key stressor. In a warming climate, individual organisms may be able to shift their thermal optima through phenotypic plasticity. However, such plasticity is unlikely to be sufficient over the coming centuries. Resilience to warming will also depend on how fast the distribution of traits that define a species can adapt through other methods, in particular through redistribution of the abundance of variants within the population and through genetic evolution. In this paper, we use a simple theoretical ‘trait diffusion’ model to explore how the resilience of a given species to climate change depends on the initial trait diversity (biodiversity), the trait diffusion rate (mutation rate), and the lifetime of the organism. We estimate theoretical dangerous rates of continuous global warming that would exceed the ability of a species to adapt through trait diffusion, and therefore lead to a collapse in the overall productivity of the species. As the rate of adaptation through intraspecies competition and genetic evolution decreases with species lifetime, we find critical rates of change that also depend fundamentally on lifetime. Dangerous rates of warming vary from 1°C per lifetime (at low trait diffusion rate) to 8°C per lifetime (at high trait diffusion rate). We conclude that rapid climate change is liable to favour short-lived organisms (e.g. microbes) rather than longer-lived organisms (e.g. trees).

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