Strengths and weaknesses of the 100 Resilient Cities Initiative in Southern Europe: Rome and Athens’ experiences

Abstract Cities are nowadays faced with an unprecedented crisis, due above all to the impacts of climate change and the increasing social inequalities, which require innovative approaches and more effective tools. Resilience is widely interpreted as a key principle to re-frame urban policies, paving the way to cross-sectoral urban strategies capable of better coping with contemporary challenges. This contribution focuses in particular on the 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) Initiative, launched by the Rockefeller Foundation and addressed to support cities all over the world in developing and implementing strategies capable of increasing urban resilience in the face of multiple shocks and stresses, including climate change. In detail, based on the comparative analysis of two case studies, Rome and Athens, this paper aims at providing insights on the main strengths and weaknesses of cities’ resilience-building processes developed under the 100RC Initiative and at deeply analyzing the contribution of the delivered Resilience Strategies to the improvement of cities’ capacities to cope with contemporary challenges and above all with the increasing impacts of climate change.

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The role of youth in the climate change debate

European Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/eurpub/ckz185.158 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽

Author(s):

P Van Den Hazel

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Young People ◽

Energy Transition ◽

Business Leaders ◽

Sustainable Lifestyles ◽

Raising Awareness ◽

The World ◽

The Face ◽

Indirect Impacts ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change

Abstract The impacts of climate change are not distributed equally. Some people will experience natural disasters first hand, some will be affected more gradually over time, and some will experience only indirect impacts. There are data from the United nations that show the interest of youth on climate change. Close to half a million youth around the world have taken action on climate change through SGP [small grants programmes] projects in their homes, schools and communities. (UNDP, 2015). 84% of the surveyed young people agree that they need more information to prevent climate change. (UNEP, 2011). Furthermore, about 73% of surveyed youth say they currently feel the effects climate change. (UNEP, GlobeScan Survey, 2008). Some 89% of youth respondents say young people can make a difference on climate change. [UNEP, 2008]. But only 9% of youth are very confident the world will act quickly enough to address climate change. [UNEP, 2008]. Young people are key actors in raising awareness, running educational programmes, promoting sustainable lifestyles, conserving nature, supporting renewable energy, adopting environmentally-friendly practices and implementing adaptation and mitigation projects[UNFCCC]. Action by youth, as protest school strikes or speeches to the UN by Greta Thunberg, urge immediate action from governments, business leaders and school leaders. There are different reasons for this action by youth. The psycho-social impacts of a changing climate are generally under lighted in these reasons. Are the responses by society enough to minimize suffering and promote resilience of youth in the face of the challenging impacts of climate change? Or do governments and businesses enough while they increasingly seem to be moving toward action on climate change, as they proclaim to cut their own emissions or be active in their energy transition? It is not clear whether those actions are enough to satisfy the next generation of customers, employees and decision makers.

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Climate Change and the Health of Urban Populations

Urban Health ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190915858.003.0014 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 129-138

Author(s):

Patrick L. Kinney

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Urban Health ◽

Global Climate Change ◽

Global Climate ◽

Urban Resilience ◽

Urban Populations ◽

The World ◽

The Face ◽

Urban Heat ◽

Risk Of Exposure

Global climate change represents one of the sentinel changes the world is facing and that will threaten population health in this century. In the context of urban health, climate change threatens to increase urban heat island effects, to change exposure to pollution, and to increase urban residents’ risk of exposure to natural disasters, among other phenomena. And yet urban innovation is central to the longer term solution to climate change from the development of innovative approaches that reduce cities’ carbon footprint to initiatives that increase urban resilience in the face of climate change threats. This chapter discusses the threat that climate change poses for urban populations and potential approaches that can mitigate this challenge toward improving urban health.

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Climate, ticks and disease

10.1079/9781789249637.0000 ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Spatial Distribution ◽

Disease Ecology ◽

Future Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Scenarios ◽

Expert Opinions ◽

The World ◽

Host Pathogen ◽

The Future ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change

Abstract This book is a collection of 77 expert opinions arranged in three sections. Section 1 on "Climate" sets the scene, including predictions of future climate change, how climate change affects ecosystems, and how to model projections of the spatial distribution of ticks and tick-borne infections under different climate change scenarios. Section 2 on "Ticks" focuses on ticks (although tick-borne pathogens creep in) and whether or not changes in climate affect the tick biosphere, from physiology to ecology. Section 3 on "Disease" focuses on the tick-host-pathogen biosphere, ranging from the triangle of tick-host-pathogen molecular interactions to disease ecology in various regions and ecosystems of the world. Each of these three sections ends with a synopsis that aims to give a brief overview of all the expert opinions within the section. The book concludes with Section 4 (Final Synopsis and Future Predictions). This synopsis attempts to summarize evidence provided by the experts of tangible impacts of climate change on ticks and tick-borne infections. In constructing their expert opinions, contributors give their views on what the future might hold. The final synopsis provides a snapshot of their expert thoughts on the future.

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Possible adaptation measures of agriculture sector in the Nile Delta to climate change impacts

Advances in Science and Research ◽

10.5194/asr-3-123-2009 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 123-126 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

S. M. Attaher ◽

M. A. Medany ◽

A. F. Abou-Hadid

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Nile Delta ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Yield Reduction ◽

Agricultural System ◽

Delta Region ◽

Adaptation Measures ◽

Agriculture Sector ◽

The World ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change

Abstract. The overall agricultural system in the Nile Delta region is considered as one of the highest intensive and complicated agriculture systems in the world. According to the recent studies, the Nile Delta region is one of the highly vulnerable regions in the world to climate change. Sea level rise, soil and water degradation, undiversified crop-pattern, yield reduction, pests and disease severity, and irrigation and drainage management were the main key factors that increased vulnerability of the agriculture sector in that region. The main objective of this study is to conduct a community-based multi-criteria adaptation assessment in the Nile Delta using a preset questionnaire. A list of possible adaptation measures for agriculture sector was evaluated. The results indicated that the Nile Delta growers have strong perceptions to act positively to reduce the impacts of climate change. They reflected the need to improve the their adaptive capacity based on clear scientific message with adequate governmental support to coop with the negative impacts of climate change.

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Inteligentne rozwiązania w miastach w czasie pandemii - wybrane obszary, funkcje i zastosowania

e-mentor ◽

10.15219/em88.1504 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 88 (1) ◽

pp. 55-63

Author(s):

Dominika P. Brodowicz ◽

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Public Institutions ◽

Healthcare Sector ◽

Virus Infections ◽

State Of Emergency ◽

Safety And Health ◽

The World ◽

The Face ◽

Modern Technologies

Today's cities face many challenges, including those related to the aging of the population, climate change, or broadly understood public safety and health. Examples from many places around the world show that without access to modern technologies, cities, companies, and public institutions could not function, provide services or care for the safety of billions of people living in urban areas. That is especially vital in conditions of the threat to many people's health and life and shutdown of economies caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, the article aims to present selected examples of smart solutions used in cities in the face of the challenges related to ensuring security. Their functionality in pandemic conditions is also described both at present and if the state of emergency continued for the following years. The study proved that the importance of smart solutions for contemporary cities' functioning is growing in the face of the threat to the residents' health and life caused by COVID-19. That mainly applies to tools in the area of e-government, e-education, and e-services in the healthcare sector, including applications for reporting and informing about clusters of virus infections.

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Epilogue

Pandemics: A Very Short Introduction ◽

10.1093/actrade/9780199340071.003.0009 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 119-122

Author(s):

Christian W. McMillen

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Climate Change ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

The Past ◽

Public Health Infrastructure ◽

Health Infrastructure ◽

The World ◽

The Future ◽

The Face ◽

New Challenges

There will be more pandemics. A pandemic might come from an old, familiar foe such as influenza or might emerge from a new source—a zoonosis that makes its way into humans, perhaps. The epilogue asks how the world will confront pandemics in the future. It is likely that patterns established long ago will re-emerge. But how will new challenges, like climate change, affect future pandemics and our ability to respond? Will lessons learned from the past help with plans for the future? One thing is clear: in the face of a serious pandemic much of the developing world’s public health infrastructure will be woefully overburdened. This must be addressed.

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Creaturely Communal Ontology in Practice: John Zizioulas in Dialogue with Ritual Theory

Religions ◽

10.3390/rel10090506 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (9) ◽

pp. 506

Author(s):

John W. Compton

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Global Climate Change ◽

Global Climate ◽

Ecological Crisis ◽

Full Diversity ◽

Ritual Theory ◽

The World ◽

The Face ◽

Foundational Work ◽

As If

This article is born out of a deep concern for our current ecological crisis and serves as a beginning foundational work for how the Christian tradition can address global climate change. Our current way of being gives precedence to the autonomous individual, whose freedom is characterized by disregard for other creatures. John Zizioulas’ communal ontology demonstrates that as the world was created out of God’s loving will, it is comprised of relationship. Living into individuation and division is a refusal of this communion with other creatures and God, but the Eucharist serves as the ritual that brings Christians into communion through the remembrance of Christ. Ian McFarland’s work on the theology of creation provides the helpful nuance that creaturely movement in communion must include the full diversity of creatures. I then turn to Bruce Morrill’s work to demonstrate that the Eucharistic practice must have bearing beyond the walls of the church. It leads practitioners to live into eschatological hope and kenotic service to the world. John Seligman’s ritual theory demonstrates that ritual practice can accomplish these goals because it creates a subjunctive ‘as-if’ world in the face of the world that is perceived as chaotic. Through the continuous practice of the ritual, participants are then formed to live into this subjunctive ‘as-if’ world without ritual precedence. In this way, the Eucharistic practice can prepare practitioners to live into the kenotic service to a world broken by individuation that has led to global climate change and creaturely destruction.

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Organizing the Challenges Faced by Municipalities while Formulating Climate Change Adaptation Plans

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12031203 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 1203 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Asako Iwami ◽

Takanori Matsui ◽

Michinori Kimura ◽

Kenshi Baba ◽

Mitsuru Tanaka

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Local Governments ◽

Climate Changes ◽

Climate Modeling ◽

Paris Agreement ◽

Information Platform ◽

Climate Risks ◽

The World ◽

Municipal Level ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change

As the effects of climate change increase in severity, organizations across the world are attempting to measures to mitigate these effects. In accordance with the Paris Agreement of November 2015, wherein participating nations agreed to restrict the increase in global temperature below 2 °C, Japan has formulated guidelines on creating adaptation plans that can be implemented by local governments. A Climate Change Adaptive Information Platform was also launched to promote understanding and cooperation by sharing information on climate risks. However, the literature on this topic lacks information related to the organization of requirements and challenges faced by municipal administrative officials that formulate adaptation plans. To address these issues, we examined the four municipal forums hosted at Hosei University to encourage administrative needs for new technological ideas in areas such as climate modeling and impact assessment. We used text mining on the transcripts of the various workshops conducted in these forums and attempted to understand the changes in discussions and to extract issues related to the formulation process. The results showed that various topics, such as creating adaptation promotion systems, assessing the impacts of climate change, formulating adaptation plans, communicating with related organizations and stakeholders, developing human resources, and capacity building, were discussed, and a need for information, procedures, and assistance was identified for the formulation of feasible adaptation plans. This study is expected to provide a useful reference to stakeholders involved in framing adaptation plans to mitigate the effects of climate changes, particularly at the municipal level.

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Moving Birds in Hawai'i: Assisted Colonisation in a Colonised Land

Cultural Studies Review ◽

10.5130/csr.v25i1.6392 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 41-64

Author(s):

Thom Van Dooren

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Endangered Species ◽

Native Hawaiian ◽

Avian Species ◽

Kanaka Maoli ◽

The World ◽

The Face ◽

History Of ◽

The Subject ◽

The Many

In September 2011, a delicate cargo of 24 Nihoa Millerbirds was carefully loaded by conservationists onto a ship for a three-day voyage to Laysan Island in the remote Northwest Hawaiian Islands. The goal of this effort was to establish a second population of this endangered species, an “insurance population” in the face of the mounting pressures of climate change and potential new biotic arrivals. But the millerbird, or ulūlu in Hawaiian, is just one of the many avian species to become the subject of this kind of “assisted colonisation.” In Hawai'i, and around the world, recent years have seen a broad range of efforts to safeguard species by finding them homes in new places. Thinking through the ulūlu project, this article explores the challenges and possibilities of assisted colonisation in this colonised land. What does it mean to move birds in the context of the long, and ongoing, history of dispossession of the Kānaka Maoli, the Native Hawaiian people? How are distinct but entangled process of colonisation, of unworlding, at work in the lives of both people and birds? Ultimately, this article explores how these diverse colonisations might be understood and told responsibly in an era of escalating loss and extinction.

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Cambial phenology in Abies pindrow (Pinaceae) along an altitudinal gradient in northwestern Himalaya

IAWA Journal ◽

10.1163/22941932-bja10007 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 41 (2) ◽

pp. 186-201

Author(s):

Rayees Malik ◽

Sergio Rossi ◽

Raman Sukumar

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Altitudinal Gradient ◽

Cell Formation ◽

Growing Season ◽

Wood Formation ◽

Warming Climate ◽

The World ◽

Abies Pindrow ◽

The Himalaya ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change

Abstract Climate change is expected to be heterogeneous across the world, with high impacts on the Himalayan ecosystems. There is a need to precisely document cambial phenology and wood formation in these regions to better understand climate-growth relationships and how trees face a warming climate. This study describes the dynamics of cambial phenology in pindrow fir (Abies pindrow) along its altitudinal gradient in the Himalaya. The stages of xylem phenology, and the duration and rate of wood formation were assessed from anatomical observations during the growing season from samples collected weekly from three sites at various altitudes (2392–2965 m a.s.l.) over two years. There were significant differences in the duration and rate of cell formation along the altitudinal gradient, which decreased at increasing altitudes. The growing season duration decreased by 5.2 and 3.7 days every 100 m of increase in altitude in 2014 and 2015, respectively, while the rate of cell formation decreased from 0.38 and 0.44 cells /day to 0.29 and 0.34 cells/day in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Cell production decreased from 63.3 and 67.0 cells to 38.3 and 45.2 cells with a decrease of 4.3 and 3.8 cells per 100 m increase in altitude in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The higher precipitation in 2015 increased the growth rate and resulted in a higher xylem production. Our findings give new insights into the dynamics of cambial phenology and help in better understanding of the potential impacts of climate change on tree growth and forest productivity of Himalayan forests.

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