scholarly journals Planeamiento urbanístico y cambio climático: la infraestructura verde como estrategia de adaptación = Urban planning and climate change: green infrastructure as an adaptation strategy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. García Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
The United States ◽  
City Management ◽  
Red Hook

La integración de la adaptación al cambio climático en la planificación de los usos del suelo, así como la evaluación de este proceso, se han situado de forma preferente en las políticas urbanas y en los ámbitos de gestión de las ciudades. La tesis doctoral en la que se apoya este documento aporta herramientas que permiten incorporar con éxito las estrategias de adaptación a los procesos de planificación urbanística. Entre las herramientas detectadas, la infraestructura verde juega un papel crucial en la definición de estrategias de adaptación al cambio climático. A partir de la investigación realizada se ha propuesto un marco de indicadores y parámetros de referencia para la evaluación de la capacidad adaptativa en la planificación urbanística. La aplicación a dos casos de estudio en EE. UU. (Red Hook, Brooklyn, Nueva York) y España (Zorrotzaurre, Bilbao) ha permitido validar e implementar su utilidad como instrumentos para la planificación, así como para su seguimiento y evaluación.Abstract:The integration of adaptation to climate change into land use planning, and the monitoring and evaluation mechanisms of this process, have been preferentially placed in urban policies and city management. This research work provides tools that enable successful incorporation of adaptation strategies into urban planning processes. Among the tools identified, green infrastructure plays a key role in defining strategies for adapting cities to climate change. Based on the research carried out, an indicator framework and benchmarks for adaptive capacity assessment have been proposed. The application on two case-studies in The United States (Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY) and Spain (Zorrotzaurre, Bilbao) has enabled the tools’ validation and implementation as instruments for planning, as well as for monitoring and evaluation of their adaptive capacity.

Health and Climate Change

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Watts
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Health System ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Climate Change And Health

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. Please check back later for the full article. There are three important linkages to explore between climate change and health in terms of potential policy responses. The first of these linkages relates to the impacts on health resulting from climate change. In 2009, The Lancet described climate change as “the greatest global health threat of the 21st century,” referencing the direct and indirect effects it is having on public health. While a number of impacts are directly observable (i.e., an increased frequency and severity of many extreme weather events), others are more indirect, being mediated through environmental and social systems (i.e., the health complications associated with mass migration or violent conflict). Further, it is well understood that resilience and adaptive capacity play an important role in reducing these impacts—often leaving low-income communities worse off than most. The second important linkage between climate change and health relates to the co-benefits of mitigation and adaptation. Policy responses to climate change will inevitably come with both intended and unforseen externalities and “side-effects” (both positive and negative). Traditional public health tools, such as health impact assessment, can be valuable in identifying and understanding these co-benefits to better guide policy. Indeed, many of the mitigation solutions yield substantial benefits for public health: switching away from coal-fired power plants as an energy choice improves cardiovascular and respiratory health; designing cities which are cycle- and pedestrian-friendly increases rates of physical activity (helping to tackle obesity, diabetes, many cancers, and heart disease) while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. Finally, the health system itself has an important role in responding directly to climate change. This is frequently understood in terms of a health facility’s ability to withstand and respond to the impacts of climate change, and to the adaptive capacity of the health system itself. But there is also a role for the health system to play in reducing its own emissions. In countries like the United Kingdom and the United States, the formal health system is responsible for as much as 3–8% of national emissions, and has subsequently made commitments to reduce its environmental impact. A 2013 review of the UK National Health Service’s carbon footprint indicated that as much as 60% of this came from procurement, 17% from building energy, and 13% from health system–related transport. A number of the solutions available are often designed in a way that improves patient outcomes and satisfaction, while reducing the costs of healthcare. In low- and middle-income countries, the focus is placed on ensuring access to reliable electricity, a task well suited to decentralized micro-grids with sustainable power generation. Academic literature on the topic of health and climate change has expanded rapidly in recent years and includes the 2009 and 2015 Lancet Commissions on health and climate change, the 2010 series on the health co-benefits of mitigation, and the 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 5th Assessment Report.

scholarly journals Global Research on Carbon Emissions: A Scientometric Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 3972 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lebunu Hewage Udara Willhelm Abeydeera ◽  
Jayantha Wadu Mesthrige ◽  
Tharushi Imalka Samarasinghalage
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Carbon Emission ◽  
Research Work ◽  
The United States ◽  
Scientometric Analysis ◽  
Carbon Reduction ◽  
Global Research

Greenhouse gases such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon dioxide have been recognized as the prime cause of global climate change, which has received significant global attention. Among these gases, carbon dioxide is considered as the prominent gas which motivated researchers to explore carbon reduction and mitigation strategies. Research work on this domain expands from carbon emission reporting to identifying and implementing carbon mitigation and reduction strategies. A comprehensive study to map global research on carbon emissions is, however, not available. Therefore, based on a scientometric analysis method, this study reviewed the global literature on carbon emissions. A total of 2945 bibliographic records, from 1981 to 2019, were extracted from the Web of Science core collection database and analyzed using techniques such as co-author and co-citation analysis. Findings revealed an increasing trend of publications in the carbon emission research domain, which has been more visible in the past few years, especially during 2016–2018. The most significant contribution to the domain was reported from China, the United States, and England. While most prolific authors and institutions of the domain were from China, authors and institutions from the United States reported the best connection links. It was revealed that evaluating greenhouse gas emissions and estimating the carbon footprint was popular among the researchers. Moreover, climate change and environmental effects of carbon emissions were also significant points of concern in carbon emission research. The key findings of this study will be beneficial for the policymakers, academics, and institutions to determine the future research directions as well as to identify with whom they can consult to assist in developing carbon emission control policies and future carbon reduction targets.

First Policy, Then Action: A Co-Production Approach to Understand the Application of Urban Climate Knowledge in Land Use Planning

2019 ◽  
Vol 06 (03n04) ◽  
pp. 2050005
Author(s):  
Mariana Barreto Alfonso Fragomeni ◽  
Jennifer L. Rice ◽  
Rosanna G. Rivero ◽  
J. Marshall Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Response Planning ◽  
Climate Knowledge ◽  
Heat Response ◽  
The City

Barriers to the application of climate science in land use planning are often understood as a problem related to perceived disciplinary knowledge gaps. This paper argues that, instead, limitations to the application of knowledge are not strictly linked to transference, but are also attributed to the thought processes that planners use to understand and use information. This study uses an interactional co-production framework from Science and Technology Studies (STS) to explore these processes in the context of heat response planning in Chatham County, Georgia, in the United States: a coastal county exposed to hot and humid conditions that render its population, particularly its growing elderly and low-income, vulnerable to heat health risks. We specifically focus on the processes used by planners during a heat response planning workshop, exploring the discussions and actions taken to develop a plan. We attempt to answer the following questions: What are the processes used by planners to respond to climatic issues such as heat vulnerability? How do these processes determine the application of the scientific knowledge produced? How does this process enable or limit the use of climate knowledge in decision making at the city scale? This paper argues that planners engage in three steps to determine the applicability of climate knowledge to urban planning: (1) using their own experiences to contextualize and visualize the information in their community, (2) being extremely cautious about the use of information because of a fear of failure, and (3) asking for specific policies to be in place to justify and legitimate actions and promote projects throughout the city. Using these insights, this paper concludes with some thoughts on how climate knowledge might be better integrated into urban planning.

scholarly journals Beyond Beauty or Urban Design of Responsibility

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Thorsten Bürklin ◽  
Michael Peterek
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
The World ◽  
Resource Economy ◽  
Land Water

In recent years, urban spaces all over the world have been effectively staged, sometimes all too obviously, and urban design has often concentrated on the implementation of "beautiful" lighthouse projects and globally oriented lifestyle urbanism. However, beauty – also in the broader sense of a beautiful experience – cannot be an end in itself in urban planning. An urban design of responsibility has to be committed to all residents and address the pressing challenges of our time, for example: the almost unlimited consumption of land, water and energy; floods and heatwaves due to climate change; lack of decent living conditions for large parts of the population. Against this background, five strategic guidelines for the integrated and responsible planning of our cities have been developed. These include "comprehensive" and integrated neighbourhoods, a mobility turnaround, interconnected blue and green infrastructure, a circular resource economy and space sharing, and the exploitation of the opportunities of digitalisation for a social and ecological city.

scholarly journals Green Infrastructure in the Urban Environment: A Systematic Quantitative Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackie Parker ◽  
Maria Elena Zingoni de Baro
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Health Trends ◽  
Geological Information

Increased levels of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, a legacy of the industrial revolution, population growth pressures, and consumerist lifestyle choices, are the main contributors to human-induced climate change. Climate change is commensurate of warming temperatures, reductions in rainfall, increased frequency of extreme weather events, and contributions toward declining public health trends. Green Infrastructure (GI) presents diverse opportunities to mediate adverse effects, while simultaneously delivering human health, well-being, environmental, economic, and social benefits to contemporary urban dwellers. To identify the current state of GI knowledge, a systematic quantitative literature review of peer-reviewed articles (n = 171) was undertaken using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) method. Temporal publication trends, geographical and geological information of research efforts, as well as research focus areas were recorded and reported against each article. The findings of this review confirm the research area to be in a state of development in most parts of the world, with the vast majority of the research emerging from the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Cooler climates produced the majority of research, which were found largely to be of a traditional research article format. The GI research area is firmly dominated by foci comprising planning and policy, environmental and ecological, and social content, although modest attempts have also appeared in health and wellbeing, economic, and quality/performance of green infrastructure areas. Knowledge gaps identified by this review as requiring attention for research growth were identified as: (i) the ambiguity of terminology and the limited broad understanding of GI, and (ii) the absence of research produced in the continents of Asia and South America, as well as in regions with warmer climates, which are arguably equally valuable research locations as cooler climate bands.

scholarly journals Vulnerability of Street Trees in Upper Midwest Cities to Climate Change

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie A. Brandt ◽  
Gary R. Johnson ◽  
Eric A. North ◽  
Jack Faje ◽  
Annamarie Rutledge
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Trees ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Upper Midwest ◽  
Tree Data ◽  
Rcp 8.5

Urban trees play an important role in helping cities adapt to climate change, but also are vulnerable to changes in climate themselves. We developed an approach for assessing vulnerability of urban tree species and cultivars commonly planted in cities in the United States Upper Midwest to current and projected climate change through the end of the 21st century. One hundred seventy-eight tree species were evaluated for their adaptive capacity to a suite of current and future-projected climate and urban stressors using a weighted scoring system based on an extensive literature review. These scores were then evaluated and adjusted by leading experts in arboriculture in the region. Each species or cultivar’s USDA Hardiness Zone and American Horticultural Society Heat Zone tolerance was compared to current and future heat and hardiness zones for 14 municipalities across Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota using statistically downscaled climate data. Species adaptive capacity and zone tolerance was combined to assign each species one of five vulnerability categories for each location. We determined the number of species and trees in each category based on the most recent municipal street tree data for each location. Under a scenario of less climate change (RCP 4.5), fewer than 2% of trees in each municipality were considered highly vulnerable across all 14 municipalities. Under a scenario of greater change (RCP 8.5), upward of 25% of trees were considered highly vulnerable in some locations. However, the number of vulnerable trees varied greatly by location, primarily because of differences in projected summer high temperatures rather than differences in species composition. Urban foresters can use this information as a complement to other more traditional considerations used when selecting trees for planting.

scholarly journals Factors Associated with the Climate Change Vulnerability and the Adaptive Capacity of People with Disability: A Systematic Review

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 801-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cadeyrn J. Gaskin ◽  
Davina Taylor ◽  
Susan Kinnear ◽  
Julie Mann ◽  
Wendy Hillman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Climate Change Vulnerability ◽  
Practical Support ◽  
People With Disability

Abstract People with disability experience multidimensional inequalities, which heighten their vulnerability to climate change. An understanding of the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of people with disability can be gained through considering how they have fared during the types of events associated with climate change, such as droughts, floods, heat waves, hurricanes, and wildfires. A systematic review was conducted to identify factors associated with climate change vulnerability and adaptive capacity of people with disability. Papers were sourced from 12 electronic databases, the Google search engine, the websites of 21 organizations, and the reference lists of included papers; 34 papers (relating to 28 studies) met the selection criteria. Most studies were located in the United States, and almost half were focused on hurricane events. Factors contributing to vulnerability included personal factors (e.g., female gender, uncoupled or living alone, nonwhite ethnicity, and low income), environmental factors (commonly, limited practical support from government agencies and disability organizations), bodily impairments (cognitive impairments, hearing impairments, progression of impairments, relapse/exacerbation of symptoms, and thermoregulation difficulties), and activity limitations and participation restrictions (limited preparedness, difficulties with evacuation, and difficulties reassembling individual accommodations and repairing or replacing adaptive equipment). Factors relating to their adaptive capacity included personal factors (e.g., formal education), environmental factors (practical support from mainstream organizations, disability organizations, family, and friends), and activities and participation (emergency planning, keeping an emergency pack, and seeking information). People with disability are vulnerable to climate change largely due to inequalities and their exclusion from adaptation and mitigation efforts.

scholarly journals Revitalizing small urban streams as an instrument of urban planning in creating resilient cities

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-205
Author(s):  
Milena Dinic-Brankovic ◽  
Milica Markovic
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Urban Streams ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Small Streams

Small urban streams are an important element of blue-green infrastructure that is often underused, especially regarding storm water management. In addition, small streams in dense urban areas often seem to be polluted and devastated, or even buried underground. This paper discusses the problems and challenges that occur in urban areas regarding small streams and creeks, and explores how their revitalization can help in shaping more resilient communities. The study explores two cities, Graz and Oslo, and their best practice examples in revitalizing urban watercourses. As a valuable natural ?blue? capital, small streams can reduce the city?s risk of flooding from intense rainfall and strengthen the ecosystem. At the same time, small urban streams are cost effective, proactive and attractive elements of urban landscape. Research identifies the benefits that the process of revitalization of small urban streams brought about to the selected case studies regarding the environment, public health, social interactions, land use and adaptation to climate change. Furthermore, the research establishes urban planning guidelines for revitalization of watercourses that could help in setting up policy framework for adapting inherited urban settings to climate change.

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