Resilience of Social-Infrastructural Systems: Functional Interdependencies Analysis

Critical infrastructures serve human activities and play an essential role in societies. Infrastructural systems are not isolated but are interdependent with regard to social systems, including those of public health and economic and sustainable development. In recent years, both social and infrastructural systems have frequently been in dysfunction due to increasing natural or human-made disasters and due to the internal and external dependencies between system components. The interconnectedness between social-infrastructural systems (socio-economic systems and technical-infrastructural systems), implies that the damage to one single system can extend beyond its scope. For that reason, cascading dysfunction can occur and increase system vulnerability. This article aims to study the functional interdependencies between social-infrastructural systems and to propose a methodology to analyse and improve the resilience of these systems. Combining Actor Network Theory and the Functional Models approach, the social-infrastructural Interdependence Resilience (SIIR) framework was proposed. To assess the applicability of the approach, the framework was applied to study the interdependence of a social-infrastructural system in the Nantes Metropolis. The studied system was composed of the local Highway Infrastructure (an infrastructural system) and the Emergency Medical Service (a social system). The results (1) show the feasibility of SIIR for investigating the interdependencies of two urban systems, and (2) provide a guideline for decision-makers to improve the functional interdependencies of urban systems.

Re-Envisioning Urban Open Spaces

Cities are expanding rapidly, and the impact of dense human-oriented urban systems on ecosystems is both direct (conversion of natural land cover to urban footprint) and indirect. Human settlements are more complex than any other ecosystems as they meet human socio-ecological needs and support local biodiversity. The open spaces of a city with rich cultural character and biodiversity have become important elements of urban design, where urban systems can be planned to coexist with local biodiversity without disturbing the ecosystem. With the need to redefine urban footprint as an ecologically rich urban environment, this chapter addresses the definition of urban open space and questions the coexistence of humans and biodiversity in urban open spaces.

(R)urban Synergy vs. Climate Change

The chapter provides an insight into the relationship between synergic (r)urban systems, information networks and climate change, discussing the emerging ideas, and concepts related to the increasing use of information networks in the process of climate adaptation and mitigation. Emphasizing the strategic role of both digital and material information flows, supported by ICT tools, the chapter focuses on two main domains of data exchange and knowledge transfer: the public communication of climate change and the connectivity and interaction within (r)urban hybrid systems. Underlining the issues of effectiveness, accessibility, and low-carbon outcomes of synergic (r)urban reactions to climate shift, recent environmental and technological trends are considered in accordance with the preferred spatio-functional flexibility of emerging (r)urban hybrid settlements. The chapter also identifies and analyses three areas of ICT applicability, targeting the role of information networks in the anticipated climate-friendly development: human behavior, ecological awareness, and general efficiency.

Delineating the Spatial Boundaries of Megaregions in China: A City Network Perspective

Globalization and informatization have significantly reshaped the map of the global economy. Mega cities and regions have become the battlegrounds in the interplay between globalization and localization, with megaregions becoming the most globally significant spatial configurations in this regard. However, academics and government departments disagree on how to define the spatial boundaries of megaregions. In this study, on the basis of highway traffic flow data between cities, we integrate the community detection and core-periphery profile algorithms to characterize the city networks in China and identify the city groups and delineate the core structures of city groups, which are the underlying megaregional structures in China. Based on this, we identify 21 megaregions among city groups in China, including the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and Chengdu-Chongqing megaregions, and preliminarily delineate their spatial boundaries. On the whole, there are spatial differences among China’s megaregions to a certain extent. Central and eastern China have numerous, large, and a high density of megaregions, while the western region has relatively few megaregions. The latter also differs notably from mature megaregions in terms of rank sizes, urban systems, and functional divisions of labor. Generally, this study develops a novel analytical framework for identifying the functional regions of megaregional space in China from a perspective of relational geography, with methodological implications for other fields of inquiry.

From urban waste to urban farmers: Can we close the agriculture loop within the city bounds?

As urbanisation intensifies in Brazilian cities, life quality in urban centres becomes a challenge for policymakers, and transitioning urban systems to sustainability is required. Circular economy concepts may contribute to face them, especially those owing to municipal solid waste (MSW) management. Curitiba, a Brazilian municipality known for its innovative initiatives towards sustainability. Despite a long tradition in recycling inert waste, MSW system struggles to promote composting even considering a decade in force national law. Decentralised composting through the Urban Agriculture Program (UAP) is the city’s strategy to tackle this struggle. This strategy faces difficulties as, even if urban agriculture facilities seem to be a promising context, closing the agricultural loop within the city bounds was not possible in the 24 urban farmers communities trained in composting techniques. The literature has shown difficulties in government experiments to promote practices in the long run and several experiences in Brazil are already described. This study reveals cultural barriers that influence adoption of domestic composting, by following a secondary data review on past experiences with interviewing and observing participatively urban farms communities. From the fieldwork, cultural perspectives from four different relevant actor roles in the UAP were elaborated and conflicts between them revealed cultural barriers hindering composting practices adoption. Recommendations based on these barriers argue for bottom-up approaches for transition experiments and recognising the sense material and technical support makes to practitioners.

The Contribution of MCDM to SUMP: The Case of Spanish Cities during 2006–2021

Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) are increasingly popular planning tools in cities with environmental issues where numerous actions are usually proposed to reduce pollution from urban transport. However, the diagnosis and implementation of these processes requires broad consensus from all stakeholders and the ability to fit them into urban planning in such a way that it allows the proposals to become realistic actions. In this study, a review of the sustainable urban mobility plans of 47 cities in Spain during the last 15 years has been carried out, analyzing both the diagnosis and proposal of solutions and their subsequent implementation. From the results obtained, a new framework based on a structured hybrid methodology is proposed to aid decision-making for the evaluation of alternatives in the implementation of proposals in SUMP. This hybrid methodology considers experts’ and stakeholders’ opinion and applies two different multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods in different phases to present two rankings of best alternatives. From that experience, an analysis based on the MCDM methods called ‘Sequential Interactive Modelling for Urban Systems (SIMUS)’ and weighted sum method (WSM) was applied to a case study of the city of Cartagena, a southeastern middle-size city in Spain. This analytic proposal has been transferred to the practical field in the SUMP of Cartagena, the first instrument of this nature developed after COVID-19 in Spain for a relevant city. The results show how this framework, based on a hybrid methodology, allows the development of complex decision mapping processes using these instruments without obviating the need to generate planning tools that can be transferred from the theoretical framework of urban reality.

How People Foraging in Urban Greenspace Can Mobilize Social–Ecological Resilience During Covid-19 and Beyond

Informal foraging for food and other natural materials in urban greenspaces is an activity undertaken by many across the world. For some, foraging is a necessary means of survival and livelihood, while for others, it provides cultural and recreational opportunities. In the socioeconomic crises induced by Covid-19, foraging can help communities, especially (but not exclusively) vulnerable people, cope with the impacts of lockdowns, and associated economic decline. In the long run, foraging can help improve social–ecological resilience in urban systems, particularly in response to climate, economic, and disease disruptions. First, we elaborate the ways in which urban foraging can provide immediate relief from the shocks to natural, human, social, physical, and financial capital. We then describe how over time, the livelihood, food, and income diversification brought about by foraging can contribute to preparedness for future uncertainties and gradual change. Cities are increasingly becoming home to the majority of humanity, and urban foraging can be one of the pathways that makes cities more liveable, for humans as well as other species we coexist with. Through the capitals framework, we explore the role foraging could play in addressing issues of biodiversity conservation, culture, and education, good governance and social justice, multifunctional greenspace, and sustainable nature-based livelihoods in urban areas.