Climate-Friendly Cities – Blue-Green Infrastructure Activities

Increasing climate change affects many aspects of cities and their inhabitants. Extreme weather phenomena destroy urban areas, infrastructure and green spaces. Activities taken to improve the resilience of cities and their adaptation to climate change aim to reduce or avoid negative consequences, or to increase the benefits of risks. They are different in character and take different forms, depending on the level of economic and social development, financial, institutional, human, and knowledge resources. The planning and urban development tools and instruments used are also important. An integral part of adaptation activities is the development of modern systems of blue-green urban infrastructure. The experience of the last few years has shown the diversity of applied projects based on natural solutions. They are reflected both in the provisions of climate strategies and in the realizations visible in the urban landscape. The paper focuses on planning and implementation activities that strengthen resilience to climate change, highlight the importance of ecosystem services and shape urban space. The research focuses on polish cities that have undertaken the development of Urban Adaptation Plans (MPA). The aim of this paper is to present the blue-green infrastructure activities included in the MPA, the possibilities for their implementation and to show their role in improving the quality of life in cities, increasing the attractiveness of urban spaces and raising the awareness and involvement of local communities.

Low Emission Zones in Municipal Adaptation Plans as an Example of Local Adaptation to Climate Changes

In the fight against climate changes, both adaptation and mitigation measures are treated as equally significant instruments. Mitigating climate changes on a local scale has garnered interest in the context of the challenges for urban planning, transport systems, and developing green and blue infrastructure. The relationship between adaptation to climate changes and reduction of air pollution is less well-known. Studies prove the existence of a direct correlation between the emission of NOx and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), CO2 and other chemical compounds, and the growth of an urban heat island, which means that the reduction of emissions may produce a synergy effect between adaptation to climate changes and the vulnerabilities of cities. Our goal is to verify the presence of this concept in Polish urban adaptation plans in the context of the latest instrument affecting the quality of air, which is the low emission zone (LEZ), adopted in cities with a population exceeding 100,000 residents on the basis of the Act of 11 of January 2018 on electromobility and alternative fuels. Studies indicate that from among the forty urban adaptation plans adopted by co-authors and policymakers in thirty-nine cities, the issue of establishing a low emission zone is not recognized as a tool supporting adaptation to climate changes, which indicates a low level of the awareness of the relationship between air pollution and climate protection on a local level. The authors assess the causes of such a state of affairs on the basis of the relevant literature and formulate requirements for changes, particularly in the field of wider participation in the process of adopting public policy acts concerning air protection and climate changes adaptation.

Adaptability in Environmental Policy at the Commune Level Carried Out in Poland Based on the Example of the Urban Plan of Adaptation to Climate Changes

The effects of the observed climate changes constitute a real problem in the surrounding environment due to the scale and frequency of natural catastrophic events. This state of affairs prompts various types of entities, including institutions, to undertake adaptation measures as part of environmental policy, both at the international and local levels. In Poland, the entities responsible for the implementation of this policy at the local level are, inter alia, the voivodeship, the poviat and the commune authorities. The authors present the Urban Adaptation Plans (MPA for short) prepared in 44 Polish cities, which can be an example of a document where the main goal is to increase the adaptability of cities to a changing climate. On the basis of the identified list of types of adaptation measures provided for in all prepared Urban Adaptation Plans, the pragmatic nature of the implemented adaptation measures has been demonstrated, which will not cause any changes to basic attributes of the social and ecological system of cities. Thus, 44 cities in Poland will manage the process of gradual adaptation up to 2024, i.e., until when the Urban Adaptation Plans will require updating.

Continent-wide genomic signatures of adaptation to urbanisation in a songbird across Europe

Urbanisation is increasing worldwide, and there is now ample evidence of phenotypic changes in wild organisms in response to this novel environment. Yet, the genetic changes and genomic architecture underlying these adaptations are poorly understood. Here, we genotype 192 great tits (Parus major) from nine European cities, each paired with an adjacent rural site, to address this major knowledge gap in our understanding of wildlife urban adaptation. We find that a combination of polygenic allele frequency shifts and recurrent selective sweeps are associated with the adaptation of great tits to urban environments. While haplotypes under selection are rarely shared across urban populations, selective sweeps occur within the same genes, mostly linked to neural function and development. Collectively, we show that urban adaptation in a widespread songbird occurs through unique and shared selective sweeps in a core-set of behaviour-linked genes.