scholarly journals Assessing Resilience to Climate Change in US Cities

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casilda Saavedra ◽  
William W. Budd ◽  
Nicholas P. Lovrich

In the face of uncertainties associated with climate change, building adaptive capacity and resilience at the community level emerges as an essential and timely element of local planning. However, key social factors that facilitate the effective building and maintenance of urban resilience are poorly understood. Two groups of US cities differing markedly in their commitment to climate change are contrasted with respect to their planning approaches and actions related to mitigation and adaptation strategies, and also in relation to social features that are believed to enhance adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change. The first group manifests a strong commitment to climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the second group has demonstrated little or no such commitment. These cities are compared with respect to several noteworthy social features, including level of social capital, degree of unconventional thought, and level of cultural diversity. These characteristics are postulated to contribute to the adaptive capacity of communities for dealing with the impacts of climate change. The aim is to determine to what extent there is a relationship between social/cultural structures and urban commitment and planning for climate change that could discriminate between climate change resilient and nonresilient urban areas.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5999
Author(s):  
Giulia Lucertini ◽  
Gianmarco Di Giustino

Urban and peri-urban areas are subject to major societal challenges, like food security, climate change, biodiversity, resource efficiency, land management, social cohesion, and economic growth. In that context, Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA), thanks to its multifunctionality, could have a high value in providing social, economic, and environmental co-benefits. UPA is an emerging field of research and production that aims to improve food security and climate change impact reduction, improving urban resilience and sustainability. In this paper, a replicable GIS-based approach was used to localize and quantify available areas for agriculture, including both flat rooftop and ground-level areas in the mainland of the city of Venice (Italy). Then, possible horticultural yield production was estimated considering common UPA yield value and average Italian consumption. Climate change mitigation, like CO2 reduction and sequestration, and climate change adaptation, like Urban Flooding and Urban Heat Island reduction, due to the new UPA areas’ development were estimated. Despite the urban density, the identified areas have the potential to produce enough vegetables for the residents and improve climate change mitigation and adaptation, if transformed into agricultural areas. Finally, the paper concludes with a reflection on the co-benefits of UPA multifunctionality, and with some policy suggestions.


Author(s):  
Putu Indah Rahmawati ◽  
Terry DeLacy ◽  
Min Jiang

Building community adaptive capacity to tackle climate change risks in the tourism sector is challenging. It is limited by poverty, poor communication and knowledge, low levels of institutional capacity and a lack of support from government or tourism authorities. Using Bali as a case study, this chapter aims to demonstrate how tourism businesses could implement mitigation and adaptation strategies through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, as well as help host communities to enhance their capacity to tackle climate change risks. In-depth interviews, focus group discussion (FGD), and observations were used to collect data. The findings of this study indicate that the CSR of tourism industries could enhance community adaptive capacity to climate change through environmental, economic and social responsibility. It is also concluded that the tourism industry's CSR initiatives can play an importance role in empowering communities to tackle environmental challenges.


2017 ◽  
pp. 1020-1040
Author(s):  
Putu Indah Rahmawati ◽  
Terry DeLacy ◽  
Min Jiang

Building community adaptive capacity to tackle climate change risks in the tourism sector is challenging. It is limited by poverty, poor communication and knowledge, low levels of institutional capacity and a lack of support from government or tourism authorities. Using Bali as a case study, this chapter aims to demonstrate how tourism businesses could implement mitigation and adaptation strategies through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, as well as help host communities to enhance their capacity to tackle climate change risks. In-depth interviews, focus group discussion (FGD), and observations were used to collect data. The findings of this study indicate that the CSR of tourism industries could enhance community adaptive capacity to climate change through environmental, economic and social responsibility. It is also concluded that the tourism industry's CSR initiatives can play an importance role in empowering communities to tackle environmental challenges.


2010 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-183
Author(s):  
Kola Odeku ◽  
Edson Meyer

AbstractThis article examines how the South African government, realizing the country's vulnerability to climate change, deemed it necessary to strengthen adaptation and mitigation measures and put in place legal and institutional frameworks to ensure implementation and compliance. Government must take responsibility for industry's inaction by implementing policies on climate change and, more importantly, through a visible change in government policy to hold industry accountable. The stringent policies and strategies being put in place are reducing vulnerability and also enhancing a broad spectrum of capacity in responding to environmental, climatic, resource and economic perturbations. The article further reviews state of the art methods and tools available to strengthen mitigation and adaptation strategies and measures in the areas of the existing frameworks regarding climate change. It also considers various measures by Eskom in particular, and strategies embarked upon by South Africa's national and local governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.


Author(s):  
Froilan D. Mobo

Today’s climate is unpredictable there are so many natural calamities which took place in our country which is the Philippines, two weeks ago because of the sudden changes of the weather in the Province of Zambales, the Philippines a strong tornado hits the town of Castillejos, Zambales which some of the electrical wirings were severely damaged because of the sudden change of the climate. The researcher is thinking of implementing a home gardening to each Municipality in our Province. By doing this it can help lessen the pollution in the air and it will help heal our Ozone Layer faster. The empirical evidence for the benefits of gardening and the advocate of the development and testing of socio-ecological models of community resilience through the impact of community gardens, especially in urban areas is highly effective(Okvat & Zautra, 2011). As lessening the air pollution will have a greater impact on our Ozone Layer no to deplete but it will heal the would faster. The present study revealed that local experiences in the face of climate change adaptation have merits that need special consideration(Anik & Khan, 2012). Also, the Researcher will implement this project in the Municipality of Subic, Zambales.


e-mentor ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-63
Author(s):  
Dominika P. Brodowicz ◽  

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.


Author(s):  
S. Momtaz ◽  
M. Asaduzzaman ◽  
Z. Kabir

Abstract The purpose of this chapter is to understand the vulnerability of women's livelihoods to climate change impacts in Bangladesh. Data were collected through a survey of 150 randomly selected women from a sample of households. Focus group discussions, key informant interviews, participant observations, and a transect walk, provided supporting information to substantiate the household surveys. The chapter first outlines the theoretical foundation on which the research is based. This is followed by examining women's vulnerability in the study area. The chapter then describes women's coping strategies in the face of climate change-induced disasters. The chapter further explores women's adaptive capacity through the examination of their access to various services. It ends with a set of recommendations for policy makers in order to improve the situation of women's vulnerability.


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