scholarly journals Role of Vegetation as a Mitigating Factor in the Urban Context

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 4247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Ferrini ◽  
Alessio Fini ◽  
Jacopo Mori ◽  
Antonella Gori

It is known that the urban environment amplifies the effects of climate change, sometimes with disastrous consequences that put people at risk. These aspects can be affected by urban vegetation and planting design but, while there are thousands of papers related to the effects of climate change, a relatively limited number of them are directly aimed at investigating the role of vegetation as a mitigating factor in the urban context. This paper focuses on reviewing the research on the role of urban vegetation in alleviating the adverse conditions of the urban environment in order to provide some practical guidelines to be applied by city planners. Through an analysis of the documents found in Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar using urban vegetation and climate change-related keywords we selected five major issues related to the urban environment: (1) particulate matter, (2) gaseous pollution, (3) noise pollution, (4) water runoff, (5) urban heat island effect. The analysis of existing knowledge reported here indicates that the roles of urban vegetation on the adverse effect of climate change could not be simply deemed positive or negative, because the role of urban green is also strongly linked to the structure, composition, and distribution of vegetation, as well as to the criteria used for management. Therefore, it could help to better understand the roles of urban green as a complex system and provide the foundation for future studies.

Urban Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
pp. 1469-1484
Author(s):  
Sara Fuller

Cities are important sites for interrogating the social, scalar and spatial dynamics that underpin climate responsibility. To date, however, there is limited theoretical and empirical understanding about how discourses, practices and politics of climate responsibility might be enacted in the urban context. This gap is particularly significant in the Asia Pacific – a region characterised by high rates of economic growth and rapid urbanisation alongside extreme poverty and exposure to the effects of climate change. This article explores the politics of urban climate responsibility in two cities – Hong Kong and Singapore. Based on empirical research with NGOs, it considers if and how cities have a responsibility to act on climate change, how such responsibility may be configured within the city, and the role of international and regional dynamics in creating and maintaining climate responsibility. The article reframes the contested and contingent geographies of urban climate responsibility through the dimensions of attribution, production and spatialisation before drawing out implications for climate justice and resilience in the Asia Pacific region.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1507-1511

Urban parks have always been considered as a pause from the urban environment. These parks have a high role in catering various comfort which serves as a place of relaxation for the users. Mostly these parks are designed in terms of visual aspects. People suffer the loss of opportunity in experiencing the sounds of these parks. Concerns pertaining to soundscape and its preferences in urban parks are yet to be explored much. In many context landscapes are designed and not soundscape.The emerging concept of soundscape need to be examined more. This paper brings the critical apprehension to understand the impact of selected landscape elements on the soundscape of urban parks. The study focus on understanding the significance of urban park soundscape, Role of tranquility in urban context, soundscape dimension in landscape, Influence of natural and manmade landscape features on soundscape perception and people’s perception on soundscape


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward John Roy Clarke ◽  
Anna Klas ◽  
Joshua Stevenson ◽  
Emily Jane Kothe

Climate change is a politically-polarised issue, with conservatives less likely than liberals to perceive it as human-caused and consequential. Furthermore, they are less likely to support mitigation and adaptation policies needed to reduce its impacts. This study aimed to examine whether John Oliver’s “A Mathematically Representative Climate Change Debate” clip on his program Last Week Tonight polarised or depolarised a politically-diverse audience on climate policy support and behavioural intentions. One hundred and fifty-nine participants, recruited via Amazon MTurk (94 female, 64 male, one gender unspecified, Mage = 51.07, SDage = 16.35), were presented with either John Oliver’s climate change consensus clip, or a humorous video unrelated to climate change. Although the climate change consensus clip did not reduce polarisation (or increase it) relative to a control on mitigation policy support, it resulted in hyperpolarisation on support for adaptation policies and increased climate action intentions among liberals but not conservatives.


Author(s):  
Oksana Sadkovskaya

One of major factors of deterioration in a microclimate of urban development in the conditions of the Rostov region, is degradation of landscapes owing to violation of water balance of the territory. In article the main reasons for violation of water balance which included natural features of the region, a consequence of anthropogenic influence, climatic changes, etc. are considered. Examples from the world practice of urban planning, which show the relevance and effectiveness of compensation for the effects of anthropogenic im-pacts and climate change using planning methods, are given. The experience of the United States, the Nether-lands, Canada and other countries that use water-saving technologies in planning is considered. The rela-tionship of urban planning and the formation of sustainable urban landscapes is shown. The integration of water-saving technologies into the urban environment can be a means of optimizing landscapes and a means of creating unique urban spaces. Reclamation of the urban landscape of low-rise buildings is a necessary step in creating a modern and comfortable urban environment in the conditions of the Rostov region. Meth-ods are proposed to compensate for negative changes in urban landscapes that can be applied at the stage of urban planning. As well as the proposed methods can be applied in the reconstruction of urban low-rise buildings. The considered methods concern not only urban landscapes, but also agricultural landscapes that surround small and medium-sized cities of the Rostov region. In article the author's concept of the organiza-tion of the low housing estate on a basis Urban- facies is submitted. Planning methods of regulation of water balance of the territory on the basis of models the ecological protective of landscapes are offered: an ecolog-ical core, an ecological corridor and an ecological barrier and also analogs from town-planning practice are considered. The reclamation of urban landscapes based on urban planning methods for regulating the water balance of the territory will allow creating unique urban spaces that are resistant to local climatic conditions and the possible consequences of climate change.


Author(s):  
Sarah Blodgett Bermeo

This chapter introduces the role of development as a self-interested policy pursued by industrialized states in an increasingly connected world. As such, it is differentiated from traditional geopolitical accounts of interactions between industrialized and developing states as well as from assertions that the increased focus on development stems from altruistic motivations. The concept of targeted development—pursuing development abroad when and where it serves the interests of the policymaking states—is introduced and defined. The issue areas covered in the book—foreign aid, trade agreements between industrialized and developing countries, and finance for climate change adaptation and mitigation—are introduced. The preference for bilateral, rather than multilateral, action is discussed.


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