Climate change and urban resilience
TL;DR: The notion of resilience is gaining increasing prominence across a diverse set of literatures on cities and climate change as discussed by the authors, and efforts to foster climate change resilience must be bundled with efforts to promote urban development and sustainability.
About: This article is published in Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability.The article was published on 2011-05-01. It has received 669 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Resilience (network) & Urban resilience.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify six conceptual tensions fundamental to urban resilience: definition of urban resilience, understanding of system equilibrium, positive vs. neutral (or negative) conceptualizations of resilience, mechanisms for system change, adaptation versus general adaptability, and timescale of action.
1,467 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the twelve most frequent city categories are conceptualized individually and in relation to one another in the academic literature, and the authors hypothesize that, notwithstanding some degree of overlap and cross-fertilization, in their essence the observed categories each harbor particular conceptual perspectives that render them distinctive.
728 citations
Cites background from "Climate change and urban resilience..."
...…the various perspectives implied in resilience research: (1) reacting to ecological problems; (2) handling hazards and disasters; (3) coping with shocks in the development of urban and regional economies; and (4) promoting resilience through urban governance and institutions (Leichenko, 2011)....
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...According to recent literature, the study on the ‘resilient city’ illustrates the various perspectives implied in resilience research: (1) reacting to ecological problems; (2) handling hazards and disasters; (3) coping with shocks in the development of urban and regional economies; and (4) promoting resilience through urban governance and institutions (Leichenko, 2011)....
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TL;DR: The Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) as discussed by the authors measure the inherent resilience of counties in the United States according to six different domains or capitals as identified in the extant literature: social, economic, housing and infrastructure, institutional, community, and environmental.
Abstract: There is increasing policy and research interest in disaster resilience, yet the extant literature is still mired in definitional debates, epistemological orientations of researchers, and differences in basic approaches to measurement. As a consequence, there is little integration across domains and disciplines on community resilience assessment, its driving forces, and geographic variability. Using US counties as the study unit, this paper creates an empirically-based resilience metric called the Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) that is both conceptually and theoretically sound, yet, easy enough to compute for use in a policy context. A common set of variables were used to measure the inherent resilience of counties in the United States according to six different domains or capitals as identified in the extant literature – social, economic, housing and infrastructure, institutional, community, and environmental. Data were from public and freely accessible data sources. Counties in the US Midwest and Great Plains states have the most inherent resilience, while counties in the west, along the US-Mexico border, and along the Appalachian ridge in the east contain the least resilience. Further, it was found that inherent resilience is not the opposite of social vulnerability, but a distinctly different construct both conceptually and empirically. While understanding the overall variability in resilience, the BRIC is easily deconstructed to its component parts to provide guidance to policy makers on where investments in intervention strategies may make a difference in the improvement of scores. Such evidence-based research has an opportunity to influence public policy focused on disaster risk.
669 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a framework for urban climate resilience and vulnerability that integrates theoretical and empirical knowledge of the factors contributing to resilience with processes for translating those concepts into practice, including characteristics of urban systems, the agents that depend on and manage those systems, institutions that link systems and agents, and patterns of exposure to climate change.
Abstract: Climate change will have unavoidable impacts on urban systems and populations, especially in Asia where many large cities are exposed. Climate adaptation will be essential, and planning for adaptation can be simplified through operationalizing concepts of climate resilience and vulnerability. This article reviews concepts and theories in a range of diverse fields to illustrate how the general notion of urban climate resilience can be developed into an operational framework for planning practitioners. The framework integrates theoretical and empirical knowledge of the factors contributing to resilience with processes for translating those concepts into practice. The framework includes characteristics of urban systems, the agents (people and organizations) that depend on and manage those systems, institutions that link systems and agents, and patterns of exposure to climate change. It operationalizes these concepts through structured and iterative shared learning approaches that allow local planners to defi...
597 citations
Cites background from "Climate change and urban resilience..."
...…are widely cited as contributing to the resilience of systems include the following (Alberti et al., 2003; Andersson, 2006; Bruneau et al., 2003; Ernstson et al., 2010; Folke et al., 2002; Gunderson & Holling, 2002; Leichenko, 2011; Liu et al., 2007; Meadows, 1999; Resilience Alliance, 2007): ....
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...Several authors have described the varied and contradictory definitions of resilience, and the absence of a framework for operationalizing the concept (Klein, Nicholls, & Thomalia, 2003; Leichenko, 2011; Miller et al., 2010)....
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...Key aspects of resilience addressed in relation to hazard assessment and disaster risk reduction in cities have included flexibility and diversity (addressed under the Systems section) and capacity for learning and innovation (Leichenko, 2011)....
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TL;DR: In this article, a holistic framework for assessing co-benefits (and costs) of NBS across elements of socio-cultural and socio-economic systems, biodiversity, ecosystems and climate is presented.
572 citations
References
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TL;DR: The resilience perspective is increasingly used as an approach for understanding the dynamics of social-ecological systems as mentioned in this paper, which emphasizes non-linear dynamics, thresholds, uncertainty and surprise, how periods of gradual change interplay with periods of rapid change and how such dynamics interact across temporal and spatial scales.
Abstract: The resilience perspective is increasingly used as an approach for understanding the dynamics of social–ecological systems. This article presents the origin of the resilience perspective and provides an overview of its development to date. With roots in one branch of ecology and the discovery of multiple basins of attraction in ecosystems in the 1960–1970s, it inspired social and environmental scientists to challenge the dominant stable equilibrium view. The resilience approach emphasizes non-linear dynamics, thresholds, uncertainty and surprise, how periods of gradual change interplay with periods of rapid change and how such dynamics interact across temporal and spatial scales. The history was dominated by empirical observations of ecosystem dynamics interpreted in mathematical models, developing into the adaptive management approach for responding to ecosystem change. Serious attempts to integrate the social dimension is currently taking place in resilience work reflected in the large numbers of sciences involved in explorative studies and new discoveries of linked social–ecological systems. Recent advances include understanding of social processes like, social learning and social memory, mental models and knowledge–system integration, visioning and scenario building, leadership, agents and actor groups, social networks, institutional and organizational inertia and change, adaptive capacity, transformability and systems of adaptive governance that allow for management of essential ecosystem services.
4,899 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the disaster resilience of place (DROP) model is proposed to improve comparative assessments of disaster resilience at the local or community level, and a candidate set of variables for implementing the model are also presented as a first step towards its implementation.
Abstract: There is considerable research interest on the meaning and measurement of resilience from a variety of research perspectives including those from the hazards/disasters and global change communities. The identification of standards and metrics for measuring disaster resilience is one of the challenges faced by local, state, and federal agencies, especially in the United States. This paper provides a new framework, the disaster resilience of place (DROP) model, designed to improve comparative assessments of disaster resilience at the local or community level. A candidate set of variables for implementing the model are also presented as a first step towards its implementation.
3,119 citations
TL;DR: Synthesis of six case studies from around the world shows that couplings between human and natural systems vary across space, time, and organizational units and have legacy effects on present conditions and future possibilities.
Abstract: Integrated studies of coupled human and natural systems reveal new and complex patterns and processes not evident when studied by social or natural scientists separately. Synthesis of six case studies from around the world shows that couplings between human and natural systems vary across space, time, and organizational units. They also exhibit nonlinear dynamics with thresholds, reciprocal feedback loops, time lags, resilience, heterogeneity, and surprises. Furthermore, past couplings have legacy effects on present conditions and future possibilities.
2,890 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors outline a set of normative evaluative criteria for judging the success of adaptation at different scales and argue that elements of effectiveness, efficiency, equity and legitimacy are important in judging success in terms of the sustainability of development pathways into an uncertain future.
Abstract: Climate change impacts and responses are presently observed in physical and ecological systems. Adaptation to these impacts is increasingly being observed in both physical and ecological systems as well as in human adjustments to resource availability and risk at different spatial and societal scales. We review the nature of adaptation and the implications of different spatial scales for these processes. We outline a set of normative evaluative criteria for judging the success of adaptations at different scales. We argue that elements of effectiveness, efficiency, equity and legitimacy are important in judging success in terms of the sustainability of development pathways into an uncertain future. We further argue that each of these elements of decision-making is implicit within presently formulated scenarios of socio-economic futures of both emission trajectories and adaptation, though with different weighting. The process by which adaptations are to be judged at different scales will involve new and challenging institutional processes.
2,691 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that resilience provides a useful framework to analyze adaptation processes and to identify appropriate policy responses, and distinguish between incremental adjustments and transformative action and demonstrate that the sources of resilience for taking adaptive action are common across scales.
Abstract: Adaptation is a process of deliberate change in anticipation of or in reaction to external stimuli and stress. The dominant research tradition on adaptation to environmental change primarily takes an actor-centered view, focusing on the agency of social actors to respond to specific environmental stimuli and emphasizing the reduction of vulnerabilities. The resilience approach is systems orientated, takes a more dynamic view, and sees adaptive capacity as a core feature of resilient social-ecological systems. The two approaches converge in identifying necessary components of adaptation. We argue that resilience provides a useful framework to analyze adaptation processes and to identify appropriate policy responses. We distinguish between incremental adjustments and transformative action and demonstrate that the sources of resilience for taking adaptive action are common across scales. These are the inherent system characteristics that absorb perturbations without losing function, networks and social capit...
1,933 citations