Journal ArticleDOI
Ecosystem services and urban heat riskscape moderation: water, green spaces, and social inequality in Phoenix, USA
TLDR
The results suggest the need for a systems evaluation of the benefits, costs, spatial structure, and temporal trajectory for the use of ecosystem services to moderate climate extremes.Abstract:
Urban ecosystems are subjected to high temperatures—extreme heat events, chronically hot weather, or both—through interactions between local and global climate processes. Urban vegetation may provide a cooling ecosystem service, although many knowledge gaps exist in the biophysical and social dynamics of using this service to reduce climate extremes. To better understand patterns of urban vegetated cooling, the potential water requirements to supply these services, and differential access to these services between residential neighborhoods, we evaluated three decades (1970–2000) of land surface characteristics and residential segregation by income in the Phoenix, Arizona, USA metropolitan region. We developed an ecosystem service trade-offs approach to assess the urban heat riskscape, defined as the spatial variation in risk exposure and potential human vulnerability to extreme heat. In this region, vegetation provided nearly a 25°C surface cooling compared to bare soil on low-humidity summer days; the ma...read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Urban cooling primary energy reduction potential: System losses caused by microclimates
Forrest Meggers,Gideon Aschwanden,Eric Teitelbaum,Hongshan Guo,Laura Salazar,Marcel Bruelisauer +5 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated three urban settings that create microclimates that are detrimental for the efficiency of cooling in New York, including the overall urban heat island effect, the effect of roof temperature on rooftop package air conditioning units, and the impact of local heat emission from agglomerations of window air conditioners.
Journal ArticleDOI
Investigating the effect of urban configurations on the variation of air temperature
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the effects of aspect ratio (H/W) on air temperature in two urban configurations in Malacca and found that during the daytime, the heritage site (aspect ratio of 2.6) was warmer than the contemporary urban area (average value of H/W = 1.6), and that cooling occurred more quickly in the latter.
Pathways to climate adapted and healthy low income housing
Guy Barnett,Matt Beaty,Dong Chen +2 more
TL;DR: The Pathways to Climate Adapted and Healthy Low-Income Housing (PAHLI) project as discussed by the authors is a case study of low-income social housing in Australia, which is based on the premise that interactions between people, housing, and neighbourhood are dynamic and best viewed as a complex, dynamic social-ecological system.
Book ChapterDOI
Determinants of soil carbon dynamics in urban ecosystems
TL;DR: In this paper, a brief insight has been given for the understanding of the soil carbon dynamics, in general, and soil CO2 efflux, in particular, and what are the measures that will help in managing the soil dynamics in an urban ecosystem.
Journal ArticleDOI
Does socioeconomic development lead to more equal distribution of green space? Evidence from Chinese cities
Longfeng Wu,Seung Kyum Kim +1 more
TL;DR: Findings inform decision-makers about spatial variances in the equality of green space distribution in urban areas, which demand location-oriented interventions to promote inclusive urban afforestation in Chinese cities.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Neighborhoods and Violent Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy
TL;DR: Multilevel analyses showed that a measure of collective efficacy yields a high between-neighborhood reliability and is negatively associated with variations in violence, when individual-level characteristics, measurement error, and prior violence are controlled.
Journal ArticleDOI
Toward a metabolic theory of ecology
James H. Brown,James H. Brown,James F. Gillooly,Andrew P. Allen,Van M. Savage,Van M. Savage,Geoffrey B. West,Geoffrey B. West +7 more
TL;DR: This work has developed a quantitative theory for how metabolic rate varies with body size and temperature, and predicts how metabolic theory predicts how this rate controls ecological processes at all levels of organization from individuals to the biosphere.
Journal ArticleDOI
A soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI)
TL;DR: In this article, a transformation technique was presented to minimize soil brightness influences from spectral vegetation indices involving red and near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths, which nearly eliminated soil-induced variations in vegetation indices.
Journal ArticleDOI
Impact of regional climate change on human health
TL;DR: The growing evidence that climate–health relationships pose increasing health risks under future projections of climate change is reviewed and that the warming trend over recent decades has already contributed to increased morbidity and mortality in many regions of the world.
Journal ArticleDOI
Using the satellite-derived NDVI to assess ecological responses to environmental change
Nathalie Pettorelli,Jon Olav Vik,Atle Mysterud,Jean-Michel Gaillard,Compton J. Tucker,Nils Chr. Stenseth +5 more
TL;DR: The use of the NDVI in recent ecological studies is reviewed and its possible key role in future research of environmental change in an ecosystem context is outlined.