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Integrating Solutions to Adapt Cities for Climate Change

Lin, Brenda B.; Ossola, Alessandro; Alberti, Marina; Andersson, Erik; Bai, Xuemei; Dobbs, Cynnamon; Elmqvist, Thomas; Evans, Karl L.; Frantzeskaki, Niki; Fuller, Richard A.; Gaston, Kevin J.; Haase, Dagmar; Jim, Chi Yung; Konijnendijk, Cecil; Nagendra, Harini; Niemela, Jari; Mcphearson, Timon; Moomaw, William R.; Parnell, Susan; Pataki, Diane; Ripple, William J.; Tan, Puay Yok. (2021). Integrating Solutions to Adapt Cities for Climate Change. Lancet Planetary Health, 5(7), E479 – E486.

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Abstract

Record climate extremes are reducing urban liveability, compounding inequality, and threatening infrastructure. Adaptation measures that integrate technological, nature-based, and social solutions can provide multiple co-benefits to address complex socioecological issues in cities while increasing resilience to potential impacts. However, there remain many challenges to developing and implementing integrated solutions. In this Viewpoint, we consider the value of integrating across the three solution sets, the challenges and potential enablers for integrating solution sets, and present examples of challenges and adopted solutions in three cities with different urban contexts and climates (Freiburg, Germany; Durban, South Africa; and Singapore). We conclude with a discussion of research directions and provide a road map to identify the actions that enable successful implementation of integrated climate solutions. We highlight the need for more systematic research that targets enabling environments for integration; achieving integrated solutions in different contexts to avoid maladaptation; simultaneously improving liveability, sustainability, and equality; and replicating via transfer and scale-up of local solutions. Cities in systematically disadvantaged countries (sometimes referred to as the Global South) are central to future urban development and must be prioritised. Helping decision makers and communities understand the potential opportunities associated with integrated solutions for climate change will encourage urgent and deliberate strides towards adapting cities to the dynamic climate reality.

Keywords

Urban; Resilience; Energy; Water; Transformations; Sustainability; Opportunities; Challenges; Mitigation; Knowledge

Detecting Patterns of Vertebrate Biodiversity Across the Multidimensional Urban Landscape

Alberti, Marina; Wang, Tianzhe. (2022). Detecting Patterns of Vertebrate Biodiversity Across the Multidimensional Urban Landscape. Ecology Letters, 25(4), 1027 – 1045.

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Abstract

Explicit characterisation of the complexity of urban landscapes is critical for understanding patterns of biodiversity and for detecting the underlying social and ecological processes that shape them. Urban environments exhibit variable heterogeneity and connectivity, influenced by different historical contingencies, that affect community assembly across scales. The multidimensional nature of urban disturbance and co-occurrence of multiple stressors can cause synergistic effects leading to nonlinear responses in populations and communities. Yet, current research design of urban ecology and evolutionary studies typically relies on simple representation of the parameter space that can be observed. Sampling approaches apply simple urban gradients such as linear transects in space or comparisons of urban sites across the urban mosaic accounting for a few variables. This rarely considers multiple dimensions and scales of biodiversity, and proves to be inadequate to explain observed patterns. We apply a multidimensional approach that integrates distinctive social, ecological and built characteristics of urban landscapes, representing variations along dimensions of heterogeneity, connectivity and historical contingency. Measuring species richness and beta diversity across 100 US metropolitan areas at the city and 1-km scales, we show that distinctive signatures of urban biodiversity can result from interactions between socioecological heterogeneity and connectivity, mediated by historical contingency.

Keywords

Urban Biodiversity; Biodiversity; Species Diversity; Urban Planning; Landscape Ecology; Metropolitan Areas; Beta Diversity; Multidimensional Landscape; Scaling; Spatial Scales; Species Richness; Urban Gradients; Vertebrate Species; Ecological-systems; Diversity; Urbanization; Conservation; Ecosystems; Heterogeneity; Connectivity; Population; Complexity; Evolution; Urban Environments; Synergistic Effect; Nonlinear Response; Research Design; Contingency; Urban Areas; Vertebrates

Transitional Property Rights and Local Developmental History in China

Abramson, Daniel. (2011). Transitional Property Rights and Local Developmental History in China. Urban Studies (sage Publications, Ltd.), 48(3), 553 – 568.

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Abstract

Among the societies that are moving from a centrally planned economy with weak property rights towards a market-oriented economy with stronger and more privatised property rights, China is undergoing an especially rapid and extensive urbanisation that obscures the diversity and relevance of local pre-Reform property arrangements. Official discourse emphasises the formalisation, clarification and, to some extent, the privatisation of property rights in the name of overall societal development and gradual integration with the global economy. In local informal, popular practice and discourse, however, the invocation of property rights reflects the continuing political relevance of both revolutionary and traditional notions of rights to urban space that challenge a unitary, linear view of the development process.

Keywords

Property Rights; History Of Economic Development; Central Economic Planning; Privatization; Urbanization; History; Social Policy; China

How to Identify Food Deserts: Measuring Physical and Economic Access to Supermarkets in King County, Washington

Jiao, Junfeng; Moudon, Anne V.; Ulmer, Jared; Hurvitz, Philip M.; Drewnowski, Adam. (2012). How to Identify Food Deserts: Measuring Physical and Economic Access to Supermarkets in King County, Washington. American Journal Of Public Health, 102(10), E32 – E39.

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Abstract

Objectives. We explored new ways to identify food deserts. Methods. We estimated physical and economic access to supermarkets for 5 low-income groups in Seattle-King County, Washington. We used geographic information system data to measure physical access: service areas around each supermarket were delineated by ability to walk, bicycle, ride transit, or drive within 10 minutes. We assessed economic access by stratifying supermarkets into low, medium, and high cost. Combining income and access criteria generated multiple ways to estimate food deserts. Results. The 5 low-income group definitions yielded total vulnerable populations ranging from 4% to 33% of the county's population. Almost all of the vulnerable populations lived within a 10-minute drive or bus ride of a low-or medium-cost supermarket. Yet at most 34% of the vulnerable populations could walk to any supermarket, and as few as 3% could walk to a low-cost supermarket. Conclusions. The criteria used to define low-income status and access to supermarkets greatly affect estimates of populations living in food deserts. Measures of access to food must include travel duration and mode and supermarket food costs.

Keywords

Neighborhood Characteristics; Store Availability; Accessibility; Consumption; Disparities; Environment; Location; Fruit; Pay

Has Transportation Demand of Shanghai, China, Passed Its Peak Growth?

Zhao, Zhan; Zhao, Jinhua; Shen, Qing. (2013). Has Transportation Demand of Shanghai, China, Passed Its Peak Growth? Transportation Research Record, 2394, 85 – 92.

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Abstract

On the basis of four comprehensive transportation surveys in Shanghai, China, this study examined the latest trends in Shanghai's travel demand; investigated their social, economic, and spatial drivers; and compared the pace of travel demand growth in three periods: 1980s to early 1990s, early 1990s to mid-2000s, and mid-2000s to the present. The demand growth was relatively slow in the first period and then sped up in the second before it returned to a slower pace in the third period. As for trip purpose, Shanghai's travel is much more diversified than previously, with an increasing share of noncommuting trips (from 28% in 1995 to 46% in 2009). Spatially, travel demand is dispersed from the central district to peripheral districts because of urban expansion and decentralization and from Puxi (west of the Huangpu River) to Pudong (east of the Huangpu River) as a result of significant economic development of the Pudong New Area. Both spatial diffusion and purpose diversification favor the convenience and flexibility of private motor vehicles. Driven by rapid motorization, vehicle travel is growing at a much faster pace than person travel. Overall, the annual growth rate for travel demand in Shanghai reached its peak in 2004 for both person trips and vehicle trips. In absolute numbers, person trip growth has peaked, but vehicle trip growth has not. In response to the growing demand, especially rapid motorization, the local government has made tremendous investments in road infrastructure and public transit, and it has attempted to manage demand through vehicle ownership control.

Keywords

Urban; Impacts; Policy

Using the Built Environment to Oversample Walk, Transit, and Bicycle Travel

Stewart, Orion Theodore; Moudon, Anne Vernez. (2014). Using the Built Environment to Oversample Walk, Transit, and Bicycle Travel. Transportation Research: Part D, 32, 15 – 23.

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Abstract

Characteristics of the built environment (BE) have been associated with walk, transit, and bicycle travel. These BE characteristics can be used by transportation researchers to oversample households from areas where walk, transit, or bicycle travel is more likely, resulting in more observations of these uncommon travel behaviors. Little guidance, however, is available on the effectiveness of such built environment oversampling strategies. This article presents measures that can be used to assess the effectiveness of BE oversampling strategies and inform future efforts to oversample households with uncommon travel behaviors. The measures are sensitivity and specificity, positive likelihood ratio (LR+), and positive predictive value (PPV). To illustrate these measures, they were calculated for 10 BE-defined oversampling strata applied post-hoc to a Seattle area household travel survey. Strata with an average block size of <10 acres within a 1/4 mile of household residences held the single greatest potential for oversampling households that walk, use transit, and/or bicycle. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Cycling; Transportation; Observation (scientific Method); Strategic Planning; Public Transit; Land Use; Bicycle; Household Travel Survey; Non-motorized Travel; Sampling; Screening Tests; Transit; Walk; Land-use; North-america; Renaissance; Policies; Choice; Trends

The Cloud beneath the Clouds

Vitro, Kristen A.; Whittington, Jan. (2015). The Cloud beneath the Clouds. Planning, 81(1), 35 – 35.

Abstract

The article discusses the proliferation of cloud computing data centers in Seattle, Washington. It also discusses the reasons behind the selection of the city by cloud computing data centers as site locations which include the availability of inexpensive but abundant sources of electricity, classification of dams as a critical infrastructure, and cooler climate. Another reason discussed is the planning and economic development practiced by municipalities to attract businesses in the area.

Keywords

Cloud Computing; Server Farms (computer Network Management); Industrial Location; Infrastructure (economics); Urban Planning; Economic Development; Seattle (wash.); Washington (state)

Cross Sectional Association between Spatially Measured Walking Bouts and Neighborhood Walkability

Hwang, Liang-dar; Hurvitz, Philip M.; Duncan, Glen E. (2016). Cross Sectional Association between Spatially Measured Walking Bouts and Neighborhood Walkability. International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health, 13(4).

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Abstract

Walking is the most popular choice of aerobic physical activity to improve health among U.S. adults. Physical characteristics of the home neighborhood can facilitate or hinder walking. The purpose of this study was to quantify neighborhood walking, using objective methods and to examine the association between counts of walking bouts in the home neighborhood and neighborhood walkability. This was a cross-sectional study of 106 adults who wore accelerometers and GPS devices for two weeks. Walking was quantified within 1, 2, and 3 km Euclidean (straight-line) and network buffers around the geocoded home location. Walkability was estimated using a commercially available index. Walking bout counts increased with buffer size and were associated with walkability, regardless of buffer type or size (p < 0.001). Quantification of walking bouts within (and outside) of pre-defined neighborhood buffers of different sizes and types allowed for the specification of walking locations to better describe and elucidate walking behaviors. These data support the concept that neighborhood characteristics can influence walking among adults.

Keywords

Physical-activity; Accelerometer Data; United-states; Urban Form; Land-use; Validation; Health; Transportation; Environments; Intensity; Geographic Information Systems; Residence Characteristics; Twins; Walking

Economic Impact of High-Speed Rail on Household Income in China

Sun, Feiyang; Mansury, Yuri S. (2016). Economic Impact of High-Speed Rail on Household Income in China. Transportation Research Record, 2581, 71 – 78.

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Abstract

Although developed only in the past 20 years, Chinese high-speed rail (HSR) has overtaken many of its forerunners in its unprecedented scale. However, such a scale raises questions about its implications for regional economic development. Previous studies have discussed the impact of HSR at the regional and city levels, but few have addressed its impact on the individual level, which is crucial for understanding the distribution of the impact. To fill the gap, this study focused on the economic impact of recent HSR development between 2009 and 2012 on Chinese household income and discussed its significance, magnitude, and distribution. The survey data from the China Family Panel Survey were used and a difference-in-differences approach was implemented. Two key explanatory variables, weighted average travel time and probability of living proximate to HSR stations, were included in the models to examine the direct and spillover impacts of HSR. The study shows that these impacts both contribute to the HSR impact but affect urban and rural regions and production sectors differently. In particular, the spillover effect or the agglomeration effect contributes the most and favors more urbanized regions with stronger service sectors. As a consequence, although HSR plays a positive role in stimulating the regional economy, it may further widen the gap between developed regions and underdeveloped regions. From the analyses, it is concluded that HSR projects need more comprehensive studies of the full spectrum of its impact to ensure both economic growth and regional balance and coordination.

Differences in Behavior, Time, Location, and Built Environment between Objectively Measured Utilitarian and Recreational Walking

Kang, Bumjoon; Moudon, Anne V.; Hurvitz, Philip M.; Saelens, Brian E. (2017). Differences in Behavior, Time, Location, and Built Environment between Objectively Measured Utilitarian and Recreational Walking. Transportation Research: Part D, 57, 185 – 194.

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Abstract

Objectives: Utilitarian and recreational walking both contribute to physical activity. Yet walking for these two purposes may be different behaviors. We sought to provide operational definitions of utilitarian and recreational walking and to objectively measure their behavioral, spatial, and temporal differences in order to inform transportation and public health policies and interventions. Methods: Data were collected 2008-2009 from 651 Seattle-King County residents, wearing an accelerometer and a GPS unit, and filling-in a travel diary for 7 days. Walking activity bouts were classified as utilitarian or recreational based on whether walking had a destination or not. Differences between the two walking purposes were analyzed, adjusting for the nested structure of walking activity within participants. Results: Of the 4905 observed walking bouts, 87.4% were utilitarian and 12.6% recreational walking. Utilitarian walking bouts were 45% shorter in duration (-12.1 min) and 9% faster in speed (+0.3 km/h) than recreational walking bouts. Recreational walking occurred more frequently in the home neighborhood and was not associated with recreational land uses. Utilitarian walking occurred in areas having higher residential, employment, and street density, lower residential property value, higher area percentage of mixed-use neighborhood destinations, lower percentage of parks/trails, and lower average topographic slope than recreational walking. Conclusion: Utilitarian and recreational walking are substantially different in terms of frequency, speed, duration, location, and related built environment. Policies that promote walking should adopt type-specific strategies. The high occurrence of recreational walking near home highlights the importance of the home neighborhood for this activity.

Keywords

Walking; Utilitarianism; Recreation; Behavioral Assessment; Built Environment; Physical Activity Measurement; Accelerometer; Active Transportation; Gps; Home And Non-home Based Walking; Pedestrian; Physical-activity; Us Adults; Accelerometer Data; Trip Purpose; Urban Form; Travel; Neighborhood; Distance; System