Resilience Archives - Page 5 of 8

Urban Landscape Heterogeneity Influences the Relationship Between Tree Canopy and Land Surface Temperature

Jung, Meen Chel; Dyson, Karen; Alberti, Marina. (2021). Urban Landscape Heterogeneity Influences the Relationship Between Tree Canopy and Land Surface Temperature. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 57.

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Abstract

Urban trees play a key role in alleviating elevated summertime land surface temperatures in cities. However, urban landscape influences the capacity of urban trees to mitigate higher temperatures. We propose that both developed land characteristics and tree cover should be considered to accurately estimate the mitigation effects of canopy cover. We subclassified original land cover based on the canopy cover ratio to capture the within-land cover heterogeneity. We selected two coastal cities with different summertime climatic conditions: Seattle, Washington, USA, and Baltimore, Maryland, USA. We used Landsat-based grid cells (30 m x 30 m) as our spatial analytical unit, with corresponding land surface temperature, canopy area, canopy compactness, population size, and National Land Cover Database (NLCD)-based land cover group. We first used grouped boxplots, Kruskal-Wallis H tests, and post-hoc multiple comparison tests to detect the distribution of land surface temperatures by the land cover group. We then introduced statistical models to test the group effects on the relationship between land surface temperatures and canopy cover variables. We found: (1) land surface temperature increases with level of development, (2) land surface temperature decreases with canopy cover level, (3) the magnitude of the mitigation effects from canopy area differs based on development level and current canopy cover, (4) the differing efficacies of canopy area in decreasing land surface temperature follows a nonlinear threshold relationship, and (5) compactness of canopy cover was not significant in reducing the land surface temperature. These findings suggest the importance of considering heterogeneous canopy cover within developed land cover classes in urban heat island research. Tree planting strategies need to consider the nonlinear relationships between tree canopy cover and land surface temperature alongside environmental equity concerns.

Keywords

Extreme Heat Events; Climate-change; Cover Data; Island; Pattern; Cities; Vegetation; Mortality; Phoenix; Impact; Canopy Cover; Environmental Equity; Land Cover; Land Surface Temperature; Mitigation Effect; Area; Canopy; Cells; Climatic Factors; Databases; Heat Island; Landscapes; Multiple Comparison Test; Planting; Population Size; Research; Statistical Models; Summer; Surface Temperature; Testing; Trees; Urban Forestry; Maryland

Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics in an Urbanizing Planet

Alberti, Marina. (2015). Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics in an Urbanizing Planet. Trends In Ecology & Evolution, 30(2), 114 – 126.

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Abstract

A great challenge for ecology in the coming decades is to understand the role humans play in eco-evolutionary dynamics. If, as emerging evidence shows, rapid evolutionary change affects ecosystem functioning and stability, current rapid environmental change and its evolutionary effects might have significant implications for ecological and human wellbeing on a relatively short time scale. Humans are major selective agents with potential for unprecedented evolutionary consequences for Earth's ecosystems, especially as cities expand rapidly. In this review, I identify emerging hypotheses on how urbanization drives eco-evolutionary dynamics. Studying how human-driven micro-evolutionary changes interact with ecological processes offers us the chance to advance our understanding of eco-evolutionary feedbacks and will provide new insights for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function over the long term.

Keywords

Biological Evolution; Urbanization; Climate Change; Ecosystems; Well-being; Co-evolution; Eco-evolutionary Dynamics; Ecosystem Function; Urban Ecosystems; Ecological Consequences; Phenotypic Plasticity; Rapid Evolution; Regime Shifts; Elevated Co2; Biodiversity; Selection; Community; Patterns

A Roadmap for Urban Evolutionary Ecology

Rivkin, L. Ruth; Santangelo, James S.; Alberti, Marina; Aronson, Myla F. J.; De Keyzer, Charlotte W.; Diamond, Sarah E.; Fortin, Marie-josee; Frazee, Lauren J.; Gorton, Amanda J.; Hendry, Andrew P.; Liu, Yang; Losos, Jonathan B.; Macivor, J. Scott; Martin, Ryan A.; Mcdonnell, Mark J.; Miles, Lindsay S.; Munshi-south, Jason; Ness, Robert W.; Newman, Amy E. M.; Stothart, Mason R.; Theodorou, Panagiotis; Thompson, Ken A.; Verrelli, Brian C.; Whitehead, Andrew; Winchell, Kristin M.; Johnson, Marc T. J. (2019). A Roadmap for Urban Evolutionary Ecology. Evolutionary Applications, 12(3), 384 – 398.

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Abstract

Urban ecosystems are rapidly expanding throughout the world, but how urban growth affects the evolutionary ecology of species living in urban areas remains largely unknown. Urban ecology has advanced our understanding of how the development of cities and towns change environmental conditions and alter ecological processes and patterns. However, despite decades of research in urban ecology, the extent to which urbanization influences evolutionary and eco-evolutionary change has received little attention. The nascent field of urban evolutionary ecology seeks to understand how urbanization affects the evolution of populations, and how those evolutionary changes in turn influence the ecological dynamics of populations, communities, and ecosystems. Following a brief history of this emerging field, this Perspective article provides a research agenda and roadmap for future research aimed at advancing our understanding of the interplay between ecology and evolution of urban-dwelling organisms. We identify six key questions that, if addressed, would significantly increase our understanding of how urbanization influences evolutionary processes. These questions consider how urbanization affects nonadaptive evolution, natural selection, and convergent evolution, in addition to the role of urban environmental heterogeneity on species evolution, and the roles of phenotypic plasticity versus adaptation on species' abundance in cities. Our final question examines the impact of urbanization on evolutionary diversification. For each of these six questions, we suggest avenues for future research that will help advance the field of urban evolutionary ecology. Lastly, we highlight the importance of integrating urban evolutionary ecology into urban planning, conservation practice, pest management, and public engagement.

Keywords

Urban Ecology (biology); Climate Change; Urban Growth; Species Diversity; Urbanization; Citizen Science; Community Engagement; Eco-evolutionary Feedback; Gene Flow; Landscape Genetics; Urban Evolution; Urban Socioecology; Mouse Peromyscus-leucopus; Rapid Evolution; Population Genomics; Selection; Habitat; Differentiation; Framework; Environments; Biodiversity; Eco-evolutionary Feedback

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

Periurbanization and the Politics of Development-as-City-Building in China

Abramson, Daniel Benjamin. (2016). Periurbanization and the Politics of Development-as-City-Building in China. Cities, 53, 156 – 162.

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Abstract

China stands out among recently urbanized societies for the planned physicality of its rural-urban transformation the extensive marshaling of labor, capital and material resources to remake its cities and to transform rural land and communities into new, formal urban space. In China, the rural and the urban are distinguished in deeply dichotomous institutions of government, and peri-urbanization, defined as the disorderly spaces, processes and conditions of becoming urban, would appear to be a temporary stage of transition between an old rural socio-spatial order to a new urban socio-spatial order. The actual contested politics of development as-urbanization suggests otherwise, however, both on a national scale and on a community scale. The definition of development itself is at stake, and emerges unpredictably from peri-urban experience. A view of periurbanization as a process of socio-ecological adaptation is better suited to societies that have evolved in long settled, densely populated anthropogenic agrarian landscapes. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords

Urban-growth; Chengdu; Urbanization; Adaptation; Resilience; Alternative Development; Socialist New Countryside Construction; New Rural Reconstruction

Urban Systems Design: A Conceptual Framework for Planning Smart Communities

Tobey, Michael B.; Binder, Robert B.; Chang, Soowon; Yoshida, Takahiro; Yamagata, Yoshiki; Yang, Perry P. J. (2019). Urban Systems Design: A Conceptual Framework for Planning Smart Communities. Smart Cities, 2(4), 522 – 537.

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Abstract

Urban systems design arises from disparate current planning approaches (urban design, Planning Support Systems, and community engagement), compounded by the reemergence of rational planning methods from new technology (Internet of Things (IoT), metric based analysis, and big data). The proposed methods join social considerations (Human Well-Being), environmental needs (Sustainability), climate change and disaster mitigation (Resilience), and prosperity (Economics) as the four foundational pillars. Urban systems design integrates planning methodologies to systematically tackle urban challenges, using IoT and rational methods, while human beings form the core of all analysis and objectives. Our approach utilizes an iterative three-phase development loop to contextualize, evaluate, plan and design scenarios for the specific needs of communities. An equal emphasis is placed on feedback loops through analysis and design, to achieve the end goal of building smart communities.

Keywords

Urban Design; Planning Support System; Resilience; Sustainability; Economics; Human Factors; Big Data

The Benefits and Limits of Urban Tree Planting for Environmental and Human Health

Pataki, Diane E.; Alberti, Marina; Cadenasso, Mary L.; Felson, Alexander J.; McDonnell, Mark J.; Pincetl, Stephanie; Pouyat, Richard V.; Setala, Heikki; Whitlow, Thomas H. (2021). The Benefits and Limits of Urban Tree Planting for Environmental and Human Health. Frontiers In Ecology And Evolution, 9.

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Abstract

Many of the world's major cities have implemented tree planting programs based on assumed environmental and social benefits of urban forests. Recent studies have increasingly tested these assumptions and provide empirical evidence for the contributions of tree planting programs, as well as their feasibility and limits, for solving or mitigating urban environmental and social issues. We propose that current evidence supports local cooling, stormwater absorption, and health benefits of urban trees for local residents. However, the potential for urban trees to appreciably mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution over a wide array of sites and environmental conditions is limited. Consequently, urban trees appear to be more promising for climate and pollution adaptation strategies than mitigation strategies. In large part, this is due to space constraints limiting the extent of urban tree canopies relative to the current magnitude of emissions. The most promising environmental and health impacts of urban trees are those that can be realized with well-stewarded tree planting and localized design interventions at site to municipal scales. Tree planting at these scales has documented benefits on local climate and health, which can be maximized through targeted site design followed by monitoring, adaptive management, and studies of long-term eco-evolutionary dynamics.

Keywords

Outdoor Thermal Comfort; Improved Public-health; Carbon Storage; Ecosystem Services; Air-quality; Rainfall Interception; Vegetation; Cover; Design; Impact; Urban Ecology; Forestry; Sustainability; Policy; Climate Mitigation; Climate Adaptation; Ecosystem Disservices

Perceptions And Expected Immediate Reactions To Tornado Warning Polygons

Lindell, Michael K.; Huang, Shih-kai; Wei, Hung-lung; Samuelson, Charles D. (2016). Perceptions And Expected Immediate Reactions To Tornado Warning Polygons. Natural Hazards, 80(1), 683 – 707.

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Abstract

To provide people with more specific information about tornado threats, the National Weather Service has replaced its county-wide warnings with smaller warning polygons that more specifically indicate the risk area. However, tornado warning polygons do not have a standardized definition regarding tornado strike probabilities (p (s)) so it is unclear how warning recipients interpret them. To better understand this issue, 155 participants responded to 15 hypothetical warning polygons. After viewing each polygon, they rated the likelihood of a tornado striking their location and the likelihood that they would take nine different response actions ranging from continuing normal activities to getting in a car and driving somewhere safer. The results showed participants inferred that the p (s) was highest at the polygon's centroid, lower just inside the edges of the polygon, still lower (but not zero) just outside the edges of the polygon, and lowest in locations beyond that. Moreover, higher p (s) values were associated with lower expectations of continuing normal activities and higher expectations of seeking information from social sources (but not environmental cues) and higher expectations of seeking shelter (but not evacuating in their cars). These results indicate that most people make some errors in their p (s) judgments but are likely to respond appropriately to the p (s) they infer from the warning polygons. Overall, the findings from this study and other research can help meteorologists to better understand how people interpret the uncertainty associated with warning polygons and, thus, improve tornado warning systems.

Keywords

Interrater Agreement; Protective Action; Decision-making; Evacuation; Risk; Uncertainty; Residents; Disaster; Probabilities; Preparedness; Tornado Warning Polygons; Risk Perceptions; Protective Actions

Urban Systems Design Case Study: Tokyo’s Sumida Ward

Tobey, Michael B.; Binder, Robert B.; Yoshida, Takahiro; Yamagata, Yoshiki. (2019). Urban Systems Design Case Study: Tokyo’s Sumida Ward. Smart Cities, 2(4), 453 – 470.

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Abstract

Meeting the needs of increasing environmental and systematic pressures in urban settlements requires the use of integrated and wholistic approaches. The Urban Systems Design (USD) Conceptual Framework joins the metric-based modeling of rationalized methods with human-driven goals to form a combined iterative design and analysis loop. The framework processes information for the fundamental element of cities-humans-to large-scale modeling and decision-making occurring in district- and ward-level planning. There is a need in the planning and design profession to better integrate these efforts at a greater scale to create smart communities that are inclusive and comprehensive in aspects from data management to energy and transportation networks. The purpose of this study is to examine the applicability of this method as it pertains to a model and design integrated approach. Northern Sumida Ward, located in Tokyo, exemplifies the contextualized needs of Tokyo, and Japan, while forming a coherent internal community. Focusing on methodology, our process explores the creation of typologies, metric-based analysis, and design-based approaches that are integrated into modeling. The results of the analyses provide initial evidence regarding the validity of the USD approach in modeling changes to complex systems at differing design scales, connecting various qualities of the built environment, building and urban forms, and diagnostic comparisons between baseline and change conditions. Because of some inconsistencies and the need for further evidence gathering, the methods and processes show that there is much work to be done to strengthen the model and to continue building a more productive field of USD. However, in this framework's continuing evolution, there is increasing evidence that combining the planning and design of urban systems creates a more resilient, economically viable, sustainable, and comfortable city.

Keywords

Urban Planning; Resilience; Sustainability; Economics; Human Factors; Tokyo; Planning Support System; Gis

The Economic Effects of Volcanic Alerts-A Case Study of High-Threat US Volcanoes

Peers, Justin B.; Gregg, Christopher E.; Lindell, Michael K.; Pelletier, Denis; Romerio, Franco; Joyner, Andrew T. (2021). The Economic Effects of Volcanic Alerts-A Case Study of High-Threat US Volcanoes. Risk Analysis, 41(10).

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Abstract

A common concern about volcanic unrest is that the communication of information about increasing volcanic alert levels (VALs) to the public could cause serious social and economic impacts even if an eruption does not occur. To test this statement, this study examined housing prices and business patterns from 1974-2016 in volcanic regions with very-high threat designations from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)-Long Valley Caldera (LVC), CA (caldera); Mount St. Helens (MSH), Washington (stratovolcano); and Kilauea, HawaiModified Letter Turned Commai (shield volcano). To compare economic trends in nonvolcanic regions that are economically dependent on tourism, Steamboat Springs, CO, served as a control as it is a ski-tourism community much like Mammoth Lakes in LVC. Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) models predicted that housing prices were negatively affected by VALs at LVC from 1982-1983 and 1991-1997. While VALs associated with unrest and eruptions included in this study both had short-term indirect effects on housing prices and business indicators (e.g., number of establishments, employment, and salary), these notifications were not strong predictors of long-term economic trends. Our findings suggest that these indirect effects result from both eruptions with higher level VALs and from unrest involving lower-level VAL notifications that communicate a change in volcanic activity but do not indicate that an eruption is imminent or underway. This provides evidence concerning a systemic issue in disaster resilience. While disaster relief is provided by the U.S. federal government for direct impacts associated with disaster events that result in presidential major disaster declarations, there is limited or no assistance for indirect effects to businesses and homeowners that may follow volcanic unrest with no resulting direct physical losses. The fact that periods of volcanic unrest preceding eruption are often protracted in comparison to precursory periods for other hazardous events (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding) makes the issue of indirect effects particularly important in regions susceptible to volcanic activity.

Keywords

Direct Impacts; Econometric Analysis; Indirect Impacts; Risk Assessment; Volcano Alert Levels; Earthquakes; Hurricanes; Threats; Housing Costs; Business Indicators; Disasters; Disaster Relief; Declarations; Volcanoes; Resilience; Tourism; Economics; Flooding; Trends; Calderas; Geological Surveys; Housing Prices; Eruptions; Precursors; Indirect Effects; Business; Disaster Management; Economic Trends; Autoregressive Models; Floods; Employment Status; Prices; Federal Government; Housing; Eruption; Economic Impact; Seismic Activity; Volcanic Activity; Earthquake Prediction; Lakes; Communication; United States--us