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Research Theme: Resilience

Includes social as well as engineering definitions of resilience

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

Rebecca Habtour

Research Interests: Designing built environments to enhance human happiness, and related principles: Justice, Nature Integration, Access, Identity, Well-Being, Resiliency.

Jonathan A. Childers

I am interested in environmental democracy and the material and social dynamics that interact to affect community well-being and ecological health. While completing my Master of Public Health degree at UW, I led projects for the Health Impact Assessment of the Cleanup Plan for the Duwamish Superfund Site in Seattle, and then evaluated the outcomes of that HIA. Research for my PhD in the Built Environment will build on that work, further considering the determinants and production of adaptive capacity, resilience, sustainability, and vitality.

Ziyang Liu

Research Interests: Urban resilience, disaster risk reduction, climate change, community engagement.

UDP scholars among UW team receiving $2M from National Science Foundation to design an ‘adaptable society’

A team led by the University of Washington has received a nearly $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to further research into how urban societal systems can be organized to be both efficient and resilient. The Leading Engineering for America’s Prosperity, Health and Infrastructure (LEAP-HI) project, based in the UW College of Engineering, supports fundamental research to generate the knowledge, mechanisms and tools needed to design an adaptable society. That is one, researchers say, that can switch between different operating strategies depending…