Synthesis Report URBAN CLIMATE RESILIENCE, Urban-Nexus
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Synthesis Report URBAN CLIMATE RESILIENCE The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under grant agreement n° 282679. This report forms project deliverable 2.1 URBAN-NEXUS Synthesis Report: Urban Climate Resilience Contents 1. ABOUT THIS REPORT ............................................................................................................. 2 1.1 Audience ............................................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Purpose of the report .......................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Report preparation ............................................................................................................................. 2 1.4 Concurrent reports and initiatives ....................................................................................................... 3 1.5 Use of terms ........................................................................................................................................ 3 1.6 Questions for the dialogue café........................................................................................................... 3 1.7 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. 3 2. SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................... 4 3. KEY FINDINGS ........................................................................................................................... 6 4. AN OVERVIEW OF URBAN CLIMATE VULNERABILITY AND RESILIENCE ............. 8 4.1 The challenge of climate change for cities ........................................................................................... 8 4.2 The concept of vulnerability ................................................................................................................ 9 4.3 Urban vulnerability to climate change............................................................................................... 10 4.4 Resilience .......................................................................................................................................... 13 4.5 Critical evidence gaps for decision-makers ........................................................................................ 14 5. EVIDENCE FROM RESEARCH AND PRACTICE ............................................................... 16 5.1 Risk and uncertainty .......................................................................................................................... 16 5.2 Governance ....................................................................................................................................... 21 5.3 People ............................................................................................................................................... 26 5.4 Place ................................................................................................................................................. 31 6. ABOUT URBAN-NEXUS ......................................................................................................... 38 6.1 The project consortium ..................................................................................................................... 38 Page 1 of 38 URBAN-NEXUS Synthesis Report: Urban Climate Resilience 1. About this report 1.1 Audience This is the first in a series of synthesis reports produced by URBAN-NEXUS. These Reports are intended mainly for municipalities, policy-makers and businesses engaged in urban issues. They may also be of interest to organisations, institutions and networks involved in decision-making and developing partnerships to tackle problems encountered in urban sustainable development and management. This includes public sector agencies, utilities, the private sector, civil society organisations and community groups. 1.2 Purpose of the report The synthesis reports will help inform debate and discussion as part of an ongoing “structured dialogue” across a network of urban researchers, professionals and actors on developing integrated approaches to the challenges and opportunities of sustainable urban development. The main forum for supporting a rich exchange and learning environment will be a series of “dialogue cafés” held in different European cities during the course of the project. These will encourage participants to identify and prioritise common issues and develop partnerships to help promote and deliver innovative, effective and integrated responses to improving urban sustainability. Each Synthesis Report will address a different theme. The theme for this report is Urban Climate Resilience. It is intended to stimulate discussions at the first URBAN-NEXUS dialogue café that will be held 29th-30th May 2012 in Glasgow. The discussions will form a follow-up report due late summer, 2012, which will feed into subsequent thematic synthesis reports on health, land-use, urban governance, and data and monitoring. This will engender an evolving dialogue and foster integrated approaches to urban sustainability that become intrinsic to decision-making processes and partnership activity. 1.3 Report preparation Climate change was identified as a priority research area as part of the work undertaken by the EU predecessor research project, URBAN-NET, in developing a strategic research framework for sustainable urban development. The URBAN-NET study was based on partners’ collective knowledge and evidence pooled from across Europe as part of a comparative assessment of national and regional research programmes. The current report considers research, mainly European, undertaken in the four years since the URBAN-NET Framework was published. It also considers evidence from cities, towns and partnerships of practical interventions and strategies adopted to create resilience to climate change. This information was collected from the URBAN-NEXUS consortium, the strategic partners and a wider network of contacts. Examples of case studies and research are presented throughout the report to illustrate relevant sections. A complete list and summary details of all of the information provided is available as an annex to this report. Page 2 of 38 URBAN-NEXUS Synthesis Report: Urban Climate Resilience 1.4 Concurrent reports and initiatives The following European initiatives and projects concerning urban climate change adaptation emerged during the preparation of this report: • the European Environment Agency’s report on “Urban adaptation to climate change in Europe”1; • an EC-funded DG CLIMA project on “Adaptation Strategies for European Cities”2; and • the EEA initiative, European Climate Adaptation Platform3 (CLIMATE-ADAPT), which will eventually integrate urban content from the preceding project. With the above in mind, this report focuses more specifically on European research rather than policy and implementation. Case study material collected beforehand is still included. 1.5 Use of terms For ease of reading, the terms “urban” and “city” are used interchangeably throughout this document and no specific distinction is drawn between either term with regard to distinct morphologies or administrative boundaries. 1.6 Questions for the dialogue café In preparation for the URBAN-NEXUS Dialogue Café on ‘Urban Climate Resilience: Partnership Approaches’, being held 29th and 30th May 2012 in Glasgow, we would like delegates to consider the following questions. • With which of the key messages do you agree/disagree? • Does the report cover the theme appropriately? What is missing and what should be covered in more depth? • What do you find most encouraging or interesting in the report? • What do you find most challenging in the report? 1.7 Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank everyone who contributed case study material. June Graham (Programme Coordinator) & Sacha Rawlence (Researcher) Sniffer, May 2012 (on behalf of URBAN-NEXUS) 1 Published 14th May 2012 http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/urban-adaptation-to-climate-change 2 http://eucities-adapt.eu. 3 http://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/ Page 3 of 38 URBAN-NEXUS Synthesis Report: Urban Climate Resilience 2. Summary We open with some key findings based on our overall personal impression of the evidence available from recent research and practice. Next, we provide an overview of urban resilience to climate change which outlines the critical role for cities in responding to climate change, both in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and in adapting to climate change impacts. We discuss the concepts of climate ‘vulnerability’ and ‘resilience’ in an urban context. This section on resilience also identifies areas and knowledge gaps that are discussed in later sections of the report. The next section presents preliminary surveys of research and practice on the four key topics of • Risk & Uncertainty; • Governance; • People; and • Place. For each topic we suggest areas for more detailed consideration in future URBAN-NEXUS activities on the themes concerning health, land-use, integrated urban management and data & monitoring. Risk & Uncertainty This first topic concerns the problems of assessing climate risks at a city level. Modelling climate change and predicting future trends at