PROGRAM & VISITORS GUIDE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON URBANIZATION AND GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE Opportunities & Challenges for Sustainability in an Urbanizing World ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY TEMPE, ARIZONA, USA OCTOBER 15-17, 2010 Welcome! Dear conference participants, We welcome you to the first International Conference on Urbanization and Global Environmental Change, Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainability in an Urbanizing World. Over the last five years, the Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC) community has grown rapidly and generated new understandings of the relationships between urbanization and the global environment. This conference is an exciting opportunity to bring together communities of academics, decision- makers, and practitioners at local, regional, and global scales in order to take stock of UGEC science and practice. Conference participants come from 40 countries and presentation topics range from the role of higher education as a catalyst for sustainability to urban vegetation, and socio-ecological contexts for urban sustainability. We have also included special sessions such as the one on the 2014 IPCC Fifth Assessment Report and UGEC research. We want to encourage interactions and dialogue between the participants during plenaries, parallel sessions and breaks; we clearly recognize the added-value of providing such opportunities and have designed our conference structure accordingly. On Saturday, October 17th, we will hold a joint-conference day with the IHDP Global Land Project, under the theme, “Sustainable Land Systems in the Era of Urbanization and Climate Change.” The goal of this day is to strengthen existing relationships and build new networks among urban and land- change specialists to foster more collaboration worldwide, expanding the range of issues addressed. We will conclude the joint-conference day with a reception. The next three days are a great opportunity to share ideas, recent research findings, and the road forward for UGEC science. We hope this conference will be informative and engaging for everyone. It is also an occasion to reacquaint with old friends as well as meet new colleagues from around the world. Sincerely, Roberto Sánchez-Rodríguez Karen C. Seto UGEC Co-Chair UGEC Co-Chair El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Mexico Yale University, USA University of California, Riverside, USA Urbanization, Land-Use, Sukumawiki Sukumawiki is a traditional Kenyan plant much like spinach. With its simple preparation, low price, high yield, and rich nutritional value it has become a staple of Nairobi’s food culture. It was traditionally grown in the countryside and shipped into the city. As Kenya’s population flowed into Nairobi leaving their farms to pursue education and careers, either caused by push factors like droughts or other ecological stresses or by pull factors like better education and employment, the peri-urban farming landscape has changed. Sukumawiki is now being grown in urban farms in the outer sprawl of the city and in shantytowns like Kibera, and sold frequently just minutes away in markets. Questions of land-use and urbanization – shown in a simple plant like Sukumawiki – are dynamic and interrelated. The collaboration of IHDP’s urbanization and land projects in this conference is an excellent example of a scientific response to the mesh of complex interrelations among the diverse drivers and affects of global environmental change (GEC). The phenomenon of urbanization is one of the major land use transitions today. Rapid urbanization poses major challenges like poverty reduction, maintenance of infrastructure and provision of social nets as well as the sustainable and equitable supply of ecosystem services. In this context, the question arises how cities, combined with strategic land-use decisions, can be drivers of sustainability transitions. Awareness, preparedness and overall effective governance mechanisms and institutions will be key to addressing these challenges. Substantial input from the social sciences is essential to finding effective solutions for the adaptation to global changes and for the development of sustainable pathways for the future. As issues overlap scientific integration needs to emerge. I welcome and invite the shared platform provided by these two conferences to discuss pressing questions across thematic and professional boundaries, especially those between science and policy. I hope that the events send out some clear policy advice based on solid science. I wish all the participants success in the coming days! Anantha Kumar Duraiappah Executive Director International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change Sponsors Table of Contents 1 About the Conference 4 Conference Organizers 5 Conference Sustainability 8 Program Overview 10 Conference Stats at a Glance 11 Speakers 21 Parallel Session Overview 41 Parallel Session Details 25 Posters 62 Plenary Speakers 43 At the Conference 34 Memorial Union Supporters 34 Registration and Information 34 Internet 34 Catering 35 Events 53 Getting Around 63 Activities 36 What to do in Tempe 63 General Information 36 Volunteers 37 Lost Objects/Badges 37 Smoking 37 First Aid/In Case of an Emergency 37 Website 37 Information on the US, Arizona, and Tempe 37 Weather 37 Contact Information 83 Maps 38 ASU Map 39 Memorial Union Map INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON URBANIZATION AND GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE Opportunities & Challenges for Sustainability in an Urbanizing World About the Conference We now live in the “Century of the City”. Urban areas are central to the demographic, economic, and environmental challenges of the 21st century. The size, form, structure, and function of urban areas and their future growth trajectories are critical elements in the transition to global sustainability. At the same time, world-wide challenges such as increases in surface temperature, accelerated sea level rise, biodiversity loss, and declines in water availability and supply pose particular threats to urban areas due to their location and concentration of people and economic resources. Urbanization is a major component of global environmental change, while at the same time global environmental change poses threats to urban areas. Especially given the rapid pace of urban growth in middle and low income countries, there is an urgent need to understand the bi-directional interactions between urbanization and global environmental change processes. And most importantly, how can urbanization be promoted as an opportunity for sustainability? The International Conference on Urbanization and Global Environmental Change “Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainability in an Urbanizing World” comes at a critical point for both the UGEC project and international research community on urbanization and global environmental change (ugec). Since the project was launched in 2005, there has been a rapid increase in the volume of ugec research, and in particular, climate change and biodiversity loss. The midway point for the project is an opportunity for stock-taking, to strengthen and expand regional and thematic networks of researchers, practitioners, NGOs, and other relevant organizations, and to identify clear goals and research paths for the next phase of the project. The conference will be open to scientists, policymakers, practitioners, stakeholders and the general public and will provide a comprehensive perspective of current knowledge of the dynamic and complex interactions between urbanization and global environmental change. The goal is to build a forum 1 for reflection, exchange of knowledge, experiences, lessons, ideas, and information, contributing to the creation of efficient strategies for urban sustainability. The structure and approach is specifically designed to foster dialogue among participants. On Friday, October 15th and Saturday, October 16th the UGEC conference will showcase oral presentations and posters analyzing the lessons learned from a wide-range of case studies on the interactions between urbanization and global environmental change in diverse regional settings (biogeographic regions but also geopolitical regions), particularly those that focus in coastal areas, arid lands, the humid tropic, mountain and temperate zones. Furthermore, the conference encourages reflective presentations on conceptual and methodological challenges for constructing multidimensional and integrated approaches of the interactions between urbanization and global environmental change, fostering dialogue about the construction of useful knowledge for urban sustainability and future research and operational agendas. The following five themes have been identified as the most compelling for guiding the future ugec research agenda and will help frame the conference presentations and dialogue. Effects of and responses to climate change in urban areas. Human beings have always had an intimate relation with climate. The changes in climate have varied effects on urban systems at different spatial and temporal scales. Current attention to climate change at the local, national, regional, and international level creates opportunities to improve urban responses for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. The conference will focus on the complex and diverse bidirectional interactions between urban areas and climate change. Land use and land cover. Urban land change is one of the most profound human interventions in the Earth System functioning, especially at the local and regional levels. Focusing on the theme of