Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Urban Transitions & Transformations: Science, Synthesis and Policy
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Urban Transitions & Transformations: Science, Synthesis and Policy SYNTHESIS REPORT The 2nd International Conference on Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Urban Transitions & Transformations: Science, Synthesis and Policy November 6 - 8, 2014 Howard Civil Service International House, Taipei, Taiwan Special Thanks to: Dr. Shu-Li Huang, Hui Chen Lin and the National Taipei University student volunteers without whom this conference would not have been possible. Dr. Wen-Ching Chuang, whose efforts before, during and after the conference were essential to its success. Our Scientific Steering Commitee: Roberto Sanchez Rodriguez, Karen Seto, Christopher Boone, Xiangzheng Deng, Shuaib Lwasa, Peter Marcotullio, Darryn McEvoy, Patricia Romero Lankao, David Simon and William Solecki. Copyright: The Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Project, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA, 2015 Suggested Citation: Watkins, M.H. & Griffith, C.A. (Eds.). (2015). Synthesis Report from the 2nd International Conference on Urbanization and Global Environmental Change. Urban Transitions & Transformations: Science, Synthesis and Policy. Tempe, USA: Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Project. Table of Contents Preface.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................1 Synthesis Sessions UGEC Synthesis Session #1 Interdisciplinary understandings of urbanization and global environmental change: Regional patterns, processes and transitions .....................................................................................................................................................3 UGEC Synthesis Session #2 Urban governance, technology and innovation in an era of environmental change .......................9 Special Session on Livable Urban Futures Transitioning ‘Urban’ into Future Earth .............................................................................15 Theme 1 Urbanization Patterns and Processes .........................................................................................................................19 Session 40 Urban land teleconnections: From concept to implementation ..........................................................................................21 Session 52 Urban metabolism: The environmental impact of cities ........................................................................................................26 Session 53 Urbanization, agricultural land loss and food security ............................................................................................................31 Session 54 A new science of cities for responding to global environmental change ......................................................................... 35 Session 67 Forecasting urbanization: Population and land dimensions ..................................................................................................43 Session 72 Urban weather and climates: Assessments and responses .................................................................................................48 Session 79 Drivers and patterns of urbanization: Towards a typology ................................................................................................... 55 Theme 2 Urban Responses to Climate Change: Adaptation, Mitigation and Transformations ..........63 Session 14 Human dimensions of urban heat islands ...................................................................................................................................65 Session 16 Building resilience in Asian cities ...................................................................................................................................................70 Session 25 Contested agendas or aligned objectives? Intermediation and the role of ...................................................................... 74 non-state actors in the low carbon urban transition Session 26 Urban social and institutional responses to global environmental change ......................................................................80 Session 34 Co-benefits of addressing global environmental change in urban areas .........................................................................85 Session 61 Regional perspectives on urban transformations for adaptation to climate change ......................................................90 Session 70 Resilience and adaptation strategies for transitioning to a sustainable urban future ................................................... 97 Session 90 Shared learning across coastal cities: Impacts, vulnerability, and socio-ecological responses ..............................102 Theme 3 Global Environmental Change, Urban Health and Well-Being ............................................................109 Session 17 Ecosystem services in support of livable cities .......................................................................................................................... 111 Session 20 Urban health and global environmental change: Interdisciplinary perspectives .......................................................... 116 Session 39 Urbanization, biodiversity, and ecosystem services .............................................................................................................. 121 Session 42 Resilience in the urban landscape: Improving human well-being ......................................................................................127 Session 64 Influence on urban health in the Global South: Identifying the challenges .................................................................... 131 Theme 4 Equity and Environmental Justice in Urban Areas .......................................................................................140 Session 44 Footprinting and low carbon urban infrastructure development...................................................................................... 142 Session 56 Towards livelihood security and social justice: The urbanization, infrastructure .........................................................146 and governance nexus Session 63 Challenges in the developing urban world: Informal settlements, slums and growing inequalities ........................152 List of Participants .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 159 Preface Our global environment is changing and humanity as part of the post-2015 United Nations Sustainable is at the center of these changes. With more than Development Goals. half of the world’s population living in cities – a The 2014 UGEC Conference brought together the trend expected to continue – we’ve moved into the international UGEC community for a second time since Century of the City, where urbanization will continue the first in 2010 with two objectives: 1) Synthesize our to be a defining social, economic, and environmental knowledge of the bidirectional interactions between characteristic. How can we urbanize in such a way urbanization and global environmental changes, and that the negative consequences are minimized while to reflect on the key lessons learned; and, 2) Identify opportunities are enhanced to create cities that are transformative pathways for a future urban world that underscored by principles of equity and justice and is increasingly complex and uncertain. Indeed, the promote both human and environmental health? study and understanding of current urban transitions Furthermore, how can cities and urbanization not and transformations requires multidimensional only be sustainable, but can also be catalysts for approaches that explore human behavior including global sustainability? lifestyle changes, political and economic agendas, In order to begin to explore and answer these and the adequacy of governance structures to challenging questions, the Urbanization and Global deliver urban sustainability – particularly in a time Environmental Change (UGEC) Project was created of uncertainty where biophysical tipping points and in 2006 to advance scientific understanding of thresholds have the potential to curb human progress urbanization and environmental change interactions. and well-being. In order to facilitate this analysis, the It was established under the auspices of the conference was divided into four integrative themes International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) that were intended to bring together perspectives on Global Environmental Change and has since from across the social and natural sciences, and transitioned to become a core project of the new humanities to better understand urban environmental Future Earth global sustainability research platform. issues in a more integrated, interdisciplinary and As a science coordination project, it has established transdisciplinary way. regional networks and an international community of scholars that study the bi-directional interactions WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN OUR CONFERENCE SYNTHESIS REPORT and feedbacks of UGEC at multiple scales (global, Each session includes: a session abstract, key regional and local). discussion points taken from comments, questions Over the last decade, UGEC research