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The interdisciplinary community of ocean and coastal observers and modelers in Europe is driven by national observing needs for prediction and management of intricate processes shaping Europe's Seas. Not all observing needs can be addressed by nations alone and various coordination activities exist to overcome fragmentation and create cross benefit within the European Ocean Observing Community (EOOC). This way critical insights into impacts of climate change on European Waters and cross border marine resources management can be achieved. Based on a large number of published material, this article is identifying and addressing the current state of activities of the EOOC and states gaps that potentially prevent efficacy. Key challenges include spatial and temporal coverage in observations, data integration, accessibility, uncertainties in projections, technological hurdles, and engagement and communication gaps. Detailed recommendations are provided for identified gaps, offering valuable insights for stakeholders, funders, and supporters of the EOOC. These recommendations, extending beyond academic interest, carry significant implications for climate change mitigation, marine resource management efficiency, ecosystem resilience, disaster preparedness, economic benefits, and the broader scientific advancements in European marine science, thereby benefiting society at large. As the world undergoes transformative changes impacting all facets of European life, substantial investment and support for the EOOC are crucial for precise information, accurate predictions, supporting sustained services that contribute to business growth and community resilience, and a sustainable ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short-term experimental studies provided evidence that plant diversity increases ecosystem resilience and resistance to drought events, suggesting diversity to serve as a nature-based solution to address climate change. However, it remains unclear whether the effects of diversity are momentary or still hold over the long term in natural forests to ensure that the sustainability of carbon sinks. By analyzing 57 years of inventory data from dryland forests in Canada, we show that productivity of dryland forests decreased at an average rate of 1.3% per decade, in concert with the temporally increasing temperature and decreasing water availability. Increasing functional trait diversity from its minimum (monocultures) to maximum value increased productivity by 13%. Our results demonstrate the potential role of tree functional trait diversity in alleviating climate change impacts on dryland forests. While recognizing that nature-based climate mitigation (e.g., planting trees) can only be partial solutions, their long-term (decadal) efficacy can be improved by enhancing functional trait diversity across the forest community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change due to global warming will have an impact on marine and coastal ecosystems, including causing loss of biodiversity and threatening the sustainability of marine and coastal resources. The Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made Indonesia, which is a tropical archipelagic state as one of the hotspots that is very at risk of being affected by global warming. This risk is especially experienced by cities on the coast. Therefore the importance of adaptation, especially in dealing with the impacts of climate change that has already occurred. The adaptation process cannot be delayed any longer because the earth's temperature will certainly increase beyond the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius in 2030 compared to the pre-Industrial Revolution temperature of 1850. Currently, the global temperature increase has reached 1.1 degrees Celsius. Therefore, Indonesia must immediately make adaptation efforts by utilizing the Blue Carbon Ecosystem which is based on research that blue carbon can absorb and store 100 times more carbon and is more permanent than forests on land. This stored carbon can be stored for thousands of years. Because of this great potential, coastal ecosystems can play many roles as adaptation solutions and mitigation of climate change impacts. Therefore researchers conduct research with the aim of the research is to create Strategies and Adaptation Efforts for Utilizing Blue Carbon Ecosystems: Disaster Resilience, Climate Crisis, and Sustainable Development, with the main target of implementing Resource Based Theory in developing strategies for utilization of Marine Resources, especially Utilization of Carbon Ecosystems Blue in Indonesian marine environment. This research is expected to provide theoretical and empirical evidence related to the development of blue ecosystem utilization strategies, climate crisis, and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rozwój Regionalny & Polityka Regionalna is the property of Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza (IH UAM) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Scientists, resource managers, and decision makers increasingly use knowledge coproduction to guide the stewardship of future landscapes under climate change. This process was applied in the California Central Valley (USA) to solve complex conservation problems, where managed wetlands and croplands are flooded between fall and spring to support some of the largest concentrations of shorebirds and waterfowl in the world. We coproduced scenario narratives, spatially explicit flooded waterbird habitat models, data products, and new knowledge about climate adaptation potential. We documented our coproduction process, and using the coproduced models, we determined when and where management actions make a difference and when climate overrides these actions. The outcomes of this process provide lessons learned on how to cocreate usable information and how to increase climate adaptive capacity in a highly managed landscape. Actions to restore wetlands and prioritize their water supply created habitat outcomes resilient to climate change impacts particularly in March, when habitat was most limited; land protection combined with management can increase the ecosystem's resilience to climate change; and uptake and use of this information was influenced by the roles of different stakeholders, rapidly changing water policies, discrepancies in decision‐making time frames, and immediate crises of extreme drought. Although a broad stakeholder group contributed knowledge to scenario narratives and model development, to coproduce usable information, data products were tailored to a small set of decision contexts, leading to fewer stakeholder participants over time. A boundary organization convened stakeholders across a large landscape, and early adopters helped build legitimacy. Yet, broadscale use of climate adaptation knowledge depends on state and local policies, engagement with decision makers that have legislative and budgetary authority, and the capacity to fit data products to specific decision needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ponds and "pondscapes" (networks of ponds) are crucial habitats for biodiversity and for delivering multiple benefits to humans, so-called "Nature's Contribution to People", such as climate mitigation and adaptation to climate change, creation, and maintenance of habitat for biodiversity, water purification, flood mitigation and cultural benefits (e.g., recreational possibilities). However, ponds are not often considered as Nature-based Solutions to provide all these benefits. In addition, there is insufficient knowledge on how to manage and restore ponds to maximise their role to increase the resilience of ecosystems and society to climate change. To facilitate improved implementation of ponds as Nature-based Solutions for the delivery of a wide range of Nature Contributions to People, it is important to generate and integrate biodiversity, ecosystems, societal, economic and policy knowledge. Hence, there is a need for evidence-based guidance to support the broader use of ponds. Here, we review the role of ponds and pondscapes in delivering Nature's Contributions to People and provide an overview of the challenges and opportunities for their broader implementation as Nature-based Solutions. Finally, we propose a conceptual framework that can help the implementation of pond Nature-based Solutions, and that outlines future research needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is threatening marine systems, and its widespread and dynamic effects are creating challenges for designing and managing marine protected areas (MPAs). The majority of recommendations for climate‐resilient MPAs focus on enhancing ecological resilience to disturbance and updating management strategies to respond as changes occur. Here, we assess how existing recommendations for climate resilience are applied in real‐world MPA management, using criteria from five key management components: objectives, assessments, design, monitoring, and management. Our review evaluates 172 management plans for 555 MPAs across 52 countries and written in nine languages. We find that MPA management plans contain many underlying scientific and management principles for promoting resilience to climate change, even when "climate change" or related terms are not specifically included: plans include long‐term objectives (93.6%), threat‐reduction strategies (99.4%), monitoring programs (97.7%), and adaptive management (93%). However, there is substantial variation in the degree to which plans explicitly incorporate climate change into their strategies, from not mentioning it at all (21.5%) to developing detailed climate change‐specific action plans (20.9%), with most somewhere in between. In addition to identifying common gaps across management plans, we also provide practical examples of activities MPA managers are undertaking to address climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Climate change has been shown to have long-term effects on mental health, yet, to date, there have been few studies on how children and adolescents experience and respond to ecological changes and how and why they engage in climate action. We explored empirically young people's views about climate change and how distinct cultural contexts influence individual climate action. Methods: We invited children and adolescents (ages 7 to 18) and their caregivers from the general population in the United States and France to participate in semi-structured focus groups. We recruited 74 participants, 39 in the U.S. (33 children and adolescents, 6 parents) and 35 in France (32 children and adolescents, 3 parents). Focus groups with participants centered on their emotions, beliefs, and actions around climate change. We analyzed the focus group data and developed themes via grounded theory and symbolic interactionist approaches. Results: Many participants described experiencing anger, hopelessness, guilt, and sadness in response to climate change, and a smaller number endorsed significant anxiety symptoms; many described frustration about needing to fix the mistakes of earlier generations. Younger participants frequently misunderstood the purpose of their parents' eco-conscious behaviors unless they were provided with age-appropriate explanations. Participants described a spectrum of experiences when trying to discuss climate change with peers and family, ranging from genuine support to apathy to hostility. Between the two samples, U.S. participants experienced more conflict with adults about climate change than French participants, but French participants described a greater lack of political agency compared to U.S. participants. Participants in both samples expressed a relatively balanced view of climate action, recognizing the significance of individual actions while acknowledging the limits of their power in the face of systemic issues. Some found hope and empowerment through climate action and building communities around it. Conclusion: Discussing with children and adolescents what adults are doing to mitigate climate change can provide reassurance, model prosocial behaviors, and inspire their own investment in climate action. Adults seeking to support the psychological well-being of young people should both support their concerns and actions around climate change and create avenues for young people to meaningfully engage in climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased urbanization means human beings become the dominant species and reduction in canopy cover. Globally, urban trees grow under challenging and complex circumstances with urbanization trends of increasing anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, high temperature and drought stress. This study aims to provide a better understanding of urban trees' morpho-physio-biochemical attributes that can support sustainable urban greening programs and urban climate change mitigation policies. Globally, urban dwellers' population is on the rise and spreading to suburban areas over time with an increase in domestic CO2 emissions. Uncertainty and less information on urban tree diversification and resistance to abiotic stress may create deterioration of ecosystem resilience over time. This review uses general parameters for urban tree physiology studies and employs three approaches for evaluating ecosystem resilience based on urban stress resistance in relation to trees' morphological, physiological and biochemical attributes. Due to the lack of a research model of ecosystem resilience and urban stress resistance of trees, this review demonstrates that the model concept supports future urban tree physiology research needs. In particular, it is necessary to develop integral methodologies and an urban tree research concept to assess how main and combined effects of drought and/or climate changes affect indigenous and exotic trees that are commonly grown in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ocean plays a central role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, climate and ocean policies have been historically siloed. After decades of slow convergence, the Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue, decided at COP25 and launched online in December 2020, was the first forum for Parties and non-Party stakeholders to the UNFCCC to give their perspectives on how the climate regime should address ocean-related mitigation and adaptation. The Ocean Dialogue was informed by 47 prior open submissions provided by a broad swath of actors from across the UN system and from civil society, including traditional and youth voices. Our analysis of the submissions demonstrates a political evolution towards the nexus among climate, ocean, and biodiversity regimes. The submissions uniformly acknowledge that ocean and climate systems are inextricably linked, and that consideration of ocean-based action will strengthen climate action and vice versa. Salient themes of the submissions include changing ocean impacts, carbon sinks and blue carbon opportunities, and the need for ecosystem resilience, biodiversity management and improved understanding of normative and institutional frameworks. There is a strong call to recognize the interconnectedness of the biophysical world. Similar themes emerged during the actual Ocean Dialogue and the subsequent informal meeting on next steps. The main message conveyed is the dire necessity to implement strong stewardship and good governance of the blue planet in a disrupted climate using cooperative and concrete actions. This analysis highlights the need for a continued transdisciplinary international dialogue on the ocean and climate change which elevates the ocean-climate-biodiversity nexus via collaborative science, finance, and policy. Ocean and marine ecosystem impacts of climate change were widely acknowledged, and referenced by ninety-one percent of submissions. After decades of slow integration of ocean into climate policy, the Ocean Dialogue submissions acknowledge that climate policy must address linkages with the ocean and its biodiversity. Concerns include changing ocean impacts, carbon sinks and blue carbon opportunities, and the need for ecosystem resilience, biodiversity management and increased institutional interactions. Continuation of this Dialogue, with strengthened collaboration between States and non-state actors, may give rise to multilateral and multilevel decision-making toward sustainable climate, ocean and biodiversity action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As of 2020, the world has an estimated 290 million ha of planted forests and this number is continuously increasing. Of these, 131 million ha are monospecific planted forests under intensive management. Although monospecific planted forests are important in providing timber, they harbor less biodiversity and are potentially more susceptible to disturbances than natural or diverse planted forests. Here, we point out the increasing scientific evidence for increased resilience and ecosystem service provision of functionally and species diverse planted forests (hereafter referred to as diverse planted forests) compared to monospecific ones. Furthermore, we propose five concrete steps to foster the adoption of diverse planted forests: (1) improve awareness of benefits and practical options of diverse planted forests among land‐owners, managers, and investors; (2) incentivize tree species diversity in public funding of afforestation and programs to diversify current maladapted planted forests of low diversity; (3) develop new wood‐based products that can be derived from many different tree species not yet in use; (4) invest in research to assess landscape benefits of diverse planted forests for functional connectivity and resilience to global‐change threats; and (5) improve the evidence base on diverse planted forests, in particular in currently under‐represented regions, where new options could be tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article takes issue with an important claim in the public choice and climate disaster literature: that American political markets will not allow appropriate investments in disaster preparedness and prevention, even when those investments are cost-benefit bargains. The claim is significant because the costs of climate disasters in the twenty-first century are estimated to be in the trillions of dollars due to the presence of legacy greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Thus, even assuming a sustained, successful global campaign to limit future greenhouse gases, the ingredients for decades of droughts, wildfires, storms, and floods are already locked into the atmosphere. Yet, for fifteen years, public choice economists have modeled disaster politics as a political commons riddled with externalities that lead to tragic underinvestment in disaster preparedness and resiliency. This Article is the first to offer a sustained critique of the public choice claim. It argues that the claim has both theoretical and empirical limitations. As importantly, resiliency faces challenges that the public choice claim masks. These include the possibility of other institutional constraints standing in the way of optimal resiliency investments, as well as the possibility of resiliency haves and have-nots: of wealthier communities even going on resiliency "binges" while poorer communities suffer disinvestment and decades of disasteraugmented poverty. The Article invites a new wave of scholarly attention to resiliency's prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon capture technologies are becoming increasingly crucial in addressing global climate change issues by lowering CO 2 emissions from industrial and power generation activities. Post-combustion carbon capture, which uses membranes instead of adsorbents, has emerged as one of promising and environmentally friendly approaches among these technologies. The operation of membrane technology is based on the premise of selectively separating CO 2 from flue gas emissions. This provides a number of different benefits, including improved energy efficiency and decreased costs of operation. Because of its adaptability to changing conditions and its low impact on the surrounding ecosystem, it is an appealing choice for a diverse array of uses. However, there are still issues to be resolved, such as those pertaining to establishing a high selectivity, membrane degradation, and the costs of the necessary materials. In this article, we evaluate and explore the prospective applications and roles of membrane technologies to control climate change by post-combustion carbon capturing. The primary proposition suggests that the utilization of membrane-based carbon capture has the potential to make a substantial impact in mitigating CO 2 emissions originating from industrial and power production activities. This is due to its heightened ability to selectively absorb carbon, better efficiency in energy consumption, and its flexibility to various applications. The forthcoming challenges and potential associated with the application of membranes in post-carbon capture are also discussed. • Crucial role of carbon capture technology in climate change mitigation and environmental resilience. • Crucial role of membrane in climate change mitigation for ecosystem has been critically analyzed. • Efficiency, cost, and benefits of membranes for climate change in ecosystem. • Challenges and prospects in CO 2 capture for and environmental resilience are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sustainability in Debate / Sustentabilidade em Debate is the property of University of Brasilia, Center for Sustainable Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The emergence of the climate change discourse in urban planning emphasises resilience as a key concept to deal with issues such as climate mitigation and adaptation, and urban health. What we have termed in this article 'green resilience', the coalescence of technological solutions and resilience thinking to solve cities' ecological issues, is constantly gaining traction in urban planning research. However, green resilience often fails to take into account the socio-political and spatial processes that pertain to the exploitation of land for urban development particularly in the global South. Based on our latest research on two urban megaprojects, in Johor-Singapore (Malaysia) and Doha (Qatar), in this article we build a critique of green resilience and urbanism by leveraging research in the fields of environmental humanities and urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Planning for climate change is complex. There is some uncertainty about how quickly the climate will change and what the anticipated localised effects will be. There are also governance questions, for instance, who has the mandate to make decisions around the management of collective resources (like council infrastructure) and private property. Underlying these questions are issues of justice, equity and agency – who pays for the costs of adaptation and mitigation, and how do decision-makers engage with communities when what is ultimately needed is transformational socio-economic change? We use a case study in Te Awa Kairangi – Lower Hutt, Wellington, to show how a community initiative called Common Unity Project Aotearoa (CUPA) is fostering everyday practices of adaptation and mitigation amongst people who have traditionally had limited participation in more formal planning processes. We use the example of CUPA to demonstrate the significance of local community-led development initiatives for adapting to a changing climate. We argue that local government engagement with people around climate change cannot be separated from broader community development and wellbeing initiatives, and needs to be understood as longer term processes, rather than one-off project consultations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical forests and coral reefs host a disproportionately large share of global biodiversity and provide ecosystem functions and services used by millions of people. Yet, ongoing climate change is leading to an increase in frequency and magnitude of extreme climatic events in the tropics, which, in combination with other local human disturbances, is leading to unprecedented negative ecological consequences for tropical forests and coral reefs. Here, we provide an overview of how and where climate extremes are affecting the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth and summarize how interactions between global, regional and local stressors are affecting tropical forest and coral reef systems through impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem resilience. We also discuss some key challenges and opportunities to promote mitigation and adaptation to a changing climate at local and global scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest social-ecological systems (FSESs) can play a major role in both the mitigation of climate change, as well as the adaptation of local communities to it. In Europe, however, forests are highly fragmented and located close to human populations. This means that maintaining forest sustainability implies not only increasing ecosystem adaptation but also developing social adaptation. Hence, there is a need to understand the current priorities and management goals of forestry stakeholders, as well as their capacity to achieve functional and sustainable FSES in the future. The present study uses an interdisciplinary approach to evaluate stakeholders' capacity to deal with climate change and top-down policies in different FSESs. We selected five FSESs in France that exhibit a range of climatic threats and socio-economic characteristics to estimate their adaptive capacity and transformative potential. The estimation is based on an assessment of different types of capital (i.e. natural, social, resources, governance) that involves evaluating 70 indicators through more than 70 semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders. Our results highlight that forest management in France, and more broadly in Europe, is mainly based on technical approaches, which build stakeholders' confidence in their capacity to maintain the status quo. We observe asymmetry in capital distribution in some FSES, mainly through the maximization of the resources capital, which can constraint FSESs in a robustness trap. To develop adaptive capacity for small perturbations as well as transformability, forestry stakeholders should be encouraged to compromises. More balanced capital distribution, with decreased economic benefits, along with new technical approaches and changes to the landscape composition could be necessary to ensure the long-term adaptability of FSES to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in climate and associated changes in seasonality, invasive plants and insects, and visitation are stressing ecosystems and infrastructure in Acadia National Park. Over the past five years, park staff and partners have begun taking an interdisciplinary, partnership-based approach to assessing baseline conditions, identifying stresses, developing climate change scenarios, and restoring the ecological and cultural integrity and resilience of whole watersheds. The approach contrasts with past resource management in which managers frequently tackled problems with minimal coordination between disciplines (e.g., water, wildlife, cultural resources, and maintenance) and locations. The result has been a series of projects that have begun to measurably improve the health of one of the park's most visited and iconic watersheds: the Cromwell Brook watershed, which includes Sieur de Monts (Acadia began in 1916 as Sieur de Monts National Monument) and the Great Meadow, and whose namesake waterway flows through the gateway town of Bar Harbor. Projects (inside and out of the park) have included rehabilitating a historic spring pool, replacing undersized culverts with open-bottom bridges, removing a poorly sited septic system, removing invasive plants, restoring native wetland, establishing monitoring to assess changes in watershed health, and working with the town and other stakeholders to plan future projects that would further improve the health of Great Meadow and downstream areas in Bar Harbor. The combination of planning; monitoring; restoring healthy, functioning ecological communities; and minimizing stresses from human infrastructure and visitation offer the best chance of maintaining Acadia National Park for the enjoyment of future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the construction of a socio-ecological timeline for the Porsanger fjord ecosystem, this article illustrates the different ways in which environmental and social–ecological changes have influenced the adaptations of rural households in coastal Sami communities in Finnmark, north Norway. The main finding is that, although environmental change in the form of seal invasions and dwindling fish stocks directly impacted the fisheries, the introduction of a new vessel quota system decisively changed adaptive capacity and coastal Sami household adaptation strategies. These changes represented a tipping point for the social–ecological system in the period between 1986 and 1990. It is thus important to discuss the ways in which governance systems may facilitate actions to adapt to climate and biodiversity change and foster sustainable rural livelihood systems in coastal Norway. Based on traditional and local ecological knowledge on the state of the ecosystem prior to the tipping point, two relevant actions to increase the resilience of the system were identified: ensuring the possibility of re-entry into fisheries as part of rural livelihood combinations, and ecological restoration of kelp beds. Flexible diversification of livelihoods allows exploitation of a range of adjacent species without large investments in a fossile fuel-driven fisheries economy. Investing in regrowth of macroalgae to foster cod nursery areas and increase carbon sequestration can be a relevant alternative for communities that are interested in contributing to climate change mitigation on a larger scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We currently face both an extinction and a biome crisis embedded in a changing climate. Many biodiverse ecosystems are being lost at far higher rates than they are being protected or ecologically restored. At the same time, natural climate solutions offer opportunities to restore biodiversity while mitigating climate change. The Bonn Challenge is a U.N. programme to restore biodiversity and mitigate climate change through restoration of the world's degraded landscapes. It provides an unprecedented chance for ecological restoration to become a linchpin tool for addressing many environmental issues. Unfortunately, the Forest and Landscape Restoration programme that underpins the Bonn Challenge, as its name suggests, remains focused on trees and forests, despite rising evidence that many non‐forest ecosystems also offer strong restoration potential for biodiversity and climate mitigation. We see a need for restoration to step back to be more inclusive of different ecosystem types and to step up to provide integrated scientific knowledge to inform large‐scale restoration. Stepping back and up will require assessments of where to restore what species, with recognition that in many landscapes multiple habitat types should be restored. In the process, trade‐offs in the delivery of different ecosystem services (e.g. carbon, biodiversity, water, albedo, livestock forage) should be clearly addressed. We recommend that biodiversity safeguards be included in policy and implemented in practice, to avoid undermining the biophysical relationships that provide ecosystem resilience to climate change. For ecological restoration to contribute to international policy goals will require integrated large‐scale science that works across biome boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the persistent failure to reduce emissions decisively, facilitate long-term resilience against climate change and account for the connectedness of climate change with other social, environmental and economic concerns, we present a conceptual framework of capacities for transformative climate governance. Transformative climate governance enables climate mitigation and adaptation while purposefully steering societies towards low-carbon, resilient and sustainable objectives. The framework provides a systematic analytical tool for understanding and supporting the already ongoing changes of the climate governance landscape towards more experimental approaches that include multi-scale, cross-sectoral and public-private collaborations. It distinguishes between different types of capacities needed to address transformation dynamics, including responding to disturbances (stewarding capacity), phasing-out drivers of path dependency (unlocking capacity), creating and embedding novelties (transformative capacity) and coordinating multi-actor processes (orchestrating capacity). Our case study of climate governance in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, demonstrates how the framework helps to map the activities by which multiple actors create new types of conditions for transformative climate governance, assess the effectiveness of the capacities and identify capacity gaps. Transformative and orchestrating capacities in Rotterdam emerged through the creation of space and informal networks for strategic and operational innovation, which also propelled new types of governance arrangements and structures. Both capacities support stewarding and unlocking by integrating and mainstreaming different goals, connecting actors to each other for the development of solutions and mediating interests. Key challenges across capacities remain because of limited mainstreaming of long-term and integrated thinking into institutional and regulatory frameworks. As the ongoing changes in climate governance open up multiple questions about actor roles, effective governance processes, legitimacy and how effective climate governance in the context of transformations can be supported, we invite future research to apply the capacities framework to explore these questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food-insecure households in many countries depend on international aid to alleviate acute shocks and chronic shortages. Some food security programmes (including Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program-PSNP - which provides a case study for this article) have integrated aid in exchange for labour on public works to reduce long-term dependence by investing in the productive capacity and resilience of communities. Using this approach, Ethiopia has embarked upon an ambitious national programme of land restoration and sustainable land management. Although the intent was to reduce poverty, here we show that an unintended co-benefit is the climate-change mitigation from reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increased landscape carbon stocks. The article first shows that the total reduction in net GHG emissions from PSNP’s land management at the national scale is estimated at 3.4 million Mg CO2e y−1 - approximately 1.5% of the emissions reductions in Ethiopia’s Nationally Determined Contribution for the Paris Agreement. The article then explores some of the opportunities and constraints to scaling up of this impact. Key policy insights Food security programmes (FSPs) can contribute to climate change mitigation by creating a vehicle for investment in land and ecosystem restoration. Maximizing mitigation, while enhancing but not compromising food security, requires that climate projections, and mitigation and adaptation responses should be mainstreamed into planning and implementation of FSPs at all levels. Cross-cutting oversight is required to integrate land restoration, climate policy, food security and disaster risk management into a coherent policy framework. Institutional barriers to optimal implementation should be addressed, such as incentive mechanisms that reward effort rather than results, and lack of centralized monitoring and evaluation of impacts on the physical environment. Project implementation can often be improved by adopting best management practices, such as using productive living livestock barriers where possible, and increasing the integration of agroforestry and non-timber forest products into landscape regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Agricultura Sociedad y Desarrollo is the property of Colegio de Postgraduados and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Climate change is predicted to have severe impacts on mountainous regions, including urban settlements, and livelihoods of the urban poor. Adaptive capacity for marginalized groups is largely determined by household-level resources and decision-making capacity. This study investigated the vulnerability status and prevalent adaptation strategies of urban slum dwellers in Dehradun, Indian Himalayas, using a pre-tested questionnaire covering household characteristics and indicators of vulnerability, in face-to-face interviews with the head of 122 randomly selected households in four slums. We found that overall vulnerability was very high, with very low absorptive and coping capacity for potential impacts of climate change. Moreover, vulnerability and coping strategies were socially differentiated in terms of the decision-making capability and resource capacity of households. Two groups per category (good and bad decision makers; poor and poorer households) were distinguished. The exposure dimension of vulnerability differed significantly by resource capacity and decision capability. However, the sensitivity dimension of vulnerability did not differ between the groups, while the adaptive capacity dimension of vulnerability differed depending on decision-making capability. In designing appropriate strategies for long-term disaster mitigation for urban slums, it is thus important to address slum socio-ecology and the capability and capacity of slum dwellers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban residents have the potential to play a key role in helping to facilitate ecological resilience of wilderness areas and ecosystems beyond the city by helping ensure the migration of nonhuman climate refugee populations. Three ethical frameworks related to this issue could determine whether we have an ethical duty to help nonhuman climate refugee populations: ethical individualism, ethical holism, and species ethics. Using each of these frameworks could support the stronger view that policy makers and members of the public have a moral duty to mitigate the impacts of climate induced migration, or the weaker claim that these impacts should be taken into account when making land-use and planning decisions in urban contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change poses serious threats to agriculture. As a primary staple crop and major contributor to agriculturally derived greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, rice systems are of particular significance to building climate resilience. We report on a participatory assessment of climate resilience in organic and conventional rice systems located in four neighboring villages in Negros Occidental, Philippines. The Philippines is one of the foremost countries impacted by climate change, with an increasing incidence of climate-related disturbances and extensive coastlines, high population density and heavy dependence on agriculture. Using the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's Self-evaluation and Holistic Assessment of climate Resilience of farmers and Pastoralists (SHARP) tool, we measured 13 agroecosystem indicators of climate resilience, and assessed the degree to which household, farm, and community mechanisms and outcomes impact adaptation capacity, mitigation potential and vulnerability. We used a participatory approach to situate these indicators in their socio-ecological context, and identify targeted interventions for enhancing climate resilience based on local farmer experiences and socio-ecological conditions. Comparison of climate resilience indicators across organic and conventional rice systems in this region indicated that organic rice systems are more climate resilient than their conventional counterparts. As such, increased policy support for the development of organic rice systems are critically important as an adaptive mechanism to augment food security, mitigate GHG emissions and improve climate resilience in the Philippines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I consider how local oral history narratives provide smallholder farmers with both material and symbolic resources in adapting to climate change. I draw from the case study of an agrarian village in Madagascar that was struck by a destructive category 3 cyclone. In the weeks following the storm, oral history knowledge occupied an increasingly visible role within the community, as younger farmers interacted with elders to hear tales of past storms. Through these shared accounts, people discussed specific techniques on how to cope with environmental uncertainty. They also created a sense of shared history, which provided individuals across generations an entry point into the local historical record. Overall, the process of sharing oral history accounts can contribute to community resilience, with resiliency encompassing not only technical or ecological factors, but also the more affective realms of shared legacies, hope and belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Super Typhoon Haiyan devastated portions of Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines on November 8, 2013. It caused unprecedented destruction but it also brought about new awareness for urgent and immediate action, not only on integrating Disaster Risk Management in our daily functions but also on addressing Climate Change variation impacts. In response, various stakeholders have made numerous efforts in reducing the country’s risk through crafting laws, statutes and government issuances. However, adaptive and coping capacities of Local Government Units remain very weak, and information on how to assess expected risk and incorporate it in developing local risk sensitive physical and development plans are still not part of the planners’ and decision makers’ agenda. The main objective of this study is to develop a technical Risk Sensitive Comprehensive Land Use and Development Planning Model to mainstream scientific-based risk assessment into the Quezon City Government (the pilot urban area) planners’ and decision makers’ agenda. The Model also comes with a toolkit with eight (8) Guideposts in operationalizing the Model. It is an effective tool and is a foundation to support in achieving imminent 2020 targets of the Sendai Framework, Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals up to 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation planning at the community level takes on various forms. It generally involves a process of defining climate impacts, vulnerabilities, and actions that can build community resilience. Typically, these processes rely on climate experts and policy-makers to define what is at risk, and therefore what is worthy of investment and protection. Emerging approaches to community-based adaptation-planning advocate for stronger community control over these processes. Drawing on a place-based approach to adaptation, this paper examines place meaning as a co-constructed process. It explores how this process shapes opportunities for community-based climate action in Churchill, Canada. Results indicate that community members acknowledge many competing threats to their sense of place, and suggest that this competition may reduce the perceived need to prioritise climate action to protect connections to place. Results also reveal a concern among community members that local place identity has been appropriated for economic gain, which may further reduce the drive to act in protection of an already exploited sense of place. Overall, findings support calls to adopt place-based perspectives to enhance the capacity of adaptation planning to understand local needs, values, and levers for action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the important yet largely misunderstood relationship between resilience and sustainability and the gap between these theoretical constructs and the practice of urban development. It explores how these two separate constructs, each with its own theoretical framework, complement and support each other as approaches to the complex issues arising from fast-changing urban conditions and unprecedented pressures on the urban social-ecological system. The City of Tshwane metropolitan urban system, which includes Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa, forms the exploration ground for this study. As a metropolitan area undergoing rapid urbanization along with increasing resource depletion, service delivery issues and social injustices, Tshwane provides a number of extreme urban design and planning problems of varying scales within a single urban system that are directly related to the constructs of resilience and sustainability. The paper uses the example of gated communities, a common spatial response to the sustainability goal of security, to examine and elucidate a broader understanding of the relationship between sustainability and resilience attributes and their application to spatial development practices. It is proposed that the understanding of the structure and dynamics of the city provided by resilience thinking, combined with the normative positions offered by sustainability offers, a) a way for urban design and planning interventions to constructively engage with the realities of a fast-changing city; and b) a new understanding of resilience within urban design and planning fields which includes interpretations that extend beyond climate change mitigation or rapid urbanization adaptation, seeing its potential as means of informing transformative development across scales through establishing mechanisms for the development of spatial resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In social-science based research, it is still an open question how cities cope with the multi-faceted challenges of climate change. Via the example of the German coastal cities of Lübeck and Rostock and on the basis of a discourse analysis (of news articles and expert interviews), this paper contributes to this research question by asking how cities actually perceive their vulnerability and resilience related to climate impacts. The study reveals that perceptions in the two cities differ considerably and are idiosyncratic when compared to each other. This is remarkable because both cities share similar geographic conditions as well as climate forecasts. Furthermore, they both have in common a long history as Hanseatic cities. What makes Rostock special, however, is that it was part of the former German Democratic Republic and that, after the German reunification in 1990, it suffered from socio-economic problems and marginalization. The paper's findings raise the question of how divergent local knowledge about climate-related vulnerability and resilience can be conceptualized. It is also imperative to consider how local experiences of economic problems and social marginalization influence local knowledge regarding climate change. Consequently, the authors suggest a theoretical approach which is mainly based on social constructionism. Furthermore, they highlight the role that locally shared experiences--such as of social marginalization--play in the emergence of climate change constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robust strategies and action-plans are essential in tackling climate change. Given the local and context-specific nature of climate impacts, the involvement of municipalities is key for effective mitigation and adaptation solutions. Due to its vulnerability and low level of adaptive capacity, Portugal offers insights into adaptation research and practice in Europe. This article hypothesizes that National and European climate change adaptation strategies are not effectively involving municipalities, and are thus losing out on the opportunity to take stock of local responses for climate change mitigation and adaptation. To address this issue, a survey by questionnaire was done to Portuguese municipalities, and data was collected regarding the following: the importance attributed to climate change; the mitigation and adaptation measures planned and implemented; the main drivers, concerns, and triggers promoting climate policy and actions; and access to information and knowledge. 109 valid responses were collected across the country from a universe of 308 municipalities. Results show climate change in planning agendas is still ‘little’ or ‘not important’. There is also a clear difference in the drivers and concerns motivating climate policy, and action between Littoral and Inland regions. Overall, there is a greater focus on mitigation than adaptation. The discussion highlights the need for capacity building, the issue of equity, the role of European networks, and the relevance of cultural differences between Littoral and Inland regions. The conclusion distils the main lessons learned concerning these challenges and needs, the role of transnational networks, and the cultural contexts for building resilience, through adaptation, across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities currently host more than half of the world population, a number which is projected to continue to rise. Urban centres also create large percentages of national gross domestic product (GDP) and are important sources of employment but also generate large proportions of national greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change and fast technological progress, among other factors, will bring considerable challenges for urban policy-makers and implementers. They will need to be able to keep pace with the unforeseeable and a future that will be significantly different from past experience, while also aiming to maintain and increase liveability and social well-being. This is leading local, state and national governments as well as international organisations to start developing and implementing resilience policies. However, what it is meant by “resilience” might be significantly different in each case, making comparison of policies and proposals a complex issue. To complicate things even further, in addition to the many established definitions of the term which have been coined over the years, many policies and academic publications on the topic lack a clear definition of the type of resilience they seek to address. The present work explores some established resilience concepts and their policy implications as well as the new concept of sustainable resilience. This publication then explores the question of whether some forms of resilience are more sustainable than other from an urban policy perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The urban heat island expansion index was developed to identify the new UHI patches. • The new UHI patches are reclassified as infilling, edge-expanding and leapfrogging. • The new UHI patches have lower UHII but higher contributions than pre-existing patches. • The new UHI patches are predominantly edge-expanding with the maximum UHII. • Croplands, rural residential areas, and forests were the main sources for new UHI patches. Urban ecological resilience enhancement is important for the mitigation of climate change risks; however, urban heat islands (UHIs) have negative impacts on urban resilience. A UHI expansion index (UHIEI) was developed to identify new UHI patches produced by including infilling, edge expansion, and leapfrogging. In this study, we used a simplified urban extent (SUE) algorithm to estimate new UHI patches and their associated UHI intensity (UHII) values in 371 cities in China during 2005–2020. Then, we analyzed the sources and sinks of the UHI patches according to land use data. The study sought to comprehensively determine the spatial expansion path of the new UHI patches at the national scale. The results showed mean UHII values of 2.11 °C ± 0.63 °C and 1.06 °C ± 0.54 °C during the day and night, respectively, for the 371 cities in the summer of 2020; these were slightly higher than the corresponding values in 2005. The UHII values of the new UHI patches were 0.57 °C and 0.29 °C lower during the day and night, respectively, compared with pre-existing UHI patches in summer. New UHI patches were predominantly formed through edge expansion, with maximum UHII values of 1.74 °C ± 0.80 °C and 0.88 °C ± 0.42 °C during the day and night, respectively; these are lower than the values of pre-existing UHI patches, but they represent greater contributions to the land surface temperature (LST) of the city. Croplands, rural residential areas, and forests were the main sources for new UHI patches. The results of this study will allow better identification and comparison of the temporal and spatial characteristics of pre-existing and new UHI patches; they will also facilitate the design of targeted measures to mitigate their ecological impacts according to expansion type, thereby improving the cities' ecological resilience characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The likelihood of being faced with trap-like situations is a worrisome aspect of long-term policy-making, such as for climate change adaptation. Even when a policy may be effective in the short-term, changes in problem or policy contexts may render it ineffective over time. The design of 'robust' policies, meaning those which are able to self-adjust to linear changes in their environment, can be contrasted with 'resilient' ones which are able to adjust not only to linear, but also non-linear shifts in their contexts. Building on Boonstra and de Boer (AMBIO 43:260-274, 2014)'s argument that traps should not be considered as a static phenomenon; rather their emergence and development is often directly influenced by history and path-dependency, this paper elaborates how trap-like situations can emerge with increase in climate uncertainty over time. Three strategies to address policy traps due to climate change form subjects of inquiry in this paper: avoiding traps in the first place, designing against traps, and overcoming traps once in them. Each requires a specific type of design thinking and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human population is projected to grow to more than 9 billion by 2050. New farming and fishing techniques are continually being developed. However, food production remains restricted by the finiteness of natural resources and the rapid increase in the global population. In the future, food production may decline because of the aggravated effects of climate change. Food production will be unable to satisfy the demands of the global population, leading to a food security crisis. As the world population continues to increase, food shortages will become increasingly severe, particularly for regions located in “climate impact hot spots” in tropical and subtropical zones and for small-island countries such as Taiwan. In the present study, supply and demand are analysed to examine the risks and uncertainties associated with the impact of climate change on the domestic and imported seafood supply. First, we conduct a literature review to identify the climate risk for sea food security, and then, we analyse the domestic production of both the marine fishing catch and aquaculture. This study also examines the critical problems of the imported seafood supply and applies a comparative analysis of impact type and differences in the top 10 seafood import countries to organize adaptation strategies to climate change. Moreover, due to the type of climate impact and the differences between long-term climate impact and extreme climate impact, we collect and compile the existing climate adaptation strategies of fishery production, seafood importing, and the demand and supply of seafood in Taiwan. Finally, we perform a comparative analysis to seek any deficiencies in the existing climate adaptation strategies and offer new adaptation guidelines based on the existing climate adaptation strategies. The results show that Taiwan’s major adaptation strategies have been precautionary mitigation measures. In terms of resilience management, only the buffer stock scheme plan and the stabilization funds method are selected for some specific species to mitigate the short-term fluctuation in both yield and price for imported domestic seafood. However, we will confront uncertainties stemming from global climate change in the future; the existing climate adaptation strategies of Taiwan are still not sufficient to respond to climate impacts. For example, the climate change early warning system is still very inadequate, the existing scientific knowledge is insufficient, and the current adaptation strategies are insufficient for resolving the fluctuations in the market mechanism of seafood. According to the principles of risk management, the adaptation strategies recommended in this study can be differentiated into two categories: precautionary mitigation measures can be used to adapt to domestic production and uncertainties; such measures include avoidance, transfer, and reduction to prevent the frequency and consequences of climate change for building a resilient fisheries sector. Moreover, resilience management (e.g., risk retention) can be used to respond to uncertainties in supply for adjusting production and mitigating the risks of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out to evaluate the range of meanings and preferences for the concepts of adaptation, resilience, mitigation and coping of a variety of professionals in New York who are undertaking leadership positions in developing climate change policies and practices. This article positions a normative set of simplified meanings for each of the aforementioned concepts based on a review of existing literature. Utilizing a survey, these normative meanings are evaluated by and between the: (a) concepts and meanings; (b) concepts and applications and (c) applications and preferences, as applied to various risk-based scenarios ranging from sea-level rise to heat waves. This survey tests the hypotheses that the respondents: (i) are unable to consistently match the concept of resiliency with the normative meanings or applications: and (ii) will not consistently show a preference for resilience applications or outcomes ahead of other concepts. The results of the survey confirm both hypotheses, which is demonstrative of the inadequacy of the current framework dominated by a narrowly defined framework for resilience. It is anticipated that the results of this article will advance an argument for the necessity to develop consistent meanings for concepts which bridge the scientific, policy and popular domains. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

By the year 2050, more than 70% of the world’s population will be living in cities. The rush to the cities, along with subsequent increased consumption patterns, has dire consequences, for the ecological systems that sustain human life. Some find hope in the potential that cities can be built differently, that green infrastructure and denser forms of development, will satisfy human needs while decreasing the stress on valuable resources and mitigating consequences of climate change. Some say that “strong political leadership and robust governance” is critical for this need to drive sustainable urban transitions. However, are “political will” and “good governance” enough or is the issue more complicated than this? Using a critical political economy approach this paper shows the fundamental difficulties that arise when attempting to transition urban centres to “smarter”, more “sustainable” and “resilient” cities. Ultimately, the paper argues that “good governance” and “strong political will” are inadequate for understanding the requirements for transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mitigation of climate change requires developing alternatives to fossil fuels, while simultaneously looking for ways to increase the resilience of our socioecological systems especially those reliant on ecosystem goods and services. Forest biomass is receiving increased attention as a source of renewable fuel; yet at the same time, increased use of wood fuels raises health concerns about the adverse effects of pollution and as a possible contributor to deforestation and forest degradation. For these reasons, where people use wood fuel, policies are designed to shift people away from wood fuel and using forest biomass and up the energy ladder, typically toward fossil fuels. Using a case study from Chile, where air pollution from residential firewood combustion has become a serious issue, we show that while such policies might reduce pollution in the short term, they are unlikely to improve either human well-being or the sustainability of resource use in the long term. Instead of policies designed to reduce or eliminate wood fuel use, by examining the interlinked energy and resource subsystems and socioeconomic context within which wood fuel is used, we argue that a combination of policy interventions targeting the adoption of energy-saving technologies, while still maintaining wood fuel as a primary energy source, would yield higher economic, social, and environmental benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the important role that local government has in ensuring disaster risk reduction and increased resilience of cities in the face of climate disasters. It includes discussion of the interaction between local government and other levels of government (regional, national and international), as well as public and private actors. It also examines the links between disaster risk reduction and the wider goals of sustainability and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The article reviews the climate change plans of various cities. It concludes that local government is, of all levels of government, most closely connected to the problems climate disasters pose to cities and, therefore, it is local government that is best placed to take action to increase urban resilience to such disasters. Local government will, however, be most successful when it works with other levels of government, and both public and private actors. Further, it is critical that decisions made by local government consider simultaneously the goals of sustainability and climate change mitigation and adaptation generally, alongside the issue of disaster risk reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the challenges being faced by city and municipal governments, residents, and companies concerning the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) climate assessment. He notes that the assessment requires governments to add climate change adaptation and contributions to mitigation to their policies, plans, regulatory frameworks and budgets. He claims that lack of resources, funding, knowledge and capacity to address disaster risk and poverty should be addressed.

This paper explores the advantages of applying the concept of social-ecological resilience (SER) and the related thinking in transdisciplinary research. The theoretical reflections are exemplified by transdisciplinary research experiences using the concept of SER as a bridging concept in the field of climate-change adaptation instead of developing a new and very context-specific conceptual bridge. The findings are based on ontological reflections concerning the complex and hybrid phenomenon of climate change and the need for transdisciplinary research as well as on reflections on the performed interdisciplinary research and the exploratory transdisciplinary research approach with practitioners from the German administration. The experiences so far have shown that it was more focused on the general ideas of social-ecological resilience thinking instead of using the concept of SER as an analytical tool. We conclude that the use of a common conceptual framework in general and of social-ecological resilience thinking in particular offers tangible advantages in transdisciplinary research dealing with climate change and adaptation to the impacts of climate change. In our case, social-ecological resilience thinking helped-after translation into practical terms-to open the field for further consideration from the very beginning as well as to open the space for common creative work; to define the problem; and to choose the relevant variables to look at. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate and human-induced changes have created major challenges for attaining sustainable agriculture throughout the world. Water scarcity is one of the most serious challenges facing agricultural communities in the process of continued productivity. In striving to mitigate the vicissitudes presented by disasters, new paradigms that include resilience theory have been incorporated into studies of sustainability. Resilience of social-ecological systems is viewed as an important way of foreseeing and adapting to possible changes. This article explores the relationship between resilience and sustainability. Also, the types of social strategies that exist for building resilience among farmers and their households to support sustainable agriculture in the conditions of water scarcity are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]