| 1. |
- Bai, Xuemei, et al.
(författare)
-
Defining and advancing a systems approach for sustainable cities
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 23, s. 69-78
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The sustainable development of cities is increasingly recognized as crucial to meeting collectively agreed sustainability goals at local, regional and global scales, and more broadly to securing human well-being worldwide. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include a goal on cities (Goal 11), with most other goals and targets have urban applications and multi scalar implications for their implementation. Further, the interdependencies - including synergies and trade-offs among the various SDGs are greater in cities, presenting both challenges and opportunities. A systems approach is urgently needed in urban research and policy analysis, but such an approach rarely features in current analysis or urban decision-making for various reasons. This paper explores four questions: why a systems approach is necessary, what defines such an approach, why has this rarely been adopted in practice, and what can be done to promote its use. We argue that a systems approach can reveal unrecognized opportunities to maximize co-benefits and synergies, guide management of inevitable trade-offs, and therefore inform prioritisation and successful solutions. We present four key issues for the effective implementation of the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda, which emerged from UN Habitat III Conference, namely: (a) a radical redesign of the multilateral institutional setup on urban issues; (b) promoting regenerative culture, behaviour, and design; (c) exploring ways to finance a systems approach; and (d) a new and enhanced role for science in sustainable development. The latter issue could be addressed through Future Earth's Urban Knowledge-Action Network, which aims at co-designing and co-producing cutting-edge and actionable knowledge for sustainable cities bringing together researchers and urban decision-makers and practitioners.
|
|
| 2. |
- Bai, Xuemei, et al.
(författare)
-
Networking urban science, policy and practice for sustainability
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 39, s. 114-122
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Networks are increasingly important for advancing urban science, policy and practice. The complexity that cities present to stakeholders of all kinds demands systems-based and networked approaches to solving sustainability challenges. This article analyses the contemporary rise of global networks of urban science, policy, and practice. We provide an overview of urban science, policy, and practice networks followed by a detailed case study of the emerging Future Earth Urban Knowledge Action Network (Urban KAN), highlighting its vision, initial activities and impacts, and challenges and remaining tasks. Findings from the case study reveal that a network across science, policy and practice can make significant contribution in cutting-edge knowledge generation, global research agenda setting, timely contribution to global policy processes, catalyzing the formation of new national and thematic research-action networks, among others. In contrast, such a network also faces challenges, in terms of attraction and representation of the composition, maintaining initial momentum, turning the science-policy integration and collaboration into reality, and obtaining strong and continued financial and institutional support. We conclude that networks across the boundaries of science-policy-practice are still in their infancy, and deeper collaborations across sector, scale, and networks that enable the implementation of effective new actions will be key indicator in measuring the success of these networks.
|
|
| 3. |
- Bennett, Elena M., et al.
(författare)
-
Linking biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being : three challenges for designing research for sustainability
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 14, s. 76-85
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ecosystem services have become a mainstream concept for the expression of values assigned by people to various functions of ecosystems. Even though the introduction of the concept has initiated a vast amount of research, progress in using this knowledge for sustainable resource use remains insufficient. We see a need to broaden the scope of research to answer three key questions that we believe will improve incorporation of ecosystem service research into decision-making for the sustainable use of natural resources to improve human well-being: (i) how are ecosystem services co-produced by social–ecological systems, (ii) who benefits from the provision of ecosystem services, and (iii) what are the best practices for the governance of ecosystem services? Here, we present these key questions, the rationale behind them, and their related scientific challenges in a globally coordinated research programme aimed towards improving sustainable ecosystem management. These questions will frame the activities of ecoSERVICES, formerly a DIVERSITAS project and now a project of Future Earth, in its role as a platform to foster global coordination of multidisciplinary sustainability science through the lens of ecosystem services.
|
|
| 4. |
- Biermann, F., et al.
(författare)
-
The Earth System Governance Project as a network organization : a critical assessment after ten years
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 39, s. 17-23
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The social sciences have engaged since the late 1980s in international collaborative programmes to study questions of sustainability and global change. This article offers an in-depth analysis of the largest long-standing social-science network in this field: the Earth System Governance Project. Originating as a core project of the former International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change, the Earth System Governance Project has matured into a global, self-sustaining research network, with annual conferences, numerous taskforces, research centers, regional research fellow meetings, three book series, an open access flagship journal, and a lively presence in social media. The article critically reviews the experiences of the Earth System Governance network and its integration and interactions with other programmes over the last decade.
|
|
| 5. |
- Bowen, Kathryn J., et al.
(författare)
-
Governing the health risks of climate change : towards multi-sector responses
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 12, s. 80-85
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Climate change will exacerbate current and create new health risks. Because many upstream drivers of these risks arise from outside the sector, multi-sectoral approaches are required for effective adaptation. This paper focuses on showcasing successful stories of collaboration from four relevant arenas - One Health, Disaster Risk Management, the Commission on Social Determinants of Health, and Health in All Policies (HiAP). Common themes from these case studies include first, the importance of systems-based approaches incorporating partnership with all relevant sectors, and second structural supports, including leadership, sufficient resources and responsive governments, are necessary to provide the supporting conditions for collaboration and partnerships.
|
|
| 6. |
- Bowen, Kathryn J., et al.
(författare)
-
Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals : towards addressing three key governance challenges-collective action, trade-offs, and accountability
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 26-27, s. 90-96
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Realising the aspirations of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to reduce inequality, limit ecological damage, and secure resilient livelihoods is a grand challenge for sustainability science, civil society and government. We identify three key governance challenges that are central for implementing the SDGs: (i) cultivating collective action by creating inclusive decision spaces for stakeholder interaction across multiple sectors and scales; (ii) making difficult trade-offs, focusing on equity, justice and fairness; and (iii) ensuring mechanisms exist to hold societal actors to account regarding decision-making, investment, action, and outcomes. The paper explains each of these three governance challenges, identifying possible avenues for addressing them, and highlights the importance of interlinkages between the three challenges.
|
|
| 7. |
- Buijs, Arjen E., et al.
(författare)
-
Active citizenship for urban green infrastructure : fostering the diversity and dynamics of citizen contributions through mosaic governance
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 22, s. 1-6
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Active citizens may contribute to the environmental, social, and institutional resilience of cities. This review discusses how citizen initiatives protect biodiversity hotspots, contribute to social cohesion, institutional innovation, and diversity in urban green space management. Challenges related to social inclusiveness, ecological connectivity and continuity suggest government involvement is pertinent, but needs to be refocused. To maximise environmental outcomes of active citizenship, governments may adopt an enabling and stimulating governance style that harnesses the transformative potential of active citizenship. This paper argues for mosaic governance to work with the heterogeneous array of people, institutions, and spatial practices associated with active citizenship. Mosaic governance aims for a context-sensitive way of urban green infrastructure planning, enhancing relationships between the diversity of landscapes and communities across cities.
|
|
| 8. |
- Diaz, Sandra, et al.
(författare)
-
The IPBES Conceptual Framework - connecting nature and people
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 14, s. 1-16
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The first public product of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is its Conceptual Framework. This conceptual and analytical tool, presented here in detail, will underpin all IPBES functions and provide structure and comparability to the syntheses that IPBES will produce at different spatial scales, on different themes, and in different regions. Salient innovative aspects of the IPBES Conceptual Framework are its transparent and participatory construction process and its explicit consideration of diverse scientific disciplines, stakeholders, and knowledge systems, including indigenous and local knowledge. Because the focus on co-construction of integrative knowledge is shared by an increasing number of initiatives worldwide, this framework should be useful beyond IPBES, for the wider research and knowledge-policy communities working on the links between nature and people, such as natural, social and engineering scientists, policy-makers at different levels, and decision-makers in different sectors of society.
|
|
| 9. |
- Elmqvist, Thomas, et al.
(författare)
-
Benefits of restoring ecosystem services in urban areas
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 14, s. 101-108
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cities are a key nexus of the relationship between people and nature and are huge centers of demand for ecosystem services and also generate extremely large environmental impacts. Current projections of rapid expansion of urban areas present fundamental challenges and also opportunities to design more livable, healthy and resilient cities (e.g. adaptation to climate change effects). We present the results of an analysis of benefits of ecosystem services in urban areas. Empirical analyses included estimates of monetary benefits from urban ecosystem services based on data from 25 urban areas in the USA, Canada, and China. Our results show that investing in ecological infrastructure in cities, and the ecological restoration and rehabilitation of ecosystems such as rivers, lakes, and woodlands occurring in urban areas, may not only be ecologically and socially desirable, but also quite often, economically advantageous, even based on the most traditional economic approaches.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
