| 1. |
- Andersson, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Reconnecting Cities to the Biosphere : Stewardship of Green Infrastructure and Urban Ecosystem Services
- 2014
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Ingår i: Ambio. - : Springer. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 43:4, s. 445-453
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Within-city green infrastructure can offer opportunities and new contexts for people to become stewards of ecosystem services. We analyze cities as social-ecological systems, synthesize the literature, and provide examples from more than 15 years of research in the Stockholm urban region, Sweden. The social-ecological approach spans from investigating ecosystem properties to the social frameworks and personal values that drive and shape human interactions with nature. Key findings demonstrate that urban ecosystem services are generated by social-ecological systems and that local stewards are critically important. However, land-use planning and management seldom account for their role in the generation of urban ecosystem services. While the small scale patchwork of land uses in cities stimulates intense interactions across borders much focus is still on individual patches. The results highlight the importance and complexity of stewardship of urban biodiversity and ecosystem services and of the planning and governance of urban green infrastructure.
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| 2. |
- Costanza, Robert, et al.
(författare)
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Developing an Integrated History and future of People on Earth (IHOPE)
- 2012
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Ingår i: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 4:1, s. 106-114
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Integrated History and future of People on Earth (IHOPE) initiative is a global network of researchers and research projects with its International Program Office (IPO) now based at the Stockholm Resilience Center (SRC), Uppsala University, Arizona State University, Portland State University, and the Australian National University. Research linked to IHOPE demonstrates that Earth system changes in the past have been strongly associated with changes in the coupled human-environment system. IHOPE supports integrating knowledge and resources from the biophysical and the social sciences and the humanities to address analytical and interpretive issues associated with coupled human-earth system dynamics. This integration of human history and Earth system history is a timely and important task. Until recently, however, there have been few attempts at such integration. IHOPE will create frameworks that can be used to help achieve this integration. The overarching goal is to produce a rich understanding of the relationships between environmental and human processes over the past millennia. HOPE recognizes that one major challenge for reaching this goal is developing 'workable' terminology that can be accepted by scholars of all disciplines. The specific objectives for IHOPE are to identify slow and rapidly moving features of complex social-ecological systems, on local to continental spatial scales, which induce resilience, stress, or collapse in linked systems of humans in nature. These objectives will be reached by exploring innovative ways of conducting interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary science, including theory, case studies, and integrated modeling. Examples of projects underway to implement this initiative are briefly discussed.
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| 3. |
- Elmqvist, Thomas, et al.
(författare)
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The Dynamics of Social-Ecological Systems in Urban Landscapes
- 2004
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Ingår i: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. - : Wiley. - 0077-8923 .- 1749-6632. ; 1023, s. 308-322
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study addresses social-ecological dynamics in the greater metropolitan area of Stockholm County, Sweden, with special focus on the National Urban Park (NUP). It is part of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) and has the following specific objectives: (1) to provide scientific information on biodiversity patterns, ecosystem dynamics, and ecosystem services generated; (2) to map interplay between actors and institutions involved in management of ecosystem services; and (3) to identify strategies for strengthening social-ecological resilience. The green areas in Stockholm County deliver numerous ecosystem services, for example, air filtration, regulation of microclimate, noise reduction, surface water drainage, recreational and cultural values, nutrient retention, and pollination and seed dispersal. Recreation is among the most important services and NUP, for example, has more than 15 million visitors per year. More than 65 organizations representing 175,000 members are involved in management of ecosystem services. However, because of population increase and urban growth during the last three decades, the region displays a quite dramatic loss of green areas and biodiversity. An important future focus is how management may reduce increasing isolation of urban green areas and enhance connectivity. Comanagement should be considered where locally managed green space may function as buffer zones and for management of weak links that connect larger green areas; for example, there are three such areas around NUP identified. Preliminary results indicate that areas of informal management represent centers on which to base adaptive comanagement, with the potential to strengthen biodiversity management and resilience in the landscape.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Rockström, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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A safe operating space for humanity
- 2009
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 461:7263, s. 472-475
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 6. |
- Rockström, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Planetary Boundaries : Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity
- 2009
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Ingår i: Ecology & Society. - 1708-3087. ; 14:2, s. 32-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Anthropogenic pressures on the Earth System have reached a scale where abrupt global environmental change can no longer be excluded. We propose a new approach to global sustainability in which we define planetary boundaries within which we expect that humanity can operate safely. Transgressing one or more planetary boundaries may be deleterious or even catastrophic due to the risk of crossing thresholds that will trigger non-linear, abrupt environmental change within continental- to planetary-scale systems. We have identified nine planetary boundaries and, drawing upon current scientific understanding, we propose quantifications for seven of them. These seven are climate change (CO2 concentration in the atmosphere <350 ppm and/or a maximum change of +1 W m(-2) in radiative forcing); ocean acidification (mean surface seawater saturation state with respect to aragonite >= 80% of pre-industrial levels); stratospheric ozone (<5% reduction in O-3 concentration from pre-industrial level of 290 Dobson Units); biogeochemical nitrogen (N) cycle (limit industrial and agricultural fixation of N-2 to 35 Tg N yr(-1)) and phosphorus (P) cycle (annual P inflow to oceans not to exceed 10 times the natural background weathering of P); global freshwater use (<4000 km(3) yr(-1) of consumptive use of runoff resources); land system change (<15% of the ice-free land surface under cropland); and the rate at which biological diversity is lost (annual rate of <10 extinctions per million species). The two additional planetary boundaries for which we have not yet been able to determine a boundary level are chemical pollution and atmospheric aerosol loading. We estimate that humanity has already transgressed three planetary boundaries: for climate change, rate of biodiversity loss, and changes to the global nitrogen cycle. Planetary boundaries are interdependent, because transgressing one may both shift the position of other boundaries or cause them to be transgressed. The social impacts of transgressing boundaries will be a function of the social-ecological resilience of the affected societies. Our proposed boundaries are rough, first estimates only, surrounded by large uncertainties and knowledge gaps. Filling these gaps will require major advancements in Earth System and resilience science. The proposed concept of "planetary boundaries" lays the groundwork for shifting our approach to governance and management, away from the essentially sectoral analyses of limits to growth aimed at minimizing negative externalities, toward the estimation of the safe space for human development. Planetary boundaries define, as it were, the boundaries of the "planetary playing field" for humanity if we want to be sure of avoiding major human-induced environmental change on a global scale.
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| 7. |
- Steffen, Will, et al.
(författare)
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Planetary boundaries : Guiding human development on a changing planet
- 2015
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 347:6223
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The planetary boundaries framework defines a safe operating space for humanity based on the intrinsic biophysical processes that regulate the stability of the Earth system. Here, we revise and update the planetary boundary framework, with a focus on the underpinning biophysical science, based on targeted input from expert research communities and on more general scientific advances over the past 5 years. Several of the boundaries now have a two-tier approach, reflecting the importance of cross-scale interactions and the regional-level heterogeneity of the processes that underpin the boundaries. Two core boundaries-climate change and biosphere integrity-have been identified, each of which has the potential on its own to drive the Earth system into a new state should they be substantially and persistently transgressed.
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| 8. |
- Widström, Torun
(författare)
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Enhanced Energy Efficiency and Preservation of Historic Buildings : Methods and Tools for Modeling
- 2012
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As the environmental impacts of the energy usage of the world today becomes more and more evident, enhancement of energy performance of the already existing building stock becomes more urgent. Buildings belonging to the cultural heritage are often the ones that are most difficult to deal with in this context.The subject of this thesis is the use of building simulation of historic buildings. The task here is to identify and when necessary develop simulation tools and methods that are suitable for planning of retrofitting strategies in historic buildings, and to identify and analyze what demands such tools and methods would have to fulfill, in what contexts different simulation strategies are suitable, how the demands on the tools might be met and what results and how the results would facilitate the decision making process in the most optimal way. A powerful means to acquire such analyses is the use of whole-building simulation. In the case of historical buildings there are several aspects to take into consideration, determining the choice of simulation tool and method.This thesis includesInvestigation of the variability of the demands on simulation tools and methods that the historic buildings pose, and its implication on complexity of the simulation process, and suggestion of a complexity index tool.Investigation of the whole-building simulation process and how it complies with the demands identified, and how the exergy concept can be used, exemplified by a case study.Identification of a need for a tool and method for a large amount of cases not easily covered by abundantly available tools and methodsSuggestion of a tool and method to address these cases, and presentation of a case study where the suggested tool and method have been applied, with good agreement between the simulated and measured values.One important feature of the suggested tool is the Very Small Wall-part Method, that includes the assessment of especially damage prone points into the whole-building simulation model, otherwise unable to accommodate these points. Another is the damage risk assessment feature where a mould risk prediction tool is presented.
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