| 1. |
- Andersson, Erik, et al.
(author)
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A context-sensitive systems approach for understanding and enabling ecosystem service realization in cities
- 2021
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In: Ecology and Society. - : Resilience Alliance, Inc.. - 1708-3087. ; 26:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Understanding opportunities as well as constraints for people to benefit from and take care of urban nature is an important step toward more sustainable cities. In order to explore, engage, and enable strategies to improve urban quality of life, we combine a social-ecological-technological systems framework with a flexible methodological approach to urban studies. The framework focuses on context dependencies in the flow and distribution of ecosystem service benefits within cities. The shared conceptual system framework supports a clear positioning of individual cases and integration of multiple methods, while still allowing for flexibility for aligning with local circumstances and ensuring context-relevant knowledge. To illustrate this framework, we draw on insights from a set of exploratory case studies used to develop and test how the framework could guide research design and synthesis across multiple heterogeneous cases. Relying on transdisciplinary multi- and mixed methods research designs, our approach seeks to both enable within-case analyses and support and gradually build a cumulative understanding across cases and city contexts. Finally, we conclude by discussing key questions about green and blue infrastructure and its contributions to urban quality of life that the approach can help address, as well as remaining knowledge gaps both in our understanding of urban systems and of the methodological approaches we use to fill these gaps.
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| 2. |
- Chang, Heejun, et al.
(author)
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Assessment of urban flood vulnerability using the social-ecological-technological systems framework in six US cities
- 2021
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In: Sustainable cities and society. - : Elsevier BV. - 2210-6707. ; 68
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- As urban populations continue to grow through the 21st century, more people are projected to be at risk of exposure to climate change-induced extreme events. To investigate the complexity of urban floods, this study applied an interlinked social-ecological-technological systems (SETS) vulnerability framework by developing an urban flood vulnerability index for six US cities. Indicators were selected to reflect and illustrate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity to flooding for each of the three domains of SETS. We quantified 18 indicators and normalized them by the cities' 500-yr floodplain area at the census block group level. Clusters of flood vulnerable areas were identified differently by each SETS domain, and some areas were vulnerable to floods in more than one domain. Results are provided to support decision-making for reducing risks to flooding, by considering social, ecological, and technological vulnerability as well as hotspots where multiple sources of vulnerability coexist. The spatially explicit urban SETS flood vulnerability framework can be transferred to other regions facing challenging urban floods and other types of environmental hazards. Mapping SETS flood vulnerability helps to reveal intersections of complex SETS interactions and inform policy-making for building more resilient cities in the face of extreme events and climate change impacts.
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| 3. |
- Herreros-Cantis, Pablo, et al.
(author)
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Mapping supply of and demand for ecosystem services to assess environmental justice in New York City
- 2021
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In: Ecological Applications. - : Wiley. - 1051-0761 .- 1939-5582. ; 31:6
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Livability, resilience, and justice in cities are challenged by climate change and the historical legacies that together create disproportionate impacts on human communities. Urban green infrastructure has emerged as an important tool for climate change adaptation and resilience given their capacity to provide ecosystem services such as local temperature regulation, stormwater mitigation, and air purification. However, realizing the benefits of ecosystem services for climate adaptation depend on where they are locally supplied. Few studies have examined the potential spatial mismatches in supply and demand of urban ecosystem services, and even fewer have examined supply-demand mismatches as a potential environmental justice issue, such as when supply-demand mismatches disproportionately overlap with certain socio-demographic groups. We spatially analyzed demand for ecosystem services relevant for climate change adaptation and combined results with recent analysis of the supply of ecosystem services in New York City (NYC). By quantifying the relative mismatch between supply and demand of ecosystem services across the city we were able to identify spatial hot- and coldspots of supply-demand mismatch. Hotspots are spatial clusters of census blocks with a higher mismatch and coldspots are clusters with lower mismatch values than their surrounding blocks. The distribution of mismatch hot- and coldspots was then compared to the spatial distribution of socio-demographic groups. Results reveal distributional environmental injustice of access to the climate-regulating benefits of ecosystem services provided by urban green infrastructure in NYC. Analyses show that areas with lower supply-demand mismatch tend to be populated by a larger proportion of white residents with higher median incomes, and areas with high mismatch values have lower incomes and a higher proportion of people of color. We suggest that urban policy and planning should ensure that investments in nature-based solutions such as through urban green infrastructure for climate change adaptation do not reinforce or exacerbate potentially existing environmental injustices.
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| 4. |
- Pineda-Pinto, Melissa, et al.
(author)
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Examining ecological justice within the social-ecological-technological system of New York City, USA
- 2021
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In: Landscape and Urban Planning. - : Elsevier BV. - 0169-2046 .- 1872-6062. ; 215
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Examining justice in cities requires using analytical approaches that can unpack their complex nature and reveal the many interacting dimensions that affect justice patterns and processes. Although justice in cities has been examined extensively, it has primarily focused on social and environmental dimensions. However, justice is multi-dimensional, influenced and affected by multiple actors, dynamics, and processes. In this paper we propose the use of ecological justice, as justice of, to, and for nature as a critical lens for portraying a more integral understanding of urban injustices. This lens extends the notion of justice to nature through four dimensions: distribution of harmful impacts, recognition of nature, participation of nature, and the capabilities of social-ecological systems. Through a relational lens we develop a methodology that uses the social-ecological-technological system (SETS) conceptual framework to unpack how the dimensions and interactions affect ecological justice across urban landscapes. This methodology is operationalized into measurable variables and applied through a case study in New York City. A spatial analysis of indicators that act as SETS-Justice proxies at a Community District level, reveal high spatial variability of ecological justice hotspots when looking at each dimension independently. Identifying ecological justice hotspots can provide critical information for improving ecological justice through multiple means. For example, hotspots lacking in social-ecological recognition and participation of nature can inform context-specific solutions such as policies and projects that target community engagement, capacity building, and improve ecological knowledge. Additionally, a composite analysis of SETS-Justice through the aggregation of all indicators, reveals justice hotspots different to those commonly mapped in other justice-focused studies. This approach highlights the need to jointly address issues of environmental and ecological justice.
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| 5. |
- Pineda-Pinto, Melissa, et al.
(author)
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Planning Ecologically Just Cities : A Framework to Assess Ecological Injustice Hotspots for Targeted Urban Design and Planning of Nature-Based Solutions
- 2022
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In: Urban Policy and Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0811-1146 .- 1476-7244. ; 40:3, s. 206-222
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents a typology of ecological injustice hotspots for targeted design of nature-based solutions to guide planning and designing of just cities. The typology demonstrates how the needs and capabilities of nonhuman nature can be embedded within transitions to multi- and interspecies relational futures that regenerate and protect urban social-ecological systems. We synthesise the findings of previous quantitative and qualitative analyses to develop the Ecologically Just Cities Framework that (1) works as a diagnostic tool to characterise four types of urban ecological injustices and (2) identifies nature-based planning actions that can best respond to different types of place-based ecological injustices.
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