The role of urban built heritage in qualify and quantify resilience. Specific issues in Mediterranean city

The Mediterranean city represents a significant example of urban organism, based on masonry construction and characterized by typological processes of growth. The material consistency and the temporal continuity of built heritage in Mediterranean city make relevant its interpretation and analysis according to the resilient approach. The declination of this approach in many disciplines generated a substantial diversity among the definitions of resilience (Francis and Bekera, 2014). Consequently, frameworks, adopted for a quantitative or qualitative assessment, underline the lack of standardization and rigor in defining resilience measurements. A review of resilience literature and actual applications in urban context permit to understand that there are different operators working on the field: on the one hand there are international organizations, on the other hand there are academics. The review of both the two ambits of investigation intends to clarify specific properties and convergence points in order to trace an evolution of conceptual framework and to identify general features of urban resilience. This process is fundamental in focusing the main aims of the research program: the definition of the role of urban built heritage, given by the close correlation between masonry constructive technique, typologies and morphologies, its material value in urban system, and its relevance in Mediterranean city in constitution of urban resilience (UNISDR, 2012a). Despite an increasing number of academic studies concerning the role of built environment in defining and improving cities resilience, their major attention is still focused on street patterns and lifelines infrastructures. The paper concludes how the role of built heritage remains insufficiently explored and a correct definition of urban structure is still missing inside the domain of infrastructural resilience

Identifying robust response options to manage environmental change using an ecosystem approach:a stress-testing case study for the UK

A diverse range of response options was evaluated in terms of their utility for sustaining ecosystem services in the UK. Robustness of response options was investigated by applying a ‘stress-testing’ method which evaluated expected performance against combined scenarios of socioeconomic and climate change. Based upon stakeholder feedback, a reference scenario representing current trends in climate and socioeconomic drivers (‘business-as-usual’) was used as a dynamic baseline against which to compare results of other scenarios. The robustness of response options was evaluated by their utility in different environmental and social contexts as represented by the scenarios, and linked to their adaptability to adjust to changing conditions. Key findings demonstrate that adaptability becomes increasingly valuable as the magnitude and rate of future change diverges from current trends. Stress-testing also revealed that individual responses in isolation are unlikely to be robust meaning there are advantages from integrating cohesive combinations (bundles) of response options to maximise their individual strengths and compensate for weaknesses. This identifies a role for both top-down and bottom-up responses, including regulation, spatial targeting, incentives and partnership initiatives, and their use in combination through integrated assessment and planning consistent with the adoption of an Ecosystem Approach. Stress-testing approaches can have an important role in future-proofing policy appraisals but important knowledge gaps remain, especially for cultural and supporting ecosystem services. Finally, barriers and enablers to the implementation of more integrated long-term adaptive responses were identified drawing on the ‘4 Is’ (Institutions, Information, Incentives, Identity) conceptual framework. This highlighted the crucial but usually understated role of identity in promoting ownership and uptake of responses

The Global Risks Report 2016, 11th Edition

Now in its 11th edition, The Global Risks Report 2016 draws attention to ways that global risks could evolve and interact in the next decade. The year 2016 marks a forceful departure from past findings, as the risks about which the Report has been warning over the past decade are starting to manifest themselves in new, sometimes unexpected ways and harm people, institutions and economies. Warming climate is likely to raise this year's temperature to 1° Celsius above the pre-industrial era, 60 million people, equivalent to the world's 24th largest country and largest number in recent history, are forcibly displaced, and crimes in cyberspace cost the global economy an estimated US$445 billion, higher than many economies' national incomes. In this context, the Reportcalls for action to build resilience – the "resilience imperative" – and identifies practical examples of how it could be done.The Report also steps back and explores how emerging global risks and major trends, such as climate change, the rise of cyber dependence and income and wealth disparity are impacting already-strained societies by highlighting three clusters of risks as Risks in Focus. As resilience building is helped by the ability to analyse global risks from the perspective of specific stakeholders, the Report also analyses the significance of global risks to the business community at a regional and country-level

Social-ecological analysis of climate induced changes in biodiversity – outline of a research concept

The interactions of changes in climate and biodiversity with societal actions, structures and processes are a priority topic within the international scientific debate – and thus, a relevant subject matter for BiKF’s work. This paper outlines a concept for transdisciplinary research within BiKF. It focuses on the analysis of social-ecological systems supporting society with biodiversity driven ecosystem services. Such research is considering different issues: defining sustainable societal adaptations to climate induced biodiversity changes; permitting adequate understanding of the social-ecological reproduction of ecosystem functions, including their conservation and restoration; analysing the societal values and socio-economic utilisation of ecosystem services. Gaining knowledge in these areas provides an improved basis for decision-making in biodiversity and resource management

Embracing Complexity: Ecological Designs for Living Landscapes

We are in the age of New Ecology. A paradigm shift in ecological thinking has unfolded over the last 25 years, and with it, a slow recognition of the inherent and fundamental complexity that shapes and defines our living world

Collaborative approaches in sustainable and resilient manufacturing

Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).In recent years, the manufacturing sector is going through a major transformation, as reflected in the concept of Industry 4.0 and digital transformation. The urge for such transformation is intensified when we consider the growing societal demands for sustainability. The notion of sustainable manufacturing has emerged as a result of this trend. Additionally, industries and the whole society face the challenges of an increasing number of disruptive events, either natural or human-caused, that can severely affect the normal operation of systems. Furthermore, the growing interconnectivity between organizations, people, and physical systems, supported by recent developments in information and communication technologies, highlights the important role that collaborative networks can play in the digital transformation processes. As such, this article analyses potential synergies between the areas of sustainable and resilient manufacturing and collaborative networks. The work also discusses how the responsibility for the various facets of sustainability can be distributed among the multiple entities involved in manufacturing. The study is based on a literature survey, complemented with the experience gained from various research projects and related initiatives in the area, and is organized according to various dimensions of Industry 4.0. A brief review of proposed approaches and indicators for measuring sustainability from the networked manufacturing perspective is also included. Finally, a set of key research challenges are identified to complement strategic research agendas in manufacturing.publishersversionpublishe

Embedding social inclusiveness and appropriateness in engineering assessment of green infrastructure to enhance urban resilience

Urban resilience emerges not only from ‘what’ is done in relation to critical infrastructure systems, but in the ‘how’ of their conception, co-creation and integration into complex socio-ecological-technical systems. For green infrastructure, where ownership and agency may be distributed amongst organisations and diverse communities, inclusiveness and appropriateness require embedding in engineering assessments of green infrastructure and resilience. Through consideration of past, present and future engineering and resilience assessments – from monetising, through greening, to humanising – this paper examines the ways in which GI may be or has already contributed to enhancing urban resilience and types of assessment and indicators that have been or could be used. We suggest that enhancing visibility of the ‘whos’ (individuals, communities) is crucial to fully diversifying assessments. We also suggest some ideas for additional indicators and assert that co-production of future indicators needs to be undertaken with appropriate professionals (e.g. social impact assessment professionals)

Adaptation to climate change and water sensitive city development. Enhancing resilience and transforming cities through nature as infrastructure.

The increasing impacts of climate change, urban demographic growth and migrations are pressures that exacerbate the vulnerability of cities. In order to respond and enhance their resilience, cities implement adaptation strategies that involve the transformation of the urban space. This requires an approach to the development and design of the urban territory that takes into account the new conditions, thus questioning the modern and post-modern principles and practices. While engaging in the path towards adaptation goals and successive stages of sustainability in the context of water-related climate impacts, the relationship between cities and \u2018nature\u2019 within their own borders is forcedly changed as well as the physical space. Adaptation, due to its systemic nature, is multi-scalar: at the macro level \u2013 urban scale, it is implemented through plans and strategies (adaptation process); at the meso/micro level - urban and architectural design scale, these strategies are realized through concrete interventions (adaptation projects). In the case of climatic extremes related to water, more and more often we are witnessing the use of the so-called \u2018nature\u2019 as infrastructure resulting from an eco-centric and holistic approach, rather than the use of the traditional techno-centric approach. Through the analysis of the transformation process at the macro level via a multi-level perspective approach and implemented or planned interventions as blue/green and traditional grey infrastructure projects in selected cities, the research aims to investigate the relationship between cities and \u2018nature\u2019 and the urban space produced by the projects aimed at adaptation goals. The cities of Miami and Rotterdam subjected to considerable water-related impacts to are taken as a sample to analyse two different urban transformation pathways towards adaptation. Although the sample cases constitute only a partial view on the topic, the analysis is useful for drawing some conclusions and highlighting the factors that support the process of urban adaptation and those that constitute a brake, providing some hints and approaches transferable to other urban areas. The transformative approach, a multidisciplinary and systemic vision of the challenges the city faces, the integration of the development of water management policies in urban planning as well as the consistency in the adaptive orientation at the various levels so that strategic planning finds concrete implementation through tangible interventions, are elements that allow to tackle the impacts and allow to consider that the need for adaptation to climate change may represent an opportunity for cities to enhance resilience and modify urban space with benefits in terms of the liveability of the urban space itself