Bridging the Gap

The concept of resilience has arisen as a “new way of thinking”, becoming a response to both the causes and effects of ongoing global challenges. As it strongly stresses cities’ transformative potential, resilience’s final purpose is to prevent and manage unforeseen events and improve communities’ environmental and social quality. Although the resilience theory has been investigated in depth, several methodological challenges remain, mainly related to the concept’s practical sphere. As a matter of fact, resilience is commonly criticised for being too ambiguous and empty of meaning. At the same time, turning resilience into practice is not easy to do. This will arguably be one of the most impactful global issues for future research on resilience. The Special Issue “Bridging the Gap: The Measure of Urban Resilience” falls under this heading, and it seeks to synthesise state-of-the-art knowledge of theories and practices on measuring resilience. The Special Issue collected 11 papers that address the following questions: “What are the theoretical perspectives of measuring urban resilience? What are the existing methods for measuring urban resilience? What are the main features that a technique for measuring urban resilience needs to have? What is the role of measuring urban resilience in operationalising cities’ ability to adapt, recover and benefit from shocks?

Integrated vulnerability assessment of coastal communities to natural hazards in a climate change context : the cases of Avignon (Canada) Kilkeel (United Kingdom) and Chipiona (Spain) = Évaluation intégrée de la vulnérabilité des communautés côtières faisant face aux aléas naturels dans un contexte de changements climatiques : les cas d'Avignon (Canada), Kilkeel (Royaume-Uni) et Chipiona (Espagne)

RÉSUMÉ: Les changements climatiques obligent les communautés côtières de partout à travers le monde à s’adapter à l’augmentation des risques d’aléas d’érosion côtière et de submersion par la mer. L’érosion côtière affecte particulièrement les systèmes côtiers meubles situés autour de l’océan nord-atlantique. Depuis 20 ans, le cadre conceptuel qui s’est imposé pour gérer cet enjeu à l’échelle des communautés côtières est celui de la vulnérabilité aux changements climatiques – « une condition résultant de facteurs physiques, sociaux, économiques ou environnementaux qui prédispose les éléments exposés à la manifestation d’un aléa à en subir des préjudices ou des dommages », telle que définie par la Stratégie internationale de prévention des catastrophes des Nations Unies. Dans ces conditions, les méthodes d’évaluation de la vulnérabilité côtière comportent trois limites principales freinant leur utilisation sur les côtes qui bordent l’Atlantique Nord, constituées de dépôts meubles et particulièrement sensibles à l’aléa d’érosion : 1) l’érosion côtière est souvent absente des études ou représentée par des indicateurs qui négligent la complexité des interactions entre les milieux terrestre, marin, atmosphérique et humain ; 2) de nombreuses évaluations des impacts sur les communautés côtières se limitent à une vision centrée sur les pertes économiques et omettent des facteurs sociétaux importants, comme les perceptions de risque et de la gouvernance, le contexte institutionnel et l’héritage d’adaptation ; 3) la faible opérationnalité des évaluations de vulnérabilité côtière pour des non scientifiques et leur reproductibilité déficiente pour des environnements continus et géodiversifiés limite grandement leur utilisation pour la prise de décision. Devant ces défis, cette thèse par articles a pour objectif principal de développer une méthode d’évaluation de la vulnérabilité qui repose sur une vision écosociosystémique des communautés côtières. Trois petites communautés ont été comparées, au Québec, en Irlande du Nord et dans le sud de l’Espagne. L’approche est multidisciplinaire et participative. Elle s’appuie sur des méthodes mixtes : elle est en partie qualitative et en partie quantitative. Le premier chapitre porte sur la quantification des perceptions de risque dans les communautés côtières, à la lumière du concept de conscientisation fonctionnelle. À partir des observations citoyennes de modifications de l’environnement, nous avons mesuré le degré de correspondance avec les observations géoscientifiques et l’intention de changement comportemental vers des solutions durables. Les résultats soulignent l’importance de deux éléments dans la préférence pour des solutions de gestion préventive des risques : les efforts gouvernementaux pour informer et sensibiliser les citoyens ; et l’expérience répétée d’évènements extrêmes. La principale retombée consiste en un nouveau jeu d’indicateurs à intégrer dans l’évaluation de la vulnérabilité. Le deuxième chapitre traite des perceptions de la gouvernance des risques côtiers, soutenu par deux jeux d’indicateurs novateurs sur : 1) l’attitude des communautés vis-à-vis d’une gestion durable de la côte et 2) la cohérence des préférences entre les citoyens et les gestionnaires à propos de la gouvernance. Ce chapitre met en lumière l’impact d’un biais émotif de perception chez les citoyens, qui ébranle la capacité à dialoguer avec les gestionnaires (Québec) et l’importance des facteurs de diversion de l’intérêt citoyen pour la gestion côtière collaborative, comme des tensions interculturelles (Irlande du Nord) ou une récession économique (Espagne). Le troisième chapitre présente le Diagnostic de vulnérabilité intégrée des communautés côtières et son application à la communauté nord-irlandaise. Cet outil multidisciplinaire rassemble de manière systématique des analyses et des indicateurs géomorphologiques, environnementaux, sociétaux, institutionnels et d’adaptation/résilience. La démarche touche autant la communauté que le contexte qui l’entoure. Certaines données ont d’ailleurs été récoltées à l’aide des citoyens concernés. Un visalisateur a été conçu à l’intention des utilisateurs non spécialistes. Il synthétise les données de vulnérabilité et les représente spatialement à l’échelle des cellules hydrosédimentaires. Le Diagnostic peut s’appliquer dans des environnements côtiers diversifiés. Avec un temps et des ressources minimales, il permet de cerner des pistes d’action ancrées dans le contexte local pour réduire la vulnérabilité. La contribution novatrice de cette thèse est à la fois issue de l’avancement des connaissances depuis une perspective multidisciplinaire, mais aussi de l’opérationnalisation de ces connaissances depuis la collecte de la donnée source jusqu’à un outil fonctionnel et reproductible. Les limites sont à la mesure d’un projet porté par une seule personne, mais cette démarche ouvre la voie à de véritables développements des connaissances et de la gestion multidisciplinaire des côtes. -- Mot(s) clé(s) en français : vulnérabilité, risques côtiers, changements climatiques, perceptions, gouvernance. -- ABSTRACT: In the context of climate change, worldwide coastal communities need to adapt to increasing risks of coastal flooding and erosion. Coastal erosion particularly impacts the soft coastal systems fringing the North Atlantic Ocean. To manage this stake at the scale of coastal communities, since 20 years, the conceptual framework of vulnerability to climate change was renowed – the characteristics and circumstances of a community, system or asset that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard, arising from various physical, social, economic, and environmental actors, as defined by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. However, the coastal vulnerability assessment methods comprise three main limits that prevent their effective use in coastal management on the shore of the North Atlantic Ocean. First, coastal erosion is often absent or represented by simplistic indicators or projections that neglect the complex interactions between terrestrial, marine, atmospheric and human environments. Second, many impact assessments on coastal communities are limited to landloss economical perspective. In constrast, important socioeconomic factors are much less frequent, such as risk and governance perceptions, the institutional context and adaptation heritage. Third, the weak operationality of coastal vulnerability assessments for non-scientist and their deficient reproducibility for continous and geodiversified environments greatly limit their use for real-life decisions. Giving these gaps, the main objective of this thesis organized by articles is to develop a vulnerability assessment method that builds from an ecosociosystemic perspective about coastal communities. Three small communities were compared in Quebec, Northern Ireland and Andalucia. The approach is anchored in multidisciplinarity and uses mixed methods: it is partly qualitative and participative, and partly quantitative. The first chapter is about quantifying the coastal risk perceptions in communities, based on the the concept of functional awareness. From the citizen’s observations of environmental changes, we measured the degree of correspondance between goescientific data and observations, and the intention of behavioural change towards sustainable solutions. The main output consist in a set of indicators to integrate into the vulnerability assessment. The results highlight the importance of governmental efforts to inform and raise awareness of citizens about coastal risks, and that of repeated experience of extreme events into the preference for long-term strategies for reducing risks. The second chapter measures the perceptions relative to governance of coastal risks, based on two indicator sets about : 1) the identification of citizen’s attitude towards sustainable management of the coastline and 2) the coherence of preference citizens and managers about the governance architecture (inclusiveness, leadership, power sharing). This chapter uncovers the impact of emotional bias in the citizen’s perceptions, which can affect the capacity to dialogue objectively with the managers (Québec), along with the importance of factors diverging the citizens’ interest for coastal collaborative mangement, such as inter-cultural tensions (Northern Ireland) or economic precariousness (Andalucia). The third chapter presents the Cosatal Community Integrated Vulnerability Diagnosis and its application the Northern Irish community. The method sketches a multidisciplinary profile of impacts and adaptation/resilience from the two previous contributions, together with 1) the description of regional environmental changes anticipated in the next decades, 2) scenarios of shoreline evolution based on the local historical evolution and a precaution principle, 3) a innovative method to asses the adequation between the coastal protection structures and the coastal dynamics, 4) a spatial evaluation of the assets exposed assets, the intangible impacts and adaptation and resilience factors, and 5) an institutional analysis of the completedness of tools and the cross-actors dynamics. Moreover, the representation of spatial information, at the scale of hydrosedimentary cells, is supported by a vulnerability viewer aimed for non-specialist users. The Diagnosis may be repeated in geodiverse coastal environments and, with minimal time and resources, it allows to identify the targets anchored in the local context that could lead to vulnreability reduction strategies. The innovative contribution of this thesis come not only from the increase in multidisciplinary knowledge, but also from the implementation of this knowledge into a functional and reproducible tool. The limits correspond to a single-person project, but this approach open the perspectives towards genuine developments in terms of knowledge and multidisciplinary coastal management. -- Mot(s) clé(s) en anglais : vulnerability, coastal risks, climate change, perceptions, governance

Drones and Geographical Information Technologies in Agroecology and Organic Farming

Although organic farming and agroecology are normally not associated with the use of new technologies, it’s rapid growth, new technologies are being adopted to mitigate environmental impacts of intensive production implemented with external material and energy inputs. GPS, satellite images, GIS, drones, help conventional farming in precision supply of water, pesticides, fertilizers. Prescription maps define the right place and moment for interventions of machinery fleets. Yield goal remains the key objective, integrating a more efficient use or resources toward an economic-environmental sustainability. Technological smart farming allows extractive agriculture entering the sustainability era. Societies that practice agroecology through the development of human-environmental co-evolutionary systems represent a solid model of sustainability. These systems are characterized by high-quality agroecosystems and landscapes, social inclusion, and viable economies. This book explores the challenges posed by the new geographic information technologies in agroecology and organic farming. It discusses the differences among technology-laden conventional farming systems and the role of technologies in strengthening the potential of agroecology. The first part reviews the new tools offered by geographic information technologies to farmers and people. The second part provides case studies of most promising application of technologies in organic farming and agroecology: the diffusion of hyperspectral imagery, the role of positioning systems, the integration of drones with satellite imagery. The third part of the book, explores the role of agroecology using a multiscale approach from the farm to the landscape level. This section explores the potential of Geodesign in promoting alliances between farmers and people, and strengthening food networks, whether through proximity urban farming or asserting land rights in remote areas in the spirit of agroecological transition. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons 4.0 license

Integrated assessment and valuation of ecosystem services - Guidelines and experiences

EU FP7 OpenNESS project deliverable D33 & D4

Kopplung ökologischer und sozio-ökonomischer Systemanalyse: ein methodischer Ansatz basierend auf ökologischem Risiko

The presented study applies the DPSIR approach to the analysis of two environmental issues in the North Sea. The first case-study is eutrophication of coastal waters associated with anthropogenic nutrient emissions in the North Sea catchment area. The second (emerging) issue is offshore wind power generation, driven by the need of mitigating climate change (by cutting greenhouse gases emissions) and reduce energy dependence on third countries. The presented integrated analysis focuses on methodological aspects related to the application of the DPSIR scoping framework and evaluation of its suitability as decision support system (DSS) in coastal management. Moreover, in the context of decision-making under uncertainty, the issue of assessing potential massive changes in ecosystem functioning is approached through the development of the ecological risk concept. The results are discussed under two perspectives: (1) in terms of management possibilities for the single case-studies as well as (2) for evaluating the deployed methodology.In der hier vorgelegten Arbeit wird der DPSIR Ansatz zur Analyse zweier Umweltfragen in der Nordsee angewandt. In der ersten Fallstudie wird die Eutrophierung resultierend aus anthropogenen Nährstoffemissionen in den Einzugsgebieten der Nordsee betrachtet. Die zweite Fallstudie befasst sich mit der aktuell gewordenen Offshore-Windenergieerzeugung, deren Bedeutung sowohl vor dem Hintergrund der durch den Klimawandel gewünschten Reduktion von Treibhausgasemissionen (GHGs) als auch in der Reduzierung der Abhängikeit von Drittländern in Fragen der Energieversorgung zu sehen ist. Die Analyse konzentriert sich auf methodologische Aspekte hinsichtlich der Anwendbarkeit des DPSIR Ansatz und Prüfung seiner Tauglichkeit als Entscheidungshilfe (DSS) im Küstenmanagement. Darüberhinaus wird im Zusammenhang mit Entscheidungsfindungsprozessen unter Unsicherheiten die Frage möglicher, weitreichender Änderungen der Ökosystemfunktionen unter Entwicklung des Konzeptes des ökologischen Risikos betrachtet. Die Ergebnisse werden unter zwei Gesichtspunkten betrachtet: (1) bezüglich der Managementmöglichkeiten in Einzelfallstudien und (2) bezüglich der Bewertung der angewandten Methodologie

Regenerative Territories

This open access book provides new perspectives on circular economy and space, explored towards the definition of regenerative territories characterised by healthy metabolisms. Going beyond the mere reuse/recycle of material waste as resources, this work aims to understand how to apply circularity principles to, among others, the regeneration of wastescapes. The main focus is the development over time, and in particular the way how spatial planning and strategies respond to new unpredictable urgencies and opportunities related with territorial metabolisms. The book specifically focuses on living labs environments, where it is possible to tackle complex problems through a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach - including the use of digital spatial decision support environment – which could be able to include all the involved stakeholders. Through a spatial scope of circularity, this book describes several examples including among others ideas from different contexts such as Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and Vietnam. Through including reflections on methodology and representation, as well as on solutions for circular and healthy metabolisms, the book provides an excellent resource to researchers and students

Regenerative Territories: Dimensions of Circularity for Healthy Metabolisms

This open access book provides new perspectives on circular economy and space, explored towards the definition of regenerative territories characterised by healthy metabolisms. Going beyond the mere reuse/recycle of material waste as resources, this work aims to understand how to apply circularity principles to, among others, the regeneration of wastescapes. The main focus is the development over time, and in particular the way how spatial planning and strategies respond to new unpredictable urgencies and opportunities related with territorial metabolisms. The book specifically focuses on living labs environments, where it is possible to tackle complex problems through a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach - including the use of digital spatial decision support environment – which could be able to include all the involved stakeholders. Through a spatial scope of circularity, this book describes several examples including among others ideas from different contexts such as Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and Vietnam. Through including reflections on methodology and representation, as well as on solutions for circular and healthy metabolisms, the book provides an excellent resource to researchers and students

Regenerative Territories

This open access book provides new perspectives on circular economy and space, explored towards the definition of regenerative territories characterised by healthy metabolisms. Going beyond the mere reuse/recycle of material waste as resources, this work aims to understand how to apply circularity principles to, among others, the regeneration of wastescapes. The main focus is the development over time, and in particular the way how spatial planning and strategies respond to new unpredictable urgencies and opportunities related with territorial metabolisms. The book specifically focuses on living labs environments, where it is possible to tackle complex problems through a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach - including the use of digital spatial decision support environment – which could be able to include all the involved stakeholders. Through a spatial scope of circularity, this book describes several examples including among others ideas from different contexts such as Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and Vietnam. Through including reflections on methodology and representation, as well as on solutions for circular and healthy metabolisms, the book provides an excellent resource to researchers and students

Planning, Nature and Ecosystem Services

This book collects the papers presented at INPUT aCAdemy 2019, a special edition of the INPUT Conference hosted by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Architecture (DICAAR) of the University of Cagliari. INPUT aCAdemy Conference will focus on contemporary planning issues with particular attention to ecosystem services, green and blue infrastructure and governance and management of Natura 2000 sites and coastal marine areas. INPUT aCAdemy 2019 is organized within the GIREPAM Project (Integrated Management of Ecological Networks through Parks and Marine Areas), co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in relation to the 2014-2020 Interreg Italy – France (Maritime) Programme. INPUT aCAdemy 2019 is supported by Società Italiana degli Urbanisti (SIU, the Italian Society of Spatial Planners), Istituto Nazionale di Urbanistica (INU, the Italian National Institute of Urban Planning), UrbIng Ricerca Scientifica (the Association of Spatial Planning Scholars of the Italian Schools of Engineering) and Ordine degli Ingegneri di Cagliari (OIC, Professional Association of Engineers of Cagliari).illustratorThis book collects the papers presented at INPUT aCAdemy 2019, a special edition of the INPUT Conference hosted by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Architecture (DICAAR) of the University of Cagliari. INPUT aCAdemy Conference will focus on contemporary planning issues with particular attention to ecosystem services, green and blue infrastructure and governance and management of Natura 2000 sites and coastal marine areas. INPUT aCAdemy 2019 is organized within the GIREPAM Project (Integrated Management of Ecological Networks through Parks and Marine Areas), co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in relation to the 2014-2020 Interreg Italy – France (Maritime) Programme. INPUT aCAdemy 2019 is supported by Società Italiana degli Urbanisti (SIU, the Italian Society of Spatial Planners), Istituto Nazionale di Urbanistica (INU, the Italian National Institute of Urban Planning), UrbIng Ricerca Scientifica (the Association of Spatial Planning Scholars of the Italian Schools of Engineering) and Ordine degli Ingegneri di Cagliari (OIC, Professional Association of Engineers of Cagliari)