A Genealogy of Neoliberal and Anti-neoliberal Resilience in the Ecuadorian Pacific coast

Resilience appears to be everywhere, morphing and seducing global discourses, national governmental practices, and scholarship. Inasmuch as hegemonic discourses and national governments promote resilience through both disaster reduction and sustainable development policies, critical resilience scholars have emphasized resilience as a neoliberal security technique. By reinforcing resilience as a governmental practice embedded in neoliberal rationale, theory and practice are neglecting other areas to contextualize resilience. My dissertation traces a genealogy of neoliberal and anti-neoliberal State interventions underpinned by resilience thinking, organizing coastal rural lives in Ecuador. My dissertation shows, no matter the Ecuadorian governments’ rationale, both genuflected to global hegemonic discourses on resilience that justify government intervention to secure the population’s future. My analysis also reveals that both governmental rationales promoting resilience implemented similar techniques: legal framework adaptations, decentralizing processes, technocratic planning, and participatory management. After I captured resilience practices morphing through neoliberal and anti-neoliberal governance, a comprehensive ethnographic account also discloses unintended outcomes threatening the beach ecosystem. Ecosystems are a critical foundation of the socio-ecological relationship; however, profound changes in the beach ecosystem are now a consequence of the neoliberal and anti-neoliberal governmental emphasis on protecting the population and tourist infrastructure. More importantly, this research untangles resilience precepts underlying the neoliberal and anti-neoliberal problematization of nature to justify governmental intervention in coastal management. My particular critique of resilience does not replicate academic emphasis on catastrophic events. Hegemonic frameworks underrepresent the slow, local, and small emergencies by emphasizing acute and sudden events. However, resilience theory admits that continuous processes can also change the nature of a complex system. Thus, I focus on slow emergencies, those not regular, not acute emergencies, which also demand collective political or ethical response. My dissertation captures the constructive role of slow emergencies, frequently missed in disaster resilience analysis, to argue that resilience is a political process among nature, population, and governmental security techniques. The politics of resilience captures the social and cultural dimension of nature; then, nature emerges as an object of political struggles within complex, socio-ecological indeterminacy

International Cooperation as a Tool to Mitigate and Prevent Risks in Informal and Consolidated Human Settlements in the Tumbaco Zone Administration of the DMQ

This study analyzes risk management and sustainable urban development in the context of Ecuador, specifically in the Metropolitan District of Quito, which has been affected by various natural disasters, and the Informal and Consolidated Human Settlements approved within the jurisdiction of the Tumbaco Zone Administration. The importance of the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals as fundamental tools for promoting sustainable urban development and risk management is highlighted. Additionally, the importance of international cooperation in improving local capacity and addressing challenges related to risk management and sustainable urban development is addressed, presenting examples of good practices in international cooperation in this field. The objective is to promote knowledge exchange and strengthen local capacity in risk management through international cooperation

Central and South America

The chapter is divided into two main sections. The first section follows an integrative approach in which hazards, exposure, vulnerability, impacts and risks are discussed following the eight climatically homogeneous sub-regions described in WGI AR6 (Figure 12.1). The second section assesses the implemented and proposed adaptation practices by sector; in doing so, it connects to the WGII AR6 crosschapter themes. The storyline is then a description of the hazards, exposure, vulnerability and impacts providing as much detail as is available in the literature at the sub-regional level, followed by the identification of risks as a result of the interaction of those aspects. This integrated sub-regional approach ensures a balance in the text, particularly for countries that are usually underrepresented in the literature but that show a high level of vulnerability and impacts, such as those observed in CA. The sectoral assessment of adaptation that follows is useful for policymakers and implementers, usually focused and organised by sectors, government ministries or secretaries that can easily locate the relevant adaptation information for their particular sector. To ensure coherence in the chapter, a summary of the assessed adaptation options by key risks is presented, followed by a feasibility assessment for some relevant adaptation options. The chapter closes with case studies and a discussion of the knowledge gaps evidenced in the process of the assessment.EEA Santa CruzFil: Castellanos, Edwin J. Universidad del Valle de Guatemala; Guatemala.Fil: Lemos, Maria Fernanda. Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro; Brasil.Fil: Astigarraga, Laura. Universidad de la República; Uruguay.Fil: Chacón, Noemí. Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas; Venezuela.Fil: Cuvi, Nicolás. Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO); Ecuador.Fil: Huggel, Christian. University of Zurich; Switzerland.Fil: Miranda Sara, Liliana Raquel. Foro Ciudades para la Vida; Peru.Fil: Moncassim Vale, Mariana. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; Brasil.Fil: Ometto, Jean Pierre. National Institute for Space Research; Brasil.Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz; Argentina.Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral; Argentina.Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina.Fil: Postigo, Julio C. Indiana University; Estados Unidos.Fil: Ramajo Gallardo, Laura. Adolfo Ibanez University; Chile.Fil: Roco, Lisandro. Catholic University of The North; Chile.Fil: Rusticucci, Matilde Monica. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina

Enhancing resilience of peasant farmers to climate-related risks in Pedro Carbo, Ecuador

The climate is changing and this increases the risk of climate threats, which is affecting the most vulnerable populations, mainly peasant farmers. In order to minimize impacts on these populations, interest has been aroused to develop strategies that increase their resilience to climate-related risks. This issue has been little addressed in Ecuador, despite the increased frequency and intensity of climate-related risks, which are directly affecting agroecosystems and farmers' livelihoods. This research addresses the resilience of farmers to climate risks in the canton of Pedro Carbo, an area located on the Ecuadorian coast of Guayas Province characterized by a high rate of poverty and dedicated mainly to agriculture. The overall objective of this research was to carry out an analysis of the resilience of small farmers to climate risks, as well as to recommend adaptation/transformation strategies to increase their resilience to climate. For this, farmers' perceptions were considered, as well as the opinion of experts on the subject. Multiple methods were applied such as: literature review, map generation, household surveys, participatory workshops with farmers and interviews with experts. In addition, a multidimensional matrix was developed to analyze quantitative and qualitative data through indicators that measure resilience in the study area. The main findings in this research reflect that farmers have very low resilience due to their socioeconomic characteristics, agricultural practices, lack of infrastructure and technologies, weak community organizations, limited access to credit and insurance, as well as lack of capacity building and technical assistance. Finally, recommendations for strategies to support planning and decision-making were developed. Keywords: climate-related risks, peasant family farming, resilience, resilience assessment, climate resilience, farmers perceptions, Pedro Carb

Time to focus, re-focus on nature-based solutions : can nature-based solutions provide breakthrough for tackling climate crisis?

Reviewing the main points of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), which predicts an increase in climate change in all regions in the coming decades, including increasing heat waves, rising sea levels, longer warm and shorter cold seasons, changing precipitation patterns, as well as the United Nations’ (UN) repeated warnings of increasing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere with disastrous consequences for people and the planet, it is clear that climate change is intensifying in all regions. To address the problem of climate change, the policy brief describes a breakthrough approach to strengthening ecosystem resilience, protecting biodiversity, and reducing the risk of extreme weather events and climaterelated disasters through the implementation of nature-based solutions (NbS). It also discusses existing NbS collaborations and partnerships for climate change adaptation around the world, as well as global policies that can help enforce NbS, particularly by private actors and companies. In addition, the authors aim to show how and in what ways NbS offer a way to address the climate and biodiversity crises in a synergistic and cost-effective way by enabling companies to scale up their actions, and evaluate the effectiveness of their actions. In this way, they also hope to generate ideas for future research and building multi-stakeholder partnerships for NbS

Landslide Susceptibility Mapping of Urban Areas: Logistic Regression and Sensitivity Analysis applied to Quito, Ecuador

Although the Andean region is one of the most landslide-susceptible areas in the world, limited attention has been devoted to the topic in terms of research, risk reduction practice, and urban policy. Based on the collection of early landslide data for the Andean city of Quito, Ecuador, this article aims to explore the predictive power of a binary logistic regression model (LOGIT) to test secondary data and an official multicriteria evaluation model for landslide susceptibility in this urban area. Cell size resampling scenarios were explored as a parameter, as the inclusion of new “urban” factors. Furthermore, two types of sensitivity analysis (SA), univariate and Monte Carlo methods, were applied to improve the calibration of the LOGIT model. A Kolmogorov–Smirnov (K-S) test was included to measure the classification power of the models. Charts of the three SA methods helped to visualize the sensitivity of factors in the models. The Area Under the Curve (AUC) was a common metric for validation in this research. Among the ten factors included in the model to help explain landslide susceptibility in the context of Quito, results showed that population and street/road density, as novel “urban factors”, have relevant predicting power for high landslide susceptibility in urban areas when adopting data standardization based on weights assigned by experts. The LOGIT was validated with an AUC of 0.79. Sensitivity analyses suggested that calibrations of the best-performance reference model would improve its AUC by up to 0.53%. Further experimentation regarding other methods of data pre-processing and a finer level of disaggregation of input data are suggested. In terms of policy design, the LOGIT model coefficient values suggest the need for deep analysis of the impacts of urban features, such as population, road density, building footprint, and floor area, at a household scale, on the generation of landslide susceptibility in Andean cities such as Quito. This would help improve the zoning for landslide risk reduction, considering the safety, social and economic impacts that this practice may produce.Land Use Planning and Management for Landslide Risk Reduction - Conditions and Potentials in Andean Citie

Contribution from brazilian postgraduate studies to sustainable development: Capes at Rio+20

190 p.The book Contribution from brazilian postgraduate studies to sustainable development: Capes at Rio+20, is published by the Foundation for the Coordination and Improvement of Higher Level or Education Personnel (Capes) and represents the Brazilian PostGraduation contribution to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development - Rio+20, at a time when Brazil commemorates the 60th anniversary of the creation of Capes. The publication is a synthesized version of the efforts made by Brazilian Institutions, within the National PostGraduation System (SNPG), and Capes in particular, to identify resources, potentials and challenges that need to be jointly addressed in order to create a coherent development standard in harmony with sustainable development ideals

Reviews pages: The resilience city/The fragile city. Methods, tools and best practices 3 (2018)

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always remaining in the groove of rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. During the last two years a particular attention has been paid on the Smart Cities theme and on the different meanings that come with it. The last section of the journal is formed by the Review Pages. They have different aims: to inform on the problems, trends and evolutionary processes; to investigate on the paths by highlighting the advanced relationships among apparently distant disciplinary fields; to explore the interaction’s areas, experiences and potential applications; to underline interactions, disciplinary developments but also, if present, defeats and setbacks. Inside the journal the Review Pages have the task of stimulating as much as possible the circulation of ideas and the discovery of new points of view. For this reason the section is founded on a series of basic’s references, required for the identification of new and more advanced interactions. These references are the research, the planning acts, the actions and the applications, analysed and investigated both for their ability to give a systematic response to questions concerning the urban and territorial planning, and for their attention to aspects such as the environmental sustainability and the innovation in the practices. For this purpose the Review Pages are formed by five sections (Web Resources; Books; Laws; Urban Practices; News and Events), each of which examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage of interest for TeMA

Understanding mountain soils : a contribution from mountain areas to the International Year of Soils 2015

In the highlands of southern Colombia and northern Ecuador, soils developed on volcanic ash deposits have specific properties: high water retention, high hydraulic conductivity and high carbon (C) contents. The main role of the soils is to regulate the water available for the dense population living in the valleys. Soil properties and land use depend on their altitudes. Any important modification of land-use change has a serious effect on soil properties and consequently the ecosystem properties such as water regulation and flood control. This can be a threat for a city that relies on the ecosystem for its water supply, as is the case in Ecuador's capital, Quito