Assessment of Urban Flood Vulnerability Using theSocial-Ecological-Technological Systems Framework in Six US cities

As urban populations continue to grow through the 21 st 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

The Case of green infrastructure in New York City (USA) : ecological spontaneity and infrastructuralization in the context of settler colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy

Here we review and synthesize existing scholarship on the green infrastructure (GI) of New York City, USA in order to expand the theoretical and methodological richness of green infrastructure studies. Rather than adopting a teleological narrative around the development of GI in NYC, we utilize a social-ecological-technological systems (SETS) framework to steer attention to the intersecting forces shaping GI in the city. In this paper we draw upon existing empirical research to examine how GI in the city is shaped by each dimension of SETS, both historically and in the present through ecological agency, social-ecological relationships, and social-technical assemblages infrastructuralizing ecological systems. Ecological agency requires an attentiveness to the auto-poetic characteristics of ecosystems, through which organisms, populations, and communities continuously self assemble in relation to external and internal dynamics, which can be understood quite differently through the lenses of classical 'Western' Ecology, Native science, and New Materialism. The social-ecological context of the city is largely examined through the frameworks of Native relations with land, settler colonial 'ecocide,' the imperatives of capital accumulation and ecological segregation, and the diverse biocultural relationships of diaspora communities. Lastly, we examine the current practices of making ecosystems infrastructure (infrastructuralization), which unearth the bureaucratic and technical practices that merge ecological and built systems in the city, through managing stormwater, heat waves, and coastal storms. We conclude with key lessons and research directions supporting the evolution of ecological stewardship in highly unequal and infrastructurally complex cities

Planning Ecologically Just Cities : A Framework to Assess Ecological Injustice Hotspots for Targeted Urban Design and Planning of Nature-Based Solutions

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.Peer reviewe

A context-sensitive systems approach for understanding and enabling ecosystem service realization in cities

Understanding opportunities as well as constraints for people to benefit from and take care of urban nature is an importantstep toward more sustainable cities. In order to explore, engage, and enable strategies to improve urban quality of life, we combine asocial-ecological-technological systems framework with a flexible methodological approach to urban studies. The framework focuseson context dependencies in the flow and distribution of ecosystem service benefits within cities. The shared conceptual system frameworksupports a clear positioning of individual cases and integration of multiple methods, while still allowing for flexibility for aligning withlocal circumstances and ensuring context-relevant knowledge. To illustrate this framework, we draw on insights from a set of exploratorycase 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 andsupport and gradually build a cumulative understanding across cases and city contexts. Finally, we conclude by discussing key questionsabout green and blue infrastructure and its contributions to urban quality of life that the approach can help address, as well as remainingknowledge gaps both in our understanding of urban systems and of the methodological approaches we use to fill these gapsQC 20211129</p

A context-sensitive systems approach for understanding and enabling ecosystem service realization in cities

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 gap