Ancillary Botanic Gardens in Lebanon

Botanic gardens are integral to the process of plant conservation and development, but international conservation targets set down in the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation are unlikely to be met in countries such as Lebanon, where land is limited, real-estate value is high, conservation as a national priority is low and scientific botanical knowledge is not prevalent.This paper proposes the recognition of a complementary category of gardens, ancillary botanic gardens (ABGs), which formalise local garden initiatives and facilitate options to tackle space limitations. ABGs are informal, deregulated gardens for the conservation of plant diversity and cultural plant knowledge; they are established by local communities in open sites which have existing levels of land protection owing to their primary purpose as archaeological sites, educational institutions, religious landholdings, private institutions and touristic sites

Food systems under shock: the evolution of food security status of Karantina residents after the Beirut explosion

Robust food systems are crucial for ensuring access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly in times of crisis. Economic instability, currency devaluation, and political turmoil can disrupt food systems, leading to higher food prices, compromised nutrition, and increased vulnerability. Lebanon is a stark example of this, where a catastrophic explosion in Beirut’s Port in 2020 worsened an existing economic and humanitarian crisis. The depreciation of the Lebanese currency led to soaring food prices, impacting people’s ability to buy food, and pushing many into poverty, illustrating the significant impact of the state food systems during crises (FAO, 2021). In times of crisis, a simplified food system, relying on emergency food aid supplies, replaces conventional food system, as food aid and cash transfers become the primary source upon which the affected population depends to ensure their food security and meet their essential needs. In this article we report on research conducted between 2020 and 2022 focusing on the impacts of the Beirut explosion on food security status of the permanent residents the Karantina neighborhood—the closest residential area to the Beirut port. We surveyed 100 households chosen at random, examining shifts in food security and nutrition at three intervals: 6 months prior to the explosion, 6 months following it, and 2 years after the event. The findings revealed a sharp decline in food security and diet quality among residents in the two-year period following the explosion. The proportion of food-secure households fell from 71% to 2%, while those with acceptable food consumption decreased from 96% to 30%. Additionally, income and debt situations worsened significantly. Almost 95% of residents resorted to crisis coping strategies, such as using savings, borrowing money for food, selling furniture, withdrawing children from school, and reducing education and health expenses, rendering them highly vulnerable. Food and cash assistance were provided to all households for 6 months to one-year post-explosion, resulting in improved food security and consumption after 6 months. However, these gains diminished 2 years later, once the assistance ended, revealing a lack of resilience in the food system. In conclusion, soon after the assistance stopped, the prolonged deterioration of Lebanon’s economic situation, compounded by multiple crises, pushed these households further into poverty, exacerbating food insecurity. This research underscores the critical importance of sustained support and comprehensive economic reforms to rebuild food systems and promote nutrition resilience in crisis-affected regions

Climate Change Adaptation: A Green Infrastructure Planning Framework for Resilient Urban Regions

The research explores multiple facets of a green infrastructure planning framework for climate change adaptation in urban regions. The research is organized in three distinct, but related parts. The first develops an adaptation implementation model based on triggering conditions rather than time. The approach responds to policy makers\u27 reluctance to engage in adaptation planning due to uncertain future conditions. The model is based on planning and adaptation literature and applied to two case studies. Uncertainty during implementation may be reduced by incremental and flexible policy implementation, disbursing investments as needs arise, monitoring conditions, and organizing adaptation measures along no-regrets to transformational measures. The second part develops the green infrastructure transect as an organizational framework for mainstreaming adaptation planning policies. The framework integrates multi-scalar and context aspects of green infrastructure for vertical and horizontal integration of policy. The framework integrates literature from urban and landscape planning and tested on Boston. Prioritization of adaptation measures depends on location. Results suggest that green infrastructure adaptation policies should respond to configuration of zones. Cross jurisdiction coordination at regional and parcel scales supports mainstreaming. A secondary conclusion suggests that green infrastructure is space intensive and becomes the basis of the empirical study in part three. A spatial assessment method is introduced to formulate opportunities for green infrastructure network implementation within land-uses and across an urban-rural gradient. Spatial data in GIS for Boston is utilized to develop a percent pervious metric allowing the characterization of the study area into six zones of varying perviousness. Opportunities across land uses were assessed then maximum space opportunities were defined based on conservation, intensification, transformation and expansion. The opportunities for transformation of impervious surfaces to vegetal surfaces are highest in the urban center and its surrounding. Intensification of vegetation on pervious surfaces along all land uses is high across the gradient. Conservation of existing forested land is significant for future climate proofing. The concluding section argues for a green infrastructure planning framework for adaptation based on integration into existing infrastructural bodies, regional vision, incremental implementation, ecosystem benefits accounting, and conditions based planning rather than time based

Water features as the main SUHI hindering factor across 50 global cities

International audienc

Windows of Opportunity: Addressing Climate Uncertainty Through Adaptation Plan Implementation

There is a pressing need for municipalities and regions to undertake adaptation planning that will create urban systems suited to current as well as future climates, but uptake of adaptation has been slow. This is particularly unfortunate in that patterns of urban built form interact with climate change in ways that can reduce, or intensify, the impacts of overall global change. For policy-makers, uncertainty regarding the timing and magnitude of climate change is a significant barrier to implementing adaptation planning. Resiliency theory suggests an approach to evaluating adaptation options for cities that can bring these factors together. The method we propose focuses on implementation of adaptation, and phasing of policy. It removes time as a decision marker, instead arguing for an initial comprehensive plan to prevent maladaptive policy choices, implemented incrementally after testing the micro-climate outcomes of previous interventions. Policies begin with no-regrets decisions that reduce the long-term the need for more intensive adaptive actions and generate immediate policy benefits, while gradually enabling transformative infrastructure and design responses to increased climate impacts. Global and local indicators assume a larger role in the process, to evaluate when tipping points are in sight. We use case studies from two exemplary municipal plans to demonstrate this method\u27s usefulness. While framed for urban planning, the approach is applicable to natural resource areas and other planning who must manage uncertainty

Dimensions of Thermal Inequity: Neighborhood Social Demographics and Urban Heat in the Southwestern U.S.

Exposure to heat is a growing public health concern as climate change accelerates worldwide. Different socioeconomic and racial groups often face unequal exposure to heat as well as increased heat-related sickness, mortality, and energy costs. We provide new insight into thermal inequities by analyzing 20 Southwestern U.S. metropolitan regions at the census block group scale for three temperature scenarios (average summer heat, extreme summer heat, and average summer nighttime heat). We first compared average temperatures for top and bottom decile block groups according to demographic variables. Then we used spatial regression models to investigate the extent to which exposure to heat (measured by land surface temperature) varies according to income and race. Large thermal inequities exist within all the regions studied. On average, the poorest 10% of neighborhoods in an urban region were 2.2 °C (4 °F) hotter than the wealthiest 10% on both extreme heat days and average summer days. The difference was as high as 3.3–3.7 °C (6–7 °F) in California metro areas such as Palm Springs and the Inland Empire. A similar pattern held for Latinx neighborhoods. Temperature disparities at night were much smaller (usually ~1 °F). Disparities for Black neighborhoods were also lower, perhaps because Black populations are small in most of these cities. California urban regions show stronger thermal disparities than those in other Southwestern states, perhaps because inexpensive water has led to more extensive vegetation in affluent neighborhoods. Our findings provide new details about urban thermal inequities and reinforce the need for programs to reduce the disproportionate heat experienced by disadvantaged communities

Dimensions of Thermal Inequity: Neighborhood Social Demographics and Urban Heat in the Southwestern U.S.

Exposure to heat is a growing public health concern as climate change accelerates worldwide. Different socioeconomic and racial groups often face unequal exposure to heat as well as increased heat-related sickness, mortality, and energy costs. We provide new insight into thermal inequities by analyzing 20 Southwestern U.S. metropolitan regions at the census block group scale for three temperature scenarios (average summer heat, extreme summer heat, and average summer nighttime heat). We first compared average temperatures for top and bottom decile block groups according to demographic variables. Then we used spatial regression models to investigate the extent to which exposure to heat (measured by land surface temperature) varies according to income and race. Large thermal inequities exist within all the regions studied. On average, the poorest 10% of neighborhoods in an urban region were 2.2 °C (4 °F) hotter than the wealthiest 10% on both extreme heat days and average summer days. The difference was as high as 3.3-3.7 °C (6-7 °F) in California metro areas such as Palm Springs and the Inland Empire. A similar pattern held for Latinx neighborhoods. Temperature disparities at night were much smaller (usually ~1 °F). Disparities for Black neighborhoods were also lower, perhaps because Black populations are small in most of these cities. California urban regions show stronger thermal disparities than those in other Southwestern states, perhaps because inexpensive water has led to more extensive vegetation in affluent neighborhoods. Our findings provide new details about urban thermal inequities and reinforce the need for programs to reduce the disproportionate heat experienced by disadvantaged communities

Ancillary Botanic Gardens in Lebanon: Empowering Local Contributions to Plant Conservation

Botanic gardens are integral to the process of plant conservation and development, but international conservation targets set down in the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation are unlikely to be met in countries such as Lebanon, where land is limited, real-estate value is high, conservation as a national priority is low and scientific botanical knowledge is not prevalent.This paper proposes the recognition of a complementary category of gardens, ancillary botanic gardens (ABGs), which formalise local garden initiatives and facilitate options to tackle space limitations. ABGs are informal, deregulated gardens for the conservation of plant diversity and cultural plant knowledge; they are established by local communities in open sites which have existing levels of land protection owing to their primary purpose as archaeological sites, educational institutions, religious landholdings, private institutions and touristic sites

Planning for Climate Change A Reader in Green Infrastructure and Sustainable Design for Resilient Cities, 1st Edition

This book provides an overview of the large and interdisciplinary literature on the substance and process of urban climate change planning and design, using the most important articles from the last 15 years to engage readers in understanding problems and finding solutions to this increasingly critical issue. The Reader’s particular focus is how the impacts of climate change can be addressed in urban and suburban environments—what actions can be taken, as well as the need for and the process of climate planning. Both reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as adapting to future climate are explored. Many of the emerging best practices in this field involve improving the green infrastructure of the city and region—providing better on-site stormwater management, more urban greening to address excess heat, zoning for regional patterns of open space and public transportation corridors, and similar actions. These actions may also improve current public health and livability in cities, bringing benefits now and into the future. This Reader is innovative in bringing climate adaptation and green infrastructure together, encouraging a more hopeful perspective on the great challenge of climate change by exploring both the problems of climate change and local solutions

Mitigating Urban Heating in Dryland Cities: A Literature Review

This review analyzes literature regarding urban heating and urban heat islands (UHIs) in dryland cities. This topic is of widespread importance in the era of climate change since many global cities are in arid, semiarid, or Mediterranean regions. We first analyze the literature on dryland UHIs, finding major differences with those for temperate cities. We then review research on cooling strategies involving vegetation, built form, and materials. Finally, we consider planning dimensions. Overall, we find that the most sustainable cooling approach for dryland cities is likely to combine low-water tree species with dense, shade-producing built form and high-albedo materials