Climate Change and U.S. Cities
Climate Change and U.S. Cities

Author: William D. Solecki

Publisher: Island Press

Published: 2022-02-08

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 1610919793

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Approximately 80% of the U.S. population now lives in urban metropolitan areas, and this number is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. At the same time, the built infrastructure sustaining these populations has become increasingly vulnerable to climate change. Stresses to existing systems, such as buildings, energy, transportation, water, and sanitation are growing. If the status quo continues, these systems will be unable to support a high quality of life for urban residents over the next decades, a vulnerability exacerbated by climate change impacts. Understanding this dilemma and identifying a path forward is particularly important as cities are becoming leading agents of climate action. Prepared as a follow-up to the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA), Climate Change and U.S. Cities documents the current understanding of existing and future climate risk for U.S. cities, urban systems, and the residents that depend on them. Beginning with an examination of the existing science since 2012, chapters develop connections between existing and emerging climate risk, adaptation planning, and the role of networks and organizations in facilitating climate action in cities. From studies revealing disaster vulnerability among low-income populations to the development of key indicators for tracking climate change, this is an essential, foundational analysis. Importantly, the assessment puts a critical emphasis on the cross-cutting factors of economics, equity, and governance. Urban stakeholders and decision makers will come away with a full picture of existing climate risks and a set of conclusions and recommendations for action. Many cities in the United States still have not yet planned for climate change and the costs of inaction are great. With bold analysis, Climate Change and U.S. Cities reveals the need for action and the tools that cities must harness to effect decisive, meaningful change.

Climate Change, Infrastructure, and Urban Systems
Climate Change, Infrastructure, and Urban Systems

Author: Scott D. Putman

Publisher:

Published: 2014-05-14

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 9781629480015

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This book provides an overview of the technical report issued by the U.S. Department of Energy on climate change and infrastructure, urban systems and vulnerabilities. The book is a summary of the currently existing knowledge based on this topic, nested within a broader framing of issues and questions that need further attention in the longer run. Current knowledge indicates that vulnerability concerns tend to be focused on extreme weather events associated with climate change that can disrupt infrastructure services, often cascading across infrastructures because of extensive interdependencies, threatening health and local economies, especially in areas where human populations and economic activities are concentrated in urban areas. Vulnerabilities are especially large where infrastructures are subject to multiple stresses, beyond climate change alone; when they are located in areas vulnerable to extreme weather events; and if climate change is severe rather than moderate. This book examines promising approaches for risk management, based on emerging lessons from a number of innovative initiatives in U.S. cities and other countries, involving both structural and non-structural options.

Climate Change and Cities
Climate Change and Cities

Author: Cynthia Rosenzweig

Publisher:

Published: 2018-03-29

Total Pages: 855

ISBN-13: 1316603334

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Climate Change and Cities bridges science-to-action for climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts in cities around the world.

Climate Change, Infrastructure, and Urban Systems
Climate Change, Infrastructure, and Urban Systems

Author: Scott D. Putman

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781629480008

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This book provides an overview of the technical report issued by the U.S. Department of Energy on climate change and infrastructure, urban systems and vulnerabilities. The book is a summary of the currently existing knowledge based on this topic, nested within a broader framing of issues and questions that need further attention in the longer run. Current knowledge indicates that vulnerability concerns tend to be focused on extreme weather events associated with climate change that can disrupt infrastructure services, often cascading across infrastructures because of extensive interdependencies, threatening health and local economies, especially in areas where human populations and economic activities are concentrated in urban areas. Vulnerabilities are especially large where infrastructures are subject to multiple stresses, beyond climate change alone; when they are located in areas vulnerable to extreme weather events; and if climate change is severe rather than moderate. This book examines promising approaches for risk management, based on emerging lessons from a number of innovative initiatives in U.S. cities and other countries, involving both structural and non-structural options.

Climate Change and Cities
Climate Change and Cities

Author: Cynthia Rosenzweig

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-04-28

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1139497405

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Urban areas are home to over half the world's people and are at the forefront of the climate change issue. The need for a global research effort to establish the current understanding of climate change adaptation and mitigation at the city level is urgent. To meet this goal a coalition of international researchers - the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) - was formed at the time of the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in New York in 2007. This book is the First UCCRN Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities. The authors are all international experts from a diverse range of cities with varying socio-economic conditions, from both the developing and developed world. It is invaluable for mayors, city officials and policymakers; urban sustainability officers and urban planners; and researchers, professors and advanced students.

Resilient Urban Futures
Resilient Urban Futures

Author: Zoé A. Hamstead

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-04-06

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 3030631311

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This open access book addresses the way in which urban and urbanizing regions profoundly impact and are impacted by climate change. The editors and authors show why cities must wage simultaneous battles to curb global climate change trends while adapting and transforming to address local climate impacts. This book addresses how cities develop anticipatory and long-range planning capacities for more resilient futures, earnest collaboration across disciplines, and radical reconfigurations of the power regimes that have institutionalized the disenfranchisement of minority groups. Although planning processes consider visions for the future, the editors highlight a more ambitious long-term positive visioning approach that accounts for unpredictability, system dynamics and equity in decision-making. This volume brings the science of urban transformation together with practices of professionals who govern and manage our social, ecological and technological systems to design processes by which cities may achieve resilient urban futures in the face of climate change.

Review of the Draft Fourth National Climate Assessment
Review of the Draft Fourth National Climate Assessment

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2018-06-18

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 0309471699

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Climate change poses many challenges that affect society and the natural world. With these challenges, however, come opportunities to respond. By taking steps to adapt to and mitigate climate change, the risks to society and the impacts of continued climate change can be lessened. The National Climate Assessment, coordinated by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, is a mandated report intended to inform response decisions. Required to be developed every four years, these reports provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date evaluation of climate change impacts available for the United States, making them a unique and important climate change document. The draft Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) report reviewed here addresses a wide range of topics of high importance to the United States and society more broadly, extending from human health and community well-being, to the built environment, to businesses and economies, to ecosystems and natural resources. This report evaluates the draft NCA4 to determine if it meets the requirements of the federal mandate, whether it provides accurate information grounded in the scientific literature, and whether it effectively communicates climate science, impacts, and responses for general audiences including the public, decision makers, and other stakeholders.

Climate Resilient Cities
Climate Resilient Cities

Author: Neeraj Prasad

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2009-02-19

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 0821377752

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'Climate Resilient Cities: A Primer on Reducing Vulnerabilities to Disasters' provides city administrators with exactly what they need to know about the complex and compelling challenges of climate change. The book helps local governments create training, capacity building, and capital investment programs for building sustainable, resilient communities. A step-by-step self-assessment challenges policymakers to think about the resources needed to combat natural disasters through an innovative hot spot risk and vulnerability identifi cation tool. This primer is unique from other resources in its treatment of climate change using a dual-track approach that integrates both mitigation (lowering contributions to greenhouse gases) and adaptation (preparing for impacts of climate change) with disaster risk management. The book is relevant both to cities that are just beginning to think about climate change as well as those that already have well established policies, institutions, and strategies in place. By providing a range of city-level examples of sound practices around the world, the book demonstrates that there are many practical actions that cities can take to build resilience to climate change and natural disasters.