Parsons the New School Climate Change & Human Health in Cities Reflection Paper Writing 4 solutions out of the 4 problems below. ( In the same format)
Parsons the New School Climate Change & Human Health in Cities Reflection Paper Writing 4 solutions out of the 4 problems below. ( In the same format)
‘Climate change and human health in cities’ Reflection – Sustainable System
The section lists a number of potential human health impacts of climate change. Go through the list and for each issue, speculate on a design-led solution. In other words, how can design be used in climate change mitigation?
Issue 1: Climate change and urban energy systems
Solution: Climate change and energy saving are challenging the city, the urban energy needto sustainably used to save all the populations and animals in each country.
Issue 2: Climate change, water, and wastewater in cities
Solution: Extreme weather can significantly impact human health in many ways, it is dangerous and also murderous. One of the solutions for extreme rainfall that leads to flooding is to design more absorption walls or roads that can help leach the water out. After the research, I find outs the design of a “green wall”. The design of green walls and green roofs in the city is made of grass and other green plants. This can help delay stormwater runoff and also absorb the rainfall into the earth below the site. Also, porous concrete is another material that helps absorb water on the ground, people should use more materials that can prevent extremes weather to construct houses to buildings.
Issue 3: Climate change and urban transportation systems
Solution:
Issue 4: Climate change and human health in cities Solution
Solution: ‘Climate change and human health in cities’ Reflection – Sustainable System
The section lists a number of potential human health impacts of climate change.
Go through the list and for each issue, speculate on a design-led solution. In other
words, how can design be used in climate change mitigation?
Issue 1: Climate change and urban energy systems
Solution: Climate change and energy saving are challenging the city, the urban
energy need to sustainably used to save all the populations and animals in each
country.
Issue 2: Climate change, water, and wastewater in cities
Solution: Extreme weather can significantly impact human health in many ways, it
is dangerous and also murderous. One of the solutions for extreme rainfall that
leads to flooding is to design more absorption walls or roads that can help leach the
water out. After the research, I find outs the design of a “green wall”. The design
of green walls and green roofs in the city is made of grass and other green plants.
This can help delay stormwater runoff and also absorb the rainfall into the earth
below the site. Also, porous concrete is another material that helps absorb water on
the ground, people should use more materials that can prevent extremes weather to
construct houses to buildings.
Issue 3: Climate change and urban transportation systems
Solution:
Issue 4: Climate change and human health in cities Solution
Solution:
Climate Change and Cities
First Assessment Report of the Urban
Climate Change Research Network
Copyright © 2011. Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.
Executive Summary
Rosenzweig, C., Solecki, W. D., & Hammer, S. A. (Eds.). (2011). Climate change and cities : First assessment report of the urban climate change research network. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Created from newschool on 2019-09-05 11:05:35.
Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Cities1 are home to over half of the world’s people and are at the forefront of the climate change issue. Climate change exerts added stress on
urban areas through increased numbers of heat waves threatening the
health of the elderly, the infirm, and the very young; more frequent and
intense droughts and inland floods compromising water supplies; and
for coastal cities, enhanced sea level rise and storm surges affecting
inhabitants and essential infrastructure, property, and ecosystems. At
the same time, cities are responsible for no less than 40% of global
greenhouse gas emissions, and given current demographic trends, this
level will likely only increase over time. These challenges highlight the
need for cities to rethink how assets are deployed and people protected,
how infrastructure investments are prioritized, and how climate will
affect long-term growth and development plans.
Work on the First Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities
(ARC3) was launched by the Urban Climate Change Research Network
(UCCRN) in November 2008 at a major workshop in New York City
with the goal of building the scientific basis for city action on climate
change. Eventually more than 100 lead and contributing authors from
over 50 cities around the world contributed to the report, including
experts from cities in both the developing and developed world, representing a wide range of disciplines. The book focuses on how to use climate science and socio-economic research to map a city’s vulnerability
to climate hazards, and how cities can enhance their adaptive and mitigative capacity to deal with climate change over different timescales.
Key findings
Defining the risk framework
Copyright © 2011. Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.
A new vulnerability and risk management paradigm is emerging as
a useful framework for city decision-makers to analyze how their city
should seek to adapt to the anticipated impacts of climate change. The
UCCRN climate change vulnerability and risk assessment framework
(Figure 1) is composed of three sets of indicators:
• Climate hazards facing the city, such as more frequent
and longer duration heat waves, greater incidence of heavy
downpours, and increased and expanded coastal or riverine
flooding;
Hazards
Trends and projections
Heat waves
Droughts and floods
Sea level rise
Preciptation
Vulnerability
City size and density
Topography
% of poor
% of GDP
Adaptive
capacity
Information and
resources
Institutions and
governance
Figure 1: Urban climate change vulnerability and risk assessment framework.
Source: Mehrotra et al. (2009).
tutional capacity that can serve as a foundation for adaptation planning
efforts. In other cities that are still in the early stages of efforts to assess
local vulnerabilities and climate risks, work can nonetheless begin by
using generalized climate risks and information from similar urban
areas as a starting point for local climate planning efforts.
For example, in Sorsogon City in the Philippines, the city government developed its local vulnerability assumptions using climate change
projections and risk assessments from national government agencies
and private research institutions.
Urban climate: processes, trends, and projections
Cities already face special climatic conditions that must be accounted
for when preparing long-term climate change adaptation plans. These
include:
• Urban heat island. Cities already tend to be hotter than
• Vulnerabilities due to a city’s social, economic, or physical
attributes such as its population size and density, topography,
the percentage of its population in poverty, and the percentage
of national GDP that it generates;
• Adaptive capacity aspects, factors that relate to the ability of a
city to act, such as availability of climate change information,
resources to apply to mitigation and adaptation efforts, and the
presence of effective institutions, governance, and change agents.
In most cities, readily available data exist about climate hazards
(trends and projections), population and geographic features, and insti1
surrounding suburban and rural areas due to the absorption of
heat by concrete and other building materials and the removal
of vegetation and loss of permeable surfaces, both of which
provide evaporative cooling.
• Air pollution. The concentration of residential, commercial,
industrial, electricity-generating, and transportation activities
(including automobiles, railroads, etc.) contributes to air pollution,
leading to acute and chronic health hazards for urban residents.
• Climate extremes. Major variability systems such as the El
Niño-Southern Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation, and
Cities are defined here in the broad sense to be urban areas, including metropolitan and suburban regions.
Rosenzweig,xvi
C., Solecki, W. D., & Hammer, S. A. (Eds.). (2011). Climate change and cities : First assessment report of the urban climate change research network. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Created from newschool on 2019-09-05 11:05:35.
Executive Summary
Figure 2: Cities represented in ARC3 and 2050s temperature projections for the NCAR CCSM 3.0 GCM with greenhouse gas emissions scenario A1b.
Source: NCAR CCSM 3.0 – Collins et al. (2006); Emissions Scenario A1b – Nakicenovic et al. (2000).
Copyright © 2011. Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.
oceanic cyclonic storms (e.g., hurricanes and typhoons) affect
climate extremes in cities. How these systems will interact
with anthropogenic climate change is uncertain, but awareness
of their effects can help urban areas to improve climate
resilience.
Existing city-specific climate data and downscaled projections from
global climate models can provide the scientific foundation for planning
efforts by city decision-makers and other stakeholder groups (Figure 2).
In twelve cities analyzed in depth in this report (Athens, Dakar, Delhi,
Harare, Kingston, London, Melbourne, New York, São Paulo, Shanghai,
Tokyo, and Toronto), average temperatures are projected to increase
by between 1 °C and 4 °C by the 2050s. Most cities can expect more
frequent, longer, and hotter heat waves than they have experienced in
the past. Additionally, variations in precipitation are projected to cause
more floods as the intensity of rainfall is expected to increase. In many
cities, droughts are expected to become more frequent, more severe, and
of longer duration.
Coastal cities should expect to experience more frequent and more
damaging flooding related to storm events in the future due to sea level
rise. In Buenos Aires, for example, damage to real estate from flooding
is projected to total US$80 million per year by 2030, and US$300 million per year by 2050. This figure does not account for lost productivity
by those displaced or injured by the flooding, meaning total economic
losses could be significantly higher.
Sector-specific impacts, adaptation, and mitigation
Climate change is expected to have significant impacts on four sectors in most cities – the local energy system; water supply, demand,
and wastewater treatment; transportation; and public health. It is critical
that policymakers focus their attention on understanding the nature and
scale of the impacts on each sector, developing adaptation and mitigation strategies, and determining policy alternatives.
Climate change and urban energy systems
Cities around the world have prioritized efforts to reduce energy consumption and the associated carbon emissions. This has been done both
for localized efficiency reasons – to reduce the effects of high energy
costs on household budgets, for example – as well as to respond to concerns that activities in cities are responsible for a large share of global
greenhouse gas emissions. Emphasis is now being placed on urban
energy system adaptation, as well, because climate change impacts
such as the loss of key supply sources or transmission and distribution
assets can jeopardize public health and the economic vitality of a city.
For example, in New York City, power plants were historically sited on
the waterfront to facilitate fuel supply delivery and to provide access to
cooling waters. The majority of these facilities are at an elevation of less
than 5m, making them susceptible to increased coastal flooding due to
sea level rise (Figure 3).
Increases in the incidence or duration of summertime heat waves
may result in higher rates of power system breakdown or failure, particularly if sustained high demand – driven by high rates of air conditioning use – stresses transmission and distribution assets beyond
their rated design capacity. In Chinese cities, the number of households
with air conditioners has increased dramatically in the past 15 years
(Figure 4), although the extent to which usage is nearing a point where
system vulnerabilities are heightened is still unclear. In cities heavily
reliant on hydropower, changing precipitation patterns resulting from
climate change may be problematic, if availability is reduced during
summertime periods when demand is greatest.
xvii
Rosenzweig, C., Solecki, W. D., & Hammer, S. A. (Eds.). (2011). Climate change and cities : First assessment report of the urban climate change research network. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Created from newschool on 2019-09-05 11:05:35.
Executive Summary
Figure 3: Location and elevation of power plants along the East River in New York City.
For any given city, local analyses are necessary to determine the
overall impact of climate change on energy demand, as it may increase
or decrease depending on which of the seasonal effects of climate
change (i.e., reduction in energy demand in cooler seasons and increased
demand in warmer seasons) are most significant.
250
China (all urban)
China (rural)
Beijing
Chongqing
Guangzhou
Shanghai
Tianjin
200
150
Cities can take robust steps to reduce their energy demand and thus
their carbon emissions, and it is increasingly clear that many of these
steps also provide significant adaptation benefits. These steps include:
100
50
2007
2008
2006
2004
2005
2003
2001
2002
2000
1999
1998
1996
1997
1994
1995
1993
reducing carbon emission levels and simultaneously lessening
stress on the system during times of heightened vulnerability.
1991
0
• Develop demand management programs to cut peak load,
1992
Copyright © 2011. Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.
Source: Power plant data for 2000 from eGRID (US EPA, 2002) to reflect with recently retired plants deleted. New York City digital elevation model is from the USGS (1999), which has a vertical error of
approximately +/−4 feet.
Figure 4: Number of air conditioners per 100 households in selected Chinese cities.
Source: CEIC (2010).
• Capitalize on the natural replacement cycle to update power
plants and energy networks to reduce their carbon intensity and
simultaneously increase their resilience to flooding, storm, and
temperature-related risks.
Rosenzweig,xviii
C., Solecki, W. D., & Hammer, S. A. (Eds.). (2011). Climate change and cities : First assessment report of the urban climate change research network. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Created from newschool on 2019-09-05 11:05:35.
Executive Summary
Figure 5: Typical water-use cycle for cities and other developed supplies; dotted arrows indicate pathways that sometimes occur.
Source: Modified from Klein et al. (2005).
• Diversify local power supply sources to increase the share of
renewables, thereby enhancing system resiliency and reducing
carbon emissions.
Climate change, water, and wastewater in cities
Urban water systems include water supply sources, conveyance, distribution, reuse, treatment, and disposal elements, all of which may be
vulnerable to a changing climate (Figure 5).
Copyright © 2011. Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.
Within cities, impervious surfaces and increased precipitation intensity can overwhelm current drainage systems. In Mexico City, the
city’s 27 treatment facilities currently handle only a fraction of the total
sewage generated citywide, and as the local population increases, the
ability of the system to accommodate runoff has become compromised,
raising the risk of flooding around the city.
In many cities, the quantity and quality of the water supply will be
significantly affected by the projected increases in both flooding and
droughts, amplifying the need for cities to focus on upgrading their
supply networks to maximize the availability of existing supplies. For
example, in developed country cities, leakage from the supply distribution system can be severe, resulting in system losses of between
approximately 5% and more than 30%. In developing country cities, the
supply problem is often different, as significant numbers of people rely
on informal water supply systems. In Lagos, for instance, 60% of the
population uses informal distribution systems (Figure 6), which are far
more vulnerable to drought-induced stoppages.
• Review and modify surface water and groundwater sources,
storage facilities, and intakes where appropriate to make
supplies less vulnerable to climate-induced risks such as floods
and droughts;
• Implement innovative local supply augmentations where
feasible through techniques such as rainwater harvesting and
water reuse, as well as through improved water accounting from
better observation networks and holistic modeling;
• Practice demand management through appropriate pricing
(including social, environmental and economic objectives),
public education on water use and conservation, improved toilet
and shower codes, updated drought management plans, and
targeted land-use strategies; and
• Encourage the use of water-efficient processes in domestic,
industrial, and agricultural uses.
A range of adaptation measures will be required to ensure water
supplies of adequate quantity and quality, especially in coastal regions
where water sources and infrastructure are subject to the impacts of
rising sea level, higher storm surge, salt-water intrusion, and land subsidence. Cities are pursuing a range of strategies to address these water
and wastewater challenges, including:
• Reduce non-revenue water, which constitutes a significant
fraction of supply in many urban areas, through leak detection
and repair and reduction in unauthorized withdrawals;
Figure 6: Informal urban water supply: a water vendor’s cart in Lagos.
Photo by Ademola Omojola.
xix
Rosenzweig, C., Solecki, W. D., & Hammer, S. A. (Eds.). (2011). Climate change and cities : First assessment report of the urban climate change research network. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Created from newschool on 2019-09-05 11:05:35.
Executive Summary
Climate change and urban transportation systems
Globally, according to the IPCC 2007 report, the transport sector
accounted for 23% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions related to
energy in 2004, although in some cities, the percentage is much higher,
a reflection of local land use and mobility patterns. Cities are adopting a
range of strategies to reduce transport-related emissions, including promoting transit-oriented development, reclaiming roadways to provide
more space for bicycles and pedestrian walkways, and increasing the
amount of mass transit systems available around the city.
Regulatory and pricing instruments are also increasingly being
deployed to reduce the volume, timing, or location of private vehicle
use, often with significant impact. In London, a congestion pricing
program resulted in a 12% decrease in traffic levels in the congestion
pricing zone, while in Stockholm, there was a 22% reduction in vehicle
passages in the congestion zone. Beijing, Bogota, and Mexico City have
all pursued limits on the number of days vehicles can be driven, but this
approach may penalize households in locations where public transportation is inadequate. Other cities have focused on promoting more efficient
fuels and technology as a means of reducing transport-related carbon
emissions. In Delhi, for instance, all public transport buses were converted to compressed natural gas (CNG)-operated systems, in response
to public action and right-to-clean-air campaigns that brought the issue
to the attention of the Supreme Court of India. The Court subsequently
issued a series of judgments regulating public transport and air quality. A
key lesson from this experience is that leadership for change in cities can
arise from diverse stakeholders – be it citizen groups, the private sector,
or the judiciary – as well as from city government itself (Figure. 7).
Copyright © 2011. Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.
Some of these mitigation strategies will bring climate change adaptation co-benefits, such as new energy-efficient fuel technologies that
provide better temperature control for passengers, but others are being
undertaken specifically to maintain the integrity of essential transportation infrastructure assets under changing climate conditions, such as
improved engineering and management. Maputo is one of four cities
benefiting from a UN HABITAT-supported initiative focused on climate planning, with a specific goal of identifying the hard approaches
(sea walls, engineered levees, pump stations) and soft, ecosystem-based
approaches (wetlands, parks, and planted levees) designed to protect
local transportation system assets from coastal flooding. Mitigation and
adaptation strategies for city transportation systems include:
• Integrate land use and transportation planning to increase the
density of the urbanized portion of developed land, plan for
mixed-use development, and enhance the proximity of travelers to
transit and/or to their destinations to reduce vehicle miles of travel;
• Construct transport systems with materials that are more
resilient to higher temperatures and the potentially corrosive
effects of increased exposure to sea wat…
Purchase answer to see full
attachment
