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Transforming Cities and Science for Climate Change Resilience in the Anthropocene

Part of the Palgrave Studies in Environmental Transformation, Transition and Accountability book series (PSETTA)

Abstract

Cities are where some of the most advanced climate action occurs, but they are also the places most at risk from climate change. With climate change-driven extreme events rising in frequency and intensity, cities are on the front lines of needs for innovative urban science and urban climate governance. Transforming cities to be flexible, adaptive, and resilient to a future that is unpredictable requires transformative urban climate governance capable of building, designing, and planning cities in ways that also recognize the challenges of governing complex urban systems. Governing urbans complexity, now with additional pressures from climate change, requires rethinking governance and even how we approach science in the context of urban social-ecological-technological systems (SETS).

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Fig. 3.1

(Adapted from Depietri et al. 2018)

Fig. 3.2

(Adapted from McPhearson et al. 2016a; Depietri and McPhearson 2017)

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Acknowledgment

This chapter was supported by the US National Science Foundation through the Urban Resilience to Extreme Weather-Related Events Sustainability Research Network (NSF grant no. SES 1444755), as well as the US NSF Accel-Net program NATURA (grant no. 1927167), and US NSF Convergence program (grant no. 1934933). Research was also partially funded through the 2015–2016 BiodivERsA COFUND call for research proposals, with the national funders the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences, and Spatial Planning; the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency; the German Aerospace Center; the National Science Centre, the Research Council of Norway; and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Support was also provided by the SMARTer Greener Cities project through the Nordforsk Sustainable Urban Development and Smart Cities program.

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McPhearson, T. (2020). Transforming Cities and Science for Climate Change Resilience in the Anthropocene. In: Hölscher, K., Frantzeskaki, N. (eds) Transformative Climate Governance. Palgrave Studies in Environmental Transformation, Transition and Accountability. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49040-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49040-9_3

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