: How can you make a difference?

Contemporary Issues in Designing and Managing Sustainable Cities

Urban Affairs 1171:001

Lesson 3 • The Politics of Climate Change • Resilience

Politics of Climate Change

"97% of Climate scientists believe that humans are causing climate change"

Studies support this fact:

•  NASA

•  National Academy of Sciences

•  University of Queensland, AU

•  Institute of Environmental Studies, Amsterdam

•  University of Illinois

Resilience

Resilience (dictionary)

1) springing back; rebounding

2) returning to the original form or position after being bent, compressed, or stretched

3) recovering readily from illness, depression, adversity, etc.

Resilience (ecological)

“The capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks”

(Walker et al. 2004:4).

Resilience refers to the ability of a system, person or community to tolerate, adapt and recover from significant shocks and disturbances

Resilience

Resilience has three defining characteristics:

1.  Ability to tolerate disturbance or undergo change and still retain the same controls on function and structure

(Walker, et. al., 2004)

http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB1011.pdf

Resilience of social-ecological systems (SESs)

Adaptive management

“A Resilient City is one that has developed capacities to help absorb future shocks and stresses to its social, economic, and technical systems and infrastructures so as to still be able to maintain essentially the same functions, structures, systems, and identity.”

Resilience Resilience has three defining characteristics:

1.  Ability to tolerate disturbance or undergo change and still retain the same controls on function and structure

2.  The degree to which the system is capable of self-organization

(Walker, et. al., 2004)

Ant - Colony

http://academic.reed.edu/biology/courses/BIO342/2010_syllabus/web_2010/ec_ant_site_FINAL/ ontogeny.html

Resilience Resilience has three defining characteristics:

1.  Ability to tolerate disturbance or undergo change and still retain the same controls on function and structure

2.  The degree to which the system is capable of self-organization

3.  The ability to build and increase the capacity for learning and adaptation

(Walker, et. al., 2004)

http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB1011.pdf

Resilience of social-ecological systems (SESs)

Adaptive management

Designing Resilient Systems

1. Diversity

2. Redundancy

3. Modularity and Independence Components

4. Feedback sensitivity/ Adaptive capacity

5. Environmental Responsiveness and Integration

http://www.resalliance.org

1. Diversity

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket"

Diversity maintains increased number of options or strategies so that a "system" can adapt or bounce back from external shocks.

In energy production, you have a number of different back-up systems

http://www.resilientcity.org/

1. Diversity

Our electrical grid is based on large power plants, and an infrastructure that is centered around its distribution

http://www.resilientcity.org/

Traditional Power Grid

Diversity

Diversity: Smart Grids A resilient community would rely on a diversity of energy sources

2. Redundancy

"Have more than you need"

If a system is compromised, there are backups available

In cities, an redundancy of key infrastructure systems is critical: Electrical power, waste water processing and, food and potable water

http://www.resilientcity.org/

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/aerospace/military/hybrid-generator-would-cut-military-base-fuel-costs- in-half

Redundancy Military uses multiple back-up generators

1.  More efficient 2.  Allows for greater

flexibility 3.  Responsive in an

attack

3. Modularity and Independence of System Components

System not brought down by weakest link

Resilience is increased when system components have enough independence that failure of one part is designed to have a low probability of inducing failure of other components in the system.

http://www.resilientcity.org/

Block Phone If one part breaks, don't need to through the whole thing out, easily customizable, easily replaced

4. Adaptive Capacity

Feedback Sensitivity is a system’s ability to detect and respond to changes in its constituent parts.

The more quickly a system can detect and respond to changes, the greater its potential for effectively coping with these changes, and thus for resilience.

Adaptive Capacity = ability to deal with change

http://www.resilientcity.org/

http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB1011.pdf

Resilience of social-ecological systems (SESs)

Adaptive management

“A Resilient City is one that has developed capacities to help absorb future shocks and stresses to its social, economic, and technical systems and infrastructures so as to still be able to maintain essentially the same functions, structures, systems, and identity.”

4. Feedback Sensitivity / Adaptive Capacity

Positive feedback

"The enhancement or amplification of an effect by its own influence on the process that gives rise to it."

http://www.resilientcity.org/

4. Feedback Sensitivity / Adaptive Capacity

carrying capacity in nature is an example of a feedback mechanism – limitation of resources keeps population in check

Positive feedback and climate change

5. Environmental Responsiveness and Integration

The resilience capacity of a city is increased by how integrated its systems are with its natural systems, services and resources.

http://www.resilientcity.org/

Building functions as an ecosystem Sidwell School - Washington, DC

Hurricane Sandy rebuild

Penn Praxis + Olin Studio

Using nature to assist with storm water management