The UREx SRN recently supported a pinnacle webinar that profiled two UREx-derived research projects focused on building practitioner resilience. 500 participants attended the day-of event and at least as many will watch the webinar in the archive. UREx SRN member Joyce Coffee partnered with the Innovation Network for Communities on both research projects (Total project amount for the entire team and both reports: $50,000 funded by the Summit Foundation).

The 2019 report Playbook 1.0: How Cities Are Paying for Climate Resilience identifies eight distinct strategies cities are using to pay for large-scale climate-resilience projects, mostly to address sea level rise and flooding.

These strategies amount to an initial approach for deciding who will pay what and how city governments will generate the needed revenue. Our analysis is based on a close look at how eight US cities in seven states have been organizing the funding needed to implement their ambitious climate-resilience plans. They are among a small number of cities that have gotten this far.

Each of these cities has had to find its own way to public and private financial resources, because there is no system in place for solving the problem of how to pay for climate resilience—no cost-sharing arrangements, for instance, for resilience infrastructure across local, state, and federal levels of government. The cities are involuntary pioneers faced with growing climate hazards and exposure that require more money for resilience. Examining these cities’ pathways revealed common strategies that, while only reflecting the leading-edge of urban climate-resilience financing practices, quite likely foreshadow what other cities already or may do.

But the pathways also suggest the limits of what cities are able to do. The acknowledgement that state governments can help local governments invest in climate resilience led to a 2020 report How State Governments can Help Local Communities Invest in Climate Resilience.

This report presents recommendations for how state governments can develop climate-resilience financial systems that help local communities invest in protecting residents, businesses, public infrastructure, private property, and natural resources from climate-driven stresses and shocks. To help states consider and act on the recommendations, we developed a State Climate Resilience Action Checklist that identifies the essential actions that states need to take to build a comprehensive approach to resilience, including a financial system. By “financial system” for states we mean a set of aligned state actions that fund and finance climate-resilience investment, revenue-generating mechanisms for shifting existing revenue or generating new revenue for resilience building, provision of basic state services related to climate resilience, and the administration of federal funding flows that can be used for resilience purposes. Taken together, these support local communities in developing the capacities and actions they need to strengthen their climate resilience in the short- and long-term.

The UREx SRN's Scenarios Working Group and each city team have worked tirelessly to create participatory visions of the future for each network city over the past several years. Now that we have rich databases of visions and preferred strategies for each city, the next step is to communicate and promote these visions to catalyze sustainability transitions. This is what several members of the San Juan City Team set out to do in August 2019.

For more than a year, several San Juan City Team members have been working together to design a platform to share the entire collection of scenario visions, narratives, strategies, and timelines for San Juan 2080 in a visual, engaging, and interactive tool. We also wanted to enrich this platform with background knowledge, a diversity of resources, and relevant case studies from other cities to make them more useful. For instance, to connect local stakeholders with the knowledge and financial resources to actually implement some of the strategies.

We used ArcGIS Story Maps as our platform to present these syntheses. The platform includes syntheses for each of the three flood scenarios (coastal floods, riverine floods, and urban floods) as well as the three transformative visions (Connected Municipality, Food and Energy Security, and Just and Livable City) developed during the UREx San Juan 2080 scenario workshops.

We are very excited to share the final version of this platform: Visiones de Ciudad - San Juan 2080. For those who are unfamiliar with the UREx Scenario Workshop process and/or outputs, we have created a landing page ("Inicio") that provides context for this collection of syntheses. We invite you to view the Story Map and share it with anyone who you think would be interested. Please note that it is in Spanish.

This platform is an example of one possible method for mobilizing each city's Scenario Workshop data within their communities, and it will ideally serve as an example for other UREx cities to create similar tools – increasing the knowledge uptake of the many invaluable resources co-produced by the UREx over the past five years.

This project could not have been possible without the gracious support of two NSF INTERN Supplement Awards provided to Robert Hobbins over the past year.

Primary contributors to the Visiones de Ciudad - San Juan 2080 Story Map: Robert Hobbins, Tischa Muñoz-Erickson, Pablo Méndez-Lázaro, Ariel Lugo, Juan González Moscoso, Grizelle González, Ingrid Vila Biaggi, Mandy Kuhn, Maria Maurer, and Anaís Delilah Roque. For the full list of contributors, please see the "Inicio" page and credits section of each page.

Green infrastructure is a unifying theme across the UREx SRN network cities, given its potential for stormwater management along with other benefits like heat mitigation and aesthetic improvements. Green infrastructure implementation is in various stages in our networks cities, and in Syracuse UREx SRN Mentor, Cliff Davidson has worked to integrate an ecological-technological solution through the green roof on the Convention Center in downtown Syracuse.

The Syracuse Convention Center green roof is over 60,000 square feet. The roof underwent a retrofit in 2011, when the green roof was added, and an extensive network of monitoring equipment allows for a plethora of data. Some examples of the data available is rainfall, rooftop runoff, soil moisture, windspeed, temperature through each layer of the roof. Undergraduate and graduate students have utilized this data for their research on the green roof since its construction in areas such as chemistry, energy, and hydrology. The green roof is built on top of a traditionally constructed roof, with a sheet drain, 3” of engineered growth medium, and the vegetation above it.  There are five different species of sedum on the roof as shown in the illustration below by UREx SRN graduate student, Courtney Gammon.Courtney was a recipient of the 2020 summer UREx graduate grant, and her current research revolves around using the software HYDRUS-1D to model flow through the OnCenter green roof. Extensive inputs for the green roof are required for modeling, many of which are available through historic and real-time datasets from the green roof’s monitoring network. Other inputs are from mathematical exploration and additional student research. UREx SRN Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) student, Anna Wojcik’s research on Leaf Area Index will be included in the data sets for modeling. If the model is successful it can be used to predict performance of the roof in future weather events, or to examine how similar roofs with function in locations with varied climate.

Additionally, the OnCenter green roof is being used as a tool for middle school education in New York schools to combat climate change. As part of the UREx SRN REU summer program, Libby Cultra is working with Cliff Davidson and graduate student Courtney Gammon to create a lesson plan using this green roof. The lesson plan utilizes activities, stories, experiments, and figures to teach 7^th through 9^th graders about green infrastructure in an improved and modern way. The unit is based on the Next Generation Science Standards, which are new STEM guidelines for K-12 students. A NGSS style lesson plan includes important, core subjects (Life, Earth, Physical Science, etc.) that are necessary for science education. Each unit or lesson plan achieves learning goals and follows coded standards made specifically for NGSS. Most importantly, problem-solving and modeling, which are connected to engineering practices, are also a key part of the NGSS learning experience.

Libby’s lesson plans, made for five 50 minute class periods, teach kids about the water cycle, carbon cycle, plant anatomy, natural hazards, ecosystems, and green roof benefits. Ecological cycles like the water and carbon cycle are amazing observable phenomena that continually occur on Earth, with plant life on a green roof playing a big role. Hands-on learning using real data will show students measurable benefits of green infrastructure. For example, the OnCenter green roof collects excess rainwater that could potentially cause flooding in cities. Students get to see the water cycle in action through live graphs of runoff, precipitation, and temperature. Data is collected every five minutes. Using this data, students will also learn about soil saturation and where water travels after it reaches the ground.

Activities and interactive stories throughout the lesson guide both teachers and students, making it easy to navigate through each lesson. Figures drawn by the Syracuse research team were made for easy comprehension by the students. Two examples are our water cycle and food pyramid diagrams (shown below).                                                             

This project is currently being reviewed by New York State Master Teachers. Eventually, we hope to distribute the completed plan to schools in the area and in an online format to promote sustainability to future generations.

In 1988, U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed Hispanic Heritage Month, a month long event (Sept 15 - Oct 15), into law in order to honor the contributions of persons of Hispanic, Latina/o, Latin@, Latinx heritage; thus recognizing this period as a time for millions of individuals to celebrate their collective and country-specific ethnicities. Over the years, identity monikers have changed, with the most recent update as Latinx and Latinxs (plural for Latinx), pronounced la-teen-ex; this change was made to include non-binary, gender-neutral, LGBTQ, and gender-fluid individuals as an extension of what has already been recognized as a heterogeneous, U.S. Latin culture as a whole.

As celebration comes to a close on Oct 15th, the UREx SRN would like to acknowledge the contributions of all Latinx SRN members and communities who are working on extremes research within the network!

In the spirit of the UREx mission for diversity, equity, and inclusion:

Happy Latinx/Heritage Month 2019!

Reference: Arredondo Advisory Group

Sowing Resilience: Thoughts on Implementation from South to North

-créditos de video, Sonia Hita Cañadas

Construyendo Resiliencia Desde el Sur Global

La dimensión del drama social en los países en desarrollo o “Sur Global” es relativamente bien conocida. Las grandes desigualdades socioeconómicas, los bajos ingresos, los bajos niveles de esperanza de vida, la corrupción, la violencia, el crimen, la inestabilidad política, etc.

Es necesario reflexionar si este contexto turbulento del Sur global frente a los países desarrollados se debe a una diferencia estructural en la naturaleza de las sociedades en cada caso, y sobre las implicaciones que esto pueda causar en la implementación de iniciativas de resiliencia.

Es razonable afirmar que los desafíos para la construcción de resiliencia, ya sea en las sociedades desarrolladas o en el Sur global, surgen de la misma naturaleza humana y su fragilidad para la organización social, la coexistencia y la adaptación en el ambiente. La diferencia norte-sur radicaría en la complejidad de los diferentes contextos socioeconómicos, culturales y geográficos. Si las diferencias no son en la naturaleza sino en la intensidad de los procesos, entonces la transferencia de conocimiento en dos vías es, más allá que una oportunidad, un mecanismo conveniente para el aprendizaje social.

El "norte" tiene mucho que ofrecer para la construcción de resiliencia, no solo por sus avances tecnológicos, sino también por la consolidación de sus estructuras sociales que proporcionan ventajas comparativas para crear soluciones más satisfactorias o aceptadas. La mayor legitimidad del Estado, la reducida segregación, el mayor nivel de vida, el acceso regulado a los derechos humanos y los servicios públicos, en general, son, sin duda, condiciones apropiadas para aumentar la resiliencia. Sin embargo, en tanto que el drama social del sur y su complejidad dificultan la construcción de la resiliencia, la gobernanza requerida para resolver estos desafíos demandan de una gran creatividad de estas sociedades como condición básica para su supervivencia.

Estas sociedades que asumen la construcción de la resiliencia en el sur global han consolidado habilidades valiosas para sobrellevar su gran nivel de complejidad. La relevancia de insistir en una comunicación sur- norte para la construcción de la resiliencia es evidente, ante el potencial cualitativo  que se resalta desde esta perspectiva. El "Sur" tiene, para ofrecer a la comunidad global de profesionales y académicos de la resiliencia, ésta ventaja comparativa en términos de complejidad y creatividad.

Es razonable sugerir que el futuro de los Estados Unidos está crecientemente ligado a lo que ocurre en América Latina, y aún más, a lo que sucede con la expansión interna de las culturas latinoamericanas dentro de su territorio. El acercamiento a las experiencias del Sur es un mecanismo de anticipación o acercamiento frente a múltiples dinámicas, que tarde o temprano se revelarán con mayor notoriedad dentro de los espacios urbanos. La capacidad de dialogar con esa complejidad del sur resultará cada vez más crítica para abordar de manera resiliente los desafíos.

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The Department of Environmental Health from the University of Puerto Rico-Medical Sciences Campus led in collaboration with the Institute for Sustainable Solutions from Portland State University, the CAPA Heat Watch Program in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The heat campaign took place on Sunday June 23rd, 2019. Citizen science volunteers gathered ground-based temperature measurements and humidity all over the city. They drove on 10 designated areas, termed polygons, with temperature sensors mounted at about 2 meters from the ground. Data was collected throughout three one-hour intervals (6am, 2pm, and 7pm) to account for ambient variations in the metropolitan area. In total, we recorded around 30-hours of meteorological data. The overall goal is to produce detailed maps of the Urban Heat Island in San Juan. Results will be tested with collaborating city practitioners and officials to test support decision-making models in different stakeholder groups.

Thanks to Dr. Vivek Shandas for his technical support and for providing the instrumentation. Special thanks to all volunteers and the National Weather Service-San Juan Office for providing “Weather Briefing for the Metropolitan Area of San Juan and Northeast Puerto Rico”.  A total of 25 volunteers were involved, which included professors, undergraduate and graduate students from different institutions. The activity was coordinated by Dr. Pablo Méndez-Lázaro, Dr. Vivek Shandas, Antonio de la Flor-Rosario and Jazmin Díaz-Rivera.

This campaign was part of Urban Resilience to Extreme Weather Events-Sustainability Research Network. Sponsored by National Science Foundation.

As you’ve probably heard, NSF is funding more than 22 workshops on sustainable urban systems that were proposed in response to the Dear Colleague Letter, “Conference Proposals on Concepts for Advancing Sustainable Urban Systems (SUS) Research Networks.” The EMT members who attended this year’s SRN Awardees’ Conference at NSF learned that the foundation is viewing these workshops as fodder to the development of a new solicitation for urban research networks. We are asking UREx members to keep everyone informed if you attend one of these workshops; you can write a short email and send it to Angela, or submit a piece for the blog or the newsletter. In that vein, I’m writing here to report on a workshop I attended in Cairo, Egypt from 8–14 June.

The workshop, “Sustainable Smart Cities in Arid Regions,” was funded by the NSF’s Office of International Science and Engineering through a grant to the University of Alabama Birmingham’s (UAB) Sustainable Smart Cities Research Center and sponsored by the Egyptian Housing and Building Research Center and Alexandria University. Participants came from ASU, Georgia Tech, MIT, UC Berkeley, and UAB in the USA, Canada, UK, Germany (German International Cooperation Program in Egypt), and several Egyptian universities, governmental, and non-governmental organizations.

After a delightful two days of learning about ancient Egypt and the present-day city of Cairo, the workshop began with just three plenary talks, each setting the stage for in-depth workshop discussions on three themes: informal settlements and sustainable housing, urban health and well-being, and sustainable water management. There were many architects and building engineers, public health/community medicine participants, and hydrologists, but only one ecologist (me). The products of each working group’s discussions over the ensuing two days were potential collaborative proposals. The water group produced five ideas for moderately sized projects and one grandiose scheme (“Sustainable Nile Communities”) featuring activities at the scale of the Nile Basin and target communities, both in the context of wicked water problems of scarcity, climate change, and pollution, with a look to the future. I hope to continue discussions that may lead to new projects in collaboration with Egypt; for example, comparative studies of sustainable water management for the Nile and Colorado basins or sustainable future visions for Cairo or small communities along the Mediterranean.

The NSF program director from OISE made frequent comments about his hope that the outputs of these workshops would both lead to new collaborations and potential funding, as well as provide input to the group at NSF that is developing the new solicitation on sustainable urban systems. —Nancy Grimm, 21 June 2019

If it weren’t for the computer simulation game SimCity, Sean McElroy might never have discovered his passion for sustainable cities. As a high school student, McElroy designed a modern city using the game for a required personal project for the International Baccalaureate program.

“A lot of the research that I did was on future cities, which often brought up sustainability,” McElroy said. “I thought that the topic of sustainable cities and development sounded really interesting, and once I heard about it being a major it was an easy decision for me to choose it.”

This December, McElroy is graduating from Arizona State University with a bachelor in sustainability from the School of Sustainability and a minor in urban planning from the School of Geographical Science and Urban Planning. During his time at ASU, McElroy has taken on leadership positions with the School of Sustainability Academy and the Honor Society for Sustainability. He also completed an internship with the Street Transportation Department at the City of Phoenix, and was a research aide working with ASU’s Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network.

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The URExSRN is a research network of almost 300 practitioners, researchers, students, and postdoctoral fellows working to integrate social, ecological, and technical systems toward the support of urban infrastructure in the midst of climate uncertainties. Network cities and partners participate and share in current research with early learning communities by providing relevant network learnings through K-12 outreach and professional development programs.

Two UREx members have embraced engaging future scientists by providing science curriculum relevant to the UREx mission through programs offered at Arizona State University. Read the exciting, first-hand experiences of graduate fellow, Stephen Elser and research collaborator, Amalia Handler:

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[mensaje en español sigue]

Who does the United States public trust to help in its efforts to become more resilient to extreme weather events and climate change? A 2016 Pew Research Center, survey revealed that 76% of citizens trust scientists “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to act in the public’s best interests, but only 27% report the same degrees of trust for their politicians and elected officials. Given these percentages, I wonder how the public feels about the hybrid workers in government: the scientist civil servants staffing the federal agencies run by political appointees. Since the civilian workforce of the federal government makes up over 99.7% of the total staff, leaving proportionally very few positions to be filled by political appointment, it turns out that the actual “doing” part of resilience policy and science is largely left to scientist civil servants. Who are these scientist civil servants, then? How do they straddle the line between resilience policy and science? And how would the public feel about what they do?

For one week in June of 2018, UREx SRN students convened at ASU’s Barrett and O’Connor Center to meet with some of these scientist civil servants, as well as with scientists working for the non-profit sector, as part of ASU’s Science Outside the Laboratory program on resilience policy and science. There, at the Center and at D.C. government agency buildings, SOtL program director Dr. Jennifer Brian and Dr. Matthew Harsh, as well as former program director Ira Bennett, arranged roundtable discussions about the duties involved in federal science positions, federal policies for building resilience to extreme weather events and climate change, and efforts toward developing trust and collaboration with the American public on these issues.

Students met early on with Advance Science Staff Lead, Dr. Jennifer Saleem Arrigo, at the US Global Change Research Program (GCRP), which is the charged with publishing the quadrennial National Climate Assessment. Students also met with the Director and Assistant Director of the Natural Resources and Environment Department, Frank Rusco and Joe Thompson respectively, at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which ensures the government is fulfilling its mandated duties like producing the Assessment. These civil servants talked about the importance of the Assessment for communicating to both policymakers and the public on consensus science on the threat and effects of climate change, even as receptiveness to this information has changed in recent years. Responses to student questions regarding speakers’ feelings on the impactfulness of their work, including changes in receptiveness, where emphasized as the normal ebb and flow of politics. The speakers viewed much of what they do as preparation for the opening of political windows of opportunity: that is, for the times when the public or congressional attention and will for action suddenly swell and crest, and it becomes possible to carry forward climate change resilience actions. I was impressed by how these scientists, with long careers in academia or in climate research, had become politically savvy in their roles without diluting the quality of their research or diverting from its intended purpose.

Students also met with scientists and an art director about the importance of visualization and interactivity for communicating the need for resilience strategies. Claudia Nierenberg and Stephen Zepecki spoke to us about NOAA’s role as both researchers as well as communicators to the public and political figures. Students were given a demonstration of the Science on the Sphere demonstration tool: a globe upon which model and satellite data can be projected, demonstrating to viewers various planetary processes ranging from atmospheric warming over the past century, hurricane formation and landfall events, and changes in oceanic currents. Nierenberg and Zepecki described the Sphere as being a particularly impactful tool for communicating the findings of NOAA, and for how our own resilience concerns in the US have parallels and connections to nations across the planet.

In a separate event at the National Building Museum, Curator Chrysanthe Broikos and students engaged in a discussion over a recent exhibit, Designing for Disaster. The exhibit exposed attendees in both the effects of natural disasters like wildfires and flooding, in the forms of faux-burned and faux-flood-damaged exhibit spaces. It also showed the effects of disaster resilience policy, in the forms of future building and infrastructure design. These forms of communication impressed me with literal flatness of much of the work that I do: most of it will be communicated via paper or screen, but might have more impact by the use of other mediums, in terms of quality and quantity. Also, seeing the connection between disaster effects, resilience policy, and design effects gave me some trust in the good intention of the scientists and agencies that pushed for policy change.

We also held roundtables with scientists involved in policy work in the non-governmental organization (NGO) world, discussing the ways that they partner with communities and sub-federal government to increase community resilience. Genevieve Maricle, the Global Knowledge and Innovation Lead at the World Wildlife Fund spoke about how cities and communities both in the US and abroad are mobilizing to implement the Paris Climate Agreement goals and UN Sustainable Development Goals in the absence of federal support. Jorge Ramos, manager of Conservation International’s Climate and Ocean division, spoke about work done on mangrove conservation partnerships with communities, and how such localized work can even be the ideal form of resilience work, both with and without the presence of federal support. Indeed, many students within the UREx SRN are involved in research that can increase the effectiveness and equity involved in community resilience efforts. With low trust in politics and federal agencies, and inconsistent financial support or vision from the elected heads of these groups, partnerships between concerned communities and NGO scientists that can support the technical and financial aspects of achieving their goals are increasingly necessary.

This post represents only a few of the great discussions and ideas that arose from this year’s Science Outside the Lab program. Additional speakers came from the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO); the American Meteorological Society; the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FEMA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). In a closing feedback session, students offered that they were impressed with the genuine sense of duty that these scientist civil servants felt toward communication and community outreach in their work. My own strongest impression was how these scientists all strove in good faith to fulfill the obligations of their positions, regardless of pushback or frustration some felt during this and previous stages of the political cycle. Further, we all felt inspired seeing the results of the scientific research we do that is being translated into policy and action, and we came away with the understanding that as either future unaffiliated scientists or civil servants enacting science policy, we will have an impactful role to play in making more resilient communities, cities, and nations.

by Jason Sauer

Teaching Assistant, SOtL UREx

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UREx La ciencia afuera del laboratorio (SOtL) - Verano de 2018

¿En quién confía el público de Estados Unidos para ayudar en los esfuerzos para ser más resilientes a los fenómenos meteorológicos extremos y al cambio climático? Una encuesta del Centro de Investigación Pew en 2016 reveló que el 76% de los ciudadanos confían “mucho" o "regular" en que los científicos actúan en beneficio del público, pero solo el 27% reporta los mismos grados de confianza en sus políticos y funcionarios electos. Dados estos porcentajes, me pregunto cómo se siente el público acerca de los trabajadores híbridos en el gobierno: los científicos que trabajan como funcionarios en las agencias federales dirigidas por personas designadas por razones políticas. Dado que la fuerza laboral civil del gobierno federal representa más del 99.7% de la planilla total, dejando proporcionalmente muy pocos puestos a cubrir con designaciones políticas, resulta que la parte real de “ejecutar” relacionada con la política de la resiliencia y la ciencia queda en gran medida en manos de funcionarios científicos. ¿Quiénes son estos funcionarios científicos, entonces? ¿Cómo caminan la línea media entre la política de resiliencia y la ciencia? ¿Y cómo se sentiría el público acerca de lo que hacen?

Durante una semana en junio de 2018, los estudiantes UREx SRN se reunieron en el Centro Barrett y O'Connor de ASU para conocer a algunos de estos científicos que trabajan como funcionarios públicos, y conocer también a científicos que trabajan para el sector sin fines de lucro, como parte del programa La ciencia afuera del laboratorio de ASU que trata sobre la política de resiliencia y la ciencia. Allí, en el Centro y en los edificios de las agencias gubernamentales de D.C., la directora del programa de SOtL, la Dra. Jennifer Brian y el Dr. Matthew Harsh, así como el ex director del programa Ira Bennett, organizaron mesas redondas sobre los deberes relacionados con las posiciones científicas en el gobierno federal y las políticas federales para la construcción de resiliencia ante eventos climáticos extremos y el cambio climático, y los esfuerzos para desarrollar confianza y colaboración del público estadounidense sobre estos temas.

Los estudiantes se reunieron con la Dra. Jennifer Saleem Arrigo, Líder del Personal de Ciencias Avanzadas del Programa de Investigación en Cambio Global (GCRP), que está a cargo de la publicación de la Evaluación Nacional Climática cuadrienal. Los estudiantes también se reunieron con el Director y Subdirector del Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Medio Ambiente, Frank Rusco y Joe Thompson, respectivamente, en la Oficina de Rendición de Cuentas Gubernamentales (GAO), que garantiza que el gobierno esté cumpliendo con sus deberes obligatorios, como generar la Evaluación. Estos funcionarios hablaron sobre la importancia de la Evaluación para comunicar a los legisladores y al público sobre la ciencia consensuada en torno a la amenaza y los efectos del cambio climático, incluso a pesar de que la receptividad a esta información ha cambiado en los últimos años. Respuestas a las preguntas de los estudiantes sobre la opinión de los oradores en torno al impacto de su trabajo, incluidos los cambios en la receptividad, fueron enfatizados frente al vaivén normal político. Los oradores vieron gran parte de lo que hacen como una preparación para la apertura de ventanas de oportunidad política: es decir, para los momentos en que la atención y la voluntad públicas o del Congreso se intensifiquen repentinamente y sea posible llevar adelante acciones para lograr resiliencia al cambio climático. Me impresionó cómo estos científicos, con largas carreras académicas o de investigación climática, se han vuelto políticamente hábiles en sus roles sin diluir la calidad de su investigación y sin desviarse de sus propósitos previstos.

Los estudiantes también se reunieron con científicos y un director de arte para hablar sobre la importancia de la visualización y la interactividad para comunicar la necesidad de estrategias de resiliencia. Claudia Nierenberg y Stephen Zepecki nos hablaron sobre el papel de NOAA como investigadores y comunicadores ante el público y las figuras políticas. Los estudiantes recibieron una demostración de la herramienta de demostración Ciencia en la Esfera: un globo sobre el cual se pueden proyectar datos satelitales y de modelación, mostrando a los espectadores diversos procesos planetarios que van desde el calentamiento atmosférico durante el siglo pasado, la formación de huracanes y el efecto al tocar tierra, y cambios en las corrientes oceánicas. Ellos también describieron la Esfera como una herramienta particularmente impactante para comunicar los hallazgos de NOAA, y la forma cómo nuestras propias preocupaciones de resiliencia en Estados Unidos tienen paralelismos y conexiones con las naciones de todo el planeta.

En un evento separado en el Edificio del Museo Nacional, la curadora Chrysanthe Broikos y los estudiantes participaron en una discusión sobre una exhibición reciente, Diseñando para Desastres. La exhibición expuso a los asistentes tanto los efectos de los desastres naturales como los incendios forestales y las inundaciones, en forma de espacios de exhibición simulando estar quemados o inundados. También mostró los efectos de la política de resiliencia ante desastres, en la forma de diseños futuros de construcción e infraestructura. Estas formas de comunicación me impresionaron por el carácter plano de gran parte del trabajo que hago: la mayor parte se comunica a través de papel o pantalla, pero podría tener más impacto con el uso de otros medios, en términos de calidad y cantidad. Además, al ver la conexión entre los efectos de los desastres, la política de resiliencia y los efectos del diseño, pude confiar en la buena intención de los científicos y las agencias que impulsan el cambio de políticas.

También realizamos mesas redondas con científicos involucrados en el trabajo de políticas en el mundo de las organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG), discutiendo las formas en que se asocian con las comunidades y el gobierno sub federal para aumentar la resiliencia de la comunidad. Genevieve Maricle, Líder de Conocimiento e Innovación Global en World Wildlife Fund habló sobre cómo las ciudades y comunidades tanto en los Estados Unidos como en el exterior se están movilizando para implementar los objetivos del Acuerdo Climático de Paris y los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sustentable de la ONU en ausencia de apoyo federal. Jorge Ramos, gerente de la División de Clima y Océanos de Conservation International, habló sobre el trabajo realizado con alianza con las comunidades para la conservación de manglares, y cómo ese trabajo localizado puede ser la forma ideal de trabajo de resiliencia, con y sin la presencia de apoyo federal. De hecho, muchos estudiantes dentro de UREx SRN están involucrados en investigaciones que pueden aumentar la efectividad y la equidad involucradas en los esfuerzos de resiliencia comunitaria. Con poca confianza en la política y las agencias federales, y ante el inconsistente apoyo financiero o de visión de los líderes electos de estos grupos, cada vez son más necesarias las alianzas entre comunidades interesadas y científicos de las ONG que pueden apoyar los aspectos técnicos y financieros para alcanzar las metas.

Esta publicación representa solo algunas de las grandes discusiones e ideas que surgieron del programa de La Ciencia afuera del laboratorio este año. Otros oradores adicionales representaron a organizaciones como el Consorcio para Ciencia, Política y Resultados (CSPO); la Sociedad Meteorológica de Estados Unidos; la Administración Federal de Seguros y Mitigación (FEMA), y el Sondeo Geológico de Estados Unidos (USGS). En una sesión de retroalimentación de cierre, los estudiantes dijeron que estaban impresionados con el sentido genuino del deber que estos funcionarios científicos sentían con respecto a la comunicación y la extensión comunitaria en su trabajo. Mi impresión más fuerte fue cómo todos estos científicos se esfuerzan de buena fe para cumplir con las obligaciones de sus posiciones, independientemente del retroceso o la frustración que algunos han sentido durante esta y las etapas anteriores del ciclo político. Además, todos nos sentimos inspirados por los resultados de las investigaciones científicas que hacemos y verlos traducidos en políticas y acciones, y llegamos a la conclusión de que, ya sea como futuros científicos no afiliados o funcionarios públicos promulgando políticas científicas, tendremos una función impactante para lograr comunidades, ciudades y naciones más resilientes.

por Jason Sauer

Profesor Asistente, SOtL UREx

Over the past year, it has become even more apparent that climate change is not some future event, but rather, something we are currently experiencing.  This has been demonstrated by yet another year of record temperatures and extreme weather events.

As UREx SRN researchers, Marta Berbés-Blázquez, David Iwaniec, Nancy Grimm, and Timon McPhearson, stated in their article on The Nature of Cities, the UREx SRN emerged out of the need for cities to become more resilient and adapt to our current climate.  This blog entry reflects on the scenarios workshops, an important aspect of the project, which encourages out-of-the-box thinking while addressing immediate and future challenges.

Society needs better integration between what our city is or will be (science) with visions of what our city should be (design). Integrating these two elements is no easy task. Disconnects between science and design can lead to catastrophic infrastructure failures; as we’ve seen too many time this year with recent examples such as Hurricane Harvey in Houston. Part of the way we can move toward this integration goal is through co-design processes where we can learn and design together. Aligning researchers, who need more nuanced visions of urban futures, with design students, external partners, and residents provides a promising path that creates more societally impactful design processes. This will ultimately create a more socially-responsive and resilient infrastructure.

For urban resilience to extremes, these design processes may help us unearth more complete knowledge from diverse participants, and more importantly let us learn critical factors when designing cities for uncertainty together. We hope that this UREx-Design collaborative research-teaching-service pilot will provide meaningful feedback to inform future similar endeavors for UREx SRN, CAP LTER networks, and beyond. Design products from this course will serve as important inputs in the upcoming UREx SRN & CAP LTER participatory scenario workshops. Specifically, designs that feature adaptive reuse of public space, green infrastructure design and function, transportation alternatives, and urban form transformations will help stakeholders visualize and prioritize strategies they want to include in their scenarios. In addition, design students will be invited to participate in the actual workshop to sketch the visions that emerge from the table discussions.

Two PhD students working with the UREx, Melissa Davidson and Yuliya Dzyuban participated in the design course. Their final assignment for the course was a reflection piece on the process and what could be improved about the collaboration model. Yuliya noted, “Throughout the course of the semester it was evident that the interaction of sustainability students with the class has helped to raise awareness about sustainability, resilience and what it means to community. I have noticed that presentations and ideas that we shared during the semester were reflected in final students designs that evolved and became more sensitive to the community needs and to the unique project location.” While Melissa reflected on the challenges of such courses. “For me, the biggest challenge to this type of collaborative setting is time. Designers and interdisciplinary scholars spend time differently... This is not necessarily a negative; it just requires an acknowledgement that our presence in the course is more about quality of time rather than quantity of time… In addition to time constraints, the style of the course is a natural challenge. Most school of sustainability courses are between one and two and a half hours (at most) and are heavy on discussion. I really appreciated that we tried to incorporate this style of dialogue into the beginning of many Wednesday classes.”

Thinking about a pragmatic path forward for the UREx-Design collaboration model, Melissa suggested, “…it might be worth pitching a 3-credit course for non-design students who can play a stronger role in small groups. Rather than acting as a consultant, these students could help with things like project scoping and framing, research, storytelling, and generally provide a different perspective on the design process.” A second suggestion concerned the critical challenge of learning approaches to tackle social justice. Although students started the semester learning from a Latino climate justice organization and reading from social justice literature, for some students it was their first time confronting the issue. Yuliya recommended that, “[s]tudents need to improve understanding of social justice concepts and what it means in their work. It seemed that students who attempted to engage with communities on a more personal level, went for site visits several times, attended local festivities and coffee shops, and had a better understanding of the site and community. I suggest that students should be encouraged to attend community meetings and volunteer in the local events to gain better understanding of the local needs.“

Our intention is to keep pursuing a reflexive approach to this collaborative research-teaching-service model. Through URExSRN in collaboration with allied projects such as CAP LTER, we can create innovative models that not only advances our knowledge of resilience in urban systems, but also provides meaningful action pathways for society. Design can serve as that integrating process for society to match what cities are or will be (science) with visions of tomorrow (design).

-By Paul Coseo

**SPANISH TRANSLATION**

La sociedad necesita una mejor integración entre lo que es o va ser nuestra ciudad (ciencia) con visiones en lo que nuestra ciudad debe ser (diseño).  Integrar estos dos elementos no es fácil.  Las desconexiones entre la ciencia y el diseño puede conducir a fallas catastróficas en la infraestructura; como lo hemos visto demasiadas veces este año con ejemplos recientes como el del Huracán Harvey en Houston.  Un modo que en el que podemos acercarnos a esta meta de integración es a través de procesos de co-diseño con los que podemos aprender y diseñar juntos.  Alinear investigadores, que necesitan visiones más matizadas de futuros urbanos, con estudiantes de diseño, participantes externos, y residentes proporciona un camino prometedor que crea procesos de diseño socialmente más impactantes.  Esto creará, en última instancia, una infraestructura más flexible y con más capacidad para adaptarse.

Para la resiliencia urbana a eventos extremos, estos procesos de diseño tal vez pueden ayudarnos a desenterrar un conocimiento más completo de diversos participantes, y lo que es más importante, nos permiten conocer los factores críticos al diseñar juntos ciudades con incertidumbre. Esperamos que este proyecto piloto colaborativo de investigación-enseñanza-servicio de UREx-Design brinde retroalimentación significativa para informar futuros esfuerzos similares para las redes de UREx SRN, CAP LTER , y más allá. Los productos de diseño de este curso servirán como aportaciones importantes en los próximos talleres de escenarios participativos de UREx SRN y CAP LTER. Específicamente, los diseños que incluyen la reutilización adaptativa del espacio público, el diseño y la función de la infraestructura verde, las alternativas de transporte y las transformaciones de las formas urbanas ayudarán a los interesados ​​a visualizar y priorizar las estrategias que desean incluir en sus escenarios. Además, los estudiantes de diseño serán invitados a participar en el taller real para esbozar las visiones que surgen de las discusiones de la mesa.

Dos estudiantes de doctorado que trabajan con la UREx, Melissa Davidson y Yuliya Dzyuban participaron en el curso de diseño. Su tarea final para el curso fue una reflexión sobre el proceso y qué podría mejorarse sobre el modelo de colaboración. Yuliya señaló, "A lo largo del semestre fue evidente que la interacción de los estudiantes de sustentabilidad con la clase ha ayudado a crear conciencia sobre la sustentabilidad, la resiliencia y lo que ésta significa para la comunidad. Me di cuenta de que las presentaciones e ideas que compartimos durante el semestre se reflejaron en los diseños finales de los estudiantes que evolucionaron y se hicieron más sensibles a las necesidades de la comunidad y a la ubicación única del proyecto ". Por otro lado, Melissa reflexionó sobre los desafíos de dichos cursos. "Para mí, el mayor desafío para este tipo de entorno colaborativo es el tiempo. Los diseñadores y académicos interdisciplinarios pasan el tiempo de manera diferente ... Esto no es necesariamente negativo; solo requiere un reconocimiento de que nuestra presencia en el curso se trata más de la calidad del tiempo que de la cantidad de tiempo ... Además de las limitaciones de tiempo, el estilo del curso es un desafío natural. La mayoría de los cursos de sustentabilidad de la escuela duran entre una y dos horas y media (como máximo) e involucran una discusión abundante. Realmente aprecié que tratamos de incorporar este estilo de diálogo al comienzo de muchas clases de los miércoles”.

Pensando en un camino pragmático para el modelo de colaboración UREx-Design, Melissa sugirió que "... podría valer la pena ofrecer cursos de 3 créditos para estudiantes que no son de diseño y que pueden jugar un papel más fuerte en grupos pequeños. En lugar de actuar como un consultor, estos estudiantes podrían ayudar con aspectos como el alcance del proyecto y el encuadre, la investigación, la narración de cuentos y en general proporcionar una perspectiva diferente sobre el proceso de diseño." Una segunda sugerencia se refería al desafío crítico de aprender enfoques para abordar la justicia social. Aunque los estudiantes comenzaron el semestre aprendiendo de una organización latina de justicia climática y leyendo literatura acerca de la justicia social, para algunos estudiantes fue la primera vez que enfrentaron el problema. Yuliya recomendó que, "los estudiantes necesitan mejorar la comprensión de los conceptos de justicia social y lo que significan en su trabajo. Al parecer los estudiantes que intentaron involucrarse con las comunidades a un nivel más personal, las visitaron varias veces, asistieron a festividades locales y cafeterías, y tuvieron una mejor comprensión del sitio y la comunidad. Sugiero que se anime a los estudiantes a asistir a las reuniones comunitarias y ser voluntarios en los eventos locales para comprender mejor las necesidades locales."

Nuestra intención es seguir aplicando un enfoque reflexivo a este modelo colaborativo de investigación-enseñanza-servicio. A través de URExSRN en colaboración con proyectos aliados como CAP LTER, podemos crear modelos innovadores que no solo mejoren nuestro conocimiento de la resiliencia en los sistemas urbanos, sino que también proporcionen vías de acción significativas para la sociedad. El diseño puede servir como ese proceso integrador para la sociedad para que coincida con lo que las ciudades son o serán (ciencia) con las visiones del mañana (diseño).

-Por Paul Coseo

The UREx SRN Scenario team is conducting scenario planning workshops in Phoenix, Baltimore and Hermosillo this year. Phoenix is in a unique position given that it has already developed a suite of regional-scale scenarios. Building off of the Sustainable Future Scenarios project developed under the auspices of the CAP LTER (and in collaboration with that project), the Phoenix UREx scenario workshop will zoom in to the village level. Thus, the researcher-practitioner team decided to make South Mountain Village the focus of the scenario workshops. The choice seems timely as  several research and planning initiatives are already underway in South Mountain Village, including Paul Coseo’s design course, the Nature Conservancy’s Nature’s Cooling Systems Project, Rio Salado 2.0, and the planned extension of the Light Rail into South Phoenix.

South Mountain Village stretches between two landmarks, the Salt River to the North and the South Mountain Preserve to the South. With a rich agricultural past, South Mountain is home to the largest proportional populations of Latinos and African Americans in the valley. Environmental and social challenges of South Mountain include air pollution, public health risks, brownfields, excessive heat, and food deserts that are the result of historical segregation (see Bolin et al. 2005). To better understand these issues and to identify the futures that stakeholders can envision for their community, the the UREx Phoenix scenario team organized a World Café event to reach out to a broader community of stakeholders that live, work, or in some way identify with the South Mountain Village.

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In Governing, Joyce Coffee — President of Climate Resilience Consulting and UREx SRN Management Team member — has authored a piece inspired by The Rising to the Challenge, Together Report.

Coffee details how disasters do discriminate between the rich and poor, contrary to popular belief, and what some communities are doing to fight the widening inequality caused by these disasters.

The Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network, led by ASU sustainability scientists Nancy Grimm and Chuck Redman, is among 38 recipients of the National Science Foundation's 2017 Smart & Connected Communities grant.

The S&CC grant seeks to harness smart technologies for the enhancement of communities – in terms of economic opportunity and growth, safety and security, health and wellness, and overall quality of life. After observing how these technologies contribute to disaster relief – the social media fundraisers and re-build events after Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and María, for example – UREx recognized an opportunity.

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Graduate ASU UREx SRN students seek a holistic understanding of the ecosystem services – such as flood control, water treatment and cultural enrichment – that Valdivia, Chile's urban wetlands provide to residents.

Current research efforts include determining the flood mitigation potential of wetlands by measuring soil and surface water retention through Valdivia's wet and dry seasons, and evaluating how wetlands receive and process nutrients through collecting water samples and conducting nutrient pulse experiments. Future work will involve the final scenarios workshop, as well as distributing surveys to and soliciting "photovoice"-based participatory research from neighborhoods to discern how city residents experience and value their neighborhood wetlands.

Researchers are working with city practitioners, community organizations and unaffiliated citizens in Valdivia to ensure that their results will provide useful support for these groups in planning for their city's future. They hope to export the strategies developed in this work to other UREx SRN cities with similar environments.

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Future Cities is a new podcast created by UREx graduate students and postdocs. We hope to use this podcast as a way to communicate our own research with a broader audience, to share stories from across the network, and highlight some of the challenges that cities face when planning for future extreme events.

We want this podcast to be accessible to a large audience and we will aim to have one third of our podcasts in Spanish since one third of our network cities are Spanish speaking.

Episodes that we already have in production cover a range of topics including innovation in cities, scenario workshops, and heatwaves in Hermosillo. We are always looking for new episode ideas, so please contact us if you have an idea or want to produce your own episode.

The podcast will debut this Fall and can be listened to on the Future Cities YouTube channel. Follow on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod for updates and contact us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com if you want to get involved!

– Stephen Elser

In The Next Era of Market Finance for Resilience, Joyce Coffee — President of Climate Resilience Consulting and UREx SRN Management Team member — helps cities find creative ways of funding resilience to climate change. Check it out, along with the entire blog — Meeting of the Minds — dedicated to bringing urban sustainability and technology leaders together around issues of environment, economy, technology, governance, society, resources, infrastructure, and mobility.

As with the best exchanges of ideas in higher education, the bi-annual National Adaptation Forum of the adaptation minded left me with more questions than answers.  Four days, 100 people and over 60 sessions held the potential to solve my adaptation conundrums and unveil fresh areas to investigate. Here are five of the most challenging and exciting ideas gleaned from the three-day forum:

Managed Retreat

Anne Siders – social scientist, lawyer building adaptive governance solutions for climate change and a Stanford University Ph.D. candidate – cited Federal Emergency Management Administration data showing that over the past 17 years, over 1,000 communities in 40 cities have experienced managed retreat.  See here.

Now, in a general sense, MR is the deliberate setting back of the existing line of defense to obtain engineering and/or environmental advantages. More specifically, MR is the deliberate moving landward of the existing line of sea defense to obtain engineering or environmental advantages. It often refers to moving roads and utilities landward in the face of shore retreat.

So, the puzzler: Why are we not considering managed retreat for (to pick one of hundreds of communities that are candidates) Hollywood, Calif.?

Mental trauma and climate change

Joe Hostler, an Environmental Protection Specialist with the Yurok Tribe Environmental Program in Northwest California, revealed the multigenerational trauma among salmon fishers from the collapse of the Chinook and Coho salmon fisheries along the Klamath River. It promises misery for four fishing tribes along the river. Already a suicide crisis has emerged among young men bereft because they can’t provide for their families. This, of course, indicates that climate change, a contributor to the lack of salmon, can trigger mental health issues.

The puzzler: What preventive measures must our public health systems adopt to prevent further suicides and mental health-related challenges?

Public health and climate change

Related to the mental health challenge, climate change is impacting public health – whether it’s concern that tropical diseases such as malaria and dengue to, say, Europe or North America or the impact of vanishing salmon on the lives of fishing tribes. This piece offered by a representative of PDQ Public Health,  explores how health-related adaptation messages can inspire action.

The puzzler: How can the adaptation field piggyback on the general acceptability of public health advancing adaptation principles?

Water Risks

Raj Rajan, Ph.D., Ecolab’s RD&E vice president and Global Sustainability technical leader, offered a way to monetize water risks. And Trucost, the London company that estimates the hidden costs of companies’ unsustainable use of natural resources, has worked with industry to derive it.  See here.

The puzzler: If major financial market influencers such as Trucost (now a part of Standard & Poor’s) are embracing ways to put a dollar value on risks to water, how can we increase the uptake in measures beyond carbon reduction for, say, green bond evaluation?

Adaptation and Build

Designers have many ways to conceive of adaptation in buildings and three different ways were presented. They included architects Perkins+Will’s RELi, presented by Senior Associate and architect Doug Pierce; Arup engineering consultants’ Weathershift, presented by Associate Principal Cole Roberts, and the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED resilience credits.

The puzzler: With these assets available, is it time to move to city ordinances to make resilient design required as standard?

I don’t intend to wait another two years for NAF 2019 to find answers to these questions. Thankfully, through experts in the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN), I have opportunities to work with practitioners and academics to create and encourage solutions.

– Joyce Coffee, President, Climate Resilience Consulting