Urban Adaptation

This narrative projects Vienna into the year 2123—four degrees Celsius warmer than today—and chronicles its transformation into a paradigm of urban resilience and sustainable living. Confronted with crop failures, the city converted vast rooftop expanses into productive farms, selecting heat-tolerant varieties and even cultivating Sangiovese grapes for renowned red wine. Human–robot partnerships, led by engineers optimizing autonomous “Harry” harvesters, ensured efficient planting and yield management. Obsolete transit infrastructures—like the Gürtel’s elevated tracks—were reimagined as verdant belts that improved air quality and public amenity. Simultaneously, the rise to three million residents, including climate migrants, drove the repurposing of industrial precincts into vertical-farm apartment blocks, underpinned by smart grids and advanced insulation. Communal rooftop gatherings over homegrown produce and wine emerged as emblematic rituals of a society that melds technological innovation with collective stewardship. Vienna’s 2123 story exemplifies how foresight, collaboration, and adaptive design can convert climatic crisis into a robust blueprint for future cities

This article aims to evaluate the processes of the urban adaptation process of industrial heritage sites through the evaluation and transformation of Yedikule Gasworks. The research aims to assess the role of governmental and non-governmental key actors, initiatives, and community-based organizations (CBOs), such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), in promoting the importance of industrial heritage as cultural heritage in Türkiye. The research seeks to understand how industrial areas, fostered by artist-driven approaches to conservation and participation, defined as Seretonin events, mediate the reintegration of industrial areas into the city. This research aims to evaluate the urban regeneration processes of industrial heritage sites through case studies, taking into account the historical, cultural, urban, and social values of these sites. The research has been centered on exploring the role of participation and the approaches employed in the urban adaptation process, with a particular emphasis on the socio-cultural impacts. Additionally, it considers the contributions of civil society initiatives, volunteer communities, and interdisciplinary artistic endeavors in this transformation. In essence, the study aims to contribute to the ongoing debate surrounding the preservation of cultural heritage and its adaptation as new public spaces within urban environments. To this purpose, the adaptation process of the Yedikule Gasworks is investigated, with particular attention paid to the effects of an interdisciplinary approach to the preservation of industrial heritage. Additionally, case studies are presented that examine the challenges and opportunities associated with reintegrating industrial heritage sites into urban areas.

This book explores the intricate role of water within urban and territorial landscapes, addressing urgent challenges like those predicted for Belgium, where water stress is anticipated to be extreme by 2040. The book posits that water is more than a physical resource—it actively shapes cities and landscapes through its complex cycles and interactions within infrastructure. By treating water as a "language" within the urban landscape, the book seeks to decipher this "language" by examining its physical elements, from natural flows to engineered systems like pipes and sewers, highlighting how water infrastructure forms a network that spans both visible and invisible layers within the cityscape.
Divided into structured parts, the book begins with a "reading" phase, analyzing the forms and governance of water infrastructure and mapping its vocabulary, syntax, and grammar as one would with any complex language. This process involves categorizing water elements (vocabulary), understanding connections (sentences), and synthesizing interactions (syntax) to interpret water’s role in shaping urban space. The book ultimately applies these insights to the Dender valley’s Bellebeek catchment area, a representative landscape within Flanders, illustrating how water’s complexity can be both observed and re-imagined in ways that offer innovative perspectives on planning and managing urban water resources.

Heatwaves are one of the most concerning consequences of climate change, with record-breaking temperatures becoming more frequent and intense, and projected to continue. Extreme heat is particularly alarming in cities, where it leads to the Urban Heat Island effect. This effect causes higher local temperatures and urban areas to become hotter than surrounding suburban regions and rural areas. This is connected to the presence of more sealed surfaces and higher density of both people and heat-emitting infrastructures. We need to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit climate change. At the same time, we should adapt by diminishing exposure and vulnerability and increasing the overall resilience and adaptive capacity of cities. The deployment of green and blue infrastructures is one of the most effective measures to counteract the urban heat island effect. However, the combination of several strategies adapted to the local circumstances is the most powerful. This policy brief focuses on how to tackle severe heat in cities and provides recommendations, best practices and analytical tools that can be used by local authorities.

Funds-based mechanisms for urban adaptation finance are still underexplored. Addressing this gap, as well as the need for greater learning about 'how' urban adaptation finance operates, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for such analysis that considers complexity, uncertainty, transformation and vulnerability. We analyse 39 urban projects financed by Climate Adaptation Funds (CAFs) using a qualitative approach. The findings indicate the ongoing dominance of national governments at all stages of the funding cycle, and of a focus on "hard" adaptation measures, but also a diverse set of stakeholder relationships involved in CAF finance which offers potential for greater multi-stakeholder and multisectoral management of complexity. Few projects, however, address the management of uncertainty. While upscaling from projects is a common preoccupation, catalysing effects across sectors are limited, and transformative mechanisms for addressing vulnerability are limited to consultation with vulnerable groups. Innovations are highlighted which merit further exploration through case study analysis.

Esta reflexión plantea que la investigación sobre adaptación al cambio climático en espacios urbanos debe tomar relevancia frente a la actual preeminencia de estudios sobre mitigación en el sector forestal, tomando como punto de partida la situación de América Latina y el Caribe. Dos razones sustentan esta afirmación: por un lado, para cuando los efectos del cambio climático sean plenamente observables, la mayor parte de la población residirá en ciudades (actualmente 50% de la población mundial es urbana); y por el otro, la ciudad es foco principal de consumo y demanda de materias primas y del despilfarro energético.El abordaje de esta temática requiere perspectivas teóricas que integren líneas de estudio desde las ciencias sociales y desde las ambientales, así como la reconceptualización de la ciudad como un sistema socioambiental. Se argumenta que la ecología política urbana provee de conceptos y metodologías adecuados para abordar el estudio interdisciplinario del ámbito urbano, ...

Scholars have focused on understanding the motivations behind urban authorities' efforts to respond to climate change, yet the determinants of institutional response capacity are less well known, particularly in Latin America. This paper develops a framework to understand the political–economic determinants of institutional response capacity through an examination of climate change governance in Mexico City and Santiago, Chile. We ask whether being a frontrunner (Mexico City) is an indicator of greater institutional response capacity. Although Mexico City has slightly higher levels of institutional capacity than Santiago, both are faced with similar challenges, such as fragmented governance arrangements, asymmetries in access to information, and top-down decision making. However, both also have similar opportunities, such as leadership, participation in transnational networks, and potential to integrate climate change goals into existing policy agendas. Examining urban climate c...

Urban alteration of neutral and adaptive evolutionary processes is still underexplored. Using a genome-wide SNP dataset, we investigated (i) urban-induced modifications of population demography, genetic diversity and population structure and (ii) signature of divergent selection between urban and forest populations in the ant species, Temnothorax nylanderi. Our results did not reveal an impact of urbanization on neutral processes since we observed: (i) analogous genetic diversity among paired urban/forest sites and two control populations; (ii) weak population genetic structure explained neither by habitat (urban versus forest) nor by geography; (iii) a remarkably similar demographic history across populations with an ancestral growth followed by a recent decline, regardless of their current habitat or geographical location. The micro-geographical home range of ants may explain their resilience to urbanization. Finally, we detected 19 candidate loci discriminating urban/forest popul...

Synopsis Urbanization, despite its destructive effects on natural habitats, offers species an opportunity to colonize novel niches. Previous research found that urban Anolis lizards in Puerto Rico had increased adhesive toepad area and more ventral toepad scales, traits that are likely adaptive and genetically based. We further investigated these phenotypic changes using geometric morphometrics to measure differences in toe shape, toepad shape, and lamellar morphology. Our results indicate that the increased toepad area of urban Anolis cristatellus lizards in Puerto Rico is not simply an isometric increase in toe size. Toes of urban populations exhibit multiple disproportional changes compared to forest lizards, with a larger proportion of the toe length covered in adhesive toepad. In addition, the toepads of urban lizards increase more in length than width. Lastly, lizards in urban populations exhibit both increased number of lamellae as well as increased spacing between individual lamellae. We also observed regional variation, with urban specimens having significantly more disparity, suggesting similar processes of urban adaptation are likely happening in parallel across the island, yet with region-specific idiosyncrasies, possibly generating more variation in toepad morphology across urban specimens as compared to forest specimens. Considering the use of geometric morphometrics, we found that specimen preparation, specifically how flat and straight toes are during imaging, to be an important factor affecting our data, more so than specimen size or any other meaningful morphological variation. In addition, we found that landmark and semilandmark data can be used to directly estimate toepad area, offering the opportunity to streamline future studies. In conclusion, our results highlight the value of considering toepad morphology in more detail beyond adhesive pad area or number of lamellae. Geometric morphometrics tools may be employed to elucidate subtle differences in shape to better allow researchers to connect changes in morphology to ecology and adhesive performance.

Climate change and urbanization are two parallel ongoing processes that call for context-specific and overarching responses in order to tackle the complex challenges these processes involve. This article focuses specifically on the challenges associated with socio-environmental fragmentation and residential vulnerability. It is at the household, neighbourhood and municipal levels that often still lack the in-depth analysis necessary for context-specific responses. Therefore, the focus of this article is on the micro and local levels, offering an approach that theoretically combines the two concepts of fragmentation and vulnerability in order to evaluate the utility of this information regarding the development of practical, context-specific local adaptation options in response to two climate change related hazards: flooding and heat. Based on the theoretical framework a three-stage methodological approach is presented, in which each stage includes its own set of specific methodologies with particular scales and elements of analysis, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods. By presenting a theoretical and methodological approach that combines socio-environmental fragmentation and residential vulnerability, and discussing its application in the context of the Metropolitan Area of Santiago de Chile, benefits and constraints of the approach are also explored.

La ecología política urbana (EPU) es una disciplina que explora las interacciones entre factores sociales, políticos, económicos y naturales en la producción y en la reproducción de los entornos urbanos, que son entendidos como híbridos socionaturales. El objetivo de este artículo es, a partir de una revisión bibliográfica de la producción científica, identificar las principales temáticas y líneas de investigación para poner de relieve nuevos enfoques desde los que abordar críticamente las interacciones socioecológicas en las ciudades para poder plantear nuevos modelos urbanos sostenibles, tanto desde el punto de vista ecológico como social. Palabras clave: ecología política urbana; análisis bibliográfico; metabolismo urbano; socionaturalezas; riesgos naturales Resum. L'ecologia política urbana: vint anys de crítica, autocrítica i expansió de fronteres en l'estudi del metabolisme urbà La ecología política urbana: veinte años de crítica, autocrítica y ampliación Rubén Alejandro Villar Navascués de fronteras en el estudio del metabolismo urbano 174 Documents d'Anàlisi Geogràfica 2017, vol. 63/1 Résumé. L'écologie politique urbaine : vingt ans de critique, d'autocritique et d'expansion des frontières dans l'étude du métabolisme urbain L'écologie politique urbaine (EPU) est une discipline qui explore les interactions entre les facteurs sociaux, politiques, économiques et naturels dans la production et la reproduction des milieux urbains, interprétés comme hybrides socio-naturels. Le but de cet article est, à partir d'une revue bibliographique de la production scientifique, d'identifier les thèmes principaux et les axes de recherche pour mettre en évidence de nouvelles approches à partir desquelles aborder de manière critique les interactions socio-écologiques dans les villes pour être en mesure d'envisager de nouveaux modèles urbains durables, tant du point de vue écologique que social. Mots-clés: écologie politique urbaine; analyse bibliographique; métabolisme urbain; socionatures; risques naturels Abstract. Urban political ecology: Twenty years of criticism, self-criticism and expansion of frontiers in the study of urban metabolism Urban political ecology (UPE) is a discipline that explores the interactions between social, political, economic and natural factors in the production and reproduction of urban environments, which are understood as socio-natural hybrids. Drawing from the literature on UPE, the aim of this article is to identify the main topics and research areas with a view to highlighting new approaches for critically addressing socio-ecological interactions in cities and proposing new urban models that are both ecologically and socially sustainable.

En los últimos años desde diversas disciplinas de las ciencias sociales se ha señalado la necesidad de revisar la forma en la que concebimos la relación sociedad-naturaleza, remarcando que no es posible interpretar de manera disociada las relaciones sociales, por un lado, y la naturaleza, por el otro. Más bien, es posible advertir, como lo hace Latour (2007), que ambos elementos se codeterminan en una relación híbrida –que no es ni social ni natural-, conformando así una suerte de segunda naturaleza (Lefebvre, 1991).

Een stadsgenese is een 3D-verbeelding van de relatie van een locatie met het natuurlijke systeem van bodem, water en groen/ natuur en van de ingrepen van de mens in het natuurlijke systeem door de eeuwen heen. Genese betekent letterlijk ‘wording’ of ‘ontstaan’. Inzicht in het ontstaan biedt houvast om vanuit de identiteit van de plek te werken aan maatschappelijke opgaven zoals klimaatadaptatie en energietransitie.

Een stadsgenese kan op verschillende schaalniveaus worden uitgewerkt. In deze website worden 3 schaalniveaus onderscheiden: een stad/dorp, een gebied en een wijk. Voor het stadsniveau is recentelijk een boek gepresenteerd. De inhoud ervan staat ook op deze website onder ‘stad/dorp’.
Daarnaast wordt ook uitgelegd hoe je zelf een genese kan maken.

Heat waves are periods of unusually high temperatures which cause modifications in lifestyle and affect the vulnerable population. Groups that are vulnerable towards heat wave impacts are elderlies, infants and people with underlying health diseases living in cities. These groups are more exposed towards heat because of their weak thermoregulatory systems. Next to this, the built environment in urban systems enhances the impacts in the social realm. Anthropogenic heat gets intercepted by the high buildings and absence of vegetation in city centers. This can result in warmer temperatures within cities compared to the countryside. Recent heat waves in the Netherlands were exceptional because of their duration and intensity which resulted high mortality rates. Despite elderlies being vulnerable, they are not static and constantly adapt to negative impacts. Resilience is the set of processes and actions that people put in action to better cope with the impacts created by disasters. Most literature looks at the individual resilience in relation to heat coping. Due to this one-sided focus, forms of resilience that arise in neighborhoods during times of disaster are often overlooked. The topic of heat must be taken more seriously by policy makers and urban planners in the city of Groningen. Planners currently assess heat via looking at heat stress maps but heat wave management plans remain remarkably absent. Planners can prepare cities and vulnerable citizens for future heat waves in a top-down manner and at the same time need to take the initiatives emerging out of the elderly communities into account. Finding new ways in communicating knowledge on heat are needed to vulnerable elderlies living in urban neighborhoods. Consequently, this thesis aims at investigating how resilience towards heatwaves occurred by elderlies in the inner city of Groningen and how this can be strengthened by urban planning interventions.

El artículo parte de la premisa que es de vital importancia reconocer la rápida tasa de urbanización planetaria como el principal impulsor del cambio ambiental y la creación del Antropoceno. Por lo tanto, este documento no se ocupa mayormente de la cuestión de la naturaleza en la ciudad, como de la urbanización de la naturaleza, entendida como el proceso a través del cual todas las formas de la naturaleza son socialmente movilizadas, incorporadas económica y físicamente, metabolizadas / transformadas, para apoyar el proceso de urbanización. Se argumenta que las transformaciones de nuestro destino urbano y de nuestra naturaleza, están inevitablemente ligadas a una simbiosis metabólica íntima e intensificadora – pero muy contenciosa – caracterizada por patrones socio- ecológicos extraordinariamente desiguales. La configuración de esta relación metabólica urbana ahora se ha elevado a la dignidad de la preocupación pública mundial, y una búsqueda febril de todo tipo de remedios “sosteni...

El patrón de crecimiento urbano, acelerado y concentrado, que caracteriza a los paises de América Latina se expresa con formas caóticas de organización del espacio que ignoran, en gran parte, los condicionantes y oportunidades ambientales del territorio. La recurrencia e irrupción crecientes en la región latinoamericana de conflictos ambientales urbanos se vinculan, de manera evidente, a la carencia de recursos e inversiones en infraestructura de servicios, pero también a limitaciones institucionales para planificar la coordinación y administración participativas del crecimiento de las ciudades, es decir, su ordenación territorial. El resultado es una urbanización que incentiva los desequilibrios y desigualdades en el espacio intraurbano y de éste con respecto a las zonas rurales. La emergencia de tales conflictos es promovida, entre otras cuestiones, por el protagonismo creciente del sector terciario de la economía en el sistema urbano, lo cual se efectiviza, con rasgos propios, en las áreas metropolitanas. El impacto conjunto de las migraciones internas y del crecimiento de la economía informal, en condiciones prevalentes de subempleo y desempleo, inaugura, a su vez, condiciones inéditas relativas al peso y a las formas de vinculación de la actividad industrial como base de la economía, con la dinámica urbana. La aceleración continua e irreversible del proceso de urbanización latinoamericana se combina, asimismo, con una tendencia a la concentración de

Capítulo de contribución al libro de compilación "Ecología política urbana ante el cambio climático" Pere Ariza-Montobbio, Andrea Carrión (coordinadores). El libro compila investigaciones aplicadas realizadas por jóvenes estudiantes, líderes y lideresas, egresadas de la Especialización en Liderazgo, Cambio Climático y Ciudades (ELCCC) 2018-2019 y 2019-2020 que realizaron sus investigaciones en el marco del proyecto “Construyendo liderazgo en ciudades de Latinoamérica y el caribe en un clima cambiante” (FLACSO, Ecuador). El capítulo aborda reflexiones situadas de la urbanización y las desigualdades socioecológicas en cuatro procesos de urbanización suramericana, bajo el enfoque teórico y metodológico de la ecología política de la urbanización (EPUr).

Link a la publicación: https://www.flacso.edu.ec/cambioclimatico/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/LFLACSO-Ariza-Carrion-COOR-152128-PUBCOM.pdf

“If mitigation of climate change is about gases, adaptation to climate change is primarily about water” (de Fraiture, 2005, in: Rockström et al., 2014: 253). This phrase synthesizes the present chapter’s premise: that water management will be central to humankind’s efforts to adapt to the Anthropocene’s1, accelerating, intensifying climate change, which will become manifest principally in the alteration of hydrologic cycles. The immediate effects of that alteration will be felt especially on the local scale, the privileged scene of adaptation (Stucker and Lopez-Gunn, 2015).
The questions raised here are, “By what concept of adaptation will those efforts be informed and guided, and what types of water management will be practiced?”
The objective of this chapter is to examine, critically, the dominant depoliticized and naturalized visions of adaptation to climate change

Resumen: El presente trabajo es un análisis teórico sobre la sostenibilidad urbana y la ecología política urbana. En él se indaga sobre la manera como dichos conceptos asumen la dialéctica naturaleza/urbanismo en tanto elemento central en sus proposiciones y cuáles son las diferencias radicales de sus respectivas bases teóricas. Adicionalmente, se discute sobre las visiones globales que promueve la sostenibilidad urbana y se proponen algunos planteamientos desde la ecología política urbana como una ruta posible para el análisis urbano en América Latina. A manera de conclusión, se plantea cambiar los cuerpos teóricos de la sostenibilidad urbana de corte global por enfoques que asuman los procesos naturaleza/urbanismo como co-construcciones en entornos complejos y dinámicos, y donde prevalezcan los análisis multiescalares (local, nacional, regional y global) de los procesos sociales, económicos, políticos y ecológicos de los paisajes urbanos latinoamericanos.

Palabras clave: urbanismo, naturaleza, sostenibilidad urbana, ecología política urbana

Abstract: The present work of reflection is a theoretical analysis on urban sustainability and urban political ecology. The development of the article explores how urban sustainability and urban political ecology assume the dialectic of nature/urbanism as a central element in its propositions and which are the radical differences that are conceived from their respective theoretical bases. In addition, it discusses the global visions that promote urban sustainability and proposes approaches, from urban political ecology, as a possible route for urban analysis in Latin America. In conclusion, it is proposed to overcome the theoretical approaches of global urban sustainability, by approaches that assume the nature/urbanism processes as co-constituted constructions, in complex and dynamic environments, where multi-scalar analysis (local, national, regional and global) of the social, economic, political and ecological processes of the present Latin American urban landscapes.

Key words: urbanism, nature, urban sustainability, urban political ecology

Resumo: Este trabalho de reflexão é uma análise teórica da sustentabilidade urbana e ecologia política urbana.  O artigo explora como sustentabilidade urbana e ecologia política urbana, assumem a dialética da natureza/urbanismo como um elemento central nas suas propostas e quais são as diferenças radicais que são concebidas a partir de suas respectivas bases teóricas.  Além disso, se discute sobre as visões globais que promovem a sustentabilidade urbana e se propõem abordagens, desde a ecologia política urbana, como uma possível rota para a análise urbana na América Latina.  Em conclusão, propõe-se superar os corpos teóricos da sustentabilidade urbana de corte global por abordagens que assumam os processos natureza/ urbanismo como construções co-constituídas, em entornos complexos e dinâmicos, onde prevalecem a análise multi-escalar (local, nacional, regional e global) dos processos sociais, econômicos, políticos e ecológicos das atuais paisagens urbanas latino-americanos.

Palavras-chave: urbanismo, natureza, sustentabilidade urbana, a ecologia política urbana

La ecología política urbana (EPU) es una disciplina que explora las interacciones entre factores sociales, políticos, económicos y naturales en la producción y en la reproducción de los entornos urbanos, que son entendidos como híbridos socionaturales. El objetivo de este artículo es, a partir de una revisión bibliográfica de la producción científica, identificar las principales temáticas y líneas de investigación para poner de relieve nuevos enfoques desde los que abordar críticamente las interacciones socioecológicas en las ciudades para poder plantear nuevos modelos urbanos sostenibles, tanto desde el punto de vista ecológico como social.

Resumen | La dinámica poblacional y formas de vida urbana de las medianas y grandes ciudades de Latinoamérica están determinando operaciones críticas que frenan el crecimiento económico, socavan el desarrollo, deterioran el ambiente, afectan la salud de sus residentes y reducen la oferta de bienes y servicios am-bientales de los ecosistemas de soporte. Son escenarios de presión con los que se corre el riesgo de exceder los límites permisibles de su homeostasis y adaptabili-dad; y por consiguiente, de exacerbar su vulnerabilidad en momentos en que la variabilidad y el cambio climático disminuyen las probabilidades de superviven-cia de los sistemas humanos. Por tal motivo, y en aras de coadyuvar con la sus-tentabilidad y competitividad de la ciudad, el estudio del Metabolismo Urbano se constituye en un esfuerzo técnico, político y económico que facilita el entendi-miento de sus redes de abastecimiento de materiales y energía, que busca la efi-ciencia y eficacia de sus procesos de transformación, así como la minimización del daño ambiental de sus desechos, permitiendo a los gestores de política anti-ciparse a eventos no deseados con base en las señales del presente. Urban metabolism: a tool for the sustainability of cities Abstract | The population dynamics and urban patterns gleaned from medium and big cities in Latin America are determining critical operations that brake economic growth, undermine development, damage the environment, affect human health and reduce goods and services supply from environmental ecosystems. They are pressure scenarios that involve the risk of exceeding permissible homeostatic limits and adaptability; and therefore, exacerbate their vulnerability when climate change decreases the survival probability of human systems. For this reason, in order to achieve the sustainability and competitiveness of cities, the study of Urban Metabolism becomes a technical, political and economic endeavor that facilitates our understanding of their materials and energy supply networks, seeking the efficiency and effectiveness of transformation processes, as well as reducing the environmental impact of their waste, enabling policy makers to anticipate unwanted events based on present signals.

La dinámica poblacional y formas de vida urbana de las medianas y grandes ciudades de Latinoamérica están determinando operaciones críticas que frenan el crecimiento económico, socavan el desarrollo, deterioran el ambiente, afectan la salud de sus residentes y reducen la oferta de bienes y servicios ambientales de los ecosistemas de soporte. Son escenarios de presión con los que se corre el riesgo de exceder los límites permisibles de su homeostasis y adaptabilidad; y por consiguiente, de exacerbar su vulnerabilidad en momentos en que la variabilidad y el cambio climático disminuyen las probabilidades de supervivencia de los sistemas humanos. Por tal motivo, y en aras de coadyuvar con la sustentabilidad y competitividad de la ciudad, el estudio del Metabolismo Urbano se constituye en un esfuerzo técnico, político y económico que facilita el entendi­miento de sus redes de abastecimiento de materiales y energía, que busca la eficiencia y eficacia de sus procesos de transformación, así como la minimización del daño ambiental de sus desechos, permitiendo a los gestores de política anti­ciparse a eventos no deseados con base en las señales del presente

The present work of reflection is a theoretical
analysis on urban sustainability and urban
political ecology. The development of the article
explores how urban sustainability and
urban political ecology assume the dialectic
of nature/urbanism as a central element in its
propositions and which are the radical differences
that are conceived from their respective
theoretical bases. In addition, it discusses the
global visions that promote urban sustainability
and proposes approaches, from urban
political ecology, as a possible route for urban
analysis in Latin America. In conclusion,
it is proposed to overcome the theoretical
approaches of global urban sustainability, by
approaches that assume the nature/urbanism
processes as co-constituted constructions, in
complex and dynamic environments, where
multi-scalar analysis (local, national, regional
and global) of the social, economic, political
and ecological processes of the present Latin
American urban landscapes.

En la última década, desde la ecología política se ha indicado la importancia del fenómeno de urbanización como epicentro de uno de los mayores cambios a nivel socioecológico (Swyngedouw y Heynen, 2003; Heynen et al., 2006a). Es así que se ha consolidado una ecología política urbana (EPU), que como proyecto académico y político ofrece un marco fecundo para analizar y profundizar nuestra comprensión de cómo se producen desigualdades socioambientales debido a las fuerzas del capitalismo global (Heynen, 2003; Heynen et al., 2006b). La pregunta que nos hacemos, en el marco de una investigación-acción sobre la EPU en el ámbito de América Latina (AL), es: ¿en qué medida los actuantes no humanos y los actores humanos inciden en la generación de desigualdades socioambientales en el marco de una urbanización de la naturaleza?

Germán A. Quimbayo Ruiz y Francisco Vásquez Rodríguez

Esta reflexión plantea que la investigación sobre adaptación al cambio climático en espacios urbanos debe tomar relevancia frente a la actual preeminencia de estudios sobre mitigación en el sector forestal, tomando como punto de partida la situación de América Latina y el Caribe. Dos razones sustentan esta afirmación: por un lado, para cuando los efectos del cambio climático sean plenamente observables, la mayor parte de la población residirá en ciudades (actualmente 50% de la población mundial es urbana); y por el otro, la ciudad es foco principal de consumo y demanda de materias primas y del despilfarro energético. El abordaje de esta temática requiere perspectivas teóricas que integren líneas de estudio desde las ciencias sociales y desde las ambientales, así como la reconceptualización de la ciudad como un sistema socioambiental. Se argumenta que la ecología política urbana provee de conceptos y metodologías adecuados para abordar el estudio interdisciplinario del ámbito urbano, y permite revelar los retos que enfrentarán las ciudades ante un desarrollo urbanístico caótico y orientado por intereses alejados de las necesidades de sus poblaciones.

Climate change is a significant challenge for European and national policy agendas, and debates about impacts, costs assessment and enacted strategies by (trans)national and local policies are still in an early phase. However, most Members States of the European Union have adopted National Adaptation Plans through an approach that involves national, regional and local levels, as well as selected stakeholders. A particular focus is also devoted to urban strategies, as Europe is becoming more “urbanised” in terms of population density, spatial planning, human settlements, transport networks and economic flows. The necessity to provide methodologies able to assess costs and benefits of adaptation is urgent. In this way, likely and actual damage impacts and related costs have to be assessed on the basis of specific literature and on innovative evaluation methods, both qualitative and quantitative, involving economic and social aspects of urban life, policies and politics. Furthermore, urban policies are required that are able to ensure good standards of quality of life within the cities, also through climate change adaptation. Adaptation is also intimately related to the concept of vulnerability, because generally a system that is more vulnerable to climate change impacts require more adaptive capacities. However, it is still difficult to translate this relation into costs for adaptation.
The objective of the Annex is thus twofold:
a) to present an overview about how climate change adaptation issues and costs are developed in the current policy agenda in Italy, both at national and urban scale;
b) to point out significant aspects of urban vulnerability, that policy makers and scholars have to consider in future strategies of adaptation to climate change impacts, particularly in the case of extreme rainfall.
The Italian state-of-art will be described through an overview of the climate change
adaptation policies since its earlier steps during the 1990s. Section 2 will analyse and discuss preliminary experiences of costs assessments in relation to flood and heat waves, although they do not present a specific urban target. Some strategies of climate change adaptation will also be presented for some Italian cities and metropolitan areas, summarised in the Table “Italian Cities” at the end of this report. Sections 3, 4 and 5 will discuss two severe floods, occurred in 1970 and 2011 in the Italian city of Genoa. They will be described looking at the damages and related costs assessments as well as on changing vulnerability factors contributing to an increased risk. In this way, a comparison with the RAMSES case studies is carried out in terms of vulnerability aspects (Section 6). In Section 7, adaptation and mitigation strategies, implemented by Genoa to increase the coping capacities with climate change effects, are described as suggestions for those RAMSES case studies with similar vulnerability aspects. Finally, Section 8 will present the experience of the BLUE AP adaptation plan of the Italian city of Bologna as an example of an advanced stage of adaptation plan in an Italian city. The paper proposes five conclusive remarks, also in the way of suggesting main recommendations for the future activities of WP5 and the RAMSES project in general:
1) only recently climate change adaptation has been added to the Italian policy agenda, and related costs assessments have just emerged within the political debate. Thus, updated results about the assessment of adaptation costs in Italy are lacking, but studies of the National Conference on Climate Change (NCCC) since 2007 represent a seminal contribution to provide preliminary results about climate change impacts, such as floods and heat waves. Costs and benefits analysis of climate change adaptation would further allow to understand priority areas of intervention with very constrained budgets, and to indicate the size and the scale of the main challenges in Italy;
2) some Italian cities and metropolitan areas have adopted climate change adaptation plans, even though preliminary and comprehensive adaptation costs are still not definitively integrated within these plans. The Table “Italian Cities”, annexed at the end of the report, reviews some of the existing experiences of adaptation plans in Italian cities. It reveals that strategies mainly aim to cope with floods and heat waves’ risks, particularly focusing on river management and land use policies. These strategies are also integrated in ordinary urban planning tools as well as civil protection activities and grassroots networks;
3) the Mediterranean area is a hotspot in terms of climate change. Settlements are at risk of severe consequences in the near future due to the effects of climate change, including the interruption of main urban functions. Genoa represents an emblematic case study for Mediterranean cities, as it is a crucial hub for road, railway and maritime infrastructure networks in Southern Europe and in the Mediterranean basin. It has been taken as example due to huge potential losses related to climate change impacts such as extreme rainfalls. The high monetary losses value − without considering intangible losses − as experienced in 1970 and the 2011, has shown that the inaction option, or Business As Usual (BUA) scenario, is unsuccessful. In fact, inaction could determine heavy damages, deeply undermining the expected outcomes of sustainable development;
4) damages occurred in 1970 and 2011 events have been high due to some vulnerability conditions characterizing the urban context of Genoa. Urbanization and related issues (such as urban sprawl, land take and soil sealing, abandonment of rural areas) contributed to exacerbate the effects of extreme events damages, by greatly modifying geomorphological conditions in face of inland flooding threat. These factors should be analysed also in the main RAMSES case studies, in order to define specific adaptation measures and, consequently, to address the main related costs. In detail, the review carried out on losses resulting from 1970 and 2011 events in Genoa reports the sectors in which specific adaptation measures are required. In detail, a part from improving ecosystem services (e.g. water absorption capacity of the soil to reduce run off), it is important to develop adaptation strategies even for infrastructures, with a focus on transport and services (gas and water pipelines). Despite the fact that they have been seriously damaged and that they have caused indirect impacts in other sectors (e.g. industries, commerce, etc.) Genoa has not yet adopted an adaptation plan. However, for the future, the city can take advantage to a considerable set of data collected by other initiatives and research projects, recently developed in terms of both mitigation and adaptation measures;
5) in the Italian context, climate change adaptation has still not been included in a
comprehensive framework/plan and does still not have a defined cost assessment.
However, a successful experience of an adaptation plan in an Italian urban area is the BLUE AP of Bologna. BLUE AP identifies the targeted areas on the basis of spatial, social and planning characteristics. The aim is to obtain homogeneous development strategies which are inspired by sustainability goals. For the prevention of river floods and heat waves and the conservation of biodiversity, main strategies aim at enhancing river infrastructures, creating green spaces within urban environment, and ensuring a more sustainable management of water resources.

En las próximas décadas, las ciudades de todo el mundo experimentarán los impactos del aumento de la temperatura global. Sin embargo, a diferencia de la mitigación, la adaptación
de las ciudades de nuestro entorno permanece como una cuestión secundaria. Este artículo revisa la literatura sobre adaptación al cambio climático en las poblaciones con
el objetivo de comprender los retos y las dimensiones implicadas en la adaptación de las ciudades. Identificamos seis grandes retos en la adaptación de las ciudades. Caracterizamos
las distintas estrategias de adaptación existentes e ilustramos estas intervenciones a partir de casos concretos documentados en distintas de ellas. Finalmente, discutimos la necesidad
de evaluar e investigar de modo sistemático la capacidad de adaptación de las poblaciones de nuestro entorno al cambio climático.

In the coming decades, cities around the world will suffer impacts due to rising global temperatures. However, unlike climate change mitigation, urban adaptation to climate change remains an insignificant issue in our context. This article reviews the broader literature on climate change adaptation with a view to understanding the challenges and dimensions involved in the adaptation of cities to climate change. We identify six main challenges to adaptation. We characterize the existing adaptation strategies and provide examples of documented interventions in cities. Finally, we discuss the need to  ystematically evaluate and investigate the adaptation of cities to climate change.