Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Project

Last updated
Urbanization and Global Environmental Change
Research typeApplied
Field of research
Urbanization, Earth system science
Executive Officer
Michail Fragkias
Location Tempe, Arizona, Arizona, United States
Parent Institute
International Human Dimensions Programme
Affiliations Arizona State University
Website ugec.org

The Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Project (UGEC) is one of the core research projects of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). UGEC aims to understand the bi-directional interactions between urbanization and global environmental change. The UGEC International Project Office is located at Arizona State University.

Contents

According to its Science Plan, UGEC aims to provide a better understanding of the interactions and feedbacks between global environmental change and urbanization at the local, regional, and global scales. [1] UGEC pursues four areas of research:

  1. Processes within urban systems that contribute to global environmental change (e.g., the impact of urbanization on carbon emissions; the effects of urban land cover change on biodiversity and habitat).
  2. Pathways through which specific global environmental changes affect urban systems (e.g., climate change impacts on urban areas; decline in ecosystem services on urban climate regulation).
  3. Urban responses to global environmental change (e.g., urban strategies for climate change mitigation and adaptation).
  4. Consequences of urban responses to global environmental change.

Additionally, the goals of UGEC include:

Funding

Currently, UGEC's financial sponsors include IHDP, Arizona State University, and the National Science Foundation. [2]

Related Research Articles

The Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) is a global and multidisciplinary research project dedicated to understanding the key biogeochemical-physical interactions and feedbacks between the ocean and the atmosphere. Further, SOLAS seeks to link ocean-atmosphere interactions with climate and people. Achievements of these goals are essential in order to understand and quantify the role that ocean-atmosphere interactions play in the regulation of climate and global change.

Global change

Global change refers to planetary-scale changes in the Earth system. The system consists of the land, oceans, atmosphere, polar regions, life, the planet's natural cycles and deep Earth processes. These constituent parts influence one another. The Earth system now includes human society, so global change also refers to large-scale changes in society and the subsequent effects on the environment.

Urban climatology refers to a specific branch of climatology that is concerned with interactions between urban areas and the atmosphere, the effects they have on one another, and the varying spatial and temporal scales at which these processes occur.

The Earth Institute is a research institute at Columbia University that was established at in 1995. Its stated mission is to address complex issues facing the planet and its inhabitants, with a focus on sustainable development. With an interdisciplinary approach, this includes research in climate change, geology, global health, economics, management, agriculture, ecosystems, urbanization, energy, hazards, and water. The Earth Institute's activities are guided by the idea that science and technological tools that already exist could be applied to greatly improve conditions for the world's poor, while preserving the natural systems that support life on Earth.

Climate change adaptation

Climate change adaptation is the process of adjusting to current or expected climate change and its effects. It is one of the ways to respond to climate change, along with climate change mitigation. For humans, adaptation aims to moderate or avoid harm, and exploit opportunities; for natural systems, humans may intervene to help adjustment. Without mitigation, adaptation alone cannot avert the risk of "severe, widespread and irreversible" impacts.

International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme

The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) was a research programme that ran from 1987 to 2015 dedicated to studying the phenomenon of global change. Its primary focus was coordinating "international research on global-scale and regional-scale interactions between Earth's biological, chemical and physical processes and their interactions with human systems."

The Burtoni Award was created in 2003 by a group of leading experts and policy makers in the field of climate change. Its purpose is to recognize outstanding contributions to the science of adaptation to climate change. The award is named after the first recipient of the award, Ian Burton, an emeritus professor at the University of Toronto and a pioneer in the field of adaptation to climate change and extreme events and disasters. Ian has contributed to three assessment reports of the IPCC and the recent Special Report on Extremes (SREX).

The Global Land Project [changed to Global Land Programme in 2016] is a research initiative of Future Earth. It aims to understand the changes of the land systems given the prospects of rapid and massive global environmental change. The goal of GLP is "to measure, model and understand the coupled human-environment system".

Earthwatch Institute

Earthwatch Institute is an international environmental charity founded as Educational Expeditions International in 1971 near Boston (USA) by Robert A. Citron and Clarence Truesdale, then superintendent of Vermont public schools. It is one of the largest global underwriters of scientific field research in archaeology, paleontology, marine life, biodiversity, ecosystems and wildlife. For over forty years, Earthwatch has delivered a unique citizen science model to raise funds and recruit individuals, students, teachers and corporate fellows to participate in critical field research to understand nature's response to accelerating global change. Earthwatch's work supports hundreds of Ph.D. researchers across dozens of countries, conducting over 100,000 hours of research annually.

Earth System Governance Project Long-term, interdisciplinary social science research programme

The Earth System Governance Project is a long-term, interdisciplinary social science research programme originally developed under the auspices of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change. It started in January 2009.

The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) was a research programme that studied the human and societal aspects of the phenomenon of global change.

Sustainable land management (SLM) refers to practices and technologies that aim to integrate the management of land, water, and other environmental resources to meet human needs while ensuring long-term sustainability, ecosystem services, biodiversity, and livelihoods. The term is used, for example, in regional planning and soil or environmental protection, as well as in property and estate management.

The Grantham Institute – Climate Change and Environment is one of five Global Institutes at Imperial College London and one of three Grantham sponsored centres in the UK. The Institute was founded in 2007 with a £12m donation from the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, an organisation set up by Hannelore and Jeremy Grantham.

Earth system governance is a recently developed paradigm that builds on earlier notions of environmental policy and nature conservation, but puts these into the broader context of human-induced transformations of the entire earth system.

Diana Liverman Geographer and science writer

Diana Liverman is Regents Professor of Geography and Development, and formerly co-Director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of Arizona, USA. She is an expert on the human dimensions of global environmental change and the impacts of climate on society. She was a co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) October 8, 2018 Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC.

Future Earth is a 10-year international research program which aims to build knowledge about the environmental and human aspects of Global change, and to find solutions for sustainable development. It aims to increase the impact of scientific research on sustainable development.

The contributions of women in climate change have received increasing attention in the early 21st century. Feedback from women and the issues faced by women have been described as "imperative" by the United Nations and "critical" by the Population Reference Bureau. A report by the World Health Organization concluded that incorporating gender-based analysis would "provide more effective climate change mitigation and adaptation."

Christopher G. Boone

Christopher G. Boone is the Dean of the ASU School of Sustainability. President Michael M. Crow appointed him as dean in 2013. Previously he served as Associate Dean (2010-2013) and was the Graduate Director when the school was established in 2006. He sits on a two-member directorate for the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, which leads and supports sustainability research, education, and outreach efforts across all 17 colleges at Arizona State University. For the recently established ASU Global Futures Laboratory, he serves on the executive committee.

Climate change education (CCE) is education that aims to address and develop effective responses to climate change. It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change, prepares them to live with the impacts of climate change and empowers learners to take appropriate actions to adopt more sustainable lifestyles.

Karen Seto Geographer, urbanization and land change scientist

Karen Ching-Yee Seto is a geographer, urbanization and land change scientist, and Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanisation Science at Yale University. She is an expert on contemporary urbanisation and sustainability, and satellite remote sensing. She is the co-lead for the chapter on urban mitigation in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report and was the co-lead of the chapter on "Human Settlements, Infrastructure and Spatial Planning," for the IPCC 5th Assessment Report. She serves as the co-editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Global Environmental Change. She is an elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

References

  1. Sanchez-Rodriguez, Roberto; Karen C. Seto; David Simon; William D. Solecki; Frauke Kraas; Gregor Laumann (2005). Science Plan: Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (PDF). Bonn, Germany: International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change. p. 62. ISSN   1814-7925.
  2. "About UGEC". Urbanization and Global Environmental Change.