Advancing the Science of Climate Change (2010) / Chapter Skim
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12 Cities and the Built Environment
12 Cities and the Built Environment
Pages 323-332
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From page 323... ...
Questions decision makers are asking, or will be asking, about cities, the built environment, and climate change include the following: • What is the potential for cities to contribute to limiting the magnitude of cli mate change in ways that also improve air quality and reduce overall environ mental impact? • Which cities and urban conglomerations are most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change, including sea level rise, water supply changes, heat waves, and extreme precipitation events?
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From page 324... ...
. ROLE OF CITIES IN DRIVING CLIMATE CHANGE Urbanized areas play an increasingly important role in driving climate change.
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, and ecosystem impacts (e.g., ground-level air pollution) beyond the city's boundaries play important roles in climate change (e.g., Auffhammer et al., 2006)
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From page 326... ...
. In a warmer future world, stagnant air, coupled with higher temperatures and absolute humidity, will lead to worse air quality even if air pollution emissions remain the same (e.g., Cifuentes et al., 2001a,b In many cases, air pollution plumes extend well beyond the urban area per se, affecting people and agriculture over large areas, such as the Ganges Valley (e.g., Auffhammer et al., 2006)
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From page 327... ...
. It is estimated that this heat wave and the associated poor air quality caused more than 50,000 excess deaths, mostly among elderly urbanites (Brüker, 2005)
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From page 328... ...
Climate change impacts cannot be fully appreciated and addressed without understanding the complex nature of multiple stressors and interacting climatic and nonclimatic factors that affect the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of cities (e.g., Campbell-Lendrum and Corvalán, 2007; Pelling, 2003)
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. Many, if not all, of these decision-making entities respond foremost to considerations other than climate change, and they rarely consider environmental spillovers beyond their area of control or concern.
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From page 330... ...
and world population already lives in urban areas, and existing or new urban centers will continue to grow in size and economic importance, research on reducing the climate change and accompanying environmental impacts of urban areas is critical. This includes assessing the differential vulnerability of urban areas and populations to climate change impacts as well as the full range of options for limiting and adapting to climate change.
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From page 331... ...
and sea level rise on cities will require improved regional climate models, improved monitoring systems, and better understanding of how extreme events will change as climate change progresses. Evaluations of climate change impacts on urban heat islands and local-regional precipitation should extend to the analysis of their combined impacts on urban and periurban ecosystem and landscape function, ecosystem services, and demands on water and energy consumption.
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From page 332... ...
Linking air quality and climate change. Research is needed to provide information for decision making about air quality in the face of climate change.
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