Transitioning Toward Sustainability Advancing the Scientific Foundation: Proceedings of a Workshop (2016) / Chapter Skim
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3 Urban Systems
3 Urban Systems
Pages 22-30
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From page 22... ...
Examples include the genuine progress indicator that attempts to monetize all economic, social, and environmental factors; the happy planet index that measures the degree to which long and happy lives are achieved; and the human development index that combines life expectancy, educational development, and income. The environmental sustainability index uses indicators that measure two main components of environmental health and ecosystem vitality (Figure 3-1)
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Figure 3-1 R03038 raster/not editable FIGURE 3-2 Framework for the toolbox to improve urban sustainability indicators and metrics. SOURCE: John Crittenden, Presentation, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Workshop, January 14, 2016, Newport Beach, California.
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Dr. Crittenden provided examples from systems-thinking design, bio-inspired design, and data-enabled design to intervene in these systems and achieve positive outcomes within larger infrastructure.
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In addition, recent international agreements, protocols, and understandings have seen an emergence of urban issues on the international policy agenda. For example, urban areas featured prominently during the 2015 United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction,3 in Sustainable Development Goal 11, and in the upcoming Habitat III summit.4 1 Atlanta Regional Commission.
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Recent developments in translating urbanization science to policy include the robustness of data information about urban processes, uncertainty measures, likelihood measures, and climate work, which raster/not editable have highlighted the increased need for nuanced scientific information for decision making. Questions of current indicators and monitoring have also emerged, such as what indicators are still considered appropriate for cities
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One of the most flood-prone cities in the world -- Calcutta, India -- faces a data availability challenge because of a lack of access to a fully developed flood extent map for city officials to use in flood management. For the most part, urban practitioners and researchers have done little work in creating an integrated modeling approach for urban spatial planning, with the exception of some European Union countries and China.
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that reflect on a need for new efforts and developments in science to better inform sustainability science in cities.5 If the top 50 carbonemitting cities were aggregated into one country, that country would still be the third largest emitter behind China and the United States. Large variations within or between developed and developing country cities' average per capita energy use suggest that developed country cities operate more efficiently than developing country cities (Figure 3-6)
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Dr. Seto concluded her remarks by identifying two important research needs urban science can contribute to sustainability science -- updating frameworks and theoretical development and improving data and metrics that analyze linkages and flows over space and time.
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Dr. Solecki said that for city managers, an efficiency indicator's ability to compare options using dollars allows for an easy measurement, but such an indicator does not account for all inputs, such as wellness and happiness, that are needed to achieve a sustainable city.
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