Analysis and Action
Featured On the Suitability of Action Plans for Facilitating Urban Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation: Lessons from 257 Cities Worldwide
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Prince Dacosta Aboagye
Local governments are expected now more than ever to lead climate action planning as climate change intensifies and urbanization increases rapidly. However, studies indicate limitations in the comprehensiveness and level of integration of adaptation and mitigation in existing climate action plans. To develop suitable climate action plans that are comprehensive and consistent with globally accepted standards and benchmarks, this study proposed an Urban Climate Action Planning framework and pilot-tested it with 257 urban climate action plans. Overall, 43 criteria are included in the framework across three stages of climate planning. The pilot test revealed that more than half of the sampled plans have a medium level of suitability, with 39% having a weak level of suitability. About 51% of plans from Europe have a weak level of suitability. Surprisingly, none of the plans sampled from Africa and Latin America achieved a weak level of suitability despite lacking a significant share of global climate research and development funding. A Kruskal-Wallis test shows a statistically significant association between stages of climate planning and (a) city types (p-value of 0.004326) and (b) year of adoption or publication of climate plans and suitability scores (p-value of 0.0001027). Urban climate action plans adopted or published more recently (2018-2022) are likely more suitable than those adopted or published earlier. The sampled urban climate action plans from the Global South had higher average suitability scores than those from the Global North. The study presents key findings and considerations for urban climate action planning and future research.
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Engaging Multiple Stakeholders in Addressing Sustainability of Florida's Water Resources
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mary Hope Schwoebel
This is an Interdisciplinary Action Research Project carried out by a social scientist and a scientist in partnerships with multiple stakeholders, including activists, advocates, citizen scientists, local government officials and civil servants, and community-based non-profit organizations. The first phase of the project to be implemented in November is a Water Symposium brought together all of the above utilizing a participatory action research process to develop guidelines and checklists for each level and category of stakeholder - state level, county and city governments, businesses, environmental organizations, citizens, and households - with recommendations for how to protect and improve water quality in Florida's oceans, lakes, rivers, springs and aquifers. The second phase of this participatory action research project is to design new, or support ongoing, interventions for different levels.
Intermodality Policies for Public Transport in Mexico and the European Union: Analysis of Their Contribution to Compliance with SDG 11.2
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Laura Elena Castro Sánchez, Miguel Enrique Beltrán Aguirre
This study explores intermodality within public transport policies in urban contexts of the Global South and the European Union as a strategy to achieve access to safe, paid and sustainable transport systems. The applicable free access documents regarding the management of motorized transport routes and active mobility routes in the cities of Madrid and Monterrey were analyzed. Through the mapping of public transport routes, buffer zones without active intermodality are determined. According to the regulatory framework, the disparities between the case studies are mainly analyzed in the urban development model, pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, security and cultural aspects of mobility. The results show that in the case of Madrid the policies show significant progress in achieving intermodality because its urban planning and bioclimatic urbanism are an optimal basis for non-motorized modes of mobility while in the case of Monterrey such The initiatives are at an incipient level since the city faces challenges linked to its urban form, which make the adoption of active modes difficult. Finally, a set of planning and monitoring indicators focused on the Global South at the municipal level is proposed to promote development oriented towards intermodality in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 11. 2.
