Governance, sustainability and climate issues in urban environment: the role of scientific knowledge and networks in building adaptive capacity to respond to climate impact

Abstract

For cities climate change is quickly becoming a policy and planning concern. The growing reàlization that mitigation alone will not be enough to avoid climate impact (IPCC AR5) is increasingly apparent in the number of cities that have adaptation plans. These early adopters recognize the risk of climate change impacts-both future and present-on cities' social-ecological systems. Yet, many other cities at risk remain less proactive. The reasons are not surprising-economic, institutional and political constraints are stretching these cities' ability to provide basic services and support current populations, infrastructure, and ecosystems. How can we build their adaptive capacity to respond to clirnate impact? Researchers have identified resources and governance structures that increase the likelihood of successful adaptation. Understanding how these resóurces feedback on each other both positively and negatively is essential to build the resilience and sustainability of cities. To investigate these issues in the city of Sao Paulo we propose exchange activities between researchers and students from the University of Sao Paulo and the University of Michigan between Sep 2014 and Sep 2015 (12 months at total). The project fostersknowledqe exchange and experiences; leverages existing 'data; and lay the foundation for a collaborative theoretical and methodological framework to analyze climate adaptation in cities. It builds upon two ongoing research projects funded by FAPESP (grant 2013/17665-5) and Graham Institute at the UM (http://graham.umich.edu/glaac). As part of the project we will co-organize a workshop ("Climate, cities and governance: articulating production and use of knowledge") and offer a short course focusing on socio-ecological analytical frameworks for city adaptation ("Adaptive capacity and sustainable cities frameworks"). We will also leverage resources of the cooperative grant and data from our previous research to write a broader proposal to be submitted both to US and Brazilian funding agencies and to write a co-authored scientific article. (AU)