RESILIENCE: Ekos Now Available + USL News & Research

NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

EKOS: NOW ON SALE!

Ekos: The Path to Resilience is a multi-player game that challenges a group of 6 community members to come together and envision a more equitable and sustainable Ekos in the face of climate change and other challenges. Copies of Ekos are now on sale! Purchase a copy here.

The USL Receives $150,000 in Renewed Funding from Kresge Foundation for Urban Flood Risk Project

The Urban Systems Lab is a recipient of $150,000 in renewed funding from the Kresge Foundation to support the Environmental Justice of Urban Flood Risk and Green Infrastructure Solutions project. As a member of Kresge’s Climate Resilient and Equitable Water Systems (CREWS) network, the USL will continue to analyze and visualize results of how planned green infrastructure interventions to build resilience to urban flooding affect minority and low-income populations in cities such as Syracuse, NY, Elizabeth, NJ, and Yonkers, NY. To learn more about this research initiative visit our webpage, and this ArcGIS Storymap.

New International Study on Climate Adaptation Solutions for Cities

The USL’s Timon McPhearson is a co-author of a new article, “Integrating solutions to adapt cities for climate change” published in The Lancet Journal of Planetary Health. The study led by Dr. Brenda Lin highlights the need for more systematic research on integrated climate solutions for urban contexts. They examine 3 city cases including Freiburg, Germany; Durban, South Africa; and Singapore. The article concludes with a discussion of future challenges, and recommendations for implementing climate adaptation solutions that integrate the goals of improving livability, sustainability, and equality in cities around the world.

Mapping Of NYC’s Urban Ecosystem Services Raises Environmental Justice Concerns

A new article co-authored by USL Research Fellow Pablo Herreros-Cantis, "Mapping supply of and demand for ecosystem services to assess environmental justice in New York City" reveals significant supply-demand mismatches for ecosystem services that raises critical environmental justice concerns citywide. The study highlights how certain socio-demographic groups are, through historical racism and other legacies of environmental and social injustice, more prone to having their needs for ecosystem services unsatisfied. Read full article.

National Study Of Green Infrastructure Planning Finds Environmental Justice Rarely Included In Plans

An interdisciplinary team of researchers has completed one of the most comprehensive studies of green infrastructure (GI) planning in the U.S. to date. Building on a novel dataset of 119 planning documents from 19 U.S. cities, a team from the The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, Arizona State University, The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, and The New School’s Urban Systems Lab examine the justice implications of criteria used in the siting of GI projects. The team found that only 1.2% of all criteria in the GI plans considered issues of environmental justice or equity. Read full article

PUBLICATIONS

USL’s Claudia Tomateo is author of “Indigenous land systems and emerging of Green Infrastructure planning in the Peruvian coastal desert: tensions and opportunities” in the Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning.
USL’s Timon McPhearson is co-author of “Interactive spatial planning of urban green infrastructure – Retrofitting green roofs where ecosystem services are most needed in Oslo” led by Zander Venter in the journal, Ecosystem Services.
USL’s Timon McPhearson is co-author of “Integrating solutions to adapt cities for climate change” led by Brenda Lin in the The Lancet Planetary Health.
USL’s Zbigniew Grabowski and Timon McPhearson are co-authors of “Environmental justice implications of siting criteria in urban green infrastructure planning” led by Fushcia-Ann Hoover in the Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning.
USL’s Pablo Herreros-Cantis and Timon McPhearson are co-authors of “Mapping supply of and demand for ecosystem services to assess environmental justice in New York City” in the journal Ecological Applications.
USL’s Timon McPhearson and Pablo Herreros-Cantis are co-authors of “A context-sensitive systems approach for understanding and enabling ecosystem service realization in cities” led by Erik Andersson in the journal Ecology and Society.
“Rapid Research and Assessment on COVID-19 and Climate in New York City”, in the Journal of Extreme Events.
The USL’s Chris Kennedy and Timon McPhearson are co-authors of “The thorny path toward greening: unintended consequences, trade-offs, and constraints in green and blue infrastructure planning, implementation, and management” led by Jakub Kronenberg in Ecology and Society.

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