Urban Resilience
SPRING 2020
UENV 3400
When: Wednesdays 12:10pm – 2:40pm (January 22 – May 6, 2019)
Where: University Center, 68 Fifth Avenue, Room 104 (Bark Room)
Professor: Dr. Timon McPhearson
Office: Urban Systems Lab, 79 Fifth Ave, 16th Floor, Room 1608 E-mail: timon.mcphearson@newschool.edu
Telephone: 212-229-2036 Office hours: By appointment
TA: Veronica Olivotto
E- mail: olivv722@newschool.edu
Course Description
The aim of this course is to examine the past, present and future relations between social, ecological, and technological-infrastructural drivers and feedbacks in cities and urban regions; to introduce students to the ecology of cities as a methodology for exploring complex urban systems and resilience and to encourage empirical, normative and imaginative reflection on the possibilities (and potential pathologies) that lie behind current discourses of ‘urban resilience’.
Urban Resilience provides an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how we can increase resilience to climate change and other global environmental changes in urban environments by integrating biophysical and socio-economic forces (e.g., biology, economics, social science) to understand, predict, and manage the emergent phenomena we call cities. We will cover such key questions as: What is resilience and how are cities vulnerable to disturbances disasters and changing climate regimes? What are complex adaptive social ecological systems? What has the recent study of urban systems uncovered in the short time since it emerged as a new field of inquiry? Can cities be designed as sustainable and resilient environments? How do spatial and temporal land use patterns drive social inequity in access to the benefits of urban green space for resilience?
Glancing at a typical map of the world, one might conclude that cities cover a small proportion of the continents and, therefore, have little environmental impact. However, our planet is increasingly urban and rapidly urbanizing. Four out of every five Americans live in the nation’s sprawling metropolitan areas, and half of the world’s population are urbanites. As cities become the dominant living environment for humans, there is growing concern about how to make such places more habitable, healthy and safe, more ecological, and more equitable, more resilient, and more sustainable. Most people living in urban cities are unaware of the connection between their livelihood, quality of life and their dependence on the processes and cycles of the natural world. And yet all cities survive by importing natural resources and exporting wastes. The ecological footprint of cities far exceeds their obvious, geopolitical boundary and implies considerable environmental impact. In this context, understanding urban ecosystems from an ecological perspective is crucial to understanding how to move towards a more resilient and sustainable future. This class will examine the most up to date socio-ecological-technological study of the city as a systems by reading and discussing primary literature.
Learning Objectives
Primary objectives of this course are to explore:
• historical and current scientific perspectives on complex urban systems, resilience theory and practice
• future prospects of the study of cities as social-ecological-technological systems
• key terms, concepts, frameworks, and models in urban resilience
• systems thinking and analysis
• role of resilience planning for cities in the context of climate change
During this course, you will be encouraged to develop the following abilities and skills:
• the capacity to develop sustained and reasoned oral and written arguments about the critical perspectives covered in the course, in particular systems thinking, resilience theory, and urban systems
• an ability to assess the comparative merits of contrasting theories, data, and explanations
• an ability to critically interpret specific urban data on and in cities
• the ability to ground theoretical arguments in real world situations
• an awareness of your personal implication in many of the issues covered in the course
Instructor Bios
Dr. Timon McPhearson is Associate Professor of Urban Ecology, Director of the Urban Systems Lab, and research faculty at the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School. His research is focused on the ecology in, of, and for cities and he teaches urban resilience, systems thinking, and urban ecology at the university. Dr. McPhearson co-leads of the U.S. National Science Foundation 5-year “Urban Resilience to Extreme Weather Related Events” Project (URExSRN), is co-editor of the book Urban Planet, and is a member of the IPCC. His work is published widely including in scientific journals (including Nature, Nature Climate Change, BioScience, Nature Sustainability), in books (including Sustainability in America’s Cities, Urban Sustainability Transitions), popular press (such as The Nature of Cities), and covered by The New York Times, PNAS, The Guardian, The Nation, Chronicle of Higher Education, and more.
Resources
The university provides many resources to help students achieve academic and artistic excellence. These resources include:
The University (and associated) Libraries: http://library.newschool.edu
The University Learning Center: http://www.newschool.edu/learning-center. The University Learning Center (ULC) provides individual tutoring sessions in Adobe, ESL, Writing, Math, Economics, and Time Management. Sessions are interactive, with both tutor and student participating. Appointments can be scheduled on Starfish or you can stop by for a walk-in session. The ULC also offers several academic and skill-building workshops. The ULC is located on the 6th floor of 66 West 12th Street. For more information please visit www.newschool.edu/learning-center.
University Disabilities Service: www.newschool.edu/student-disability-services/. In keeping with the university’s policy of providing equal access for students with disabilities, any student with a disability who needs academic accommodations is welcome to meet with me privately. All conversations will be kept confidential. Students requesting any accommodations will also need to contact Student Disability Service (SDS). SDS will conduct an intake and, if appropriate, the Director will provide an academic accommodation notification letter for you to bring to me. At that point, we will review the letter with you and discuss these accommodations in relation to this course.
Academic Honesty and Integrity
Compromising your academic integrity may lead to serious consequences, including (but not limited to) one or more of the following: failure of the assignment, failure of the course, academic warning, disciplinary probation, suspension from the university, or dismissal from the university. Students are responsible for understanding the University’s policy on academic honesty and integrity and must make use of proper citations of sources for writing papers, creating, presenting, and performing their work, taking examinations, and doing research. It is the responsibility of students to learn the procedures specific to their discipline for correctly and appropriately differentiating their own work from that of others. The full text of the policy, including adjudication procedures, is found at http://www.newschool.edu/leadership/provost/policies/
Resources regarding what plagiarism is and how to avoid it can be found on the Learning Center’s website: http://www.newschool.edu/learning-center/virtual-handout-drawer/ Intellectual Property Rights – http://www.newschool.edu/leadership/provost/policies/
Course Requirements
This is a four-credit course and it will take the form of an advanced undergraduate and graduate reading seminar. It will firstly attempt to nurture engagement with the recent literature in urban resilience, ecosystem and system studies. More broadly, it will attempt to introduce students to the skill of thinking and writing from an interdisciplinary perspective. A central aim of this course will be to hone student’s critical, analytic, written and presentational skills. Assessment will be based on a mixture of written work, reading notes, presentations and classroom participation.
To complete the course, students will have to meet the following requirements
Requirement #1 – Read the Syllabus!
Read this syllabus closely from beginning to end so that you understand what is required to successfully complete this course. There will likely be changes in the syllabus as we go through the semester, therefore attending class and paying close attention to verbal confirmation of your assignments and required readings is critical.
Requirement #2 – Attendance
You are required to attend every class. Absences may justify some grade reduction and a total of three unexcused absences will result in a reduction of one letter grade for the course. More than four unexcused absences will result in a failing grade for the course, unless there are extenuating circumstances for each of the absences, such as the following: an extended illness requiring hospitalization or visit to a physician (documentation required); a family emergency,
e.g. serious illness (with written explanation); or observance of a religious holiday. The attendance and lateness policies will be enforced as of the first day of classes for all registered students. If registered during the add/drop period, you are nevertheless responsible for any missed assignments, readings or other coursework. Significant lateness will be considered as an absence for the day. Students failing a course due to attendance should consult with an academic advisor.
Requirement #3 – Readings and Class Participation (20% of final grade)
You are required to complete all assigned readings before the day they are listed on the syllabus. We will discuss the readings in class, and students need to be aware that a 20% of the marks for this course will be gained by active participation in presentations/discussions.
Attendance and participation will be graded daily. The aim of this is to generate dynamic engaged seminars. This section of the course rewards students who contribute to the learning process and who engage in the group seminar in an intelligent and productive fashion and penalizes students who provide no evidence that they are engaging with the work. Our classroom discussions will review the day’s readings. We will connect our broader classroom conversation to the insights you’ve gained from the written material.
Requirement #4 – Short Assignments (20% of final grade)
You will have a 10-minute paper to complete at the beginning of class most weeks (~10 total) to summarize what you learned from the assigned readings. These short reading summaries are designed to help keep you on track, to identify areas where you need further discussion/clarification, and to assist you with the preparation of your final term paper. You will also be asked to write weekly 1-2 questions driven by your critical reading of the assigned papers.
Additionally, you are responsible for completing a 1-2 page response paper to 4 of the guest lectures or other course activities outside of normal seminar discussion. You may pick which ones you prefer to write on, but you are responsible for completing them and turning them in on time. Response papers are due the next week following the guest lecture. Each summary should discuss the main lesson(s) you learned from the experience, and explain how what you learned relates to the course readings and your experience in class so far. They must be turned in on-time to receive full credit.
*It is highly suggested that you take notes on the readings as you read them. There are two main aims of reading notes. First, they are a mechanism they aim to develop your engagement with the primary sources. Secondly, they seek to provide a mechanism to ensure that you are continually engaging with the reading for this course. A bona fid attempt at reading notes will take the following form. You should (1) provide a brief summary of the content of the pieces you have been asked to read (2) you should then provide an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the articles with a concluding paragraph, which provides some kind of conclusion to your thoughts. This will prepare you well for class as well as serve you in the City Project.
Requirement #5 – Paper Presentations (10% of final grade)
You are required to present to the class through visual and oral summary (PPT) one of the assigned readings, one must be from the primary literature (which means an original research article). During the first weeks of the semester you should pick a topic and paper you are interested in from the “Main Readings” only listed in the Course Schedule below. Papers will be assigned if you do not express your preference. Your presentation will be done in collaboration with another student working in a team of two. Presentations will be at the beginning of class so you need to be there early and have your presentation loaded.
The aims of the presentations are to develop student’s presentation skills and improve their understanding of the topic. Presentation will ensure that students (presenter and audience) take responsibility for their own learning processes and facilitate the development of dynamic, engaged and stimulating classes.
In the presentation students should:
• Set out the nature of the topic/article (What is this about? What are the issues? Why is this important?)
• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the research/topic.
• How does this reading relate to other readings and discussion in the course?
• Finish with a series of discussion points to stimulate debate in the class.
I will grade presenters for: (1) The clarity & coherence of the presentation, (2) The extent to which presenters demonstrate an understanding of the subject/topic they are talking about and the extent to which they ‘bring the topic’ to life. (3) The analytic and critical faculties students demonstrate and the broader discussion that they manage to generate. Be prepared to offer some opinions and defend your case!
Requirement #6 – The City Project (50% of final grade)
One of the most important ways scientists advance knowledge is through a thorough literature review of a topic. Although the field of reliance and urban ecosystems has gained increased attention in recent years, it is still a fairly disparate and nascent field of study. The objective of this assignment is to choose both a city and resilience/urban ecology topic of interest to you and conduct a complete literature review. Your TA and I will provide guidance on this assignment and help you to decide on a target city, topic, and time lines. To complete this project, you will need to conduct research on a specific city of your choice and a focused question directly related to the study of urban ecosystems over the course of this semester. The City Project will initially be broken into smaller assignments that will help you build the larger final project, which includes a final paper. You will also present in the last weeks of the class a summary of your City Project (see below) as a 10-minute professional presentation. I will introduce these assignments and the different potential projects outcomes in further detail around the third week of the course.
Readings
There is only one small book that you should consider purchasing for this course, Thinking in Systems, by systems analyst Donella H. Meadows.
Try to find it used online or check The Strand. You can also purchase this paperback from Better World Books.
I will assign a couple different chapters from this book, so having it in hand is a good idea, but I will post PDFs on our Google Drive folder for the course as with all other readings. You are responsible for keeping current with Canvas posts, any emails from the instructor or TA, and downloading all assigned readings and related assignment documents from our shared Google Drive folder.
COURSE SCHEDULE
January 22
Introduction to Urban Resilience
Guest: Veronica Olivotto (TA) – Urban Systems Lab and Milano School of Policy, Management and Environment
Main Readings:
Klinenberg, E. (2013) Adaptation: How Can Cities be Climate-proofed? The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/01/07/adaptation-eric-klinenberg
Slater, T. (2014) The Resilience of Neoliberal Urbanism. Open Democracy. https://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/tom-slater/resilience-of-neoliberal- urbanism
January 29
Resilience Theory and System Thinking
Guest: Veronica Olivotto (TA) – Urban Systems Lab and Milano School of Policy, Management and Environment
Main Readings:
Folke, C. 2016. Resilience (Republished). Ecology and Society 21(4):44. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09088-210444 https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol21/iss4/art44/
Meadows, D. H. 2008. Thinking in Systems: A Primer. Read Part One: Systems Structure and Behavior. pp .11 - 7235
Background Readings:
Hosseini, S., Barker, K., & Ramirez-Marquez, J. E. (2016). A review of definitions and measures of system resilience. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 145, 47-61.
February 5
Urban Complexity and the Global Resilience Challenge Main Readings:
UN World Urbanization Prospects, selected pages TBD http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Highlights/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf
Batty, M. 2008. The size, scale, and shape of cities. Science 319:769-771.
Background Readings:
Bettencourt, L.M.A, et al. 2007. Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities. PNAS 104:7301-7306.
Video: NOVA Megastorm Aftermath PBS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCHMoQQjuro
February 12
Resilience and Systems Theory II
Main Readings:
Daniels, S.E. and G.B. Walker. 2001. Systems Thinking. Working Through Environmental Conflict: The Collaborative Learning Approach. Praeger Publishers
Background Readings:
Hosseini, S., Barker, K., & Ramirez-Marquez, J. E. (2016). A review of definitions and measures of system resilience. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 145, 47-61.
February 19
Nature-based solutions for climate resilience
Main Readings:
Chapter from Kabisch et al.. Nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation. Selection pages from the book, TBD
Background Reading:
Keeler, B.L., M. Donahue, T. McPhearson, M. Hamann, M. Donahue, K.M. Prado, K. Arkema, G.Bratman, K. Brauman, J. Finlay, A. Guerry, S. Hobbie, J. Johnson, G. MacDonald, R. McDonald, N. Neverisky, and S. Wood. 2019. “Social-ecological and technological factors moderate the value of urban nature.” Nature Sustainability, 2:29– 38.
McPhearson, Timon, Erik Andersson, Thomas Elmqvist, and Niki Frantzeskaki. 2015. “Resilience Of and Through Urban Ecosystem Services,“ Ecosystem Services(Special Issue) 12:152-156,DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.07.012
February 26
Social equity of nature-based solutions for climate resilience in NYC Guest: Pablo Herreros-Cantis – Urban Systems Lab
Main Readings:
Rigolon, A. (2016). A complex landscape of inequity in access to urban parks: A literature review. Landscape and Urban Planning, 153, 160-169
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/environmental-health-is-a- justice-issue-and-this-new-map-shows-us-why/
Haase, D., Kabisch, S., Haase, A., Andersson, E., Banzhaf, E., Baró, F., et al. (2017). Greening cities–To be socially inclusive? About the alleged paradox of society and ecology in cities. Habitat International, 64, 41-48.
Background Reading:
An alternative to mainstream urban greening: “just green enough” http://theconversation.com/sustainable-cities-need-more-than-parks-cafes-and-a- riverwalk-88760
The paradox of greening for quality of life: “green gentrification”
Haase, D., Kabisch, S., Haase, A., Andersson, E., Banzhaf, E., Baró, F., ... & Krellenberg, K. (2017). Greening cities–To be socially inclusive? About the alleged paradox of society and ecology in cities. Habitat International, 64, 41-48.
Kremer, P., Hamstead, Z. A., & McPhearson, T. (2016). The value of urban ecosystem services in New York City: A spatially explicit multicriteria analysis of landscape scale valuation scenarios. Environmental Science & Policy, 62, 57-68.
March 4
Climate Change Resilience in Cities Guest: Dr. Luis Ortiz – Urban Systems Lab
Main Readings:
Horton, R. et al. New York City Panel on Climate Change 2015 Report Chapter 1: Climate Observations and Projections: NPCC 2015 Report Chapter 1. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1336, 18–35 (2015).
Horton, R., Little, C., Gornitz, V., Bader, D. & Oppenheimer, M. New York City Panel on Climate Change 2015 Report Chapter 2: Sea Level Rise and Coastal Storms: NPCC 2015 Report Chapter 2. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1336, 36–44 (2015).
Rosenzweig, C. et al. Mitigating New York City’s Heat Island: Integrating Stakeholder Perspectives and Scientific Evaluation. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 90, 1297–1312 (2009).
Background Readings:
Oke, T. R. The energetic basis of the urban heat island. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 108, 1–24 (1982). (Oke goes into detail into what makes cities different from their rural surroundings, in the context of the urban heat island)
Ortiz, L., González, J. E. & Lin, W. Climate change impacts on peak building cooling energy demand in a coastal megacity. Environmental Research Letters 13, 094008 (2018). (Looking at a single impact of climate change in NYC across spatial and temporal dimensions)
Malueg, G and Sorge, G. Good Resilience Planning Involves More Than Building Barriers
– It’s About Making Connections. (2018). https://www.100resilientcities.org/good- resilience-planning-making-connections/
March 11
Ecology of cities: A SETS approach to urban resilience
Main Readings:
Markolf, S. A., M. H. Chester, D. A. Eisenberg, D. M. Iwaniec, C. I. Davidson, R. Zimmerman, T. R. Miller, B. L. Ruddell and H. Chang. 2018. Interdependent Infrastructure as Linked Social, Ecological, and Technological Systems (SETS) to Address Lock-in and Enhance Resilience. Earth's Future 6(12):1638-1659. DOI: 10.1029/2018EF000926
Odum, E.P. 1975. The City as an Ecosystem. In, Ecology: The Link between the Natural and Social Sciences, Holt Rinehart and Winston. http://www.ess.co.at/URBANECOLOGY/odum.html
Background Reading:
McPhearson, T., S.T.A. Pickett, N. Grimm, J. Niemelä, M. Alberti, T. Elmqvist, C. Weber,
D. Haase, J. Breuste, and S. Qureshi. 2016. "Advancing Urban Ecology Toward a Science of Cities." BioScience 66(3):198-212, doi: 10.1093/biosci/biw002.
March 18
*Spring Break, no class
March 25
Spatial approaches to understanding complex urban systems
Main Readings:
Depietri, Yaella, Khila Dahal, and Timon McPhearson. 2018. “Multi-hazard risk in a coastal megacity.” Natural Hazards and Earth Systems Sciences, 18:3363-3381, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-3363-2018
Background Reading:
Hamstead, Zoé A., Neele Larondelle, Peleg Kremer, Timon McPhearson, and Dagmar Haase. 2016. “Classification of the heterogeneous structure of urban landscapes (STURLA) as an indicator of landscape function applied to surface temperature in New York City.” Ecological Indicators 70: 574–585, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.10.014
April 1
Community Resilience: Current thinking, measures, and resistance
Guest: Dr. Zbigniew Grabowski – Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and Urban Systems Lab
Main Readings:
Berkes, Fikret & Ross, Helen (2013) Community Resilience: Toward an Integrated Approach, Society & Natural Resources, 26:1, 5-20, DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2012.736605
Kaika, Maria. (2017) ‘Don’t call me resilient again!’: the New Urban Agenda as immunology… or… what happens when communities refuse to be vaccinated with ‘smart cities’ and indicators. Environment and Urbanization 29:1, 89-102.
Background Readings:
Mulligan, Martin, Steele, Wendy, Rickards, Lauren & Fünfgeld, Hartmut. (2016) Keywords in planning: what do we mean by ‘community resilience’?, International Planning Studies, 21:4, 348-361, DOI: 10.1080/13563475.2016.1155974
Ostadtaghizadeh, A., Ardalan, A., Paton, D., Jabbari, H., & Khankeh, H. R. (2015). Community disaster resilience: a systematic review on assessment models and tools. PLoS currents, 7.
April 8
Thinking about resilience politically
Guest: Katinka Wijsman – Urban Systems Lab and New School for Social Research
Main Readings:
Dawson, Ashley (2017). "Radical Adaptation" in Dissent Magazine
MacKinnon, Danny and Kate Driscoll Derickson (2013). "From Resilience to Resourcefulness: A critique of resilience policy and activism" in Progress in Human Geography, 37(2) pp 253-270.
Background Readings:
Feagan, Mathieu and Katinka Wijsman (2019). "Knowledge Systems for Resilience Justice: Rethinking the Urban Experience through Feminist and Decolonial Sensibilities" in Environmental Science and Policy
Meerow, Sara and Joshua Newell (2016). "Urban Resilience for whom, what, when, where, and why?" in Urban Geography
April 15
Sustainable and Resilient Cities?
Main Readings:
Elmqvist, Thomas. Urban sustainability and resilience and why we need to focus on scales. The Nature of Cities,
https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2013/03/27/urban-sustainability-and-resilience- why-we-need-to-focus-on-scales/
Elmqvist, Thomas, Erik Andersson, Niki Frantzeskaki, Timon McPhearson, Per Olsson, Owen Gaffney, Kazuhiko Takeuchi, and Carl Folke. “Sustainability, resilience and transformation for the urban century. Nature Sustainability
Background Readings
Ernstson, H., van der Leeuw, S.E., Redman, C.L. et al. Urban Transitions: On Urban Resilience and Human-Dominated Ecosystems. AMBIO (2010) 39: 531. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-010-0081-9
April 22
Envisioning Positive Urban Future
Guest: Dr. Elizabeth Cook – Barnard College
Main Readings:
Bennett, E.M., M. Solan, R. Biggs, T. McPhearson, A. Norstrom, P. Olsson, L. Pereira, G.D. Peterson, C. Raudsepp-Hearne, F. Biermann, S. R. Carpenter, E. Ellis, T. Hichert, V. Galaz,
M. Lahsen, M. Milkoreit, B. Martin-Lopez, K. A. Nicholas, R. Preiser, G. Vince, J. Vervoort
J. Xu. 2016. “Bright Spots: Seeds of a Good Anthropocene.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 14(8): 441–448, doi:10.1002/fee.1309
Vaidyanathan, G. 2018. “Imagining a climate-change future, without the dystopia.” PNAS: 115 (51) 12832-12835; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1819792116
Background Readings:
McPhearson, Timon, David Iwaniec, and Xuemei Bai. 2017. “Positives visions for guiding transformations toward desirable urban futures.” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 22:33–40 DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2017.04.004
April 29
City Project – Final Presentations
May 6
City Project – Final Presentations
It all started when…
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