I'm looking for the metrics, databases, quantifiable characteristics to conduct a comparison of the cities that face risks from the sea-level rise and are taking action to mitigate and/ or adapt to their changing environment. I would prefer a world-wide rather than region centric database.
We are developing an index to quantify the community responsibility of managing environmental flows at micro catchment level.
Thank you Chandima. Do you think the index would be scalable to the city level? I read your posted article on RBM and it reminds me of Elinor Ostrom's work on polycentric governance and the most effective manner in which common-pool resource situations are governed. That is, nested and horizontally-linked units that are self-organized and self-governed. Your insights are similar to her findings.
Thank you Claudia for your comments, It is a grate help for me to organize my work. I will go through the work of Elinor,
Thank you Dr. Hernandez, I understand your point. However, I may not have worded my question and interest clearly. Let me clarify. My studies are from the perspective of International Political Economy and my primary concern is how global coastal cities decrease their vulnerability to environmental conditions, especially sea-level rise, that pose increasing risks regardless of the cause. Whether land subsidence or thermal expansion of the oceans or a combination of the two cause the sea to both erode the tidal zone buffer and encroach on a waterfront community - the reactive adaptation of the waterfront community is what matters. They must act collectively to reduce their vulnerability and increase their resilience through adaptation to changing environmental factors. Otherwise the economic costs are going to threaten the future of all who rely on the urban economic engines that power our global economy. Causes of change are hard to distinguish in a complex adaptive system such as our ecology and are irrelevant for adaptation. Defining a cause would be more important for a city's choice in mitigation policy. A Resiliency Index should include both physical and social factors because both are critical in measuring a city's ability to recover from an extreme weather event or adapt to gradual changes. Both of which are characteristic of SLR.
I would look at general resilience index which is developed for many cities. The key question may be how to track the changes in resilience caused by many factors including climate change and to identify the points (in time) when action is needed - eg. When should a seadefense be constructed etc. We are working on the development of such a tool now.
Resilience index must include spatial variability and community responsibility of improving it. Please look at CRS or Community rating system developed in Florida for the purpose of managing floods.
Dear Ole,
Thank you for your advice to look at general resilience index for cities. In fact, I am looking for a good one inclusive of important criteria and generally accepted. I heard ARUP was developing one but do not think it is yet published. Are you aware of one? thank you.
Dear all,
Sorry for making another question, but I think that this is the appropiate place. Should a resilience index include any value of hazard. According to Ole Larsen, I understand it should, since the exposure of different places might be more or less suitable to be flooded in the future according to their locations. So we would have different needs in different areas, and consequently, diverging values of resilience. Nevertheless, I always had understood the resilience as something totally separates of the hazard, so it sounds as an alternativa approach. Any idea to clarify?
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