Is your city having to face up climate change effects? Share your experiences in upcoming URBAN-NEXUS Dialogue Café
URBAN-NEXUS, financed by the European Commission Seventh Framework Program, will hold its’ first Dialogue Café on Urban Climate Resilience on the 29th-30th May 2012 in Glasgow. This workshop is the first of 5 interactive Dialogue Cafés to be organised during the 36-month URBAN-NEXUS project. Themes that will be tackled in these respective workshops are: land-use, health and quality of life, governance and data monitoring. The ultimate goal of these Dialogue Cafés is to initiate and further stimulate debate on urban research, policy and practice with stakeholders and to create new partnerships.
Climate change effects for cities
Cities are hives of economic and social activity, but these
activities put a heavy strain on societies’ ecological footprint.
The forecast of climate change leads to the following questions:
- Will Europe face rapid climate changes in the future, possibly leading to periods of severe cooling?
- Are cities more at risk from climate change impacts?
- Does the increasing dependency on digital technologies increase urban fragility and susceptibility?
- What are the indicators of a climate resilient city?
Collaboration is needed to fight climate change effects
URBAN-NEXUS increases awareness and exchange of knowledge,
identifies innovative new solutions to sustainability problems and,
ultimately, promotes long-lasting partnerships between
stakeholders. The consortium is coordinated by the Netherlands
Institute for City Innovation Studies (Nicis Institute) assisted by
EMI and EUKN. The Dialogue Café will discuss a wide range of issues
in relation to climate resilience, such as:
- Health: increasing risk of certain diseases, heat stress, pathogens and parasitic infections, social impacts of flooding and drought, increasing vulnerability associated with demographic change;
- Sustainable Land use: green & blue infrastructure, urban drainage, flood mitigation;
- Climate resilient governance: integrated approaches, policy constraints and conflicts, innovation, public awareness;
- Risk and uncertainty: vulnerability assessments, decision-making tools, scenario-planning, data and monitoring needs.
Send in interesting studies, policies and practices on climate change
If you have an interesting example concerning research, policy
or practice to share as part of the Dialogue Café, please send an
e-mail. If you are interested in
attending the Dialogue Café please contact June. The
URBAN-NEXUS website will be online shortly. In the meantime, EMI
will keep you up to date on the URBAN-NEXUS progress via our
website.
© photo montage by scottfree 92