Preliminary assessment of the vulnerabilities in urban ecosystems as a result of climate change effects. Case studies.

Abstract

The current context of the increasing manifestation of climate change in the form of extreme weather phenomena prioritizes efforts to find solutions as quickly as possible to ensure adaptation to these new conditions and to achieve climate resilience. The phenomena are problematic, they usually cause much material damage, and therefore knowing the particularities of each urban or peri-urban environment where they occur can ensure the finding of viable and sustainable solutions in the long term. The current knowledge of the phenomena related to pollution and the variation of some climatic parameters, such as temperature and humidity, can bring valuable information for understanding the phenomena that appear against the background of the manifestation of climatic changes in urban environments and those adjacent to them. The analysis presented in this article refers to three cities in Romania, analyzed as case studies, for understanding climatic vulnerabilities in parallel with a quantification of the quality of environmental factors, in an integrated air, water, and soil approach. In these areas, the manifestation of natural factors, together with the anthropic footprint, particularly more evident in the urban environment, offers the possibility of an objective, quantifiable evaluation of the studied areas. The proposed comparisons will allow highlighting the vulnerabilities together with the zonal variability that is the basis of the influencing factors, as well as how the quality of the monitored parameters will evolve in space and time.