Urban Ecosystem Vulnerability Assessment of Support Climate-Resilient City Development

Zipan Cai,Vladimir Cvetkovic,Jessica Page

doi:10.17645/up.v6i3.4208

Zipan Cai, Vladimir Cvetkovic + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v6i3.4208

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Abstract

Climate change poses a threat to cities. Geospatial information and communication technology (Geo-ICT) assisted planning is increasingly being utilised to foster urban sustainability and adaptability to climate change. To fill the theoretical and practical gaps of urban adaptive planning and Geo-ICT implementation, this article presents an urban ecosystem vulnerability assessment approach using integrated socio-ecological modelling. The application of the Geo-ICT method is demonstrated in a specific case study of climate-resilient city development in Nanjing (China), aiming at helping city decision-makers understand the general geographic data processing and policy revision processes in response to hypothetical future disruptions and pressures on urban social, economic, and environmental systems. Ideally, the conceptual framework of the climate-resilient city transition proposed in this study effectively integrates the geographic data analysis, policy modification, and participatory planning. In the process of model building, we put forward the index system of urban ecosystem vulnerability assessment and use the assessment result as input data for the socio-ecological model. As a result, the model reveals the interaction processes of local land use, economy, and environment, further generating an evolving state of future land use in the studied city. The findings of this study demonstrate that socio-ecological modelling can provide guidance in adjusting the human-land interaction and climate-resilient city development from the perspective of macro policy. The decision support using urban ecosystem vulnerability assessment and quantitative system modelling can be useful for urban development under a variety of environmental change scenarios.

Highlights

Climate change places increasing stress on the built envi‐ ronments of cities in the new era, bringing challenges to urban planning and development as well as urban services and management systems (Carter et al, 2015; Wamsler et al, 2013)
What can motivate city policymakers to plan for environment adaptation? Can intervention and effec‐ tive incentives enhance stakeholders’ participation in urban planning and policy? In this article, we describe a geospatial information and communication technology (Geo‐ICT)‐based socio‐ecological model to enhance our understanding of the dynamic assessment of urban eco‐ logical vulnerability and the development possibilities of climate‐resilient cities
If we incorporate the periodic results of urban ecosys‐ tem vulnerability assessment and urban land growth simulation into the conceptual framework of Geo‐ICT assisted climate‐resilient city transition described above, we find that this is beneficial to both climate adapta‐ tion in urban planning and the future sustainable devel‐ opment of the city

Summary

Introduction

Climate change places increasing stress on the built envi‐ ronments of cities in the new era, bringing challenges to urban planning and development as well as urban services and management systems (Carter et al, 2015; Wamsler et al, 2013). Geo‐ICT generally combines geographic information and ICT as a planning support system that facilitates effi‐ cient and effective governance, for example, through improving master planning, coordination, and coopera‐ tion (Meera et al, 2012). It includes the geographic infor‐ mation system (GIS), the spatial database management system, spatial information infrastructures, spatial deci‐ sion support systems, and other geospatial technologies

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