Green Resilience Research Articles

Emerging challenges of SMEs for the post-COVID-19 era: implications for gresilience and sustainability

PurposeThe main aim of this paper is to investigate key challenges that hinder sustainable and resilient green supply chain (GSC) building in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with respect to how they interact after the COVID era.Design/methodology/approachUsing a questionnaire, policymakers and industry managers from SMEs identify the main obstacles that will affect their resilience. These issues are then discussed with 50 experienced professionals from the top management field and further divided into sustainability and gresilience challenges. The Grey-DEMATEL (Grey sets and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) has been employed to assess the significance of challenges to SMEs' development of green resilience. Overall, the paper aims to build up a novel decision-making technology for the interconnectedness of green and resilience in the post-pandemic supply chain world.FindingsThe 12 sustainability and gresilience challenges highlighted by experts in the sector were analyzed. Insufficient government assistance and the handling of resources are the most significant challenges to developing a sustainable and gresilient value chain system, according to the study. The study highlights supply chain restructuring, waste reduction management, shortages of skilled manpower and insufficient knowledge of digitalization as key challenges for SMEs to prioritize.Practical implicationsThe outcomes of this research are crucial for SMEs building resilient supply networks through the green concept. Policymakers may utilize the data to pinpoint shortcomings in the supply chain for tactical as well as strategic development and improvement.Originality/valueWhen it comes to building green resilience and sustainability in an unpredictable business climate, the outcomes of this research will be significant for SMEs.

The spatio-temporal dynamic evolution and variability pattern of urban green resilience in China based on multi-criteria decision-making

The spatio-temporal dynamic evolution and variability pattern of urban green resilience in China based on multi-criteria decision-making

The role of institutional design in mobilizing climate finance: Empirical evidence from Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Indonesia

International climate finance is a crucial component of the response to climate change. This paper examines how national-level funding vehicles mobilize finance from international sources. Based on interviews with policymakers and various actors involved in the negotiation and design of four major early national climate funds, the Amazon Fund, the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund, Ethiopia’s Climate Resilient Green Economy Facility, and the Indonesia Climate Change Trust Fund, this paper identifies design features of national climate funds and highlights the trade-offs that developing countries face in their pursuit of climate finance. These design features have significant bearing on the overall effectiveness of the funds themselves. The findings from this study suggest that developing countries seek to maximize control over the funds even though it means that the design features do not minimize costs, as efficiency-oriented perspectives would suggest. The experience of these early national climate funds could be instructive to those governments and stakeholders considering establishing their own national climate funds or improving features. Three policy lessons are noteworthy: the importance of demonstrating commitment to climate policy through transparent data and results, instilling robust fiduciary standards and safeguards, and the virtuous cycle mobilizing climate finance and acquiring a track record on climate programming.

A Study on the Impact of Digital Transformation on Green Resilience in China

Enhancing green resilience is an important element in realizing environmental protection and green development, and with the continuous development of digital technology, digital transformation has become a new driving force for enhancing green resilience. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2013 to 2021, this study examines the impact of digital transformation on green resilience. The results show that digital transformation can significantly enhance green resilience, and this conclusion is still valid after considering a series of robustness tests and endogenous problems; the heterogeneity analysis shows that in the eastern and central regions, the enhancement of green resilience by digital transformation is still significant, while in the western region, digital transformation has curbed green resilience but is not significant; both resource-based and non-resource-based provinces’ digital transformation has enhanced green resilience, and the enhancement is more significant in resource-based provinces; in different levels of green resilience, digital transformation has a stronger impact on provinces with high levels of green resilience, showing the “Matthew effect”; the mediation effect results show that digital transformation can enhance green resilience by attracting government investment, fostering industrial integration and increasing public environmental concern; the threshold results show that digital transformation contributes to green resilience across the sample. However, with the development of digital platforms, the growth rate of digital transformation on the promotion of green resilience will first increase and then gradually decrease and eventually rebound, showing an “N-shaped” relationship.

Green resilience: Securing life through vegetal being

This paper critically examines the concept of “green resilience” – the mobilization of gardens and urban green spaces for enhancing the resilience of communities and cities in the face of increasing uncertainty and risk. Drawing inspiration from seminal work in human-plant geographies, it explores the governmental functions and political implications of green resilience, arguing that these spaces serve as key forms of state rule and biopolitical power.The study employs the notion of green resilience as a “composition,” emphasizing the assembling of diverse human and nonhuman actors in resilience projects. The developed compositional ontology highlights the importance of aesthetic and visual practices in green resilience projects and reveals how these are continuously decomposed and recomposed by the involved actors.The paper develops its arguments through a “paradigmatic case study” of various green resilience projects in New York City – including survivor trees, memorial groves, and community gardens. The study illuminates the multiplicity of green resilience initiatives and the underlying governmental logic by comparing these projects. Through its analysis, the paper contributes to the literature on resilience as an emerging governance paradigm. It reveals how green resilience projects embody a multiplicity of practices, uncovers the first comprehensive comparative analysis of various forms of green resilience, and offers a critique of resilience from within. The study concludes by identifying three tensions or contradictions of (green) resilience as a form of biopolitical government: visibility and invisibility, knowledge and ignorance, and control and emergence.

Does Carbon Emissions Trading Policy Improve Inclusive Green Resilience in Cities? Evidence from China

With the impact of external globalization uncertainties and the pressure of internal national environmental policies and markets, maintaining inclusive green resilience while coordinating economic, environmental, and social systems is critical for achieving green and sustainable urban development. We define inclusive green resilience for cities in this research and build a system of inclusive green resilience indicators. The DID model and entropy approach were used to examine the impact of carbon trading policies on inclusive green resilience in 184 representative Chinese cities from 2008 to 2018, and PSM-DID was utilized for further validation. According to the findings of the study, carbon emissions pricing policies can considerably increase inclusive green resilience in cities. Mechanism verification demonstrates that carbon trading programs improve inclusive green resilience in cities through industrial restructuring, technical innovation capability, and employment benefits. According to the city heterogeneity study, the implementation of the carbon emissions trading system has a scale effect and significant urban functional differences, and its impact on inclusive green resilience of cities is greater in large and medium-sized cities and non- resource-based cities. This research offers a new way of thinking about inclusive green resilience as well as empirical data for future sustainable policy development.

Urban green resilience: Experience from post-industrial cities in Poland

De-industrialisation triggered economic, spatial and environmental changes in cities. Therefore, this study identifies whether there has been a reorientation of spatial development in post-industrial cities towards the creation of green spaces. The aim of the study is to analyse and evaluate the transformation of green spaces in 32 major cities in Poland, including 12 post-industrial cities. Data sources were vector land cover data models from the Urban Atlas for 2006 and 2018, administrative boundaries from the National Boundary Register and building layers from the Topographic Objects Database. The research procedure was carried out using the GIS environment, through spatial analysis, geoprocessing algorithms, and spatial statistics. The results have shown that post-industrial cities do not develop their urban resilience based on the expansion of green spaces and, consequently, do not build green urban resilience. In addition, the research has proven that the greatest loss of green spaces is noticeable in parts of post-industrial cities with medium and high development intensity, where there is an intensification of construction activity. The dominant direction of the transformation of green spaces has been the conversion of agricultural areas into green spaces (87.79%). In contrast, the main direction of loss in green space has been the creation of new industrial units (24.80%) and the expansion of the urban fabric (23.53%). The article is original due to the fact that there is a gap in the literature regarding the study of green spaces in post-industrial cities with regard to the concept of green urban resilience.

Green, gray, glocal: governing urban resilience in the Tel Aviv metropolitan region

ABSTRACT This article addresses theoretical and policy challenges for governing urban resilience in fragmented metropolitan regions. By analyzing practical approaches manifested in plans and infrastructure projects in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Region, we develop an innovative typology of urban resilience governance attuned to metropolitan scale and complexity. Based on analysis of policy documents and interviews with stakeholders in three case studies – Tel Aviv’s City Resilience Plan, Yarqon River Restoration Project, Ayalon Fourth Railway Project – we outline three distinct modalities: Glocal Resilience relates to methodologies promoted by global networks (particularly 100 Resilient Cities) and applied locally by cities, increasing metropolitan disparities; Green Resilience encompasses urban-natural ecosystems and facilitates cross-metropolitan cooperation between multiple stakeholders. Gray Resilience relates to large urban-infrastructural systems and operates through centralized control with limited metropolitan outreach. Together, our typology of Glocal, Green, and Gray Resilience captures the diversity of actually-existing urban resilience governance at metropolitan scale. Highlights Fragmented metropolitan regions are a key challenge for governing urban resilience We outline three modalities of metropolitan scale resilience governance Glocal: boosts city resilience locally but increases disparities in metro-region Green: collaborative yet fragile cross-metropolitan governance of ecosystems Gray: centralized governance of infrastructure impedes metropolitan cooperation

Impact of Climate Change on Cereal Crops Production in Ethiopia

Climate change adversely affected agricultural productivity in developing countries. This study aimed to explore the effects of this climate change, particularly on cereal crops production in Ethiopia. The study employed Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model approach to the co-integration with an error correction term. ARDL technique was selected due to its stationarity assumption and unbiased estimates of its long-run coefficients. The estimated model justifies the existence of a long-run relationship between cereal crops production, climate change variables (temperature and precipitation), and other explanatory variables. Precipitation has a positive and significant effect on cereal crops production both in the long and short runs, while temperature change has a significant negative effect. In the long run, cereal crops production was positively and significantly affected by arable land, fertilizer consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions, while in the short run, labor force participation has a positive and significant effect on cereal crops production. The study results confirmed that there is a long-run relationship between cereal crops production and climate change variables. In agriculture, research and development should focus on varieties of cereal crops that can tolerate high temperatures. Climate Resilient Green Economy should have to strengthen in the country. All countries should have to work hand-in-hand to mitigate the effect of climate change.

Resilient Green Cellular IoT for Landslide Monitoring Using Voice Channels

A wide-scale outdoor remote deployment involves a large number of low-cost nodes that are powered by green energy, such as solar. We deal with such a system for landslide monitoring where the tiny nodes with ultra-low memory as little as 2 KB are directly connected to the Internet using cellular networks, thereby constituting Cellular IoT’s (C-IoT). This makes them vulnerable to a wide range of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks during their collaborative communications. Further, due to memory constraints, the nodes are not able to run resource-hungry security algorithms. Existing IoT protocols also cannot offer resiliency to DoS attacks for these memory-constrained devices. This paper proposes the Voice Response Internet of Things (VRITHI), which addresses the above issues by using the voice channel between the nodes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first solution in the IoT domain where both the voice and data channels are being used for collaborative communications. Evaluation results demonstrate that VRITHI is able to reduce external DoS attacks from 82–65% to less than 28% and improves real-time communications in such a memory-constrained environment. In addition, it also contributes to green IoT energy saving by more than 50% in comparison with other IoT protocols.

Climate mainstreaming via national climate funds: the experiences of Bangladesh and Ethiopia

ABSTRACT A number of countries have established national climate funds to finance climate actions. This paper explores how these funds help to mainstream climate change and examines the barriers they encounter in the process. The analytical framework uses a process-based understanding of policy integration to examine how financial incentives are able to support climate mainstreaming. Methodologically, this paper examines the experience of the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund and Ethiopia's Climate Resilient Green Economy Facility. Policymakers, officials related to the funds, and other stakeholders were interviewed. This paper finds that national climate funds sought to achieve mainstreaming by engaging with sectoral ministries. Such engagement was expected to lead to changes in sectoral and system-wide policy goals and instruments. The three main approaches for sectoral engagement were: serving as implementing entities, participating in fund governance, and via in-house climate change units. The findings underscore how finance received by the funds shapes programming, how the lack of detailed plans limit the ability of policies to pull in the finance desired, and the inconsistent role played by climate change units. A disaggregated approach to climate mainstreaming allows us to identify where and how financial incentives can be useful.

Greenhouse gas emission and mitigation potential from livestock production in the drylands of Northern Ethiopia

Though livestock are one of the major contributors to climate change through emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), the intensity of emission and the mitigation potential from this sector is not clearly known in the study regions. Therefore, the present study was designed to estimate the emission of GHGs from the livestock sector over the time period (2003/04–2017/18) and evaluate the mitigation potential using the global livestock environment assessment model (GLEAM). Both primary and secondary data sources were used to obtain data on livestock population, herd parameters, feeding practices, and manure management. The study revealed an increasing trend of GHG from 2003/04 to 2017/18, where the annual emission increased with an average 3.8 Mt carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq) for all species and 3.3 Mt CO2-eq for cattle alone at national level. Though there is some variation between regions, methane (CH4) was the major gas emitted from ruminant production followed by nitrous oxide (N2O), however the emission of N2O was higher (> 70%) in poultry production. The emission intensity from chicken egg and meat, 1.8–3.3 and 2.2–7.2 kg CO2-eq/kg of product, respectively, was much lower than the emission intensity of meat from small ruminants (16.4–51.5 kg CO2-eq/kg of product) and cattle (34.2–148.2 kg CO2-eq/kg of product). Implementing the integrated mitigation approach has much pronounced reduction effect on GHG emissions as well as increasing the productivity of the livestock sector. Unless mitigation measures are taken, the sector’s emission will increase over time. Thus, federal and regional governments, and partner organizations working in the sector need to give more attention and implement the initiatives identified in the Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recommendations to mitigate GHG emissions from the livestock sector.

A Lean Agile Resilient Green Implementation and Technology Utilization: A New Vision in Technology Adoption

Lean Manufacturing is always important for process improvement in manufacturing industries especially in deem of adoption but the implementation of simple lean is not enough to attain required results. A recent trend has been observed regarding the implementation of strategies like Lean, Agile, Resilient and Green (LARG) in combination to attain fruitful results. However, this combination carries a complication regarding its understanding and implementation and a gap observed regarding the availability of literature study that can cope all these strategies on one platform for understanding and can suggest a proper implementation method. It has been observed that there are some new models that are utilizing electronic configurations to provide powerful platform for process improvements. Utilization of LARG as tool or technique in combination of technologies can be very effective for process improvements. Therefore, this current work emphasis on the combining of LARG along with wireless technologies for obtaining a sustainable improvement in manufacturing sector, which seems unavailable. Based on this ideology, the aim of this research is to conduct a systematic literature study that reviews the previously available LARG research with the objectives to first study the LARG combination for understanding and to develop the interrelation between LARG and previous available technologies for its successful implementation. The literature study results that the LARG combination has many benefits like helpful to attain elimination of non-value activities (lean), responsive to the changing demands of customers as per increasing volatile market (agile), responsive to the unexpected disruptions (resilient) and to adopt environmental protection (green) but typically lacks its utilization with modern technologies (Like RFID) that will be helpful to attain successful implementation. The contribution of this study is the next generation in LARG implementation to emphasis more on the combining of LARG implementation with utilization of modern technologies

Effects of land use and land cover change on soil erosion potential in Berhe district: a case study of Legedadi watershed, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT This research was done in Legedadi watershed since the area was highly susceptible to soil erosion problem that could be aggravated by heavy rainfall, and steep slope. The aim of the present study was to examine the impact of LULC change on soil erosion potential in Legedadi watershed, and its implication on sedimentation problems. Multi-temporal Landsat imagery of TM (1985), TM (1997) and ETM+ (2013) were deployed to categorize a LULC map of the study watershed. Soil erosion risk was calculated by using GIS and RUSLE. Digital image processing and classification technique have been done using ERDAS Imagine 9. 2. Results indicate that there was a continuous and active LULC change observed in the watershed for the last 28 years. The settlement area and cultivated land were increased by 14.34% and 18.3%, whereas grazing land and bare land classes were reduced continuously by 25.74% and 18.47% between (1985–2103) respectively. The estimated annual soil losses were 0.0-330 t ha−1year−1in 2013 whereas in 1997 its range was 0-257.1 t ha−1year−1. A mean annual soil loss in the watershed was 54.19 t ha−1year−1 in 1997and 66.21 t ha−1year−1 in 2013, respectively. The average annual soil loss from each sub-watershed ranges from 34.57–89.19 t ha−1year−1. This calls for the coordinated action of the local communities and government in ensuring sustainable natural resource conservation systems considering the Climate Resilient Green Economy strategy of Ethiopia.

Climate Change Mitigation in Agriculture and Forestry Sectors in Ethiopia: A Review

The climate of the planet earth is changing mainly as a result of the increasing concentration of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Climate change causes undesired effects including global warming, sea level rise, occurrence of frequency of extreme events such as droughts and floods, and so on to coupled human-environment systems. This review paper emphasizes on climate change mitigation in agriculture and forestry sectors, which are the two biggest emitters (sources) as well as sinks of greenhouse gases. Ethiopia’s contribution to global emission is insignificant. By 2010, Ethiopia’s overall emissions were estimated to 150 MtCO 2 e which is projected to be more than double, 400 MtCO 2 e by 2030 under a business-as-usual scenario. Ethiopia intended to limit greenhouse gas emissions to 145 MtCO 2 e by 2030. Agriculture and forestry sectors are the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases while methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide are the major greenhouse gases emitted in the country. The country has designed and implementing several climate friendly policies, programs and strategies including Climate Resilient Green Economy, Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions, Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and Intended Nationally Determined Contribution in order to follow green development paths and hence contribute to the global climate protection. Keywords: Greenhouse gas, Climate change, Mitigation, Source, Sink.

Why green “climate gentrification” threatens poor and vulnerable populations

Cities in the Global North are increasingly adopting green interventions meant to enhance their climate resilience capacity. Plans include Philadelphia, PA’s Growing Stronger, Boston, MA’s Resilient Boston Harbor (Fig. 1), Malmo, Sweden’s Green and Blue Infrastructure Plan, and Barcelona, Spain’s Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity Plan. Such plans and interventions mark the emergence of a new type of climate planning: green climate resilience. Fig. 1. If not done right, green infrastructure, such as that shown here in East Boston, is potentially a source of climate injustice. In today’s cities, however, low-income communities, people of color, and migrant communities face well-documented forms of climate injustice. Typically, these populations have contributed the least to climate change, have had the least access to environmental amenities such as green space, are the most exposed to climate hazards and effects (1), and have the fewest resources to adapt (2⇓–4). We argue here that an emerging fifth type of climate injustice arises because these populations are among the social groups most likely to experience residential and social displacement—in the short and mid-term—from green climate infrastructure (5⇓–7) and its associated gentrification risks. It’s what we call green “climate gentrification.” As a group of social scientists who specialize in environmental justice, we thus call for climate researchers to demystify the supposed benefits of green climate interventions and identify inequities embedded in urban green resilience (8, 9), especially interventions related to green climate gentrification. Green infrastructure and urban greening projects—green roofs, resilient parks and greenways, rain gardens, or detention basins and canals—are often hailed as ways to protect cities against climate change impacts. These measures include improved storm water management and mitigation of hazards such as flooding (10), the urban heat island effect, and landslides. As such, green infrastructure projects often require lower operating and … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: Isabelle.Anguelovski{at}uab.cat. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Pacific Islands Development Forum – Emergence of the New Participant in the Pacific Regionalism

<p>Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) was formally established through signing of an agreement in 2015. The two previous gatherings were informal and did not bring any legally binding documents. The 3<sup>rd</sup> summit, entitled “Building Climate Resilient Green Blue Pacific Economies” introduced not only the constituting agreement, being an international treaty, what in turn made PIDF an intergovernmental organization having its own legal personality, but also created the pivot for the new wave of the Pacific regionalism. The regional cooperation among the small island states is being made ineffectively and economically inefficiently due to many reasons. The most relevant of which are the over fragmentation of the existing regional organisations and constant creation of ad hoc institutions which have no personality, powers or sanctions for non-fulfilment of the jointly adapted agreements.</p>

Perceptions and practices of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies among farmers in the Konta Special District, Ethiopia

Abstract Nowadays climate change is amongst the most critical problems affecting the wellbeing of human beings. In Ethiopia, where the majority of the population rely on agriculture, climate change has adverse effects. In rural areas, low resilient capacity to shocks exacerbates the impacts of climate change such as production failure, which in turn enormously contributed to food insecurity. In view of this fact, this study assessed the perceptions and practices of climate change and related adaptation and mitigation strategies among farmers in the Konta Special District, Southern Ethiopia, by using a mixed research approach involving a concurrent method of data collection and analysis. Quantitative data for this study was generated from 296 randomly selected survey households; while, qualitative data was collected through focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and in-depth interviews. The findings of this study revealed that sample respondents recognized the occurrence climate change and its increasing adverse effects. Regarding its cause, a substantial proportion (46.8%) of the respondents perceived climate change as the wrath of God and a natural phenomenon rather than attributing it to human activities. Participants also acknowledged that anthropogenic factors such as deforestation are the major driving factors for climate change. The study found that farmers affirmatively perceive the feasibility of the majority of the strategies embraced in the Climate Resilient Green Economy initiative endorsed at national level. Understanding that climate change effects are less reversible, farmers were found to practice mitigation strategies such as afforestation, agroforestry and agricultural intensification more than adaptation strategies. Adaptation strategies such as fuel conservation technologies were perceived costly and complex given the economic capacity and skill of farmers. Hence, rural and agricultural development policies should initiate context sensitive adaptation and mitigation strategies to enhance the capability of smallholders to deal with the effects of climate change.

Planning FLR for the landscape between Chebera Churchura National Park and Kafa Biosphere Reserve

Ethiopia has made an ambitious pledge for Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) under the Bonn challenge and the so-called AFR100 initiative – to restore 15 Mio ha of degraded forest lands by 2030. This target is in line with national and international policy objectives to effectively address climate change and develop a ‘Climate Resilient Green Economy’. Implementation at scale is pending as technical, financial and policy challenges need to be addressed. This paper presents a case study that was commissioned by German technical development cooperation. The objective was to develop a landscape restoration strategy for the area connecting Chebera Churchura national park and Kafa Biosphere Reserve in the Southwestern part of Ethiopia. The ‘Restoration Diagnostic’ tool developed by the World Research Institute was used to identify options for establishing a biodiversity corridor and to assess FLR opportunities. Based on the results of a field study and extensive GIS analysis, suitable FLR measures were identified and discussed in stakeholder consultations. Results show that more than 25% of the entire area is suitable for restoration measures; however, in the populated parts of the landscape a focus on productive aspects seems critical, i.e. to improve the provision of food, fuel wood and timber. Barriers relate to low institutional capacity, lack of infrastructure and undeveloped forest product value chains. Addressing these challenges can significantly contribute to sustainable management of natural forests in the buffer zone of the protected areas, and to promote agriculture and socio-economic development of the zones outside protected areas. The findings of such assessments can inform decision makers and donor organizations about FLR in candidate areas. If they become a key source of information in the respective policy processes they can contribute to effective governance of FLR.

The Institutional Challenges and Opportunities for Adopting Landscape-Based Storm Water Management Options in Informal Settlements - Dar Es Salaam City

Increased flooding caused by climate change impacts is a challenge for many cities both in developing and developed countries. The existing storm water drainage systems in place have to be physically constructed and expanded to meet the water run-off challenge. This is an expensive run-off management undertaking for resource poor countries such as Tanzania. Landscape based storm water management (LSM) is put forward as a sustainable option to manage storm water run-off and it also addresses water scarcity problems in under-served urban settlement. However its implementation in cities that are faced with informal residential development is challenging because among other things, LSM requires land for implementation as well as the collaboration of different institutions, disciplines and actors. Drawing from data and information obtained from the Water Resilient Green Cities Africa (WGA) Project in two cities of Africa, this paper explores the planning and institutional challenges for LSM in Dar es Salaam, a rapidly urbanising city. The paper also presents opportunities inherent in the process some of which suggest that local institutions offer a critical platform to collaboratively plan and implement LSM in rapidly urbanising cities.